Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly:
1. Virgin Galactic (SPCE) has completed its third spaceflight and the first ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico. The flight sees New Mexico become the third U.S. state to launch humans into space. VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space, at an altitude of 55.45 miles before gliding smoothly to a runway landing at Spaceport America.
2. The U.S. and Europe reacted with outrage after Belarus ordered a Ryanair (RYAAY) flight transiting its airspace to land and arrested a journalist on board, an unprecedented violation of European air travel protocols, Bloomberg’s Milda Seputyte and Aliaksandr Kudrytski reported. Europe’s fury was triggered after a Boeing (BA) 737-800 carrying scores of passengers from Athens to Vilnius was diverted to the Belarusian capital on Sunday under the escort of a Mig-29 fighter jet, the authors noted. The plane’s crew was notified by authorities in Minsk of a “potential security threat on board,” a Ryanair spokeswoman said. Once in Minsk, authorities arrested a journalist who covered protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, whose election to a sixth term last year was internationally disputed.
3. AT&T set out to announce a transformative deal this past week, but the company’s shareholders got stuck on the fine print disclosed in the news, namely that AT&T was slashing its dividend, Nicholas Jasinski wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. The spinoff of WarnerMedia-and its subsequent combination with Discovery (DISCA)-is a vital course correction for AT&T (T) as it seeks to regain its telecom leadership, the author noted. The issue for investors is that AT&T’s fundamentals have long played second fiddle to the company’s generous dividend, he added. AT&T’s stock has traded at an annual dividend yield of close to 7% for most of the past year, and about 5% for several years before that, which is a generous payout in a world of rock-bottom interest rates and paltry bond yields, and it attracted numerous income investors and retirees who rely on the quarterly payouts, according to Jasinski, who said it is time to buy AT&T stock.
4. Lionsgate’s (LGF.A) “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” won the weekend at the North American box office, with an $8.7M debut from 2,811 locations. Marking a new chapter in the Saw franchise with new characters, Spiral stars Chris Rock, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols and Samuel L. Jackson. Roughly 45% of cinemas remain dark in North America as reopening continues.
5. Cisco (CSCO) and Kohl’s (KSS) saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.