Two men were arrested in connection with an explosion on Harvard University’s Longwood Medical Campus, federal officials said Tuesday. The explosion happened Saturday just before 3 a.m. on the fourth floor of Harvard’s Goldenson Building, which is on the university’s medical campus.Special agents and officers with the FBI Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task force and Harvard University Police Department arrested the Massachusetts men, who were not identified. A news conference is planned for 1 p.m.There was no structural damage to the building in the aftermath, and all labs and equipment remained fully operational. “It’s a shame that people do things like that,” said Boston police commissioner Michael Cox. “I’m pretty confident we will hold people accountable for that.”University police released photos of two suspects in the explosion, saying that the two were seen running from the building when police arrived at the scene.Cleaning crews were at the site of the explosion on Sunday, ensuring everything was cleared and fully operational. A sweep of the building was done, and no additional devices were found.”I haven’t heard anything like that going on here, so to hear that is wild,” said student Therese Lipscombe. “Big-name people are going to listen. So whatever their motive was, I’m sure they thought people were going to hear about it.””I do feel like this is a safe area. There’s a hospital nearby and a school, and just a lot of people in general,” said Lindsey Birmingham, who works nearby. “So I usually feel safe. I think I do still feel safe, but it definitely raises a lot of questions and alarms.”A person who lives nearby says they heard two explosions about five minutes apart.No one was injured in the incident.There will be an increased police presence at Harvard’s Longwood campus as officials continue to investigate. There is no threat to the public.
BOSTON —
Two men were arrested in connection with an explosion on Harvard University’s Longwood Medical Campus, federal officials said Tuesday.
The explosion happened Saturday just before 3 a.m. on the fourth floor of Harvard’s Goldenson Building, which is on the university’s medical campus.
Special agents and officers with the FBI Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task force and Harvard University Police Department arrested the Massachusetts men, who were not identified.
A news conference is planned for 1 p.m.
There was no structural damage to the building in the aftermath, and all labs and equipment remained fully operational.
“It’s a shame that people do things like that,” said Boston police commissioner Michael Cox. “I’m pretty confident we will hold people accountable for that.”
University police released photos of two suspects in the explosion, saying that the two were seen running from the building when police arrived at the scene.
Hearst OwnedHarvard University
Cleaning crews were at the site of the explosion on Sunday, ensuring everything was cleared and fully operational. A sweep of the building was done, and no additional devices were found.
“I haven’t heard anything like that going on here, so to hear that is wild,” said student Therese Lipscombe. “Big-name people are going to listen. So whatever their motive was, I’m sure they thought people were going to hear about it.”
“I do feel like this is a safe area. There’s a hospital nearby and a school, and just a lot of people in general,” said Lindsey Birmingham, who works nearby. “So I usually feel safe. I think I do still feel safe, but it definitely raises a lot of questions and alarms.”
A person who lives nearby says they heard two explosions about five minutes apart.
No one was injured in the incident.
There will be an increased police presence at Harvard’s Longwood campus as officials continue to investigate. There is no threat to the public.
The federal government filed two lawsuits Thursday against Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked fires including January’s Eaton Fire in the Los Angeles area, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people.“The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference Thursday.(Video above: LA, Maui wildfires tied to hundreds more deaths, new studies show.)The filings allege that Edison failed to properly maintain its power and transmission infrastructure in the area where the Eaton Fire ignited on Jan. 7. It asks for more than $40 million in damages to the federal, state and local governments. Edison spokesperson Jeff Monford said the utility is reviewing the lawsuits.“We continue our work to reduce the likelihood of our equipment starting a wildfire,” Monford said. “Southern California Edison is committed to wildfire mitigation through grid hardening, situational awareness and enhanced operational practices.”The company has stated it operates three transmission towers in the Eaton Canyon area overlooking the unincorporated area of Altadena, which was ravaged by the fire. In early reports to the California Public Utility Commission, Edison has said it detected a “fault” on one of its transmission lines around the time that the Eaton Fire started.In a July 31 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said while it has “not conclusively determined” its equipment was responsible for the fire, there was “concerning circumstantial evidence” that suggests its transmission facilities in the area could have been associated with the starting of the fire.It also said it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition,” according to the report cited in the lawsuit.Though the investigation into the fire is still ongoing, Essayli said the government is confident moving forward with the lawsuit, especially with fire season quickly approaching.“There’s no reason to wait,” Essayli said. “We believe that the evidence is clear that Edison is at fault, and by their own admissions, no one else is at fault.” A second lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Edison’s negligence led to the sparking of the Fairview Fire in September 2022, which scorched the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County.According to the filing, a sagging power line in Hemet, California, operated by Edison came into contact with a Frontier Communications messenger cable, which created sparks and ignited the vegetation below.That fire burned more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of forest, killing two people and destroying 44 structures. The government is seeking $37 million in damages incurred by the U.S. Forest Service.Essayli said he will seek terms that prevent Edison from paying for the lawsuits by raising their utility rates.Several Altadena residents who lost their homes sued Edison in January, days after the fire broke out. Their attorneys said at the time they believed Edison’s equipment caused it, pointing to video taken during the fire’s early minutes that showed a large blaze directly beneath electrical towers.Los Angeles County sued Edison in March, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for costs and damages sustained from the blaze.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
LOS ANGELES —
The federal government filed two lawsuits Thursday against Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked fires including January’s Eaton Fire in the Los Angeles area, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people.
“The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference Thursday.
(Video above: LA, Maui wildfires tied to hundreds more deaths, new studies show.)
The filings allege that Edison failed to properly maintain its power and transmission infrastructure in the area where the Eaton Fire ignited on Jan. 7. It asks for more than $40 million in damages to the federal, state and local governments.
Edison spokesperson Jeff Monford said the utility is reviewing the lawsuits.
“We continue our work to reduce the likelihood of our equipment starting a wildfire,” Monford said. “Southern California Edison is committed to wildfire mitigation through grid hardening, situational awareness and enhanced operational practices.”
The company has stated it operates three transmission towers in the Eaton Canyon area overlooking the unincorporated area of Altadena, which was ravaged by the fire. In early reports to the California Public Utility Commission, Edison has said it detected a “fault” on one of its transmission lines around the time that the Eaton Fire started.
In a July 31 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said while it has “not conclusively determined” its equipment was responsible for the fire, there was “concerning circumstantial evidence” that suggests its transmission facilities in the area could have been associated with the starting of the fire.
It also said it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition,” according to the report cited in the lawsuit.
Though the investigation into the fire is still ongoing, Essayli said the government is confident moving forward with the lawsuit, especially with fire season quickly approaching.
“There’s no reason to wait,” Essayli said. “We believe that the evidence is clear that Edison is at fault, and by their own admissions, no one else is at fault.”
A second lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Edison’s negligence led to the sparking of the Fairview Fire in September 2022, which scorched the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County.
According to the filing, a sagging power line in Hemet, California, operated by Edison came into contact with a Frontier Communications messenger cable, which created sparks and ignited the vegetation below.
That fire burned more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of forest, killing two people and destroying 44 structures. The government is seeking $37 million in damages incurred by the U.S. Forest Service.
Essayli said he will seek terms that prevent Edison from paying for the lawsuits by raising their utility rates.
Several Altadena residents who lost their homes sued Edison in January, days after the fire broke out. Their attorneys said at the time they believed Edison’s equipment caused it, pointing to video taken during the fire’s early minutes that showed a large blaze directly beneath electrical towers.
Los Angeles County sued Edison in March, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for costs and damages sustained from the blaze.
Last summer, when the Hollywood writers’ strike had shut down film and television production, a crew of scenic painters at the legendary Fox Studio Lot took advantage of the lull to mess up New York City.
Work had recently been completed on a new set of façades meant to mimic Manhattan streets, but the result was too pretty and clean. Even the smooth gray concrete curbs looked suspiciously fresh.
“After the curbs were perfectly poured, we had a gentleman with a jackhammer come in here and chip away at them,” said Gary Ehrlich, president of studio operations. “It was slightly heartbreaking to see.”
Today, the curbs are suitably beaten up, with dings and black smears as if tires had been rubbing against them for decades. Fire escapes look corroded and other metal fixtures such as banisters have been coated to look old or rusty, while walls appear water-stained. A patina of age has settled over this faux city.
A film crew gets ready for a shoot at the new New York set at Fox Studios in Los Angeles on March 26, 2024. The new set that is different from conventional backlot façades because it has stages inside the New York “buildings” where filming can take place.
The painstaking besmirchment of New York Street was one more twist in the long saga of one of filmdom’s most famous outdoor sets. Looming near the front gate like an adult-sized playhouse, an earlier version of the set and now the new one have long served notice to visitors that they have arrived at a movie studio that is itself a leading character in Hollywood lore.
Its lineage is suitably rich in Hollywood flavor: In 1967 Fox was preparing to shoot the film version of “Hello, Dolly!,” a Tony-award winning musical set in 1890s New York City that ran for years on Broadway. The script included a spectacular outdoor parade with thousands of extras, and studio executives determined that it would be impossible to shoot on location in New York because the city had changed too much.
Fox production designer John DeCuir, who had already won Academy Awards for his design of “The King and I” and “Cleopatra,” came up with a streetscape that required more than 500 workers to labor for four months to build. The $2.25-million price tag made it the most costly movie set built to date, the UPI news service reported at the time.
It required more than 300,000 feet of board lumber and 22 miles of telephone wire strung between poles, the way it was in old New York. A painted 11-story office building façade obscured the view of the Century Plaza Hotel looming next to the lot, according to Barbra Archives, which chronicles the career of “Hello, Dolly!” star Barbra Streisand.
Barbra Streisand marches with a band in a scene from the 1969 romantic comedy “Hello, Dolly!” filmed on Fox’s New York set in Century City.
(John Springer Collection / Getty Images)
Dominating the street was a replica of an elevated train station and a steam locomotive acquired from a sugar plantation in Hawaii, where it had been used to transport workers.
On July 16, 1968, the Valley Times reported, “The parade stretching one-fifth of a mile and comprised of 675 persons in 16 units passed through a crowd of 3,108 film extras” in period costumes. Among the performers were the UCLA marching band and the Budweiser Clydesdales. The director was actor-dancer Gene Kelly.
As impressive as the set was, it was intended to be temporary, said Michael Whetstone, a production designer who worked on building the new version of New York Street.
“It was supposed to be torn down but wasn’t because it was too expensive” to remove, he said. At the time the studio was reeling from financial setbacks including a $30-million loss on “Hello, Dolly!,” according to the New York Times.
Maintenance and prop makers James Scobie, left, and Norm Greene, work on the façade of the new New York set at Fox Studios .
The set enjoyed a second, money-making act in the years that followed as Fox rented it out for use on pictures that included Warner Bros.’ comedy “Up the Sandbox,” starring Streisand, and MGM’s musical “New York, New York,” starring Liza Minnelli and Robert De Niro. Among the television shows that used it were “Charlie’s Angels” and “Moonlighting,” while Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and other musicians used it for music videos.
But a few years ago, with the set showing its age, the studio started considering its replacement, Ehrlich said. “It had been exposed to the elements for five decades and was past its useful life.”
Fox tapped Culver City architect Nathan Moore of House & Robertson Architects to design something sturdier.
Construction required 49 tons of rebar and more than 1,000 cubic feet of concrete. The set is held up by 260 tons of structural steel and backed inside with 4,400 square feet of catwalks. Lighting and other electrical functions are supported with 21,000 square feet of conduit and wire, allowing productions to hook up to house power instead of rolling in generators. The set also had to comply with building codes and be tracked by city building inspectors.
The new New York Street was made to look like the city in the mid 20th century, a decision that required detailed craftsmanship such as window heads and sills that would have been carved out of wood in years past but were instead fabricated out of plastic foam and finished with plaster. Windows were installed to be easily replaced so productions can break them when scenes call for it.
Whetstone oversaw the project and, as part of his research, made several trips to New York, spending long hours on foot trying to get a sense of how light plays on buildings at night.
“I was literally walking Lower Manhattan from 10 p.m. to 4 in the morning taking pictures,” he said.
Where the original “Hello, Dolly!” set was based on a commercial section of 1890s New York suitable for a parade, Fox elected to make the new set feel like a neighborhood from a later era.
“It’s more Lower Manhattan, more Bowery,” Whetstone said. “Definitely the Lower East Side.”
A film crew member waits to set up for a shoot at the new New York set.
While the set is “a default vision of New York City,” said Whetstone, it also is intended to stand in for any major city. Through the years, Fox’s New York Street has subbed for Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Pasadena.
Even though improving camera technology through the years has made it easier to shoot on location, there are reasons filmmakers keep shooting on studio lots, said Jason E. Squire, entertainment podcaster and professor emeritus at USC School of Cinematic Arts.
As filming equipment and cameras got lighter and more portable, the more free-flowing New Wave cinema that emerged in the late 1950s and ’60s employed provocative camerawork.
“This liberation led to people shooting off the studio lot,” Squire said. “Filmmakers wanted to get away from the studio.”
But it has remained expensive to shoot a large-scale production in the real world with all the vehicles, equipment and personnel required to be transported and managed on-site.
“One of the key decisions early in any production is whether to build sets on a lot or shoot in a real location,” Squire said. “That depends on how intricate the sequences are going to be, how intimate. It’s a judgment call and a money call, and the money usually wins.”
Shooting behind studio gates also prevents uncomfortable collisions between fantasy and reality.
“On the lot you don’t have interference from civilians,” Squire said. “You can control traffic, you can control lighting. All of the equipment is at your beck and call.”
Whetstone recalled having to flee location shooting in downtown L.A.’s Arts District when working on Season 1 of “New Girl,” a Fox television comedy starring Zooey Deschanel that premiered in 2011.
“We started out shooting in downtown Los Angeles, and by the end of our fifth night shoot we had angered so many of the neighbors around in the community that we ended up building downtown L.A. on the Fox lot,” Whetstone said.
Gary Ehrlich, president and general manager of studio operations at Fox Studio Lot, shows off the scaffolding for lighting inside one of the buildings in Fox’s new New York Street set.
The makeover of New York Street is in addition to a planned $1.5-billion upgrade of the Fox Studio Lot announced last year by Fox Corp. that is to include more soundstages and offices. Fox Corp. retained ownership of the lot when Walt Disney Co. bought most of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019.
The upgrades come as the real New York mounts an aggressive effort to lure TV and movie producers from L.A. by building new studios and soundstages.
On New York Street in Los Angeles, Fox also was able to transform the set behind the façades, adding 4,000 square feet of interior space that makes it easier to meld outdoor and indoor action. The studio declined to reveal exactly how much the new multimillion-dollar set cost, but Fox wants it to stand for another half-century at least.
“This project was approached not just as temp architecture but as something more permanent,” Whetstone said. “We want this to last a long time.”
A convicted Beverly Hills con artist with a long history of swindles pleaded guilty to another one Friday, admitting that he duped investors out of more than $18 million by concocting a sham cannabis empire while completing a sentence in a prior criminal case.
Mark Roy Anderson, 69, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He duped his victims with false claims that he ran companies invested in hemp farms and cannabis-infused retail products, as well as a sham bottling business.
Anderson, his investors discovered, is a convicted con artist who started swindling people at least three decades ago. He launched his purported hemp business immediately after his May 2019 release from the federal prison in Texas where he had served more than 11 years for an oil investment scam, federal authorities said.
In the first scheme he pleaded guilty to Friday, Anderson tricked investors in 2020 and 2021 into providing funding for his company, called Harvest Farm Group, to harvest and process hemp grown on his farm into medical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) isolate — a chemical found in marijuana — to be sold for a substantial profit.
Anderson persuaded investors to invest in Harvest Farm Group by falsely representing that, through the company, he owned and operated a hemp farm in Kern County. He also lied that he had already completed successful and profitable harvests of hemp from the farm, which the FBI said did not exist.
He also falsely said he was using his own machinery and equipment to convert the hemp into CBD isolate and Delta 8, a psychoactive substance that, like CBD isolate, could be used in consumer products ranging from olive oil to body cream, federal officials said.
In the second scheme, Anderson deceived investors from April 2021 to May 2023 by soliciting money for sham companies Bio Pharma and Verta Bottling companies, by claiming that these businesses successfully manufactured, bottled, and packaged commercial products.
Anderson falsely stated that his bottling companies owned and possessed millions of dollars’ worth of assets, including hemp biomass, CBD isolate, CBD oil, manufacturing equipment and a lease for a warehouse to manufacture and sell its products.
Anderson used some of the money to buy a $1.3-million gated residence surrounded by citrus groves in Ojai, according to the FBI. He diverted another $2.3 million to personal expenses, including more than $650,000 for vintage and luxury automobiles, $13,000 for chartered private jet flights and $142,000 for merchandise from Williams-Sonoma, Ferragamo, Crate & Barrel and other retailers, the FBI alleged in a criminal complaint.
He has agreed to forfeit his ill-gotten gains from these schemes, including 15 cars — one of them a Ferrari — and his Ojai real estate.
Anderson, a disbarred lawyer, has a federal court hearing set for Aug. 23. He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count.
Former Times staff writer Michael Finnegan contributed to this report.
Solar power stocks fell hard in after-hours trading on Thursday following a
warning
from solar-equipment maker
SolarEdge Technologies that demand in Europe has slumped significantly.
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SHERIDAN, Wyo., February 24, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– The outdoor equipment enterprise Mars Players™ has launched an electric outdoor gear named The One, and announced a worldwide collaboration with RV communities, campgrounds owners, and other brands associated with outdoor living.
According to their CEO, Leo Li, their goal is to assist customers in experiencing the great outdoors and appreciating nature by using their E-core equipment. The letter ‘E’ denotes electrify, eco-friendly, and elegant, which aligns with the company’s focus on sustainability and style.
Recreational Vehicles have grown in popularity as a mode of transportation for road trips and vacations. It is almost a mobile house with basic amenities that allow individuals to live off the grid, work remotely and enjoy the wildness anytime. However, RV living has the disadvantage of limited interior space. Whether one owns a large fifth wheel or a Class C camper van, downsizing is necessary when living in an RV.
The company believes using outdoor space provides more activities and enjoyment. An inclusive RV companion with modules for cooking, a far infrared heater, lighting, and more is perfect for RV living. The One launched in February 2023, is designed to meet various needs outside the RV.
#1 Gather a New Acquaintance for Supper Cooking outside the RV and appreciating the wilder nature are two fascinating points. If someone happens to meet someone on the same wavelength or with similar sporting interests at the campsite, Mars Players™ The One is there for socializing and preparing fancy dinners next to the RV.
In seconds, The One transforms into a three-winged, compact cooking station. Three folding panels extend to produce a solid cooking and heating surface. It simplifies outdoor cooking by rapidly boiling freshly brewed coffee, as well as grilling beautiful sausages on the grilling module. With the condensing module, cheese and butter can stay chilled even in summer.
#2 Keep Toasty While Outside the RV. When the far-infrared heating system in The One is turned on, it is possible to continue enjoying the outdoors even when the temperature drops below freezing. People can do all sorts of jobs from the picnic table next to the RV and keep warm.
Thanks to Red-X technology, the far-infrared heating radiator heats up right away and keeps heat from escaping into the air, so it uses less power and heats up with 98.4% ultra-high thermal efficiency.
#3 Light up the corner out of the RV. With two LED lights embedded in The One, its adjustable wings allow people to illuminate the corners they want. Even if someone has to work on RV repairs and maintenance after dark, adjust the height of the gear, and lighten the area up. The One’s built-in ultrasonic insect repellent protects from bugs and annoying insects.
CEO of Mars Players™, Leo, said that the company is pursuing worldwide partnerships for collaborative camping or festival events, where resource-sharing, cooperation, and open communication generate synergistic benefits.
In recent weeks, Apple Inc. has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside China, long the dominant country in the supply chain that built the world’s most valuable company, say people involved in the discussions. It is telling suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam, they say, and looking to reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by Foxconn Technology Group.
Turmoil at a place called iPhone City helped propel Apple’s shift. At the giant city-within-a-city in Zhengzhou, China, as many as 300,000 workers work at a factory run by Foxconn to make iPhones and other Apple products. At one point, it alone made about 85% of the Pro lineup of iPhones, according to market-research firm Counterpoint Research.
China’s strict zero-COVID policy was making headlines Monday after Apple and iPhone manufacturer Foxconn said over the weekend that restrictions are crimping production and will delay shipments of the high-end iPhone 14.
“We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models,” Apple AAPL, -0.82% announced in a Sunday evening press release. “However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.”
Foxconn, meanwhile, which trades as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. 2317, -0.50%,
lowered its fourth-quarter guidance and said anti-COVID measures were affecting some of its operations in Zhengzhou, China, as Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Foxconn said that the Henan provincial government had made it clear that it would fully support the company. Foxconn’s most advanced iPhone plant, located in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, has been battling a COVID outbreak.
Foxconn said it is working with the government to halt the outbreak and resume production at full capacity as quickly as possible.
Workers at the world’s biggest assembly site for Apple’s iPhones walked out last week as Foxconn struggled to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. The chaos highlighted the tension between Beijing’s rigid pandemic controls and the need to keep production on track. Photo: Hangpai Xinyang/Associated Press
Investors have been closely watching China for signs that its government would start to lift the tough pandemic restrictions that have been in place for almost three years. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the country’s leaders are considering steps but have not yet set a timeline.
Chinese officials have become concerned about the costs of their zero-tolerance approach to COVID, which has resulted in lockdowns of cities and whole provinces, crushing business activity and confining hundreds of millions of people to their homes for weeks and sometimes months on end.
But they are weighing those concerns against the potential costs of reopening on public health and on support for the Communist Party. On Saturday, officials from China’s National Health Commission again reaffirmed their commitment to a firm zero-COVID strategy, which they described as essential to “protect people’s lives.”
Still, there are plans in Beijing to further cut the number of days incoming travelers must quarantine in hotels from 10 to seven, followed by three days of home monitoring, the paper reported, citing people involved in the discussions.
And officials have told retail businesses that they intend to reduce the frequency of PCR testing as soon as this month, partly because of the cost.
In the U.S., known cases of COVID and hospitalizations are climbing again for the first time in a few months.
The daily average for new cases stood at 39,954 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 6% compared with two weeks ago. But cases are sharply higher in several states, led by Nevada, where they are up 96% from two weeks ago, followed by Tennessee, where they are up 69%; Louisiana, where they are up 68%; Utah, where they have climbed 61%; and New Mexico, where they are up 56%.
Cases are climbing in 30 states and in Washington, D.C.
The daily average for hospitalizations was up 2% to 27,419, while the daily average for deaths was down 11% to 320.
Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang
The two variants accounted for 52.3% of all cases in the New York region, which includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, up from 42.5% the previous week. That was more than the BA.5 omicron subvariant, which accounted for 24.9% of new cases in the New York area in the latest week.
The BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for 39.2% of all U.S. cases, the data show.
BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 were still lumped in with BA.5 variant data as recently as three weeks ago, because at that time, their numbers were too small to break out. BQ.1 was first identified by researchers in early September and has been found in the U.K. and Germany, among other places.
• BioNTEch SE BNTX, +2.84%,
the German biotech that has partnered with Pfizer PFE, -0.53%
on a COVID vaccine, posted earnings early Monday, showing a roughly 50% drop in profit that sent its stock lower, despite beating consensus estimates. The Mainz-based company said it had invoiced about 300 million doses of its bivalent vaccine, which targets the omicron variant as well as the original virus. The company chalked up €564.5 million ($563.9 million) in direct COVID vaccine sales in the quarter, down from €1.351 billion a year ago. BioNTech raised the lower end of its full-year COVID vaccine revenue range to €16 billion to €17 billion, from a previous €13 billion to €17 billion.
• Thousands of runners took to the streets of the Chinese capital on Sunday for the return of Beijing’s annual marathon after a two-year hiatus, the Associated Press reported. However, the good news was offset by anger about another death related to COVID restrictions, this time of a 55-year-old woman in a sealed building. An investigation report released Sunday in Hohhot, the capital of China’s Inner Mongolia region, blamed property management and community staff for not acting quickly enough to prevent the death of the woman after being told she had suicidal tendencies.
• The U.S. flu season is off to an unusually fast start, contributing to an autumn mix of viruses that have patients filling hospitals’ and physicians’ waiting rooms, the AP reported separately. Reports of flu are already high in 17 states, and the hospitalization rate hasn’t been this high this early since the 2009 swine flu pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, there have been an estimated 730 flu deaths, including at least two children. The winter flu season usually ramps up in December or January.
The U.S. leads the world with 97.7 million cases and 1,072,598 fatalities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 227.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.5% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.
So far, just 26.3 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 8.4% of the overall population.
Apple Inc. said Sunday that it now expects lower shipments of its high-end iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max devices than it did previously, as COVID-19 issues hamper production in China.
“We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models,” the company announced in a Sunday evening press release. “However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.”
Apple AAPL, -0.19%
acknowledged in its release that COVID-19 issues have “temporarily impacted” production of the devices at the Zhengzhou site that is the “primary” assembly facility for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. That facility is currently seeing “significantly reduced” operating capacity.
“We are working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of every worker,” the company added in the release.
“Although Apple earnings were only a week ago, supply shortages at the high end of the market and recent COVID lockdowns in China impacting a Foxconn plant could negatively impact iPhone units in the December quarter,” UBS analyst David Vogt wrote Wednesday, ahead of Apple’s press release. “While we believe iPhone demand tends to not be perishable, a slippage of a couple of million units is possible below our 86 million forecast.”
