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Earlier this month, Delta announced it would be bringing a second Delta One Lounge to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — making it the first airport where the airline would field two of its most exclusive clubs. On Monday, we got a sneak peek at the swanky new space awaiting travelers in the airport's Terminal 2.

First, though, there's perhaps one obvious question: Why open a second Delta One Lounge at LAX?

"The popularity of our Delta One product; people are enjoying it and our capacity is getting up there, and we need to make more space for additional guests," said Tim Genovese, Delta Sky Club and Delta One Lounge director of operations, experience and design. To wit, the airline now operates up to 151 flights to 50 destinations daily out of LAX.

"Delta has been making big investments in LAX and our network of flights is growing, and we want to make sure we can handle that demand," said Genovese.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Like the airline's other exclusive Delta One Lounges, this one is open to Delta One business-class passengers on Delta and select partners (sorry, your credit card won't get you in!). However, this is more like a private dining room than a multifaceted lounge. That said, the space is still impressive and chic, with great views of the runway and the Hollywood Hills beyond.

The top floor of Terminal 2 will also be the site of an 11,000-square-foot Sky Club, opening sometime in 2027 in what was a former Delta Sky Club that closed for renovation in 2024.

We didn't get to peek inside there, but here is what we did see, and taste, during our visit to the new Delta One Lounge, and what flyers can expect once the lounge officially opens its doors Tuesday morning.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Where is the new Delta One Lounge at LAX Terminal 2?

The new lounge is located on the upper level of Terminal 2 near gate 23A. Travelers can access it via a staircase to the upper floor or using an elevator near the midpoint of the terminal. For folks with long memories, this bolthole used to be a tiny Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse that opened in 2015 before becoming a sort of satellite Delta Sky Club in 2021.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Delta One passengers can utilize the airline's private Delta One check-in area on the arrivals (ground) level of the airport, where there is a private security screening checkpoint and an elevator that transports them directly to the entrance of the existing Terminal 3 Delta One Lounge, or into the concourse between Terminals 2 and 3.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Those wishing to head to the Terminal 2 Delta One Lounge will just get out in the terminal's main concourse, which sits between Terminals 2 and 3 and head toward 2. They can either walk or take one of the golf carts the airline has for the purpose of driving passengers to the new lounge.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Delta One Lounge at LAX Terminal 2 layout

The new Terminal 2 Delta One Lounge is a diminutive 4,000 square feet with seating for just 75 guests at a time.

Compare that to the Terminal 3 Delta One Lounge , which clocks in at 10,000 square feet, or the one at New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) that measures up at a whopping 40,000 square feet. The Delta One Lounges at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) are 10,000 and 6,700 square feet, respectively.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Those are big differences, but this lounge is intended to be more like a rarefied à la carte dining room.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Guests enter through a small reception area, and then the rest of the lounge is an open floor plan, with low-slung individual chairs and tables lined up along the windows.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY There are more restaurant-style tables and chairs toward the center and back of the lounge, which feels private, and a triangular countertop.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY There are power plugs and USB ports throughout and various works of art by California-based artists along the walls.

Along one side of the main dining area is a futuristic-looking bar, where servers can mix up specialty cocktails and coffee drinks complete with fun foam stenciling.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Then beyond that, down a short hallway, there are four individual bathrooms.

Delta One Lounge LAX Terminal 2. ERIC ROSEN / THE POINTS GUY Stepping back out of the lounge and across the terminal to where the new Sky Club is located, there is a special entrance to an area with three individual shower suites that guests can sign up to use with a QR code. Inside, we found soft robes and Missoni slippers, plus Grown Alchemist bath and body products.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Delta One Lounge at LAX Terminal 2 amenities and food

Food and drink are the main amenities here. You won't find spa services or dedicated quiet rooms and workspaces. Instead, this lounge is intended to be a relaxing respite for a quick meal before you take transcontinental flight or a long haul across the Atlantic or the Pacific. Servers will circulate with menus and taking orders then deliver meals right to guests' seats.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Diners can expect signature dishes that are also served in the Terminal 3 location, like hamachi crudo with avocado, cara cara oranges, lime and mint in a citrus vinaigrette, hand-rolled sushi (another favorite option served from a counter in the T3 Delta One Lounge) and one of the most popular dishes, steak frites in a cognac-peppercorn sauce.

Delta One Lounge LAX Terminal 2. ERIC ROSEN / THE POINTS GUY The airline boasts that the ingredients for its dishes are sourced from 10 California farms, which are listed on the menu. The lounge will also serve copper-pot jams and pastries from L.A. mainstay Sqirl baked in house. For a sweet treat to end your meal, you can grab hand-crafted chocolates from Culver City-based Milla chocolate from the confection table near the bar.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY During our lunch with other media and airline executives, we also sampled familiar plates including roasted Jidori chicken with coconut corn soubise, squash and Jimmy Nardello peppers; lamb bolognese with house-made lumache, ras el hangout spices and whipped ricotta; and branzino served with Manila clams, braised fennel and bouillabaisse. There will also be a Delta One burger on offer, which isn't even available at the Terminal 3 Delta One Lounge, according to Genovese. "Yet," he said with an arched eyebrow.

Delta One Lounge LAX Terminal 2. ERIC ROSEN / THE POINTS GUY The cocktail menu, with "Destination Libations" inspired by the cities Delta flies to from its L.A. hub, is the same as that served in the Terminal 3 lounge. Among the popular entries are the Technicolor-pink Sakura Shuhai alluding to Tokyo, with shochu, Luxardo cherry, lemon, hibiscus, rose water and soda; and the ocean-blue Island Sapphire, a taste of Honolulu, with rum, pineapple, coconut, lime and spirulina.

Delta One Lounge LAX Terminal 2. ERIC ROSEN / THE POINTS GUY There are also plenty of complimentary wines by the glass, including Taittinger Champagne and Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles, among others, plus a list of reserve wines that can be purchased à la carte by the glass or bottle.

There's a Terminal 2 Sky Club coming

The new Delta One Lounge is a single component of Delta's 2028 LAX masterplan, when Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics. In the lead up to that, Delta will open the new Sky Club in Terminal 2 by the end of 2027. That will be in addition to the massive 30,000-square-foot Sky Club it already operates in Terminal 3, which opened back in 2022.

The 11,000-square-foot space will be located in the airline's former Sky Club on the upper level of Terminal 2 across from the new Delta One Lounge. It was closed for renovation in November 2024. Genovese did not give too many details on it since it is still under wraps, but said the design choices for the Terminal 3 Sky Club were so popular that guests are likely to see similar hallmarks in the new space.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Prior to it being a Sky Club, the lounge had been operated by Air New Zealand and then Air Canada, and its spacious footprint, extensive dining area, shower suites and architectural features like huge windows overlooking the tarmac and runway made it one of my favorite lounge spaces at the airport for many years.

Once the Sky Club opens, the new Terminal 2 Delta One Lounge will temporarily close for renovations. Genovese explained the airline opened the Delta One Lounge in short order to capitalize on crowds in town for the World Cup, which is currently taking place, but it's just the first step.

"This is opening in two phases and the first phase is what you're seeing right now," said Genovese. "We moved rather rapidly to address the capacity needs and the growing demand that's happening in Los Angeles."

"Once we open the Sky Club," he continued, "we will be able to shut this [Delta One Lounge] down quickly and put some of the finishing treatments in that we didn't have time to do and then reopen."

Who can access the new Delta One Lounge at LAX Terminal 2?

Unlike Delta's Sky Clubs, you can't get into Delta One Lounges just by carrying the right premium credit cards or by purchasing a club membership.

Instead, you'll have to qualify one of the following ways:

Be flying on a same-day departing or arriving Delta One flight.

Be a n invitation-only member of Delta 360 departing or arriving on a same-day ticket in Delta first class.

Be departing on a same-day or connecting flight on select partners in the following cabins: Air France La Premiere, Air France long-haul business class, LATAM Premium business class, KLM long-haul business class, Korean Air First Class and Prestige Class, and Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

Other than that, you'll be out of luck.

ERIC ROSEN/THE POINTS GUY Bottom line

Delta has opened its second Delta One Lounge location at Los Angeles International Airport, making LAX the first airport with two Delta One Lounges. The new space is more like a cozy dining room rather than a multifunctional space like the T3 Delta One Lounge, which has a wellness area with relaxation pods and massage chairs, not to mention a fantastic outdoor deck for planespotting.

Still, the T2 lounge has three dedicated showers (folks visiting the T3 Delta One Lounge need to go to the adjacent Sky Club for a shower) so that's a selling point in its favor.

The space should make for a tranquil alternative to the busy terminal, reduce crowding in the larger Terminal 3 Delta One Lounge and be more convenient for flyers departing out of a Terminal 2 gate since the walk to their flight will be much shorter.

Here's hoping there's more exciting things in store as Delta prepares to open a new Sky Club in Terminal 2 late next year and then the fully renovated new Delta One Lounge in Terminal 2 in 2028.

Related reading:

The best credit cards for airport lounge access

The ultimate guide to getting Delta Sky Club access

The 7 do's and don'ts in an airport lounge

The best credit cards to reach elite status

7 domestic lounges that are worth going out of your way for

Best Delta credit cards

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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The phrase “into the breach,” invokes one of the Army’s most deadly missions: sending combat engineers through enemy obstacles to clear a path so that others may follow. Now, instead of sending soldiers, the Army is experimenting with drones.

Breaching is so dangerous that the Army assumes a deliberate breach could cost half of the forces assigned to it. Hoping to reduce that toll, Oregon Army National Guard combat engineers recently tested using a heavy-lift drone to deliver an explosive-filled tube through simulated enemy defenses, the Army recently announced.

Soldiers assigned to Bravo Company, 741st Brigade Engineer Battalion, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team sent a live Bangalore torpedo into the Idaho sky amid 25mph gusts of wind. On a range at Orchard Combat Training Center, they maneuvered the drone and detonated the explosives, taking cover before the munition cleared a path through a wire obstacle.

The successful trial represented months of work put in by the unit’s drone working group, which was established by Lt. Col. Eric Zimmerman, the battalion’s commander, to figure out how to clear a wire obstacle with a commercial drone. Though the U.S. Army is pressing to expand drones on the water and testing turning resupply drones into rocket launchers , the group said they did not find another example of the new tactic in the U.S. Army.

Zimmerman pointed to the war in Ukraine, where drones have drastically changed the nature of war, as inspiration for the experiment. “Watching what was going on in Ukraine, and how innovative they are, it inspires you to get better and think bigger,” he said.

The trial comes as units are increasingly looking to drones to take on some of the most perilous battlefield tasks. Earlier this month, soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division used drones to pull grappling hooks and 3D-printed munitions to blast through concertina wire.

The working group looked into commercially available drones that cost between $2,000 and $40,000 before eventually receiving the Mule 28, a 45-pound heavy-lift drone developed by Lorica Technologies for the project.

The Mule 28 uses eight motors and can hoist 200 pounds into the sky with its 28-inch bi-blade propellers. It also has sensors for targeting and artificial intelligence processing. Lorica had around six weeks to develop the airframe for this project. It presently fields three other Mule 28 models.

“The most casualty-producing thing that Army engineers do is the breach,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Lucas, who co-led the working group. “Expect 50% casualties. If you can deliver something to clear the breach with a $40,000 drone, instead of putting Soldiers in harm’s way, that’s worth experimenting with.”

The engineers first used inert training rounds, practicing until the drone could reliably deliver the dummy charges to the target, before flying live explosives.

Soldiers detonated the charge using shock tube connecting them to the Bangalore instead of relying on a wireless detonator to prevent jamming or early initiation.

The future, Lucas said, may be drone breaching capabilities that require little human input.

“We’re not that far technologically from a drone that has an AI processor on it that could identify where concertina wire is,” he said, adding that in theory, soldiers could provide a rough location before the drone autonomously identifies the obstacle, positions itself, and deploys the Bangalore. Because it would happen internally, he said, the possibility of jamming would be nonexistent.

The next Mule 28 prototype, according to Lorica, will aim to integrate AI obstacle identification with the goal of increasingly autonomous breaching.

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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful atom smasher, has entered a planned four-year shutdown that will upgrade it to its most capable form yet.

The particle accelerator was switched off Monday (June 29) and is scheduled to come back online in 2030 as the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HiLumi LHC), with improvements that will allow it to smash together roughly 10 times more particles than its original design. That data could help spark new discoveries in fundamental physics and shed light on the nature of dark matter , antimatter and the early universe.

"This is a very important moment," HiLumi LHC project chief Markus Zerlauth told Agence France-Presse . "From Monday, we will be entering a new phase."

Since its first successful proton collision in 2009, the LHC has allowed physicists to test theories about particle physics and the Standard Model of the subatomic world. It was essential to the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, which helped explain how tiny fundamental particles acquire mass. The collider covers a 17-mile (27 kilometers) loop at the border between France and Switzerland near Geneva.

The current shutdown is the third long-term, planned pause in the collider's operations. The first, a two-year shutdown beginning in 2013, consolidated connections between superconducting magnets and boosted the energy of the colliding proton beams. A second pause, from 2018 to 2022, involved a series of upgrades, replacements and preventive maintenance.

In the current period of dormancy, dubbed Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), specialists will install upgrades to boost the collider's luminosity by a factor of 10. That will increase the number of particle collisions, roughly tripling the number of times particles will smack into each other compared with the existing setup. Once the final version of the particle accelerator is online, it will run until the end of its operational lifespan in the 2040s and will be earmarked for replacement by a new, higher-energy particle accelerator in the years that follow.

"It really is an opportunity to explore the universe in a way we haven't done before," Mark Thomson , director general of CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), where the LHC is housed, told New Scientist .

Civil engineers work on upgrades to turn the Large Hadron Collider into the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, significantly increasing the facility’s rate of particle collisions. (Image credit: Samuel Joseph Hertzog, CERN) That jump means that experiments will produce much more data, which will allow scientists to study known phenomena, such as the Higgs boson, in more detail and increase the odds of observing rare events. For example, the HiLumi LHC is expected to produce about 380 million Higgs bosons over its lifetime of a decade or so, compared with the 55 million it's made to date. The data could help scientists solve problems with the Standard Model, which currently doesn't incorporate dark matter or dark energy , the primary forms of mass and energy in the universe.

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"The LS3 represents a huge and complex logistical and engineering undertaking," Jean-Philippe Tock , head of the LS3 coordination team, said in a statement . "In the LHC alone, 1.2 km [0.75 miles] of magnets and components will be removed and replaced with new equipment, and across the whole complex, dozens of projects are planned, involving thousands of engineers, physicists, technicians and support personnel."

While the LHC won't be smashing any particles together during the shutdown period, researchers will continue to analyze data already collected during experiments during the prior operational window.

Though the LHC's primary purpose is fundamental physics research, technologies used to upgrade the collider could find their way into everyday life. For example, some instruments and techniques originally developed at CERN are now being used in medical imaging, sensors and art restoration.

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The Kurds’ fortunes have ebbed and flowed in recent years, but the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in December 2024, the 2025 decision by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to dissolve and engage in talks with the Turkish government, and the 2026 U.S.-Israeli war with Iran had enormous ripple effects on the lives of Kurds in the Middle East and Kurdish hopes for autonomy. We asked four experts to assess how recent regional events are presenting risks and opportunities for the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.Read more below. Gönül TolSenior Fellow at the Middle East InstituteThe Iran

The post The Shifting Fortunes of the Kurds appeared first on War on the Rocks .

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Two British firms claim they can shrink the sports-car timeline.

Avant Design builds functional cars in virtual reality, not just renders.

Watt’s PACES chassis can take EV, hybrid, or combustion power equally.

Some would argue Lotus has lost its way in recent years, with the all-electric Eletre SUV and the Emeya sedan, both built in China. Thankfully, its next-generation hybrid supercar could help it get some of its mojo back , and an attractive 2+2 model like this one could inject further excitement into the brand.

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The concept has been crafted by Avant Design and the Watt Electric Vehicle Company, a British manufacturer of electric vans and trucks, with the help of virtual reality tools to speed up development of a functional car. Initially commissioned by Autocar for its 2025 Christmas edition, it would perhaps be the perfect addition to the Lotus family.

Review: The 2026 Lotus Emira Turbo SE Feels Like An AMG Experiment, But It’s Not

It is rendered riding on one of Watt’s skateboard platforms, built to support electric, combustion, and hybrid powertrains. Watt calls the architecture PACES, short for Passenger And Commercial EV Skateboard, and according to Car&Driver , it ran a drivable version at this year’s CES. Despite the overall small proportions, it could fit a compact V8, perhaps in a similar way to the 2+2 Gemera from Koenigsegg.

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A Lotus For The Everyman?

Visually, the car looks absolutely stunning . The front end features a blacked-out bumper and narrow LED headlights subtly integrated into the flowing quarter panels. It then sits on a set of fabulous silver-and-black wheels, has digital wing mirrors, and uses tiny suicide doors for the second row, much like a Mazda RX-8. As for the front doors, they are Lamborghini-inspired scissor doors.

The rear end also looks great. Perhaps the most intriguing element is the see-through lip spoiler, which doubles as the LED taillights and light bar. It all looks very coherent and like something that Lotus itself might design.

In addition to sporting a powerful V8, it could include light in-wheel motors for added performance. What’s more, Watt Electric Vehicle Company boss Neil Yates says the car could weigh just 1,984 lbs (900 kg), perfectly fitting for a Lotus.

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Lead image Avant Design