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Technology

How to measure heart rate on your smartwatch

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Modern smartwatches have a wide array of heart-rate monitoring features. That includes passive all-day monitoring as well as spot checks for specific metrics. Some will even alert you if your heart rate suddenly spikes when it shouldn’t. The most advanced devices also have FDA-cleared electrocardiograms that may help detect atrial fibrillation.

These are impressive features considering that, just a decade ago, smartwatches were basically pedometers. In practice, heart rate monitoring can be a helpful tool for people hoping to understand more about their bodies or measure their fitness progress over time. For instance, some athletes prefer to train in heart rate zones — which is hard to do unless you can check it in real time. There have also been several stories of people who say their smartwatches saved their lives thanks to abnormal heart rate alerts.

That said, it’s important to remember that these aren’t medical devices. At the end of the day, they’re not capable of diagnosing you with any sort of condition. And, even if they were, doctors are still on the fence about how to handle wearable data that consumers collect on their own.

There are nuances to how these features work and plenty of reasons why you might get inaccurate readings. First, we’ll cover how heart rate monitoring works and how to measure your heart rate. Then we’ll get into what EKG-capable smartwatches can and cannot do and how to use the EKG feature with the current crop of smartwatches.

The sensor array on the back of the Series 6 is capable of both EKGs and PPG heart rate monitoring.
Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

How optical heart rate sensors work

The vast majority of wearables use a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor — the green LEDs you see when you flip the device over. The LEDs shine light into your skin; the light that’s refracted back is translated by an algorithm into heart rate data. That includes your resting heart rate but also other metrics like VO2 Max and heart rate variability.

While optical heart rate sensors have gotten better over the years, wrist-based PPG sensors still aren’t always accurate. A recent study found that these sensors didn’t work as well on darker skin or people with obesity. The wrist is also not the best place for a PPG sensor. There’s a lot of noise from your arm movements, and a company’s algorithm has to be able to effectively filter that out. That’s why you could wear the same smartwatch on each arm and still get slightly different readings.

Fit is also an important factor. It varies from smartwatch to smartwatch, but here are a few general tips for getting the most accurate data possible.

  • Wear the watch about one finger length above your wrist bone
  • Make sure there’s good contact between the sensor array and your skin
  • Tighten the strap during exercise. You may also want to wear the device higher on the wrist.
  • Wipe the sensor array clean whenever it gets dirty

Many smartwatches, including the Fitbit Versa 3, will allow you to view heart rate from your watchface
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Viewing heart rate and settings

Once you’ve paired your smartwatch, you should dive into the settings in your watch’s companion app. That’s where you’ll get to customize how often your watch measures your heart rate. Some watches measure heart rate continuously by default; others will measure periodically to help extend battery life.

For example, the Apple Watch measures your heart rate periodically when you’re still and while walking. It only measures continuously when you’re in a workout and for the three minutes after during recovery. You don’t have the option to change that. However, other devices like Garmin and Samsung watches may let you have more of a say. Each smartwatch maker designs their app differently, but you can usually find heart rate settings in your device’s settings or a health settings menu.

Your watch may also be capable of low and high heart rate alerts. This means you’ll get a notification if, while at rest, your heart rate goes below or above a certain threshold. So if you’re sitting still and your heart rate spikes to 120 beats per minute, you might get a notification. Many watches will let you customize the range for these alerts.

Below, we’ve outlined how to access these settings for some of the most popular devices and how to measure your heart rate.

Apple Watch

Accessing heart rate settings in the Watch app is easy
Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge

To access heart rate settings, open the Watch app and scroll down the list of installed apps to Heart. From here, you can enable a variety of health measurements:

  • Toggling on Cardio Fitness Notifications will tell you when it deems your cardio fitness is low.
  • Enabling Irregular Rhythm notifications means you’ll get notified if the watch identifies heart rhythms that may indicate atrial fibrillation.
  • You can also set ranges for High Heart Rate and Low Heart Rate notifications. These notifications alert you when you’ve passed an abnormal threshold while you’re inactive.

Again, none of these are diagnostic features.

To measure heart rate:

  • Click the digital crown to bring up your apps
  • Tap the Heart app (The app features a red background with a heart on it.)
  • From there, you can manually start a heart rate reading
  • You can also scroll down to view your resting heart rate and walking average heart rate

Fitbit trackers and smartwatches

To access heart rate settings:

  • Tap your profile icon in the upper left corner
  • Scroll down to Settings
  • Tap Activity & Wellness
  • Tap Heart Settings
  • From here, you can set customized high and low heart rate alerts, as well as heart rate zones for exercise

Here’s another method:

  • Tap your profile icon in the upper left corner
  • Select the device’s profile
  • Tap High & Low heart rate to customize these alerts.

To view heart rate:

  • From the clock face, swipe up to see current heart rate
  • You can also view your rate in the Exercise app during exercise
  • Certain clock faces will also feature heart rate as a complication
  • You can also view in further detail from the Fitbit app dashboard

Samsung Galaxy Watches

To access heart rate settings on the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic:

  • Head to the Samsung Health app on your watch
  • Swipe down to Settings
  • Tap Measurement and select the Heart Rate section
  • From here, you can select whether you want to measure continuously, periodically (once every 10 minutes while still), or manually only

Measuring heart rate on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

On Samsung’s Tizen watches:

  • Press the power button on the watch
  • Head to the Samsung Health app
  • Swipe to Heart Rate and scroll to the bottom of the screen
  • Tap HR and stress measurement
  • After that, the options should be the same as above

To set up high / low heart rate alerts:

  • Head to the Samsung Health app
  • Tap Heart rate
  • Scroll down to HR and Stress Management or Auto HR settings
  • Set your watch to measure heart rate continuously
  • Tap More Options or the three dots
  • Tap HR alert settings
  • From here, you can customize your alerts

To manually measure heart rate:

  • In the Samsung Health app, tap Heart rate
  • Tap Measure

The Withings ScanWatch’s EKG feature was recently cleared by the FDA
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

About EKGs

There are only a handful of smartwatches that have been cleared by the FDA to measure EKGs in the US. So even if the smartwatch you buy supports this feature, you’ll have to check whether it’s been granted regulatory clearance in your country.

Assuming it has, EKGs on smartwatches work by reading electrical signals from your heart. The smartwatch’s heart rate monitor acts as an electrode, and by touching your finger to the case / digital crown, you create a closed circuit. After a short period of time, you’ll be told whether your heart rhythm for that particular reading — and only that reading — shows a normal rhythm or signs of atrial fibrillation.

It bears repeating: no watch can give you an actual medical diagnosis. The most that you can do with this information is export it to a PDF that you can then share with your doctor. If you’ve got a clean bill of health from your doctor, you may not need to use this feature at all, and that’s perfectly fine!

You should also be aware that you may get a few inconclusive readings. There are several reasons why that can happen. First, you generally have to remain very still to take these EKG readings — if you’re fidgety, that could result in an inconclusive result. Likewise, your skin might be a little wet, and that can screw up a reading.

Each smartwatch maker will have its own suggestions for how to troubleshoot, but the gist is to relax and keep still while using the EKG feature.

Apple Watch

You can only take EKGs on the Apple Watch Series 4, 5, 6, and 7.

EKG results in the Health app
Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge

How to get started:

  • Open the Health app on your phone and follow the prompts, or tap Browse > Heart > Electrocardiograms > Set Up ECG app
  • You should then see the EKG app on your watch
  • Tap the EKG app on your wrist
  • Touch the Digital crown with a finger from your opposite hand
  • Wait 30 seconds for the watch to take a reading

To export your results:

  • Open the Health app
  • Tap Browse > Heart > Electrocardiograms
  • From there, you should see a list of your readings
  • Tap the one you want to generate a report for
  • Tap Export a PDF for your doctor
  • You can also tap the Share button to print or email the PDF, as well as upload it to services like Dropbox

Samsung Galaxy Watch

Only the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, Galaxy Watch 3, and Galaxy Watch 4 support EKG readings.

How to get started:

  • First, make sure your watch and phone are on the latest software
  • Open the Samsung Health Monitor app on your watch
  • Tap Download App. This should bring up the app download page on your phone.
  • Tap Install
  • Launch the Samsung Health Monitor app
  • Tap continue and fill out information prompts
  • Tap Finish. You should see a button that says Get Started.
  • You’ll then have to follow some more onscreen prompts
  • Select which wrist you’ll wear the watch on
  • Hit Done
  • You should now be able to take an EKG on your watch

To export your results:

  • Open the Samsung Health Monitor app on your phone
  • Tap ECG and select View History
  • Select the report you want to export
  • Tap Share This Report
  • Select the format you’d like to send (PDF, email, etc.)

Fitbit Sense and Charge 5

Only the Fitbit Sense and Charge 5 can take ECG readings at this time.

You can export your EKG results to a PDF and send it to your doctor
Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge

The ECG app should already be on your watch or tracker, but if not, here’s how to install (or uninstall) the app:

  • Tap your profile icon in the upper left corner
  • Select device profile
  • Tap Gallery
  • You should see the High/Low heart rate app and the EKG app
  • Tap the app icon to install / uninstall

How to get started:

  • Head to the Discover tab in the Fitbit app
  • Scroll down to Assessments & Reports
  • Select Heart Rhythm Assessment
  • Read through the educational materials
  • Open the ECG app on your watch or tracker.
  • Place your finger and thumb on the edges of the case
  • Wait 30 seconds and then view your results

To export your results:

  • Tap the Discover tab in the Fitbit app
  • Scroll down to Assessments & Reports
  • Select Heart Rhythm Assessment
  • Tap View Results
  • Select which one you want to generate a report for
  • Tap Export a PDF for your doctor

Withings ScanWatch

While Withings has multiple EKG-capable watches, only the ScanWatch is cleared for use in the US.

How to get started:

  • Open the Health Mate app
  • Select Devices, then ScanWatch
  • Tap More Settings, and then ECG
  • Select which wrist you’re wearing the watch on
  • On your watch, use the side button to scroll to ECG Mode
  • Press the side button
  • Place your fingers on the top ring for 30 seconds

To export your results:

  • Your results should automatically appear in your Health Mate app feed
  • Tap your results
  • Scroll down to Share a Health Report and follow the prompts to create a PDF

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World

U.S. senators try to avoid weeks-long delay in Russia trade measure

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WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) – U.S. senators scrambled on Tuesday to reach a compromise to avoid further delays before passing legislation revoking “most favored” trade status for Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, after Republican lawmakers blocked efforts to pass it quickly.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that Democratic Senator Ben Cardin and Republican Senator Rand Paul were trying to reach a compromise that would let the measure pass quickly, rather than through “regular order,” a process that could take weeks.

The bill stalled in the Senate despite lawmakers’ insistence that they want to show a united front in supporting the government in Kyiv, more than a month into the Russian invasion.

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Under U.S. law, Congress must approve the change in trade status.

The legislation has strong bipartisan support, having passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 424-8 earlier this month.

But in the Senate, it got ensnared in partisan fighting, first over Russian oil imports and more recently over abortion rights. read more

The measure passed by the House also reauthorizes the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, authored by Cardin, which allows the imposition of sanctions over human rights violations.

But the reauthorization has a slight change in wording. It now addresses “serious” human rights violations, having previously addressed “gross” ones.

The new Magnitsky language came from a 2017 executive order from former Republican President Donald Trump. But Paul argued that the new language in the bill gives too much power to a president to impose sanctions over human rights abuses, including that it could be used to sanction anyone who denied a woman access to an abortion.

Backers of the legislation dispute this.

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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle;
Editing by Alistair Bell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

How protected are we against Covid-19? Scientists search for a test to measure immunity

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“I am on immunosuppressants that make me more vulnerable for serious Covid complications,” said Sobieck, 37, who lives in Minnesota. “If you’re immunocompromised, you may not have a very good response to the [Covid-19] vaccine.”

Seeking evidence that his immune system was working the way it should, Sobieck made an unusual request: He asked his nephrologist to do a blood test that gives a rough measure of antibodies, a type of protein the body creates in response to an infection or vaccine. Antibody titers reveal the concentration of a specific antibody found in someone’s blood.

Millions of Americans — not just those with weakened immune systems — are wondering about their protection after a winter of booster shots and Omicron infections. As mask mandates are lifted and restrictions removed in a step toward normalcy, a test to measure immunity would be a powerful tool to measure individual risk.

“The biggest reason I wanted to get my antibody titer checked is because I don’t know how to assess risk,” Sobieck said. “Anyone who is immunocompromised, from the beginning of this pandemic right through today, has very few tools to assess risk: if they’re going to leave the house, when they’re going to leave the house, how to interact with other people, which situations are OK.”

Sobieck had his antibody levels checked after his second, third and fourth doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. Each result showed that he had more than the maximum number of antibodies the test could detect, indicating a robust immune response.

Although there is no specific guidance on how to interpret these results to figure out the level of protection against infection or disease, Sobieck felt reassured that his immune system was doing its job.

“More than 50% of transplant patients don’t have enough immune response to be protected, even if they get not two but three doses of the vaccine that we use in the general population,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, professor of surgery at New York University Langone Health. “For them, [an antibody titer] is a particularly poignant indicator of whether they have any protection at all.”

Segev, a transplant surgeon, advocates using tests that measure antibodies as a way to check immune protection in people who are immunocompromised.

Sobieck says the test results allowed him to make decisions for himself and his family.

“Knowing that I had the antibody response that I had meant that my son could go to in-person school. That’s huge,” he said.

Correlates of protection

About 95% of Americans 16 and older have antibodies against Covid-19 as of December, the most recent date that data is available, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that use information from blood donors.

But it’s one thing to measure antibody levels. It’s another to measure how much they protect you against Covid-19.

The US Federal Drug Administration recommends against checking antibody levels at all because there’s no agreed-upon way to calculate how any given antibody level protects you from infection or severe disease. It may also give a false sense of security, the agency says.

“There aren’t good correlates of protection — something that says that this is the measurement that one needs to know how well they are protected,” Emory University virologist Mehul Suthar said.

Scientists are trying to fill the knowledge gap. Studies measure average antibody levels across a population to check vaccine efficacy, often using antibody levels months after vaccination to determine the need for a booster. One study in people who got the Moderna vaccine found that higher antibody levels after vaccination were associated with lower risk of Covid-19 infection.

But not all antibodies are created the same. Of all the antibodies that the body may make after infection or vaccination, only a fraction are considered “neutralizing antibodies,” meaning they can actively prevent infection.

Tests to measure antibodies can be either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative tests provide a specific number, up to a certain point, of antibodies in the blood. Qualitative tests will indicate only whether certain antibodies were detected. Results of qualitative tests are either positive, negative or indeterminate for neutralizing antibodies.

When it comes to measuring neutralizing antibodies specifically, there is only one type of test that has been given emergency FDA authorization to detect them, and it is qualitative.
Several studies have demonstrated that neutralizing antibodies are a strong correlate for protection against symptomatic infection with Covid-19 and its variants, with boosters enhancing neutralization.

Peter Gilbert, professor of vaccine and infectious diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and lead author of the Moderna study, says these correlates are useful to apply to large groups. For example, scientists can use data from larger studies about the correlation between antibody levels and vaccine efficacy in adults to make a prediction about vaccine efficacy in children.

However, reaching conclusions based on one person’s antibody levels is far more limited. Gilbert compares individual antibody titers with a dipstick for oil in a car.

“Is the oil in a particular car low? Therefore, you need to go out and get some new oil,” or in this case, “get another shot of the vaccine,” he said. “For that purpose, the markers aren’t as good.”

This is largely due to how antibody levels vary from person to person. That correlate of protection also changes over time and with different coronavirus variants, which makes it hard to define a cutoff for antibody levels above which scientists can confidently say that someone is protected against Covid-19.

Natural vs. vaccine-acquired immunity

There’s a key difference in how antibody levels compare in people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 versus those who have been infected with the coronavirus.

“Whereas a vaccine response, you may have all individuals that got the vaccine have high antibodies and sort of wane over time. … With infection, it’s remarkably heterogeneous. You’ll have lots of individuals that have very low and individuals that have very high antibody responses,” Suthar said.

According to Marion Pepper, an associate professor of immunology at the University of Washington, location matters, especially for the immune system.

“There are different immunological environments that make up your body. … When you see an immune response in your arm, it’s going to be a different cast of characters than if you see an immune response in your lungs,” Pepper said.

The immune system “is like lots of different neighborhoods, and each one has a different flavor,” depending on how an individual gets exposed to the coronavirus, whether it’s through a vaccine injected into the upper arm or through an infection to the respiratory system.

The CDC cites one study, which is in preprint and has not been peer-reviewed, that found antibody titers waned more quickly in vaccinated people than in people who had been infected. This may help explain the growing evidence of stronger and more durable vaccine efficacy in people who have immunity through both illness and vaccination, called hybrid immunity.

Although they may not provide the best way to tell how protected someone is, antibodies are useful to understanding how we compare people with natural immunity with those with vaccine-acquired immunity.

“We know that people who have this hybrid immunity are better protected. … So it also really begs the question, ‘which of these parameters is associated with that protection?’ ” said Pepper, who leads a lab that is studying hybrid immunity.

Observing levels of immune cells and antibodies as they change over time in different groups of people can help scientists learn how to create vaccines and time vaccinations to replicate the strength of hybrid immunity without the actual infections.

Just one piece of the immunity puzzle

Antibody levels are only one part of the immunity story. There are also T cells, a type of white blood cell that helps fight infection by killing cells that have been infected with a virus or by helping another type of white blood cell, the B cell, create antibodies.

So why do we focus so much on antibodies? “One aspect is that antibodies are probably one of the easiest to measure in the laboratory,” Suthar said.

“I think when you go to the T-cell-based assays, they’re much more challenging,” he explained. “Each individual has different what are called H.L.A. types that make it a bit more challenging to understand how well one’s T-cell responses are against this virus.”

Unlike antibodies, which are responsible for preventing an infection, T cells are responsible for destroying cells that are already infected. T cells may play a big role in vaccine efficacy against serious disease from more transmissible coronavirus variants, such as Omicron.

One study showed that while the highly mutated Omicron could evade previously neutralizing antibodies, T cells preserved a strong response.

“A memory B cell is a B cell that can get reactivated to make antibodies. It generally doesn’t do that unless a T cell tells it to go, so studying the T cells is going to be really important for understanding this immune protection,” Pepper said.

However, she said that the complexity of measuring T cells means there isn’t going to be a rapid test to measure them any time soon.

The Omicron surge has demonstrated that infection rates can still be high even after a vaccine or a prior infection. With the possibility of more variants forming, Covid-19 has become a moving target requiring a constantly evolving understanding of these correlates of protection.

“The biggest question I have and I think everyone else has is: What level of antibody equals protection from serious complications from Covid?” Sobieck said.

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Michael Nedelman contributed to this report.

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US

Anti-sanction measure: Russia moves to seize hundreds of planes from US and European owners

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President Vladimir Putin signed a law Monday as part of the government’s anti-sanction measures that will allow Russian airlines to register planes leased from foreign companies in Russia, where they will be issued local certificates of airworthiness, according to a statement from the Kremlin.

The bill will make it possible for Russian airlines to keep their foreign leased aircraft and operate the planes on domestic routes, while making it harder for foreign companies to reclaim their jets without Russian government approval.

US and European sanctions imposed on Russia require leasing companies to repossess all planes they leased to Russian airlines by the end of the month.
Western aircraft makers such as Airbus (EADSF) and Boeing (BA) have already cut off Russian airlines’ access to the spare parts they need to maintain and safely fly their jets. Russian airlines operate 305 Airbus jets and 332 Boeing jets, according to data provided by aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Russia also has 83 regional jets made by Western manufacturers such as Bombardier, Embraer and ATR. Only 144 planes in the active fleets of Russian airlines were built in Russia.

Cirium data shows that 85% of those foreign-made planes are owned by leasing companies, and puts their combined value at $12.4 billion.

It was unclear how the leasing companies could have taken possession of these planes while they remain on Russian soil. Additional sanctions prohibiting Russian aircraft from flying to most other countries has restricted its airline industry essentially to domestic flights.

Leasing companies have not responded to a request for comment on Russia’s actions, and it is unclear if they’ll even want those planes back. The planes will not have access to replacement parts and won’t have valid airworthiness certificates that would be accepted by western airlines.

“These jets won’t be supported with parts and maintenance any longer,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory. “It’s a real issue if they lose their certificates of airworthiness, which can happen if proper records aren’t kept, or especially if they’re cannibalized for parts.”

Losing access to 85% of its foreign-built planes would be a crippling blow to the country’s economy.

Russia is the world’s largest nation by landmass, more than twice the size of the continental United States. It needs a viable airline industry to keep its economy working, said Charles Lichfield, the deputy director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, an international think tank.

“It is an important part of Russia’s economy,” he said. “They want some basic domestic industry to remain in place. Russians don’t fly as much as Americans do. They don’t fly to Siberia for vacation.”

Its airline industry is a crucial link for businesses, not only for international flights but also for domestic service for its energy sector, due to the need to transport engineers, other workers and equipment to and from its far flung oil fields.

“Aviation is an incredible enabler of economic growth, both domestically and internationally,” said Robert Mann, an airline consultant and analyst. “Without it, you take it back to an almost agrarian economy, trying to operate with a railroad network.”

Russia doesn’t need all the planes it is seizing, as the blow to its economy from the sanctions will greatly reduce the need for air travel, said Betsy Snyder, credit analyst covering aircraft leasing companies at Standard & Poor’s.

“The Russian economy is tanking,” she said. “No one will be going in and out of Russia, the Russian citizens are losing their money so they don’t have the money to travel going forward. It could be that [airlines] will be a much smaller business.”

That raises the possibility that many of the planes being seized would be cannibalized for parts.

“If you don’t have parts manufacturing authority, then you shouldn’t be making it yourself,” Mann said. “You don’t know what standards were used. Have you gotten the internal characteristic right? When you put it into a turbine section of an engine, will it perform like it was designed?”

Mann said that when a part reaches the end of its designed usefulness, known as “green time,” an airline must choose between flying with parts that should have been replaced for safety reasons or robbing parts from other planes.

“You can go through that process as long as you have planes that have green time,” he said. ” As you run out of airplanes, your network gets smaller and you can fly fewer hours every day, until you don’t have an airline.”

So even keeping the planes won’t necessarily keep the Russian airline industry operating.”Within a year Russia will cease to have any kind of viable airline industry,” Aboulafia said, adding that the its airline industry could soon find itself somewhere between the heavily sanctioned industries in Iran and North Korea.

Can a country as large as Russia live without a modern, viable airline industry? “That’s a thesis that has never been put to the test,” Aboulafia said. “But it’s about to be.”

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Business

Key inflation measure hits double digits for February

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The US producer price index, which tracks what America’s producers get paid for their goods and services on average over time, rose 10% for the 12-month period ended in February, not adjusted for seasonal swings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That was a slightly faster pace of price increases than economists had predicted.

For January, 12-month price inflation was also revised up to 10%, from 9.7% initially reported, the first time the index hit double digits since the data series began in 2010.

Over the one-month time span, producer prices rose 0.8% in February, adjusted for seasonality, slightly less than forecast and below the January level.

This is a developing story. It will be updated

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Technology

Call of Duty: Warzone’s New Anti-Cheat Measure Gives Players a ‘Damage Shield’ Against Cheaters

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Cheating has been a huge problem in Call of Duty: Warzone, but a new anti-cheat measure will now give non-cheating players a “Damage Shield” that will prevent ne’er-do-wells from inflicting critical damage on them.

In a new blog, the team behind Call of Duty: Warzone shared details on new updates coming to its RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system that “relies on data to identify cheating behavior and make our banwaves more impactful.” One of these new features is called Damage Shield, and it’s an in-game way to not only stop cheaters from winning matches or killing players, but also to learn more about the cheater and stop them from doing so again.

“One mitigation technique we’ve been testing is something we call Damage Shield,” the blog reads. “When the server detects a cheater is tampering with the game in real-time, it disables the cheater’s ability to inflict critical damage on other players. This mitigation leaves the cheater vulnerable to real players and allows #TeamRICOCHET to collect information about a cheater’s system.

“We track these encounters to ensure there is no possibility for the game to apply a Damage Shield randomly or by accident, no matter the skill level. To be clear, we will never interfere in gunfights between law-abiding community members. Damage Shield is now out of testing and deployed across the globe.”

There are other mitigations in the works, but the team isn’t ready to reveal them yet as it doesn’t want to “ruin the surprise” for unsuspecting cheaters.

It was also announced that “extreme, or repeated violations of the security policy – such as in-game cheating – may result in a permanent suspension of all accounts.” Whereas before this was only applied to Call of Duty: Vanguard, cheaters will now be banned from modern and future Call of Duty titles going forward.

Furthermore, any attempt to “hide, disguise, or obfuscate your identity or the identity of your hardware devices may also result in a permanent suspension.”

All of these changes are sure to be welcome ones, especially as Activision is gearing up to release both Warzone 2 and a sequel to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare this year.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.



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Business

WHOOSH Goes the Fed’s Lowest Lowball Inflation Measure. And Eats Up All Income Gains Plus Some

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Powell should pay attention here so he’s better prepared at the next press conference when asked about the impact of inflation on regular Americans.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

Fed chair Jerome Powell’s reaction today after he saw the consequences of his reckless monetary policies. Imagined by cartoonist Marco Ricolli for WOLF STREET.

The “core PCE” price index, which excludes food and energy and which understates inflation by the most of all of the government’s inflation measures and which is therefore wisely used by the Fed for its inflation target, spiked by 0.50% in December from November, and by 4.9% year-over-year, the worst inflation reading since 1983, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis today. As measured by this lowest lowball inflation measure, inflation, is well over double the Fed’s inflation target:

The overall PCE inflation index, which includes food and energy, spiked by 0.45% in December from November, and by 5.8% year-over-year, the worst reading since 1982.

So how did this inflation – the worst in 40 years – impact wages and salaries? Powell should pay attention here so that he is better prepared for the next post-meeting press conference when some wayward reporter asks him about the impact of inflation on regular Americans.

Adjusted for inflation, per-capita disposable income (income from all sources minus income-related taxes, on a per person basis) fell by 0.3% for the month and fell by 0.5% year-over-year, continuing the relentless decline that started last summer when inflation took off at a velocity not seen in decades. Note the pre-pandemic, pre-massive-inflation trend line (green):

Compensation from wages and salaries, not adjusted for inflation, and not including government transfer payments, rose by 0.7% in December, by 9.2% year-over-year. And those kinds of wage and salary gains would be something to celebrate. But they were eaten up entirely by inflation. On a per-household basis, after inflation, those wage and salary gains disappeared entirely, opening up an ever-wider gap between the money people earn with their labor, and what’s left over after inflation.

As inflation whittled down the purchasing power of labor, the rising number of households reduced the slice each household gets of the aggregate inflation-diminished income figures to where inflation-adjusted income from wages and salaries is now below where it was two years ago and below where it was three years ago:

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Business

Another key inflation measure hit a record high

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The US producer price index, which tracks what America’s producers get paid for their goods and services on average over time, rose 9.7% last year, not adjusted for seasonal swings. It was the biggest calendar-year increase since the data series began in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It was a slightly smaller advance than economists had predicted.

Stripping out prices for food, energy and trade services, which measures the changes in margins received by wholesalers and retailers, the inflation index rose 6.9% last year, compared with a modest 1.3% increase in 2020.

In December alone, the PPI data followed a similar pattern as the consumer price index that came out Tuesday: Prices still rose in December, but at a much slower pace than in the previous months.

More than half of the price increases for services came on the back of higher prices for trade services.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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Business

PCE inflation: A key price measure just hit a nearly four-decade high

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Stripping out energy and food prices, both of which jumped over the period, the price index advanced 4.7%, the biggest increase since September 1983.

For anyone hoping there would be an end to the exorbitant climb in prices before year-end, this was a disappointment. But it could be the peak.

“We suspect that the November and December headline figures will mark the top given a modest energy price pull-back into the turn of the year,” said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics, in a note to clients.

And indeed, prices rose at a slightly slower pace in November — 0.6% compared with the 0.7% gain in October. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, prices rose 0.5%, unchanged from the prior month.

Englund expects the so-called core price index to reach a peak in February, “given 2020 comparisons that show a big core price acceleration starting last March.”

American incomes also rose last month, but not as quickly as prices.

Total incomes rose by 0.4%, or $90.4 billion, slightly less than in October, while disposable incomes also increased by 0.4% last month, corresponding to $70.4 billion.

But consumer spending outgrew both income measures, rising 0.6%, or $104.7 billion as people were getting busy shopping for the holidays.

That said, most of the increase was down to higher spending on services, particularly housing and utilities.

The personal savings rate declined to 6.9%, a small decrease from the month before.

Prices are high, but Americans are optimistic about the economy

Even though the high pandemic-era inflation is weighing on people’s living standards, Americans are optimistic about the path of the recovery next year, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey.

The sentiment index stood at 70.6 in December, slightly above economists’ expectations and higher than in November.

The uptick was in large part due to higher incomes for lower-earning households, said Richard Curtin, Surveys of Consumers chief economist.

“The bottom third [of the income distribution] expected their incomes to rise during the year ahead by 2.8%, up from 1.8% last December, and the highest level since 2.9% was recorded in 1999,” said Curtin.

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US

House Approves Increase in Debt Ceiling, Sending Measure to Biden

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WASHINGTON—Congress passed a measure raising the government’s borrowing limit by $2.5 trillion, sending to President Biden’s desk legislation that is expected to push the next debt-ceiling standoff past the midterm elections.

The Senate voted 50-49 to approve the legislation in the afternoon, and the House later passed it 221-209. The Treasury Department, which has been taking such steps as suspending certain investments to conserve cash, has warned lawmakers that it could be unable to meet the country’s obligations as soon as Wednesday if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.

Final passage of the debt ceiling increase through Congress concludes weeks of work on the issue. In an effort to keep their political distance from the ceiling increase, Republicans negotiated an agreement allowing Senate Democrats to raise the borrowing limit along party lines, instead of with the 60 votes typically needed to advance legislation in the Senate.

That procedural agreement was codified in a separate piece of legislation that the Senate passed last week with bipartisan support.

In a sign of the complicated politics of the debt limit vote, Senate Majority Leader

Chuck Schumer

(D., N.Y.) thanked Republicans for working with Democrats on the procedural agreement and avoiding the brinkmanship that marked the issue earlier this year.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, right, on Tuesday.



Photo:

jim lo scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock

“No brinkmanship, no default on the debt, no risk of another recession: responsible governing has won on this exceedingly important issue. The American people can breathe easy and rest assured there will not be a default,” he said. “I thank the Republican leader and my Republican colleagues who voted with us to address this issue.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), meanwhile, criticized Democrats for allowing more borrowing. Raising the debt limit doesn’t authorize new spending, but instead allows the government to issue new debt to pay for existing obligations, such as Social Security benefits and interest on the debt.

“Later today, every Senate Democrat is going to vote on party lines to raise our nation’s debt limit by trillions of dollars,” Mr. McConnell said.

As lawmakers prepare for another hike in the debt ceiling, WSJ’s Greg Ip explains why it’s economically feasible for the U.S. to keep borrowing, as long as interest rates stay low.

Lawmakers have in recent years largely suspended the debt limit for a period of time, but Republicans had sought to force Democrats to sign on to a specific level of debt.

Authorizing enough debt to last through the midterm elections was part of the negotiations between Messrs. McConnell and Schumer, according to people familiar with the matter. Democrats landed on $2.5 trillion, rather than a much larger increase that would allow lawmakers to avoid the issue for years, as an amount that would fulfill the country’s obligations for roughly that long, according to one of the people.

The legislative legerdemain needed to craft the multistep procedural agreement and raise the debt limit this year is a sign of the difficulty lawmakers may face on the issue in 2023.

Republicans are favored to win control of the House in next year’s midterms, meaning future negotiations over the issue could become more fraught. The agreement between Messrs. McConnell and Schumer disappointed many Republicans, who wanted the GOP to do more to resist a debt-limit increase.

Addressing another piece of year-end business, the Senate voted 86-13 on Tuesday to advance the National Defense Authorization Act, a $778 billion defense policy and budget bill that includes a 2.7% pay raise for troops and money for military construction, ships and aircraft. The legislation also creates an independent commission to study the Afghanistan War and makes historic changes to the military-justice system, removing commanders’ authority to make prosecutorial decisions about some serious crimes such as sexual assault, murder and kidnapping.

Final passage of the bill is expected in the Senate on Wednesday, with bipartisan support. It will then head to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com

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Appeared in the December 15, 2021, print edition as ‘Senate Approves Measure To Raise Borrowing.’

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