The Pentagon called for a global halt to anti-satellite weapons testing on Wednesday, further decrying the practice after Russia’s destructive demonstration last month.
“We would like to see all nations agree to refrain from anti-satellite weapons testing that creates debris,” Department of Defense deputy secretary Kathleen Hicks said.
The Russian military destroyed a defunct satellite on Nov. 15 with an anti-satellite weapon (or ASAT), which U.S. Space Command said created more than 1,500 pieces of debris and sent astronauts on the International Space Station into shelter.

A software rendering shows a recreation of Russia’s anti-satellite weapons test and the destruction of satellite Kosmos 1408, with the debris field in red.

The Pentagon called for a global halt to anti-satellite weapons testing on Wednesday, further decrying the practice after Russia’s destructive demonstration last month showered low Earth orbit with debris.
“We would like to see all nations agree to refrain from anti-satellite weapons testing that creates debris,” U.S. Department of Defense deputy secretary Kathleen Hicks said at a meeting of the National Space Council.

The Russian military destroyed a defunct satellite with an anti-satellite weapon (or ASAT) on Nov. 15, which U.S. Space Command said created more than 1,500 pieces of debris and sent astronauts on the International Space Station into shelter as it passed through and near the shrapnel field.

The view from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour of the International Space Station, as well as the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience, as the capsule approached to dock on April 24, 2021.

The test drew widespread condemnation from U.S. officials, which Russian officials responded by calling “hypocritical” given past American military tests in space. To date, four countries – the U.S., Russia, China, and India – have previously destroyed their own satellites in ASAT tests.
But Hicks’ comments mark the most direct call to action since the Russian demonstration.
“Such a display of deliberate disregard for safety, security and sustainability in space is one to be condemned and underscores the urgency of acting in defense of developing shared norms and having long-term sustainability of outer space,” Hicks said.
She spoke during a panel of the first National Space Council of President Joe Biden’s administration, which Vice President Kamala Harris is chairing. Like Hicks, Harris called out the ASAT test as “irresponsible.”

“By blasting debris … [Russia] endangered the satellites of other nations, as well as astronauts on the International Space Station,” Harris said, adding later that the test created “a moment for us to really see very clearly what can happen and what potentially can be avoided with norms and rules” in space.
State Department deputy secretary Wendy Sherman added during Wednesday’s council meeting that the United Nations is creating a process to establish “national security space norms of behavior.”

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Biogen and Japan’s Eisai said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted their marketing application for experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment aducanumab. More

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Tom Brady and Kim Clijsters are part of Major League Pickleball’s newest ownership group.
They join high-profile owners like LeBron James and Drew Brees.
Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport with more than 4.8 million players in 2021.

Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throws against the New Orleans Saints during the second quarter at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on September 13, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and International Tennis Hall of Famer Kim Clijsters are the latest high-profile athletes to join the pickleball craze.
Major League Pickleball announced on Wednesday that Brady and Clijsters are headlining their newest ownership group to buy an expansion team, which will begin playing in 2023.

Pickleball, America’s fastest-growing sport, has attracted other high-profile owners, including NBA champions LeBron James, Draymond Green and Kevin Love and Super Bowl champ Drew Brees, as well as billionaire investor and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry and former tennis star James Blake.
The Brady and Clijsters group is led by Knighthead Capital. It also includes RBC bond saleswoman Callie Simpkins and JPMorgan financial advisor Kaitlyn Kerr, who will serve as its general manager. The expansion team is set to be 50% female-owned.
The new ownership group will be part of Major League Pickleball’s latest growth plan, which includes expanding to 16 teams from 12, and doubling the number of events to six. Prize money and payouts are also expected to grow and surpass $2 million.
“What really shines through in working with these amazing individuals is their passion for the sport,” the league’s founder, Steve Kuhn, said about the new group.
Financial terms of were not disclosed. In September, Anne Worcester, Major League Pickleball’s strategic advisor, told CNBC that demand for teams has grown exponentially and that prices are in the seven-figure range.

Pickleball — which is played with paddles — counted more than more than 4.8 million players in the United States last year, according to the 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Single Sport Report on Pickleball. Kuhn said the league’s goal is to reach 40 million pickleball players by 2030.

Kim Clijsters of Belgium in action against Caroline Wozniacki (not seen) of Denmark during Expo 2020 Dubai Tennis Week at the Expo Sports Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on February 19, 2022.
Waleed Zain | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Brady started playing the sport four years ago with Knighthead Capital owner Tom Wagner, people familiar with the matter said. He often plays with his children and has explored building a pickleball court at his residence. Brady believes it’s a good investment as he looks at the next stage of his career as an entrepreneur.
Clijsters told CNBC she picked up pickleball after retiring from tennis and plays regularly with her business partners. She has yet to play with Brady.
“We know that he loves to play pickleball and is very competitive,” she told CNBC. “We can’t wait to get a game in and see where everybody’s levels at.”
The Belgian tennis star says she believes pickleball is a good investment because of its accessibility, and she loves the fact that men and women can play together.
“For me, playing tennis with my husband and my kids is not that easy, right? But when I play pickleball we can all have a fun game,” she said.

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As companies across the country face heightened scrutiny of their record on racial diversity, Target pledged Thursday to increase representation of Black employees across its workforce by 20% over the next three years.
The big-box retailer’s workforce of nearly 350,000 employees skews White, particularly among its top executives. About 75% of its leadership team is White and 8% are Black, based on 2019 data. That rises to nearly a quarter, however, when including all people of color like Latinos and Asians. Its overall workforce — which includes hourly store employees who stock shelves and check out customers — is more mixed, with 50% made up of White workers, 25% Latino and 15% Black, as the top three groups. 

While pledging to do better, Target referred to strides it has made. It said it has doubled representation of company non-White officers in the past five years to nearly 30%. Of that, though, only 5% are Black. 
It also touted diversity among store managers: More than half of its stores are run by women and a third are managed by people of color. 
Walmart has a larger U.S. workforce than Target. About 21% of its employees across the country are Black and 16% are Latino, according to a midyear report that came out this week. About 12% of managers and 7% of its officers are Black.
In the U.S., Black Americans make up more than 13% of the population, according to the Census Bureau.
“Inclusivity is a deeply rooted value at Target and we’ve had an ambitious diversity and inclusion strategy for many years for our guests and team,” chief human resources officer Melissa Kremer said in a news release. “We know that having a diverse workforce and inclusive environment not only creates a stronger team, but also provides the perspectives we need to create the products, services, experiences and messages our guests expect.”

Target announced its new goal and shared its latest diversity and inclusion report, after calls for racial equity spread from the streets to the boardroom after the killing of George Floyd. Floyd died while in police custody in Target’s hometown of Minneapolis on Memorial Day. The video of him dying as he was pinned down by a police officer’s knee prompted widespread protests and a closer look at many inequities, from Black Americans’ under-representation in top business roles to their disproportionate death rates during the coronavirus pandemic. 
Target said it will emphasize recruiting and hiring Black employees and look for ways to encourage their advancement once they join the company. As part of that effort, it will add anti-racist training for its workforce and develop programs to boost diversity in areas like technology, merchandising and marketing that are predominately White.
Target has taken progressive stances like asking customers not to carry guns into its stores and publicly welcoming transgender customers to use its stores’ bathrooms and fitting rooms, a move that prompted conservative groups to call for a boycott. The retailer has expanded its footprint in diverse cities like New York and San Francisco as it opens more small-format stores.
Yet the retailer’s record on diversity has been checkered. Two years ago, it agreed to pay $3.74 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of discriminating against Black and Latino job applicants with its approach to criminal background checks. A few years earlier, Target had paid nearly $3 million to settle similar claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When it settled the lawsuit, Target said in a statement that it had revised its hiring practices and gathered criminal background information in the final stages of the process.
During the Black Lives Matter protests, some of Target’s stores were badly damaged. On social media, some people encouraged looters to seek out the company’s stores in tweets. The company has been criticized, too, for collaborating with police on public safety initiatives and appearing too cozy with them in Minneapolis. 
After Floyd’s killing, Target CEO Brian Cornell joined other top executives in expressing pain over the death of Floyd and urging change. He joined a subcommittee of the Business Roundtable, a prominent group of CEOs, to look for policy recommendations to address inequities in the U.S. law enforcement system and create more opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.
Other retailers signaled their support for racial equity, too, by announcing new initiatives, donating to civil rights causes or setting new goals for recruiting and hiring. Among them, Walmart and its corporate foundation committed $100 million over five years to create a new center on racial equity. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the retailer would also increase recruitment and support for people of color, but he did not quantify that goal. More