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Tag: iab-technology industry

  • New York Times: US officials search for hidden Chinese malware that could affect military operations | CNN Politics

    New York Times: US officials search for hidden Chinese malware that could affect military operations | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    US officials are searching for Chinese malware hidden in various defense systems that could disrupt military communications and resupply operations, The New York Times reported Saturday.

    The administration believes malicious computer code has been hidden inside “networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases,” officials told the Times. The discovery has heightened concerns that hackers could “disrupt US military operations in the event of a conflict,” according to the Times. The two nations have been increasingly at odds over Taiwan as well as over China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific.

    One congressional official told the newspaper that the malware was “a ticking time bomb” that could allow China to cut off power, water and communications to military bases, slowing deployments and resupply operations. Because military bases often share the same supply infrastructure as civilian homes and businesses, many other Americans could also be affected, officials told the Times.

    The malware revelations echo a pattern of recent breaches by China-based hackers previously reported by CNN.

    Last week, the email account of US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was hacked, three US officials familiar with the matter told CNN.

    Earlier this month, Microsoft and the White House confirmed that China-based hackers breached email accounts at two dozen organizations, including some federal agencies. The Biden administration believes the hacking operation – which Microsoft said was launched in mid-May – gave the Chinese government insights about US thinking heading into Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing in June.

    Among the agencies targeted were the State Department and the Department of Commerce, which has sanctioned Chinese telecom firms. US officials and Microsoft analysts initially had trouble identifying how the hackers got into the email accounts, which made clear that they were dealing with a sophisticated hacking team, a US official told CNN.

    US officials have consistently labeled China as the most advanced of US adversaries in cyberspace, a domain that has repeatedly been a source of bilateral tension in recent years. The FBI has said Beijing has a larger hacking program than all other governments combined.

    Blinken raised the hacking incidents in a meeting with a top Chinese diplomat in Indonesia earlier this month, a senior State Department official told CNN, but the official would not “get into the specifics” of the extent to which the hack was raised.

    “We have consistently made clear that any action that targets US government, US companies, American citizens, is a deep concern to us and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable and the secretary made that clear again,” the official said.

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  • Biden administration announces new labels for gadgets that are less vulnerable to cyberattacks | CNN Business

    Biden administration announces new labels for gadgets that are less vulnerable to cyberattacks | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The next time you’re in the market for a smart TV, fitness tracker or other connected gadget, you could see a new US government-backed label identifying some products as being particularly hardened against hackers.

    On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced it’s moving to implement a cybersecurity labeling program aimed at helping consumers pick out trustworthy tech products that are rated as more secure than the competition.

    The program seeks to bolster the nation’s cybersecurity overall by guiding Americans who may be in the market for smart home tech or wearables toward products that meet a high standard for cybersecurity as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

    The label will appear as a “distinct shield logo,” according to the White House. Products that meet the criteria for the label could include tech that requires strong passwords and that provides regular software updates to guard against the latest threats, for example.

    A wide range of products could be covered, the administration said, including smart refrigerators, microwave ovens, thermostats, home voice assistants and — eventually — WiFi routers, after NIST finishes designing cybersecurity standards for them later this year.

    For years, cybersecurity has been an afterthought in a market for so-called “internet of things” (IoT) devices that prioritizes low costs over security, according to security experts. One of the more famous examples of IoT security failures came in 2016, when criminal hackers used an army of infected computers, known as the Mirai botnet, to disrupt access to the websites of Twitter, PayPal, and others.

    Products certified under the new program may come with a QR code that links to a national database affirming its participation, the administration added in a release.

    The launch of the program could still be as far as a year away. But the administration took its first steps toward implementation on Tuesday as the Federal Communications Commission applied for a trademark linked to the effort, known as the “US Cyber Trust Mark.”

    The FCC, which regulates wireless devices, also issued a formal proposal that will be open for public feedback on how it should manage the program.

    “This new labeling program would help provide Americans with greater assurances about the cybersecurity of the products they use and rely on in their everyday lives,” the administration said in a statement. “It would also be beneficial for businesses, as it would help differentiate trustworthy products in the marketplace.”

    The government proposal comes two years after President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for an “‘energy star’ type of label” for tech products. At the time, the US government was still reeling from a crippling ransomware attack days earlier that had forced a temporary shutdown of Colonial Pipeline, one of the country’s largest fuel pipeline operators.

    The executive order highlighted how the administration could use product labeling, combined with the federal government’s immense procurement power, to shape commercial markets and raise the bar for companies that sell technology to both US agencies and ordinary consumers.

    Companies including Amazon, Best Buy, Cisco, Google, LG, Logitech, Samsung and others pledged to assist in the government’s labeling push by committing to increase the cybersecurity of their products, the White House said Tuesday.

    Dave DeWalt, CEO of the cybersecurity-focused investment firm NightDragon, said the government’s move could help address a “perfect storm” of billions of insecure IoT devices.

    “Market forces alone were never going to be sufficient to force manufacturers to step up and deliver more secure devices,” he said. “We’ve taken an essential step now in the right direction to put the power back in the hands of the consumers to choose better security.”

    The Consumer Technology Association said Tuesday its next annual trade show, CES 2024, will feature “certification-ready products” once the FCC finalizes its rules.

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  • The world is big enough for US and China, Yellen says as she concludes Beijing trip | CNN Business

    The world is big enough for US and China, Yellen says as she concludes Beijing trip | CNN Business

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    Beijing/Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    The world is big enough for both the United States and China to thrive, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday as she wrapped up a visit to Beijing aimed at stablizing the relationship between the world’s two largest economies.

    Yellen said she had “direct, substantive, and productive” talks with China’s new economic leadership, including Premier Li Qiang and Pan Gongsheng, the newly appointed Communist Party chief of China’s central bank.

    “No one visit will solve our challenges overnight. But I expect that this trip will help build a resilient and productive channel of communication,” Yellen told a news conference in Beijing.

    “Broadly speaking, I believe that my bilateral meetings — which totaled about 10 hours over two days — served as a step forward in our effort to put the US-China relationship on surer footing.”

    Yellen’s trip marked the second visit by a US cabinet official to the Chinese capital in a matter of weeks as Washington seeks to steer relations with Beijing back on course after months of inflamed tensions.

    In recent months, while pushing to resume high-level diplomatic talks, the US has imposed sanctions on Chinese companies, successfully pushed allies in Japan and the Netherlands to restrict sales of advanced semiconductors to China and rallied other advanced economies to counter Beijing’s “economic coercion.”

    But Yellen reiterated that the United States is not seeking to decouple from China, which she said would be “disastrous for both countries and destabilizing for the world” and “virtually impossible to undertake.”

    “There is an important distinction between decoupling, on the one hand, and on the other hand, diversifying critical supply chains or taking targeted national security actions,” she said.

    She said the United States would continue to take “targeted actions” to protect its own national security interests and those of its allies, while making sure these actions are “transparent, narrowly scoped and targeted to clear objectives.”

    Following Yellen’s meeting with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng Saturday, a report from the official Xinhua news agency appeared to suggest the Chinese side took issue with this approach.

    “China believes that generalizing national security is not conducive to normal economic and trade exchanges,” it said. “The Chinese side has expressed concerns about US sanctions and restrictive measures against China.”

    Yellen said the US and China have “significant disagreements” that need to be communicated “clearly and directly,” but noted that the Biden administration does not see US-China relations “through the frame of great power conflict.”

    “We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive. Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity,” she said.

    Yellen said she pressed Chinese officials on Washington’s “serious concerns about China’s unfair economic practices” — including barriers to market access for foreign firms and issues involving intellectual property — and “worries about a recent uptick in coercive actions against American firms.”

    Beijing’s updated counter-espionage law and crackdown against Western consulting and due diligence firms have unnerved US businesses.

    Over the past months, Chinese authorities have questioned staff at the Shanghai office of US consultancy Bain & Company, and closed the Beijing office of Mintz Group, an American corporate due diligence firm, while detaining five of its local staff.

    Yellen said no final decision has been made to limit outbound investments by US companies in China, when asked about potential upcoming foreign investment curbs that might be implemented by Washington.

    “I was able to explain to my Chinese counterparts that if we do implement such restrictions, that we will do so in a transparent way,” she said, adding any new curbs or sanctions would “be highly targeted and clearly directed narrowly at a few sectors where we have specific national security concerns.”

    “I want to allay their fears that we would do something that would have broad-based impacts on the Chinese economy. That’s not the case. That’s not the intention,” she said.

    The Biden administration is preparing new rules that could restrict US investment in certain sectors in China, according to multiple media reports including from the The Wall Street Journal and Politico.

    Yellen said she discussed with Chinese officials areas of cooperation on global challenges, including working together to mobilize multilateral financing for climate action. US climate envoy John Kerry is expected to visit China next, according to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, though he did not provide a timetable for the trip.

    Yellen said she also raised “the importance of ending Russia’s brutal and illegal war against Ukraine,” and said it was “essential” that Chinese firms avoid providing Russia with material support for the war or in evading sanctions.

    Yellen’s trip came just days after China retaliated in a tech war with the US by announcing restrictions on exports of two strategic materials needed to make semiconductors.

    The move was widely seen as a response to the Biden administration’s ban on advanced chip sales to China, which was announced last October. According to multiple media reports, the curbs will be expanded to restrict the sale of some artificial intelligence chips.

    The sanctions strike at the heart of Beijing’s tech ambitions, as chips are vital for everything from smartphones, self-driving cars, and advanced computing to weapons manufacturing.

    Jake Werner, an East Asia Research fellow at the Quincy Institute in Washington, said it was unlikely Yellen’s Chinese counterparts would be persuaded by her argument that the US ban is not meant to stifle China’s economy.

    “US and Chinese leaders alike consider these technologies foundational to the future of growth. Chinese leaders see the restrictions as an attempt to permanently subordinate China to US power and to coercively exclude Chinese business from the most important industries of the future,” Werner said.

    “This issue will continue to be one of the most poisonous areas of contention within the relationship.”

    A former Chinese official has indicated that further retaliatory measures may be on the cards.

    Even as both Beijing and Washington indicate high-level discussions will continue, the thorniest aspect of bilateral ties — particularly the tussle over access to advanced technology — may fuel more tension in the relationship.

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  • Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating deputies’ use of force captured on body camera footage | CNN

    Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating deputies’ use of force captured on body camera footage | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been taken off field duty as their department investigates force they used when a couple was being detained at a Southern California grocery store last month, the county sheriff’s department said.

    The encounter unfolded on June 24 as deputies responded to a report of a robbery in the city of Lancaster and tried to detain a couple matching the description of suspects given by store security in calls to 911, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said without releasing details about the descriptions.

    “As deputies attempted to detain the individuals described by store security personnel, the encounter escalated into a use of force incident that was captured by a community member with a cell phone camera,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release. “The video is disturbing.”

    County Sheriff Robert Luna echoed those sentiments at a news conference Wednesday, saying he is “also committed to full transparency” and decided to release the store video publicly.

    “I have seen the video – both the video collected by the community member and our body-worn camera footage that we put out Monday night. And it’s disturbing. There’s no ifs and buts about it,” Luna said.

    On Wednesday night, protesters gathered at the WinCo grocery store to protest the use of force witnessed.

    “I just couldn’t believe my eyes, I was just so upset,” Lisa Garrett, who recorded cell phone video footage of the detention, said at the protest. “You weren’t there. I was there. It was really bad.”

    The agency released body camera footage of the encounter, which shows a deputy arrive on scene and tell a man repeatedly to put his hands on the hood of a police cruiser. When the man refuses, the officer repeatedly tells him to sit down.

    The man is heard saying he’s done nothing wrong and says, “They approached us first, man,” but it’s not clear who he is referring to.

    The deputy radios dispatch that he has made contact and that the man is uncooperative, and then tells the man, “Sit down, dude. We’ll figure this out.”

    The man sits on a rock after the deputy tells him to, and he says, “I told them to call the police” and “I waited for you.”

    The video shows deputies approach the man, telling him they were going to do a pat-down. The man says, “I don’t have nothing.”

    The two deputies handcuff him while the man says, “I’m not even being resistant.” He asks why he is being detained and deputies do not answer, the video shows.

    While he is being handcuffed, the man is heard saying his arm is “f**ked up.”

    After the man is handcuffed, one angle of the footage shows a deputy forcing him to the ground. He tells the deputy that he’s “not going to fight” him, and that his wife has cancer.

    While the man was being handcuffed, a woman recorded video of it – separate from the bystander that authorities say also recorded video.

    In one deputy’s body camera footage, the woman can be heard saying, “You can’t touch me” as the deputy approaches her and reaches for her cell phone and says, “Stop.”

    A struggle ensues and the woman is thrown to the ground by the deputy, video shows. “Get down on the ground,” the deputy says multiple times. The deputy’s hand is seen placed on the back of the woman’s neck.

    “Stop or you’re gonna get punched in the face,” the deputy says, and the woman threatens to sue him.

    The unidentified woman says she can’t breathe and tells the officer to “stop manhandling” her. The deputy sprays a substance into the woman’s face. It is not clear whether the spray was mace or pepper spray. CNN has sought clarification from the sheriff’s department.

    The deputy’s knee is placed on her back as he attempts to handcuff the woman, who requests “a commander” repeatedly and states that she isn’t doing anything. The deputy continues trying to handcuff her and says she will get “sprayed again.”

    In one clip, the woman can be heard yelling from the ground for a commander. The man tells the deputy, “You don’t have to do this sh*t bro. That’s wrong, man.”

    Once the woman is handcuffed, the man is brought over by the other deputy. The man asks the woman if she’s all right. “No, he throw me to the ground,” she replies.

    One angle of footage ends with the man and the woman being placed in separate police cars.

    The man involved was arrested and cited on suspicion of resisting or delaying an officer, petty theft or attempt at petty theft, and interfering with a business, Luna said. The woman was arrested and cited on suspicion of assaulting an officer and battery after assaulting loss prevention personnel inside the market.

    Both have been released, according to Deputy Miesha McClendon.

    The footage will be reviewed “to determine if the force used was reasonable, necessary, appropriate, and proportional to the level of actions described,” the sheriff’s department said in the release.

    Both deputies have been reassigned from field duty “pending further administrative review,” according to the department.

    “We take the use of force very seriously and are determined to establish the facts of the incident,” the release reads.

    The investigation into the incident will include the body camera footage, surveillance video from the store and cell phone video taken by the bystander, the sheriff’s department said.

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  • Cell phones to be banned from Dutch school classrooms next year | CNN

    Cell phones to be banned from Dutch school classrooms next year | CNN

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    Reuters
     — 

    Cell phones, tablets and smartwatches will be largely banned from classrooms in the Netherlands from January 1, 2024, the Dutch government said on Tuesday, in a bid to limit distractions during lessons.

    Devices will only be allowed if they are specifically needed, for instance during lessons on digital skills, for medical reasons or for people with disabilities.

    “Even though mobile phones are intertwined with our lives, they do not belong in the classroom,” education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf said in a statement.

    “Students need to be able to concentrate and need to be given the opportunity to study well. Mobile phones are a disturbance, scientific research shows. We need to protect students against this.”

    The ban is the result of an agreement between the ministry, schools and related organizations.

    Schools can find their own way to organize the ban, Dijkgraaf said, but legal rules will follow if this does not yield enough results by the summer of 2024.

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  • Ringo Starr says The Beatles would ‘never’ fake John Lennon’s vocals with AI on new song | CNN

    Ringo Starr says The Beatles would ‘never’ fake John Lennon’s vocals with AI on new song | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ringo Starr is doubling down about the authenticity of the vocals on the highly anticipated new Beatles song recently teased by former bandmate Paul McCartney.

    Starr spoke with Rolling Stone for an upcoming podcast, in which he ensured that they would “never” fake the late John Lennon’s vocals for the new track, which instead uses AI to clean up previously recorded snippets.

    The song will also feature the voice of the late George Harrison, Starr confirmed.

    Paul McCartney says a ‘final’ Beatles song is coming

    “This was beautiful,” he said, noting, “it’s the final track you’ll ever hear with the four lads. And that’s a fact.”

    McCartney attempted to clarify last month how artificial intelligence is being used on what he said will be the “final” Beatles song.

    “We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it,” he wrote in a note posted on his verified Instagram story at the time. “Seems to be a lot of guess work out there.”

    “Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it,” he added. “We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.”

    In a June 13 interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, the legendary musician, 81, said that AI technology was being used to release a “new” track featuring all four Beatles, including fellow band members Lennon and Harrison, who died in 1980 and 2001, respectively.

    “When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record – it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up, it will be released this year – and we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI,” McCartney said. “So then we were able to mix the record as you would normally do.”

    Starr, meanwhile, is about to celebrate his 83rd birthday on July 7.

    The music icon, who just finished a spring tour with his All-Starr Band, told Rolling Stone that he’s feeling great. “You never know when you’re gonna drop, that’s the thing,” he added. “And I’m not dropping yet.”

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  • Exclusive: 42% of CEOs say AI could destroy humanity in five to ten years | CNN Business

    Exclusive: 42% of CEOs say AI could destroy humanity in five to ten years | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Many top business leaders are seriously worried that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity in the not-too-distant future.

    Forty-two percent of CEOs surveyed at the Yale CEO Summit this week say AI has the potential to destroy humanity five to ten years from now, according to survey results shared exclusively with CNN.

    “It’s pretty dark and alarming,” Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said in a phone interview, referring to the findings.

    The survey, conducted at a virtual event held by Sonnenfeld’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, found little consensus about the risks and opportunities linked to AI.

    Sonnenfeld said the survey included responses from 119 CEOs from a cross-section of business, including Walmart CEO Doug McMillion, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy, the leaders of IT companies like Xerox and Zoom as well as CEOs from pharmaceutical, media and manufacturing.

    The business leaders displayed a sharp divide over just how dangerous AI is to civilization.

    While 34% of CEOs said AI could potentially destroy humanity in ten years and 8% said that could happen in five years, 58% said that could never happen and they are “not worried.”

    In a separate question, Yale found that 42% of the CEOs surveyed say the potential catastrophe of AI is overstated, while 58% say it is not overstated.

    The findings come just weeks after dozens of AI industry leaders, academics and even some celebrities signed a statement warning of an “extinction” risk from AI.

    That statement, signed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI” and top executives from Google and Microsoft, called for society to take steps to guard against the dangers of AI.

    “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said.

    Hinton recently decided to sound the alarm on the technology he helped develop after worrying about just how intelligent it has become.

    “I’m just a scientist who suddenly realized that these things are getting smarter than us,” Hinton told CNN’s Jake Tapper in May. “I want to sort of blow the whistle and say we should worry seriously about how we stop these things getting control over us.”

    Hinton told CNN that if AI “gets to be much smarter than us, it will be very good at manipulation,” including “getting around restrictions we put on it.”

    While business leaders debate the dangers of AI, the CEOs surveyed by Yale displayed a degree of agreement about the rewards.

    Just 13% of the CEOs said the potential opportunity of AI is overstated, while 87% said it is not.

    The CEOs indicated AI will have the most transformative impact in three key industries: healthcare (48%), professional services/IT (35%) and media/digital (11%).

    As some inside and outside the tech world debate doomsday scenarios around AI, there are likely to be more immediate impacts, including the risks of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

    Sonnenfeld, the Yale management guru, told CNN business leaders break down into five distinct camps when it comes to AI.

    The first group, as described by Sonnenfeld, includes “curious creators” who are “naïve believers” who argue everything you can do, you should do.

    “They are like Robert Oppenheimer, before the bomb,” Sonnenfeld said, referring to the American physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb.”

    Then there are the “euphoric true believers” who only see the good in technology, Sonnenfeld said.

    Noting the AI boom set off by the popularity of ChatGPT and other new tools, Sonnenfeld described “commercial profiteers” who are enthusiastically seeking to cash in on the new technology. “They don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re racing into it,” he said.

    And then there are the two camps pushing for an AI crackdown of sorts: alarmist activists and global governance advocates.

    “These five groups are all talking past each other, with righteous indignation,” Sonnenfeld said.

    The lack of consensus around how to approach AI underscores how even captains of industry are still trying to wrap their heads around the risks and rewards around what could be a real gamechanger for society.

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  • How CNN broke the news from Trump’s arraignment despite a courtroom ban on electronics | CNN Business

    How CNN broke the news from Trump’s arraignment despite a courtroom ban on electronics | CNN Business

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.



    CNN
     — 

    The operation was devised on the eve of the arraignment.

    The chief judge presiding over the Miami federal court in which former President Donald Trump was arraigned on Tuesday had made the decision to prohibit electronics inside the courthouse, presenting a major hurdle for news organizations needing to quickly transmit information from the historic proceeding to the outside world. Without access to electronic devices, the rudimentary task was a formidable one.

    After surveying the courthouse on Monday, CNN’s team hatched a plan — one that ultimately led the news network to become the first to report that Trump was in custody and had entered a not guilty plea on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified intelligence documents.

    It started with hiring a group of local high school students to work as production assistants for the day. Noah Gray, CNN’s senior coordinating producer for special events, had grown up in the Miami area and attended Palmetto Senior High School. He contacted his former teacher, who heads the school’s television production program, and said that CNN wanted to quickly hire some of her students to help with its reporting effort.

    On Tuesday, several of the hired students were brought into the courthouse and seated in an overflow room with reporters Tierney Sneed and Hannah Rabinowitz. As the hearing unfolded and developments transpired, Sneed and Rabinowitz jotted down their reporting on notepads, tearing off sheets with urgent news, and handing it to one of the students. The students then ran the reporting to one of their classmates who was standing by at one of the courthouse’s only two pay phones.

    But there was a twist: the pay phones at the courthouse could only dial local telephone numbers. To overcome the final obstacle, CNN’s staff devised a plan to have the production assistant dial his own personal cell phone, which was located in a nearby RV that the network was using as a mobile headquarters.

    Brad Parks, a CNN regional newsgathering director stationed inside the RV, then picked up the phone, typed up the reporting and relayed the information to the outlet’s Washington, D.C. bureau. Once the reporting was cleared for air by senior leaders in Washington, it was then transmitted to the control room and the network at large. And, from there, it was finally communicated to CNN’s anchors, who delivered the news to viewers across the world.

    “In all my years of field producing, never have I been involved in an operation as complex as this literal game of professional telephone,” Gray told me on Tuesday, after the hearing concluded.

    The remarkable effort to report on the court proceeding was only necessary because of the archaic system in which U.S. federal courts operate. The public continues to have remarkably little access to proceedings in federal courts — no matter how consequential or extraordinary the case may be.

    There are no cameras. There are no audio feeds. There are no phone lines to listen in on. In this case, there was only a courtroom with limited seating and an overflow room in which the proceeding was broadcast. Courtroom sketches were the only visuals the public had the opportunity to see. The artists’ renditions are the only images that will be recorded in history books.

    Over the years, there have been efforts by advocacy groups to increase transparency in courtrooms. But the efforts have only resulted in some minor movement. Generally speaking, federal courts refuse to budge.

    However, given the mile-high stakes of a former president, who is once again running for office while facing criminal charges, calls to allow more transparency have been renewed. In fact, several times during television coverage of the arraignment on Tuesday, legal experts brought the important issue to the forefront.

    “I think this is long overdue,” Elie Honig, CNN’s senior legal analyst, told Jake Tapper, describing the federal courts as “stubbornly old fashioned” and “up on their high horse.”

    “There is this pearl clutching going on for decades among judges,” Honig said. “‘We don’t want our proceedings here to become a spectacle.’ Well, guess what? We need to see this. To put it not so finely, we have a right to see this.”

    Over on MSNBC, Neal Katyal, the former acting solicitor general, made a similar argument. Katyal contended that public access in this particular case would be a benefit to everyone.

    “I think the benefits for public access cut for both Trump and the prosecution,” Katyal told Nicolle Wallace. “Because Trump can be sure the public will watch for any perceived inequities. And a live stream can be used to combat any misinformation that Trump may try to spread.”

    “And so I think this is the people’s court, this is our American taxpayer dollars that pay for this,” Katyal added, “and all Americans should be able to see it.”

    Whether greater transparency is ultimately granted remains to be seen. But despite the obstacles the federal court system has in place, newsrooms will find a way to climb over them and deliver the news — as was evidenced Tuesday.

    Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the order to bar electronics from the courthouse came from the chief judge in Miami.

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  • Deputies accuse man of using Nintendo ‘Duck Hunt’ pistol during robbery | CNN

    Deputies accuse man of using Nintendo ‘Duck Hunt’ pistol during robbery | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A South Carolina man was arrested after authorities said he robbed a convenience store with a fake gun designed to play a Nintendo video game.

    David Joseph Dalesandro, 25, held up a Kwik Stop in Sharon, a small town in northwestern South Carolina, using a black spray-painted “Duck Hunt” gaming pistol, according to the York County Sheriff’s Office.

    CNN was unable to determine whether he was represented by an attorney.

    Witnesses told deputies a person allegedly walked into the store on May 30 wearing a wig, hoodie sweatshirt and a mask, a sheriff’s office news release stated.

    The person allegedly showed the clerk the fake gun in his waistband and demanded about $300 from the register, authorities said.

    Sheriff’s deputies discovered Dalesandro in a nearby Dollar General store parking lot, armed with the gaming pistol in his pants, according to the news release.

    Dalesandro was arrested and remained behind bars Friday without bond, booking details showed.

    He faces charges including armed robbery with a deadly weapon and petty larceny, according to the sheriff’s office.

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  • 5 things to know for May 31: DeSantis, Artificial intelligence, Debt deal, UK, Ukraine | CNN

    5 things to know for May 31: DeSantis, Artificial intelligence, Debt deal, UK, Ukraine | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One-time Silicon Valley darling Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison Tuesday to begin serving out her 11-year sentence after being convicted on multiple charges of defrauding investors. Her life in prison will be quite a change, with mandatory jobs, very early mornings and no black turtlenecks.

    Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

    (You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

    Ron DeSantis officially kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday in Iowa. While speaking to reporters after the event at an evangelical church outside Des Moines, the Florida governor leveled a series of shots at his rival, former President Donald Trump, painting him as selfish, unprincipled and petty. As the opening contest in the GOP nominating fight, Iowa holds a unique role in sizing up the presidential field. That’s especially important this election season since it’s the first time in over a century a former president is seeking to return to the White House. Meanwhile, Florida officials just changed state campaign finance guidelines in a very specific way to allow DeSantis’ allies to initiate a specific kind of transfer to move tens of millions of dollars to a super PAC supporting his campaign. The planned move has already drawn a watchdog complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

    Dozens of industry leaders and academics in the field of artificial intelligence have called for greater global attention to the possible threat of “extinction from AI.” A statement, signed by leading industry officials like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Geoffrey Hinton — the so-called “godfather” of artificial intelligence — highlights wide-ranging concerns about the ultimate danger of unchecked AI. Experts say humanity is still a ways off from the prospect of science-fiction-like AI overlords, but the flood of hype and investment into the AI industry has led to calls for regulation now before any major mishaps occur. The growing AI arms race has already generated more immediate concerns. Lawmakers, advocacy groups and tech insiders have raised alarms about the potential for AI-powered language models like ChatGPT to spread misinformation and displace jobs.

    AI developers are warning ‘risk of extinction’ to humans

    The House of Representatives is on track to vote today on a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025. The bill already cleared a key hurdle Tuesday evening when the powerful House Rules Committee voted 7-6 to advance it to the floor. That’s a win for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was tasked with convincing members of the committee to vote in favor even though some fellow Republicans don’t approve of the bill and have vowed to sink it in the chamber. Still, it appears a wide range of House members on both sides of the aisle are poised to support the deal. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would reduce budget deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, and reduce discretionary spending by a projected $1.3 trillion from 2024 to 2033.

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    U.S. House to vote on debt limit bill amid criticism

    The UK’s inflation problems are getting so out of hand, officials are considering food price caps to curb the crisis. New data released this week shows the cost of store items, a metric known as shop price inflation, rose 9% through the year to May. That’s the highest it’s ever been since such stats were first recorded in 2005. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering asking retailers to cap the price of essential food items, something the UK government tried in the 1970s to tepid effect. Economists say capping prices leads to lower supply and higher demand, resulting in shortages. The enduring shadow of Brexit still looms large over Britain’s economy, and some experts say the government should be focused on shedding burdensome regulations that resulted from the move instead of trying to control prices. 

    Russia’s war on Ukraine is increasingly spilling into Russian territory. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said four people were recently injured in a “massive strike” there. This is the latest in a series of strikes against Russian targets by Ukrainian forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the spate of attacks, saying Ukraine “chose the path of intimidation,” and is provoking Russia to “mirror actions.” Amid all the violence, scientists have another concern: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has outlined a plan to protect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and asked that Russia and Ukraine observe them to ensure the plant’s safety and security. 

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    Russia blames Ukraine after drone strikes in Moscow

    Alleged Russian ‘spy’ whale now in Swedish waters

    Patiently waiting for a mystery novel series about spy whales. 

    Michael Jordan was a ‘horrible player’ and ‘horrible to play with,’ says former Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen

    Dang, Scottie. Tell us how you really feel!

    Venice authorities discover why canal turned fluorescent green

    Given all the fluorescent things it could have been, this is quite a relief.

    This is the world’s first 3D-printed, cultivated fish fillet

    Mmm, science is delicious.

    Air New Zealand to weigh passengers before they board the airplane

    What an innovative way to make air travel even more stressful! 

    1.4 million

    That’s about how many people have now been displaced in Sudan since a civil war erupted there in April, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says. Hundreds have been killed in the violence, and reports of sexual assault are increasingly common. 

    “I just tried to follow the police commands but I guess that didn’t work.”

    — Aderrien Murry, the 11-year-old boy who was shot in the chest less than two weeks ago by a Mississippi police officer after he called 911 for help. The boy said he prayed and sang in the moments after he was shot as his mother tried to stop the bleeding. Aderrien’s family wants the officer fired, and is seeking restitution from the state. 

    Check your local forecast here>>>

    A perfect day

    Bless people who put little collar cameras on their outdoor cats. These videos bring a type of peace I didn’t know existed. (Click here to view)

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  • The world’s biggest ad agency is going all in on AI with Nvidia’s help | CNN Business

    The world’s biggest ad agency is going all in on AI with Nvidia’s help | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency, has teamed up with chipmaker Nvidia to create ads using generative artificial intelligence.

    The companies announced the partnership Monday, with Nvidia

    (NVDA)     CEO Jensen Huang unveiling WPP’s new content engine during a demo at Computex Taipei.

    “Generative AI is changing the world of marketing at incredible speed. This new technology will transform the way that brands create content for commercial use,” WPP CEO Mark Read said in a statement.

    The platform will enable WPP

    (WPP)    ’s creative teams to integrate content from organizations such as Adobe and Getty Images with generative AI to produce advertising campaigns “more efficiently and at scale,” according to WPP

    (WPP)    . This would enable companies to make large volumes of advertising content, such as images or videos, “more tailored and immersive,” the company added.

    In the demo screened by Huang, WPP had created realistic footage of a car driving through a desert.

    The new AI-powered content engine means that same car could be placed on a street in London or pictured in Rio de Janeiro to target the Brazilian market — all without the need for costly on location production.

    Just as advertising campaigns can be rapidly adapted for different countries or cities, they can also be customized for different digital channels, such as Facebook or TikTok, and their users.

    “You can build very finely tuned campaigns to resonate with an audience… On the other hand, you could make up imaginary scenarios that never existed in real life,” Greg Estes, vice president of developer programs at Nvidia told CNN.

    The platform is the latest example of how AI is being rapidly deployed by major companies to enhance productivity and deliver new products to customers. Many in the advertising and media industries are concerned about threats to their jobs because of the way that AI is able to aggregate information and create visual content indistinguishable from photography.

    WPP said its new platform “outperforms current methods” of having people “manually create hundreds of thousands of pieces of content using disparate data coming from disconnected tools and systems.” In other words, the new technology could mean that much smaller creative teams are ultimately able to do the same amount of work.

    “It’s much easier to identify the jobs that AI will disrupt than it is to identify the jobs that AI will create,” Read told the Financial Times Monday. “We’ve applied AI a lot to our media business, but very little to the creative parts of our business.”

    Nvidia’s Huang said: “The world’s industries, including the $700 billion digital advertising industry, are racing to realize the benefits of AI,” adding that WPP would now enable brands to “deploy product experiences and compelling content at a level of realism and scale never possible before.”

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  • Why foldable phones are so incredibly expensive | CNN Business

    Why foldable phones are so incredibly expensive | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Chris Pantons is what you’d call a Google Pixel super fan. The Knoxville, Tennessee native loves the software, the camera, the virtual assistant, all of it. He even credits the phone’s car crash detection tool with saving his life a few years ago when he was in an accident.

    “I’ve owned practically every Pixel device,” said Pantons, 33, who has posted hundreds of YouTube videos about Pixel phones and other tech products. “I’ve influenced so much of my family to switch to Pixel – my brother and sister-in-law, mom and wife … and I had a coworker switch, too.”

    But this is the first year he won’t be upgrading to Pixel’s latest offering: the Pixel Fold, a foldable smartphone that starts at $1,799. “I’d love to own it,” he told CNN. “I don’t have the finances to do so. … [That] price for a first generation device is astronomical.”

    Earlier this month, Google became the latest tech company to unveil a foldable smartphone, with the promise of giving customers all the features they’ve come to expect in a phone, paired with a tablet-sized display. But Pantons wasn’t the only one who felt sticker shock.

    “My first car was $1800,” one user wrote on Twitter. “Google [lost] their minds.” Another user said they’ve been saving up, knowing the price for a Pixel foldable phone would inevitably be high once announced.

    “The fact you can buy a new Pixel, Pixel tablet and a Pixel Watch for less than the Fold and have various devices for use cases is a better value,” said Pantons.

    The pricing problem isn’t unique to Google. When Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold in 2020, it cost $1,999. It has come down in price somewhat, but the latest version of the Z Fold still starts at $1,799 – the same as the Pixel Fold. Even foldable models from budget brands retail for well over $1,000 in markets abroad.

    By comparison, the flagship iPhone starts at $799, less than half the price of the Pixel Fold. And classic 90s-style pre-paid flip phones, which are suddenly trendy again, can cost as little as $20.

    The higher price point is one of the factors limiting the size of the foldable market. Samsung currently dominates the category, followed by others including Motorola, Lenovo, Oppo, and Huawei. According to ABI Research, foldable and flexible displays made up about 0.7% of the smartphone market in 2021, and in 2022 expected to fall just shy of 2%.

    Lowering the price could help boost traction, but manufacturers may struggle to do that anytime soon.

    The flexible screen found on foldable phones is one of the biggest reasons why they cost so much.

    Flexible displays require more engineering and are more expensive to manufacture than traditional displays. And the Google Pixel Fold has two: a 5.8-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch inner display.

    Other components unique to foldables also drive up the cost. The Pixel Fold, for example, moves on a custom-built 180-degree hinge. The mechanism is moved out entirely from under the display to improve its dust resistance and decrease the device’s overall thickness, according to the company. This also requires complex engineering and costly manufacturing.

    “Expense is mainly to do with the high costs of components, notably the folding displays and hinge technology, which in many cases is a proprietary hinge design,” said David McQueen, research director at ABI Research. “So until volume grows enough that vendors can get scale, prices won’t be falling any time soon.”

    Foldable smartphones are still in their infancy. As a result, much of the research and development, and the costs associated with it, still lie ahead for manufacturers as they fine tune their products.

    “Companies often try to recoup their investment with a high price tag,” said Nabila Popal, research director at market research firm IDC.

    Foldable phones also remain a niche product for now, and manufacturers are targeting the price for the people willing to buy them early to help offset costs.

    The future for foldables remains uncertain. Most apps are still not optimized for foldable devices; Google’s chief rival, Apple, has yet to embrace the option; and splurging for a first-generation device with a lot of unknowns is a risky bet for anyone.

    Foldable phones are also notoriously fragile. Early versions of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, for example, had issues with the screen. Repairs for foldable smartphones can be costly too.

    But Google’s decision to embrace the option may help persuade more consumers to take a chance.

    Sean Milfort, a PhD student at Northcentral University, said he pre-ordered the Pixel Fold because he always wanted a foldable smartphone and didn’t want to leave the Pixel brand.

    “I’m a big fan of the Pixel line and have loved the idea of a foldable,” he said. “The fact that it is coming from Google – because they make Android – gives me hope that they will be really investing in that larger form factor device with Android.”

    But holdouts like Pantons may wait on the chance it could come down in price.

    “If a trade-in deal later on becomes available or it goes on sale then maybe then [I’ll buy one],” he said.

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  • 5 things to know for May 8: Texas shooting, King Charles, Title 42, Measles, ChatGPT | CNN

    5 things to know for May 8: Texas shooting, King Charles, Title 42, Measles, ChatGPT | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    American flags will be lowered to half-staff this week at the White House, on military bases, and at all public buildings to honor the victims of the deadly mass shooting in Texas over the weekend. In the wake of the massacre, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to act: “Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he said.

    Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

    (You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

    Eight people were killed and at least seven others were wounded when a gunman opened fire at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday — the latest mass shooting to shatter an American community. A Dallas-area medical group said it was treating patients ranging from age from 5 to 61 years old. The 33-year-old shooter was killed by a police officer who was already at the Dallas-area mall on an unrelated call. The gunman was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and had multiple weapons in his vehicle, according to police. The shooter’s motive remains unclear at this time, but officials are investigating his potential ties to right-wing extremism after he was found with an insignia on his clothing worn by some members of extremist groups, a law enforcement source said. Officials have also found he had an extensive social media presence that included neo-Nazi and White supremacist-related posts.

    Britain’s King Charles III was crowned Saturday in a once-in-a-generation royal event witnessed by hundreds of high-profile guests inside Westminster Abbey, as well as tens of thousands of well-wishers who gathered in central London. Scores of foreign dignitaries, British officials, celebrities and faith leaders attended the deeply religious ceremony. Once the King was crowned, his wife, Queen Camilla, was crowned in her own shorter ceremony. On Sunday, thousands of events and parties took place across the UK as part of the “Coronation Big Lunch.” But the historic weekend did not go without a display of dissidence. Police arrested more than 50 people during the coronation after controversially promising a “robust” approach to protesters.

    Missed it? Here’s King Charles’ coronation in 3 minutes

    The US is expecting to see an influx of border crossings when Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allowed officials to swiftly expel migrants who crossed the border illegally during the Covid-19 pandemic, expires on Thursday. Without Title 42, the primary border enforcement tool since March 2020, authorities will be returning to decades-old protocols at a time of unprecedented mass migration in the region, raising concerns within the Biden administration about a surge in the immediate aftermath of the policy’s lifting. Also on Thursday, the House is set to vote on Republicans’ wide-ranging border security package, GOP leadership sources told CNN. Last month, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Republicans have the necessary votes to pass the legislation in the chamber.

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    U.S. prepares for a surge of migrants ahead of the end of Title 42

    A child in Maine has tested positive for measles, officials said, marking the first case in the state since 2019. Measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 thanks to an intensive vaccination program, according to the CDC. But vaccination rates in the US have dropped in recent years, sparking new outbreaks. The CDC recommends all children get two doses of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine; the first dose between 12 to 15 months of age and the second between the ages of 4 to 6. The child who tested positive had received a dose of the measles vaccine, but is being considered “infectious out of an abundance of caution,” the Maine CDC said. There have been a total of 10 documented cases of measles in eight states this year.

    vaccines 2 cfb

    How vaccines stop the spread of viruses

    ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, can pick stocks better than your fund manager, analysts say. A recent experiment found that the bot far outperformed some popular UK investment funds — and funds managed by HSBC and Fidelity were among those selected. Between March 6 and April 28, a dummy portfolio of 38 stocks gained 4.9% while 10 leading investment funds clocked an average loss of 0.8%, the results showed. The analysts asked ChatGPT to select stocks based on some common criteria, including picking companies with a low level of debt and a track record of growth. Microsoft, Netflix, and Walmart were among the companies selected. While major funds have used AI for years to support their investment decisions, analysts say ChatGPT has put the technology in the hands of the general public — and it’s showing it can potentially disrupt the finance industry. 

    MTV Movie & TV Awards 2023: See who won

    Tom Cruise accepted an award for “Top Gun: Maverick” while flying a plane — because he’s Tom Cruise. Here are the other stars who received golden popcorn statuettes on Sunday.

    A mother-daughter moment: Regal twinning at coronation catches eyes

    Princess Catherine of Wales and her daughter, Princess Charlotte, made a statement in matching silver headpieces. See the photo here.

    Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, commits to the University of Southern California

    The NBA’s all-time leading scorer made headlines last year when he said he wanted to play his final season in the league alongside his son Bronny. The father-son duo is now one step closer to that reality.

    ‘Saturday Night Live’ didn’t air a new episode this past weekend

    Former cast member Pete Davidson was set to return as host for “SNL” but things didn’t go as planned due to the ongoing film and TV writers strike.

    Climate activists dye iconic Italian fountain water black

    Onlookers snapped pictures as protesters were arrested for defacing this popular monument.

    111 degrees Fahrenheit

    That’s how high temperatures reached in Vietnam over the weekend, the highest ever recorded in the country. Neighboring Laos and Thailand also recently shattered various temperature records as a brutal heat wave continues to grip Southeast Asia. 

    “This tangled web around Justice Clarence Thomas just gets worse and worse by the day.”

    — Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, telling CNN on Sunday that “everything is on the table” as the panel scrutinizes new ethics concerns around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The conservative justice is receiving criticism after a bombshell ProPublica report detailed he accepted several lavish trips and gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. Thomas also accepted free rent from the Republican billionaire for his mother and allowed him to pay the boarding school tuition for his grandnephew, according to ProPublica.

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    ‘It embarrasses me’: Senate Judiciary chair on Justice Thomas revelations

    Check your local forecast here>>>

    Parrots learn to call their feathered friends on video chat

    These parrots were taught to ring a bell whenever they want to caw their fellow bird friends! See them in action. (Click to view)

    Parrots Video Chat 3

    Parrots learn to call their feathered friends on video chat

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  • Apple posts second consecutive quarterly revenue decline | CNN Business

    Apple posts second consecutive quarterly revenue decline | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Apple on Thursday reported that its revenue fell 3% to $94.8 billion for the first three months of the year as consumers scale back spending on smartphones and computers amid looming recession fears.

    The company’s revenue was slightly better than what Wall Street had expected, but it nonetheless represented the second consecutive quarterly revenue decline for the iPhone maker.

    Apple attempted to appease investors by announcing up to $90 billion in share buybacks. Shares of Apple were largely flat in after-hours trading Thursday following teh results.

    Despite the continued revenue decline, there were bright spots in the report.

    Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple hit a “a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment” and that the installed base of active devices reached an all-time high.

    Apple’s latest quarterly earnings report comes amid a sharp decline in PC and smartphone sales globally after a surge earlier in the pandemic.

    Worldwide PC shipments declined 30% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the year prior, according to data from Gartner. Global smartphone shipments plunged 14.6% last quarter, according to separate data from market intelligence firm IDC.

    Apple’s report on Thursday caps off a closely-watched earnings season for Silicon Valley amid broader economic jitters. All five Big Tech companies beat Wall Street’s estimates, but the numbers paint a stark picture of the industry at this moment.

    Apple and its peers once enjoyed seemingly limitless growth. Now these business are struggling to grow sales and profits – or posting declines.

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  • Breast density changes over time could be linked to breast cancer risk, study finds | CNN

    Breast density changes over time could be linked to breast cancer risk, study finds | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Breast density is known to naturally decrease as a woman ages, and now a study suggests that the more time it takes for breast density to decline, the more likely it is that the woman could develop breast cancer.

    Researchers have long known that women with dense breasts have a higher risk of breast cancer. But according to the study, published last week in the journal JAMA Oncology, the rate of breast density changes over time also appears to be associated with the risk of cancer being diagnosed in that breast.

    “We know that invasive breast cancer is rarely diagnosed simultaneously in both breasts, thus it is not a surprise that we have observed a much slower decline in the breast that eventually developed breast cancer compared to the natural decline in density with age,” Shu Jiang, an associate professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and first author of the new study, wrote in an email.

    Breast density refers to the amount of fibrous and glandular tissue in a person’s breasts compared with the amount of fatty tissue in the breasts – and breast density can be seen on a mammogram.

    “Because women have their mammograms taken annually or biennially, the change of breast density over time is naturally available,” Jiang said in the email. “We should make full use of this dynamic information to better inform risk stratification and guide more individualized screening and prevention approaches.”

    The researchers, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, analyzed health data over the course of 10 years among 947 women in the St. Louis region who completed routine mammograms. A mammogram is an X-ray picture of the breast that doctors use to look for early signs of breast cancer.

    The women in the study were recruited from November 2008 to April 2012, and they had gotten mammograms through October 2020. The average age of the participants was around 57.

    Among the women, there were 289 cases of breast cancer diagnosed, and the researchers found that breast density was higher at the start of the study for the women who later developed breast cancer compared with those who remained cancer-free.

    The researchers also found that there was a significant decrease in breast density among all the women over the course of 10 years, regardless of whether they later developed breast cancer, but the rate of density decreasing over time was significantly slower among breasts in which cancer was later diagnosed.

    “This study found that evaluating longitudinal changes in breast density from digital mammograms may offer an additional tool for assessing risk of breast cancer and subsequent risk reduction strategies,” the researchers wrote.

    Not only is breast density a known risk factor for breast cancer, dense breast tissue can make mammograms more difficult to read.

    “There are two issues here. First, breast density can make it more difficult to fully ‘see through’ the breast on a mammogram, like looking through a frosted glass. Thus, it can be harder to detect a breast cancer,” Dr. Hal Burstein, clinical investigator in the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was not involved in the new study, said in an email. “Secondly, breast density is often thought to reflect the estrogen exposure or estrogen levels in women, and the greater the estrogen exposure, the greater the risk of developing breast cancer.”

    In March, the US Food and Drug Administration published updates to its mammography regulations, requiring mammography facilities to notify patients about the density of their breasts.

    “Breast density can have a masking effect on mammography, where it can be more difficult to find a breast cancer within an area of dense breast tissue,” Jiang wrote in her email.

    “Even when you take away the issue of finding it, breast density is an independent risk factor for developing breast cancer. Although there is lots of data that tell us dense breast tissue is a risk factor, the reason for this is not clear,” she said. “It may be that development of dense tissue and cancer are related to the same biological processes or hormonal influences.”

    The findings of the new study demonstrate that breast density serves as a risk factor for breast cancer – but women should be aware of their other risk factors too, said Dr. Maxine Jochelson, chief of the breast imaging service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who was not involved in the study.

    “It makes sense to some extent that the longer your breast stays dense, theoretically, the more likely it is to develop cancer. And so basically, it expands on the data that dense breasts are a risk,” Jochelson said, adding that women with dense breasts should ask for supplemental imaging when they get mammograms.

    But other factors that can raise the risk of breast cancer include having a family history of cancer, drinking too much alcohol, having a high-risk lesion biopsied from the breast or having a certain genetic mutation.

    For instance, women should know that “density may not affect their risk so much if they have the breast cancer BRCA 1 or 2 mutation because their risk is so high that it may not make it much higher,” Jochelson said.

    Some ways to reduce the risk of breast cancer include keeping a healthy weight, being physically active, drinking alcohol in moderation or not at all and, for some people, taking medications such as tamoxifen and breastfeeding your children, if possible.

    “Breast density is a modest risk factor. The ‘average’ woman in the US has a 1 in 8 lifetime chance of developing breast cancer. Women with dense breasts have a slightly greater risk, about 1 in 6, or 1 in 7. So the lifetime risk goes up from 12% to 15%. That still means that most women with dense breasts will not develop breast cancer,” Burstein said in his email.

    “Sometimes radiologists will recommend additional breast imaging to women with dense breast tissue on mammograms,” he added.

    The US Preventive Services Task Force – a group of independent medical experts whose recommendations help guide doctors’ decisions – recommends biennial screening for women starting at age 50. The task force says that a decision to start screening earlier “should be an individual one.” Many medical groups, including the American Cancer Society and Mayo Clinic, emphasize that women have the option to start screening with a mammogram every year starting at age 40.

    “It’s also very clear that breast density tends to be highest in younger women, premenopausal women, and for almost all women, it tends to go down with age. However, the risk of breast cancer goes up with age. So these two things are a little bit at odds with each other,” said Dr. Freya Schnabel, director of breast surgery at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and professor of surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the new study.

    “So if you’re a 40-year-old woman and your breasts are dense, you could think about that as just being really kind of age-appropriate,” she said. “The take-home message that’s very, very practical and pragmatic right now is that if you have dense breasts, whatever your age is, even if you’re postmenopausal – maybe even specifically, if you are postmenopausal – and your breasts are not getting less dense the way the average woman’s does, that it really is a reason to seek out adjunctive imaging in addition to just mammography, to use additional diagnostic tools, like ultrasound or maybe even MRI, if there are other risk factors.”

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  • How to protect yourself from iPhone thieves locking you out of your own device | CNN Business

    How to protect yourself from iPhone thieves locking you out of your own device | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    A complex but concerning method of gaining control over a user’s iPhone and permanently locking them out the device appears to be on the rise.

    Some iPhone thieves are exploiting a security setting, called the recovery key, that makes it nearly impossible for owners to access their photos, messages, data and more, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Some victims also told the publication their bank accounts were drained after the thieves gained access to their financial apps.

    It’s important to note, however, this type of takeover is hard to pull off. It requires a criminal essentially watching an iPhone user enter the device’s passcode – for example, by looking over their shoulder at a bar or sporting event – or manipulating the device’s owner so they’ll share their passcode. And that’s all before they physically steal the device.

    From there, a thief could use the passcode to change the device’s Apple ID, turn off “Find my iPhone” so their location can’t be tracked, and then reset the recovery key, a complex 28-digit code intended to protect its owners from online hackers.

    Apple requires this key to help reset or regain access to an Apple ID in an effort to bolster the user’s security, but if a thief changes it, the original owner will not have the new code and will be locked out of the account.

    “We sympathize with people who have had this experience and we take all attacks on our users very seriously, no matter how rare,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “We work tirelessly every day to protect our users’ accounts and data, and are always investigating additional protections against emerging threats like this one.”

    On its website, Apple warns “you’re responsible for maintaining access to your trusted devices and your recovery key. If you lose both of these items, you could be locked out of your account permanently.”

    Jeff Pollard, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said the company should offer more customer support options and “ways for Apple users to authenticate so they can reset these settings.”

    For now, however, there are a handful of steps users can take to potentially protect themselves from having this happen to them.

    The first step is protecting the passcode.

    An Apple spokesperson told CNN people can use Face ID or Touch ID when unlocking their phone in public to avoid revealing their passcode to anyone who might be watching.

    Users can also set up a longer, alphanumeric passcode that’s harder for bad actors to figure out. Device owners should also change the passcode immediately if they believe someone else has seen it.

    Another step someone could consider is a hack not necessarily endorsed by Apple but one that’s been circulating online. Within an iPhone’s Screen Time setting, which allows guardians to set up restrictions on how kids can use the device, there is the option to set up a secondary password that would be required from any user before they could successfully change an Apple ID.

    By enabling this, a thief would be prompted for that secondary password before changing an Apple ID password.

    Finally, users can protect themselves by regularly backing up an iPhone – via iCloud or iTunes – so data can be recovered in the case an iPhone is stolen. At the same time, users may want to consider storing important photos or other sensitive files and data in another cloud service, such as Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Photos or Dropbox.

    This won’t stop a bad actor from gaining access to the device, but it should limit some of the fallout if it ever should happen.

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  • Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business

    Easily stolen Hyundais and Kias should be recalled, more than a dozen attorneys general say | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    A coalition of attorneys general for 17 states and the District of Columbia on Thursday called for a federal recall of Hyundai and Kia vehicles that they say are unsafe and too easy to steal.

    The attorneys general called for the recall “following the companies’ continued failure to take adequate steps to address the alarming rate of theft of their vehicles,” a release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the coalition, said.

    In a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the coalition requested a recall of “unsafe” Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured between 2011 and 2022 “whose easily bypassed ignition switches and lack of engine immobilizers make them particularly vulnerable to theft.”

    The vehicles in question, 2015-2019 Hyundai and Kia models, such as the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson and the Kia Forte and Sportage, when equipped with turn-key ignitions — as opposed to cars that only require a button to be pushed to start — are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of a similar age. Many of these vehicles lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles, even in those years, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an industry group that tracks insurance statistics.

    These models became the subject of a viral social media trend in which thieves filmed themselves and others stealing Hyundai and Kia vehicles and taking them for a drive. In some parts of the country, the problem became so bad that some insurance companies refused to write new policies on these Hyundai and Kia models in places where the thefts had become extremely common.

    The models in question don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key belongs with that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that — stop the car from moving.

    “Hyundai and Kia announced that they will initiate voluntary service campaigns to offer software updates for certain vehicles with this starting-system vulnerability. Unfortunately, however, this is an insufficient response to the problem and does not adequately remedy the safety concerns facing vehicle owners and the public,” the letter to the NHSTA said.

    Hyundai and Kia did not immediately respond to CNN’s request comment.

    The two South Korean automakers have created a software patch to fix the problem, the automakers have said. Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia, and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.

    The patch will be installed free of charge on models that need it, with software that requires an actual key in the ignition to turn the vehicle on. The software will also block the car from being started after the doors have been locked using the key fob remote control. The vehicle will need to be unlocked before it can be started.

    The software also extends the length of the alarm sound from 30 seconds to a full minute. Hyundai dealers will also affix window stickers stating that the vehicle has anti-theft software installed.

    “The bottom line is, Kia’s and Hyundai’s failure to install standard safety features on many of their vehicles have put vehicle owners and the public at risk,” Attorney General Bonta said. “We now ask the federal government to require these companies to correct their mistake through a nationwide recall and help us in our continued efforts to protect the public from these unsafe vehicles.”

    Recalls are ordered by NHTSA or, much more commonly, undertaken by automakers to correct safety-related defects. The attorneys general’s letter asserts that the ease of theft of these Hyundai and Kia vehicles constitutes a safety hazard and the vehicles fail to meet federal standards for theft prevention.

    “Moreover, thieves have driven these vehicles recklessly, speeding and performing wild stunts and causing numerous crashes, at least eight deaths, and significant injuries,” the letter said.

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  • Netflix is winding down its DVD business after 25 years | CNN Business

    Netflix is winding down its DVD business after 25 years | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Netflix is officially winding down the business that helped make it a household name.

    This fall, the streaming giant will officially say goodbye to its DVD rental service and all of the red envelopes that made it possible.

    “On September 29th, 2023, we will send out the last red envelope,” the company tweeted Tuesday. “It has been a true pleasure and honor to deliver movie nights to our wonderful members for 25 years.”

    “Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the DVD business continues to shrink, that’s going to become increasingly difficult,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “Making 2023 our Final Season allows us to maintain our quality of service through the last day and go out on a high note.”

    The company reported a miss for its second-quarter earnings after market close on Tuesday. Shares fell by around 6%.

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  • Opinion: Washington needs to get over its TikTok fixation | CNN

    Opinion: Washington needs to get over its TikTok fixation | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Evan Greer is an activist, writer and musician based in Boston. She’s the director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, and a regular commentator on issues related to technology policy, LGBTQ communities and human rights. Follow her on Twitter @evan_greer or Mastodon @evangreer@mastodon.online. Read more opinion on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    The US government is racing ahead with proposals aimed at banning TikTok, the viral video platform used by more than 150 million Americans. Officials say it’s a matter of national security, gesturing urgently toward TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and its ties to China.

    While some might be motivated by thinly-veiled xenophobia, lawmakers also rightly point to concerns about TikTok’s surveillance and capitalist business model, which vacuums up as much personal information about users as possible and then uses it to serve content that keeps us clicking, scrolling, and generating ad revenue. TikTok “spies” on us for profit. That’s not in question.

    The problem is that – while they might not be owned by a Chinese company – Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter all do it too, as privacy advocates have been warning for more than a decade. Banning TikTok won’t make us safer from China’s surveillance operations. Nor will it protect children, or anyone else, from getting addicted to Big Tech’s manipulative products. It’s just an ineffective solution that sounds good on TV.

    While many governments engage in internet censorship and surveillance, China certainly has one of the most sophisticated and draconian systems. A core characteristic of China’s censorship regime is the “Great Firewall,” which blocks foreign social media apps, news sites and even educational resources like Wikipedia, under the guise of protecting national security.

    As they hyperventilate about TikTok, US politicians are so eager to appear “tough on China” that they’re suggesting we build our very own Great Firewall here at home. There is a small but growing number of countries in the world so authoritarian that they block popular apps and websites entirely. It’s regrettable that so many US lawmakers want to add us to that list.

    Several of the proposals wending their way through Congress would grant the federal government unprecedented new powers to control what technology we can use and how we can express ourselves – authority that goes far beyond TikTok. The bipartisan RESTRICT Act (S. 686), for example, would enable the Commerce Department to engage in extraordinary acts of policing, criminalizing a wide range of activities with companies from “hostile” countries and potentially even banning entire apps simply by declaring them a threat to national security.

    The law is vague enough that some experts have raised concerns that it could threaten individual internet users with lengthy prison sentences for taking steps to “evade” a ban, like side-loading an app (i.e., bypassing approved app distribution channels such as the Apple store) or using a virtual private network (VPN).

    But banning TikTok isn’t just foolish and dangerous, it’s also unconstitutional. The strong free speech protections enshrined in the First Amendment bar the government from extreme actions like criminalizing an app that millions of people use to express their opinions and ideas. The US government can’t ban you from posting or watching TikTok videos any more than they can stop you from reading a foreign newspaper like the Times of India or writing an opinion piece for The Guardian.

    The Washington Post, the New York Times and CNN all have their own official TikTok accounts, as do numerous candidates for office, elected officials, academics, journalists, religious leaders and political figures. Any proposal that results in TikTok’s effective ban in the US would almost certainly fall apart under a legal challenge, as the American Civil Liberties Union and other experts have asserted. Even conservative Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky agrees that banning the app would violate Americans’ right to free speech.

    A ban on TikTok wouldn’t even be effective: The Chinese government could purchase much of the same information from data brokers, which are largely unregulated in the US.

    The rush to ban TikTok – or force its sale to a US company – is a convenient distraction from what our elected officials should be doing to protect us from government manipulation and commercial surveillance: passing some basic data privacy legislation. It’s a matter of common knowledge that Instagram, YouTube, Venmo, Snapchat and most of the other apps on your phone engage in similar data harvesting business practices to TikTok. Some are even worse.

    So it’s not just TikTok. Much of what you do in the digital space on all of your devices is tracked. Companies that engage in the practice claim that they track users’ activities online in order to deliver more targeted advertising and content.

    Many companies sell the data they harvest to third parties, who sell it to fourth and fifth and sixth parties. While companies collect this data for the purpose of extracting profit and getting users hooked on their products, governments have long taken an interest.

    The only way to stop governments from weaponizing data that private companies like TikTok collect and store about us is to stop those companies from collecting and storing so much information in the first place. You can’t do that with censorship. You do that by passing a strong national data privacy law that bans companies from collecting more data about us than they need to provide us with the service we’ve requested.

    Instead of helping Big Tech get bigger by banning a major competitor, Congress should also pass antitrust legislation to crack down on anti-competitive practices. That would give concerned parents and internet users who want to ditch TikTok and Instagram better options to choose from, and reduce the power of the largest platforms, making them harder for governments to exploit and manipulate. It’s much harder for bad actors, whether they’re corporate trolls or government agents, to control information across a constellation of smaller platforms, each with their own rules and algorithms, than it is for them to poison the well when there are a tiny handful of companies controlling access to information.

    A separate concern that lawmakers and US officials have raised is the idea that the Chinese government could pressure TikTok to amplify propaganda, or otherwise change its algorithm to advance the government’s interests. It’s an argument that’s not entirely without merit.

    We know the Russian government was effective in manipulating information on Facebook during the 2016 elections. The US has historically engaged in similar conduct overseas. Consider, for example, the US history in influencing the outcomes of elections in Latin America or disinformation campaigns by US allies after the Arab Spring. State-backed disinformation campaigns are happening at a mass scale and on every major platform. We fight that by demanding more transparency and accountability, not more censorship.

    It’s a national embarrassment that we have no basic data privacy law in the United States. And it’s a travesty that we continue to allow unregulated tech monopolies to trample our rights. Every day that our elected officials spend wringing their hands and spreading moral panic about what the kids are doing on TikTok is another day we’re left vulnerable and unprotected.

    With any luck, Washington’s TikTok hysteria will fade quickly. Let’s hope the next hot new trend in the nation’s capital is passing actual laws that protect people, starting with strong privacy and antitrust legislation.

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  • Indiana’s recycling plant fire is mostly out, but evacuations remain as crews monitor air quality and clear debris from schools and homes | CNN

    Indiana’s recycling plant fire is mostly out, but evacuations remain as crews monitor air quality and clear debris from schools and homes | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A fire burning at a recycling plant in Richmond, Indiana, is mostly out, but hundreds remain evacuated from their homes as crews monitor the air for chemicals and collect potentially harmful debris from neighboring schools and homes, officials said Saturday.

    Richmond residents who live within a half a mile radius of the recycling plant – about 2,000 of Richmond’s 35,000 residents – have been under a mandatory evacuation order since Tuesday, when the massive inferno exploded at the plastic-filled recycling plant in Richmond, sending thick, black smoke over the area.

    When they can return home will mainly depend on whether it’s safe to breathe the air in their community. Officials had warned that the smoke the fire spawned was “definitely toxic,” forcing the closure of Richmond public schools for days as the US Environmental Protection Agency performed air sampling and monitoring tests in the area.

    An announcement was initially expected Saturday on when evacuation orders could be lifted, but Richmond city officials later said that no determination had been made. “We have another meeting in the morning to determine the best time to lift the evacuation order,” Mayor Dave Snow said Saturday evening.

    “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide an exact time when evacuation orders will be lifted. As air monitoring results come back from lab testing and they can be analyzed by our health experts, we are hoping to be able to allow residents to return to their homes,” Wayne County Emergency Management Agency officials said Saturday.

    Those downwind from the fire were asked to continue to shelter in place “if they feel they are in danger or find themselves in a smoke plume,” emergency officials said.

    More meetings and data analysis are needed before the evacuation order can be lifted, Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown told CNN Saturday.

    As for the blaze itself, Brown said firefighters have knocked down 98-99% of the fire at the recycling plant as of Saturday.

    “Right now, there is no plume, there is no product being off-gassed from the fire itself,” Brown told CNN. “What we have coming off of it is mainly a white smoke or some steam. We have no plume. We have a slight wind, which is kind of pushing things out.”

    Inside the facility, there are hot spots and occasional small fires that will continue to smolder for days and produce smoke, soot or the smell of burnt plastic, emergency officials said.

    In the meantime, work is underway to clear debris scattered in the community from the toxic fire.

    Some samples of debris from the area tested positive for asbestos containing materials, Wayne County emergency officials said, citing preliminary tests by the EPA.

    “Because all debris has the potential to contain asbestos, it is important that a trained professional remove all materials suspected to be from the fire,” emergency officials said, asking residents to not disturb or touch any debris they find on their property.

    Asbestos is a naturally occurring, but very toxic, substance that was once widely used for insulation. When inhaled or ingested, asbestos fibers can become trapped in the body, and may eventually cause genetic damage to the body’s cells. Exposure may also cause mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

    Crews in protective gear began collecting debris from three schools near the fire site on Saturday, including three in Richmond and one school in Ohio.

    Officials said that schools impacted with debris will be cleared first, and then contractors will begin to deploy drones to search rooftops for additional debris, according to the post.

    “After school grounds are cleared, these contractors will begin removing debris from residential properties, parks and/or public areas, and businesses,” city officials say in the post.

    The county said the EPA is bringing in federal contractors to assist with the proper cleanup and removal of visible debris in both Indiana and Ohio.

    A primary health concern to residents is particulate matter, which could cause respiratory problems if inhaled, Christine Stinson, who heads the Wayne County Health Department, previously said.

    At the fire zone’s center, the chemicals hydrogen cyanide, benzene, chlorine, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, were detected, the EPA said Friday. They were not detected outside the evacuation zone, the agency said.

    Potentially harmful VOCs also were found in six air samples, the agency said, without saying where the samples were taken.

    Particulate matter also was found inside and outside the half-mile evacuation zone, as expected, the agency said.

    Additionally, one of two air samples taken a little more than a mile from the fire site detected chrysotile asbestos in debris, an EPA official said Thursday. Also called white asbestos, chrysotile asbestos can cause cancer and is used in products from cement to plastics to textiles.

    As for water quality, testing downstream of the fire site is underway and officials say they have “not found anything of immediate alarm, including any sign of fish kills.”

    Crews did find some ash and loose plastic debris, “but weir booms have been installed and are successfully capturing this material. Likewise, Indiana American Water has also been closely monitoring the drinking water and has reported no unusual readings or results from testing,” Wayne County emergency officials said.

    The cause of the fire remains under investigation and likely won’t be known for weeks, officials said. But local leaders have shared concerns since at least 2019 that the facility had hazards and building code violations, records show.

    The mayor has accused the plant’s owner of ignoring a city order to clean up the property, saying the plant was a fire hazard.

    CNN has sought comment from the plant’s owner, Seth Smith. The attorney who previously represented Smith in a related lawsuit declined to comment.

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