- REVEALED: Anthony Fauci-run lab in MONTANA experimented with coronavirus strain shipped in from Wuhan a year B Daily Mail
- How dangerously US played with coronaviruses? Lab under Fauci tied up with Wuhan institute for viral research WION
- Bats vs. Cancer: Unraveling the Genetic Secrets of Nature’s Supermammals SciTechDaily
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Beef shipped to 9 states — including Illinois and Indiana — recalled over E. coli concerns – WGN TV Chicago
- Beef shipped to 9 states — including Illinois and Indiana — recalled over E. coli concerns WGN TV Chicago
- Over 3K pounds of boneless beef chuck recalled in Michigan, 8 other states due to contamination Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV
- Thousands of pounds of beef shipped to Pa., other states recalled for E. coli concerns WKBN.com
- 3K pounds of beef shipped to Michigan recalled over E. coli concerns: What to know WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Almost 2 tons of ground beef recalled over E. coli in 9 states including Maryland CBS News
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Illinois mayor blasts Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s ‘hypocrisy’ after migrants shipped to ‘Republican suburb’
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The Republican mayor of a suburban Chicago town is calling out Windy City Mayor Lori Lightfoot after over 60 migrants were shipped to his town and dropped off at a local hotel.
After being bussed from Texas, 147 migrants arrived in Chicago on Wednesday, according to FOX 32. Sixty-four of those migrants were then taken to a Hampton Inn hotel in Burr Ridge, which is outside of Chicago, where they will be for at least the next 27 days.
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso, a Republican, told Fox News that the migrants are being used as “political pawns” by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker.
“As is my understanding, this hotel, about a year ago, when refugees came in from Afghanistan, apparently accepted several either through faith-based or charitable organizations, but now the state assumes they can just send migrants… this isn’t about them, the migrants is fine, they’re being used as political pawns by the governor and mayor,” Grasso said.
ILLINOIS MAYOR ‘UNHAPPY,’ SAYS CHICAGO OFFICIALS FAILED TO INFORM HIM ABOUT MIGRANTS SENT TO TOWN
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso (Left) and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Right).
(FOX 32 and Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Grasso also said it’s hypocritical for Lightfoot to be complaining about Texas Governor Greg Abbott sending migrants to Chicago, then turning around and “sending [the migrants] out to the” suburbs.
“We’re more than happy for people to find freedom, it is hypocrisy by the mayor of Chicago to complain about the governor of Texas – I do agree with what he’s doing – the city of Chicago says it’s going to be a sanctuary city which I oppose – but there must be vacant hotel rooms in Chicago. This is hundreds of people in a city of millions. Why are they sending them out to the Republican suburbs? You have to wonder,” Grasso said.
He said that just because the specific Hampton Inn was used to previously house refugees from Afghanistan “does not give carte blanche to the governor or the mayor to send a couple of bus loads of migrants to our village without telling us.”
CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT SLAMS TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT AS A ‘MAN WITHOUT ANY MORALS’ AFTER SENDING MIGRANT BUSES
The migrants who were taken to Burr Ridge will stay at a Hampton Inn for at least 30 days.
(FOX 32)
“The border situation on the southern border is a totally different situation than Afghan refugees. It’s total arrogance for the state to assume they can send migrants to the suburbs around Chicago,” Grasso said.
A spokesperson for the village of Burr Ridge told NBC5 that the migrants were originally at the Salvation Army Shield of Hope in Chicago, then transported to the Hampton Inn.
According to the report, a statement from the Illinois Department of Human Services reads that the migrants are “receiving temporary shelter in urban and suburban hotels that have provided refuge for vulnerable families from Afghanistan and other parts of the world. We are grateful for the hospitality and care they have received from individuals and organizations across Illinois.”
“We will continue taking action to ensure everyone in Illinois has access to shelter, food, healthcare, and other basic, essential supports,” reads the statement. “We anticipate that the State of Texas will continue to bus migrants to Illinois, and we remain committed to helping welcome new arrivals in a responsible, orderly and compassionate way.”
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a City Council meeting on July 20, 2022/Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Republican Party of Texas State Convention at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
(Getty Images)
Lightfoot has criticized Abbott multiple times and has said that he lacks “any morals, humanity or shame.”
“Let me say loud and clear to Greg Abbott and his enablers in Texas with these continued political stunts, Gov. Abbott has confirmed what unfortunately many of us had known already, that he is a man without any morals, humanity or shame,” Lightfoot said during a Sept. 1 press conference.
Migrants bussed to sanctuary city Chicago are promptly shipped off to suburbs
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A group of over 100 migrants from the southern border were moved to an Illinois suburb after being welcomed in Chicago – an action that is reportedly frustrating local officials.
The migrants are staying at a Hampton Inn in Burr Ridge and a Holiday Inn in Countryside, according to reporting by WGN-TV. An estimated 300 migrants have been bused from Texas to Chicago in the past two weeks.
While Chicago is a sanctuary city and Cook County is a sanctuary county, the migrants at the Burr Ridge Hampton Inn are in DuPage County. The county’s sanctuary status is unclear. However, Burr Ridge Republican Mayor Garry Grasso previously said he would work to secure the border and “defund sanctuary cities,” according to WGN-TV.
REPORTER TO CHICAGO’S LIGHTFOOT: HOW CAN YOU ‘POSSIBLY EVEN CONSIDER’ RE-ELECTION AFTER ‘HARM YOU’VE CAUSED’
Some of the 100 migrants were reportedly sent to the Burr Ridge Hampton Inn in suburban Illinois.
(Google Maps)
Now, Grasso said he is “frustrated” by the sudden influx of migrants.
“I’m the mayor of the village, I should have been told. I’m as frustrated as Mayor Lightfoot was in her not being told,” Mayor Gary Grasso said. “I’m frustrated but we’re dealing with the situation and I’m going to keep my residents and my businesses apprised.”
Grasso referenced Mayor Lightfoot previously lashing out at Governor Abbott for the transportation of migrants, calling it “unacceptable” at a press conference this week.
“My frustration comes from the actions of the governor of Texas,” the Chicago mayor said. “There could be a level of coordination and cooperation, but he chooses to do none of those things. Instead, he chooses to send human beings across the country to an uncertain destination.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a science initiative event in Chicago.
(REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski)
“He is manufacturing a human crisis and it makes no sense to me,” Lightfoot added. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker made similar comments, accusing Abbott of treating migrants “like cattle.”
CHICAGO MAYOR LIGHTFOOT DENOUNCES ‘TOXICITY IN PUBLIC DISCOURSE’ DAYS AFTER SHOUTING ‘F— CLARENCE THOMAS!’
Abbott shot back at Lightfoot’s comments, accusing her of deflecting the blame to him instead of President Biden.
“[Biden’s] inaction at our border is putting the lives of Texans at risk & is overwhelming our communities,” the Texas governor in a tweet. “Texas is doing Biden’s job to secure the border.”
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Mayor Lightfoot’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Huge relief as Ukrainian grain shipped out, but the food crisis isn’t going anywhere
Millions of people have been pushed into hunger as the Russian blockade fueled soaring grain commodity prices, which reached record highs this year as more than 20 million metric tons of Ukrainian wheat and corn remained trapped in Odesa.
All these interacting factors “are going to remain for some time,” Laura Wellesley, a senior research fellow at think tank Chatham House’s environment and society program, told CNN. “It may be that we see peaks in food prices again, and peaks in food insecurity, but certainly not a resolution of the situation anytime soon.”
Global hunger has increased massively, from 135 million people acutely food insecure in 2019 to 345 million in 2022, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). It includes “50 million people in 45 countries that are knocking on famine’s door,” David Beasley, WFP’s executive director, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 20, as he called on other donor countries, like Gulf nations, to step in an “avert catastrophe.”
Today’s crisis is far worse than the previous food price spikes of 2007 to 2008 and 2010 to 2012, which both fueled riots around the world, including revolutions in the Middle East.
Food security experts have warned of huge geopolitical risk if action is not taken. This year has already witnessed political destabilization in “Sri Lanka, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, riots and protests taking place in Kenya, Peru, Pakistan, Indonesia … these are only signs things to come is going to get worse,” Beasley said.
Hunger hotspots
In the Horn of Africa, a four-year drought has led to food insecurity and starvation, according to aid groups. Somalian health facilities are seeing record levels of malnutrition following years of failed rainy seasons, a doubling of wheat prices and the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ijabu Hassan lost three children to malnutrition this year, telling CNN that her 2-year-old daughter collapsed and died on their trek to the capital, Mogadishu, to seek help.
“I cried so much,” she said, “I lost consciousness.”
As desperate parents like Hassan seek reprieve, the UN estimates 7 million people — or over half of Somalia’s population — simply do not have enough to eat.
Meanwhile, Afghans have seen their lives go from bad to worse since the Taliban seized power in 2021. After the United States’ hasty withdrawal from the country last August, Washington and its allies cut off international funding to the country, which has run heavily on aid for years, and froze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves.
Afghanistan’s economic crisis has loomed for years, the result of poverty, conflict and drought. But this year, as below average harvests led to unprecedented levels of hunger across the country, long lines for aid have become ubiquitous even in the capital Kabul’s middle-class neighborhoods.
Longstanding conflict in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan has impacted people’s ability to access food, and the climate crisis is only worsening the situation. Droughts in main crop-producing regions, like Europe and North America, have pushed food prices upwards.
Extreme weather across parts of North Africa is a chilling reminder that, blockade or no blockade, food supply here is highly insecure anyway. The region is dependent on wheat from Europe, especially Ukraine. Tunisia, for example, gets nearly half its wheat from the country to make its daily bread.
Data from EarthDaily Analytics, obtained using satellite imagery, shows just how hard it is for some nations here to cover any of the gap themselves. Looking at crop cover in Morocco, the images suggest a “catastrophic wheat season” in the country, with output far lower than in recent years, because of a drought that began there at the end of 2021 and continued into early this year.
Morocco gets a fifth of its wheat from Ukraine and a larger 40% from France, according to Mickael Attia, crop analyst for EarthDaily Analytics.
“The current drought in North Africa, specifically Morocco, is profoundly impacting their ability to produce their own crops, not to mention that in the past, Ukraine was one of the largest exporters of food to the country. The cost to replace that is very high and a struggle,” Attia told CNN.
“The country needs the import for structural reasons — every year national consumption is far higher than production — and because the country is regularly exposed to massive weather events, drought and climate change will make things worse in the future.”
Ukraine’s wheat production, too, is expected to be 40% lower than last year’s, as its fields are impacted by the war; fertilizer and pesticides are harder to get; but also because of an early spring cold pattern and dryness in the country’s west, Attia said, adding that the impacts could last well into next year.
“If Ukrainian grains are partially, physically missing because of low production and difficulties in exporting then, this will lead to greater food insecurity this year and next,” he said.
Other major wheat exporters have also been hit hard by extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. France too should produce 8% less wheat than last year, Attia said.
“May was dry in most of Europe, and crazy hot in Western Europe, impacting crops from France and Spain, especially,” Attia said. “June was also a dry and hot month in most of Europe, and accelerated the decrease in crops in France, Spain and Romania.”
Pandemic and protectionism
Meanwhile, many countries’ efforts to alleviate food insecurity were undone in the pandemic. It plunged the global economy into recession in 2020, upending supply chains and causing employment and transport problems. Governments began to face inflationary pressure and global food prices began to soar as production disruption and high demand from countries like China were “really tightening that balance between supply and demand and pushing up prices,” said Wellesley, from Chatham House.
Economies of poorer countries have been left in tatters while middle income nations have incurred large debts, limiting their governments’ ability to offer social safety nets and provisions that would help the most vulnerable through this food supply crisis, she added.
In Peru and Brazil, people working in the large informal jobs sector lost their savings and earning power during the pandemic’s lockdowns. “So these people moved from middle classes to poor… in Brazil the number of people living in severe food insecurity is extremely high,” Maximo Torero, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told CNN.
In 2021, a record 36% of Brazilians were at risk of going hungry, surpassing the world average for the first time, according to the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), a Brazilian academic institution, which analyzed Gallup data.
The war has brought home just how many people and countries have come to rely on a complex and globalized commodities system. Europe’s dependency on Russian gas has exposed its vulnerabilities. While countries like Turkey, Egypt, Somalia, Congo and Tanzania are some of the most dependent on Ukrainian and Russian wheat, nations like Eritrea bought the grain exclusively from the two nations in 2021.
Analysts suggest the supply chain crisis might lead to more localized or regional sourcing strategies — but that might take a while.
“Let me give you an example — Africa uses 3% of the fertilizers in the world,” Torero said, yet Dangote’s fertilizer plant in Nigeria sends 95.5% of its product to Latin America. “Nothing stays in Africa. It is not that (the) Dangote plant does not want to export in Africa, it’s (because) there are too many barriers to export (to other parts of) Africa,” he said, adding that the infrastructure was poor and the risk high.
Going the other way and imposing protectionist policies is also problematic. As food prices exploded following Russia’s invasion, countries began restricting exports. India, the world’s largest producer of sugar, limited sugar exports to 10 million tons and banned wheat exports. Today, more than 20 countries have some sort of export restrictions in place, dashing hopes that these items might help alleviate hunger elsewhere.
“That has an immediate effect of pushing up prices, but over time, it also is kind of eroding trust and predictability in the global market,” Wellesley said.
Then there is the issue of fertilizer prices that remain high because it is energy intensive to produce and Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of its key components: urea, potash and phosphate.
Some analysts warn that as usage of fertilizer goes down, we will see smaller yields in 2023. And while the main concern has rested on grain supplies, some worry that the production of rice, a cornerstone of many diets in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, could take a hit amid high fertilizer costs.
Even if there are currently high inventories of rice, protectionism and people turning to rice as a substitute for wheat could impact prices. “Sub-Saharan Africa imports the most rice in the world, so if the price of rice goes up, then the most vulnerable countries will be substantially affected,” Torero of the FAO said.
The Razoni, a Sierre Leone-registered ship currently en route to Lebanon, is carrying around 26,500 metric tons of corn. “To meet 2021 August shipment levels, we’d have to see seven of those ships happen every single day for things to actually get back to where we were,” Jonathan Haines, a senior analyst at commodity data group Gro Intelligence, told CNN. There is a lot of uncertainty if that can happen, but flow is undoubtably “going to really pick up,” he added.
The Ukrainian government and the Turkish Defense Ministry said three more ships were expected to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Friday laden with grain.
As and when wheat prices drop to pre-war levels, Torero worries that the return of Ukrainian and Russian grain on the markets could further reduce wheat prices and in the process impoverish poor farmers, who shouldered high fertilizer and energy costs to plant their crops.
Just as the food crisis has had wide and varying impacts on people, the solutions are complex and multifaceted. These include improvements in how fertilizers are used, investments in social safety nets, decoupling food production from fossil fuel dependence while slashing greenhouse gas emissions, and a push to make the agricultural sector more resilient to global shocks by diversifying production and trade relationships, experts say.
“These all seem like things to tackle another day given the severity of the current situation. They are not,” Wellesley said. “They are problems contributing to today’s situation (and) will recur over the years to come — particularly as climate impacts continue to worsen.”
Apple shipped me a 79-pound iPhone repair kit to fix a 1.1-ounce battery
Apple must be joking.
That’s how I felt again and again as I jumped through hoop after ridiculous hoop to replace the battery in my iPhone Mini. Part of that was the repair process — mostly, it was how difficult Apple makes it to even get there.
Last month, Apple launched its Self-Service Repair program, letting US customers fix broken screens, batteries, and cameras on the latest iPhones using Apple’s own parts and tools for the first time ever. I couldn’t wait. I’d never successfully repaired a phone — and my wife has never let me live down the one time I broke her Samsung Galaxy while using a hair dryer to replace the screen. This time, armed with an official repair manual and genuine parts, I’d make it right.
That Apple would even let me buy those parts, much less read its manuals and rent its tools, is a major change of pace for the company. For years, Apple has been lobbying to suppress right-to-repair policies around the country, with the company accused of doing everything it can to keep customers from repairing their own phones. It’s easy to see this as a huge moment for DIY advocates. But having tried the repair process, I actually can’t recommend it at all — and I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple likes it that way.
The thing you should understand about Apple’s home repair process is that it’s a far cry from DIY. I expected Apple would send me a small box of screwdrivers, spudgers, and pliers; I own a mini iPhone, after all. Instead, I found two giant Pelican cases — 79 pounds of tools — on my front porch. I couldn’t believe just how big and heavy they were considering Apple’s paying to ship them both ways.
I lugged those cases onto a BART train to San Francisco and dragged them down the streets to our office. Then, I set everything out on a table and got started.
Step one of opening an iPhone is, basically, using a hefty machine to suck the screen off the top. Here, I wasn’t microwaving a jelly-filled sock to loosen the Apple goop holding my screen down. Apple lets you rent an industrial-grade heat station that looks like a piece of lab equipment, right down to the big red safety dial you twist to release the emergency-off button and the suction-cup-tipped mechanical lifting arm.
I slip my phone in a perfectly sized “heating pocket” that clamps a ring of copper around the iPhone’s band to evenly distribute the heat and melt the seal around the screen, realize in horror that I’ve invited the “Hot Pockets!” jingle to live in my head rent-free, then spin a dial to raise the arm that separates the iPhone’s screen from its body.
Or, that’s how it’s supposed to work, anyhow. The heating machine threw an error code partway through my first attempt, and Apple’s manual didn’t explain what to do if that happens after you’ve stuck your phone inside. So I wound up heating it twice in a row. And yet, that still wasn’t quite enough for my screen to “immediately” pop up when the suction cup arm began to lift the glass. The manual did cover that situation, making me spin a second hidden knob to put more pressure on the suction cup, but I started freaking out when I saw what looked like cracks spider across the screen. (It turned out it was just suction cup residue.)
Once the screen is loose, I cut through the softened glue holding it to the iPhone’s frame with Apple’s single tiny adhesive cutter, which also gave me a little trouble. The blade got caught when I wedged it under the corners of the screen, and I had to yank it out without accidentally sending my phone clattering to the ground. The kit comes with a perfect-fit tray to hold your phone steady and extra suction cups to hold the screen without stretching the fragile ribbon cables but nothing to hold the tray itself.
Apple also provides a set of fancy torque drivers to make sure you don’t screw down the phone’s tiny screws too tightly, but it’s a bit of a chore. I must have dropped Apple’s incredibly tiny fasteners a dozen times while removing the slivers of metal that hold the screen’s ribbon cables in place, as well as the bottom speaker that Apple makes you yank to get at the battery. Presumably just to make it more difficult to repair, Apple requires three different screwdriver bits just to remove the screen, and none of Apple’s bits are magnetized to keep the screws from slipping.
At this point, there was still a bunch of goopy adhesive around the sides of my iPhone’s frame. While instructions suggest it’ll just peel off in a few big pieces if you pull with tweezers (which didn’t come in the box), I gave up after 10 minutes of picking away at tiny fuzzy blobs of glue. I was just going to be adding more adhesive anyway, after all. Later, I discovered this was not my best idea.
When it finally lay open on the table, I couldn’t help but gawk in wonder at my iPhone 13 Mini’s precisely packed guts, and I realized I was having fun! Slicing open my phone was a thrill. But a lot of that thrill came from not knowing whether my phone would survive surgery — Apple tools or no.
From there, it was time to swap out the battery. Once I finished cursing at the far too easy to tear tabs that held in the original lithium pack, I used Apple’s fancy battery press with a rolling arm to seat — but not squish — the new battery down. But I could have done that with my fingertips; I’d have much rather had a tool to properly align the battery, which I had to yank and reposition after plopping it down a millimeter too far south, or a tool to test whether you’ve properly reseated the battery and display connectors. But I’ll get to that.
Next, the instructions had me apply an actually helpful precut adhesive sheet designed to stick my screen back to the frame, which was easy to slot into exactly the right place and press down with my fingers. Then came a huge spring-loaded press (with a veritable slot machine of an arm) to close the phone once more. But even with the press, my screen wasn’t perfectly flush with the frame afterwards, perhaps due to the extra glue I didn’t manage to remove.
With my phone closed up again, I held down the power button. Nothing. No bright white Apple logo — no response at all. For one horrible moment, I realized Apple gave me no way to test whether the battery and display connectors were actually seated (they probably weren’t) and had me close up the phone anyhow.
Then, a forlorn hope: maybe the replacement battery shipped empty? I scrambled around the office for a Lightning cable, and… my iPhone 13 Mini finally lit up.
But I wasn’t done yet. The single most frustrating part of this process, after using Apple’s genuine parts and Apple’s genuine tools, was that my iPhone didn’t recognize the genuine battery as genuine. “Unknown Part,” flashed a warning. Apparently, that’s the case for almost all of these parts: you’re expected to dial up Apple’s third-party logistics company after the repair so they can validate the part for you. That’s a process that involves having an entirely separate computer and a Wi-Fi connection since you have to reboot your iPhone into diagnostics mode and give the company remote control. Which, of course, defeats a bunch of the reasons you’d repair your own device at home!
And, if I’m telling you the truth, the second most frustrating part didn’t occur during the repair either. If it were just me, I’d have aborted the entire process before Apple ever shipped 79 pounds of equipment to my home.
It would be an understatement to say that Apple has a history of resisting right-to-repair efforts. Before the iPhone, replacing a battery was typically as easy as inserting a thumbnail to pop off your phone’s back cover; afterwards, phones largely became tricky to even open without specialized tools, which arguably pushed customers to replace their perfectly good devices when they might have only needed a new screen or battery. Also see: batterygate.
In recent years, the company has actively lobbied against right-to-repair legislation in at least 20 states, sneakily pushing California, as one example, to postpone its bill. (The bill died in committee again this very week.) Apple cracked down on unauthorized repairs by throwing warnings or even disabling features if you repair phones with non-“genuine” parts, though it walked some of that back after an outcry. And it put together a contract for indie repair shops that was reportedly so invasive, many refused to sign it.
So, it didn’t surprise me when Apple’s press release about the program warned “the vast majority of customers” away from their own repairs, or when I needed to enter my phone’s IMEI to prove I owned my phone, or how I had to enter a six-digit code to prove I read the repair manual, which not only suggests you need three pages worth of tools but also a jar of sand in case your battery catches fire — one of many not strictly necessary items that don’t come with the kit. Apple also only includes instructions on how to use its own special tools for repairs, so a more low-key or inexpensive DIY approach is off the table.
What surprised me was the price tag.
- $69 for a new battery — the same price the Apple Store charges for a battery replacement, except here I get to do all the work and assume all the risk.
- $49 to rent Apple’s tools for a week, more than wiping out any refund I might get for returning the old used part.
- A $1,200 credit card hold for the toolkit, which I would forfeit if the tools weren’t returned within seven days of delivery.
Let’s be clear: this is a ridiculous amount of risk for the average person who just wants to put a new battery in their phone. And it’s frankly weird for Apple to insist on you covering the full value of the tools. “It’s not like when you rent a car they make you put down $20,000 as a safety deposit,” my colleague Mitchell Clark points out.
I should also mention the Pelican cases landed at my door two days before the battery arrived, so I only had five days to do the job before that $1,200 deadline.
The more I think about it, the more I realize Apple’s Self-Service Repair program is the perfect way to make it look like the company supports right-to-repair policies without actually encouraging them at all. Apple can say it’s giving consumers access to everything, even the same tools its technicians use, while scaring them away with high prices, complexity, and the risk of losing a $1,200 deposit. This way, Apple gets credit for walking you through an 80-page repair, instead of building phones where — say — you don’t need to remove the phone’s most delicate components and two different types of security screws just to replace a battery.
To me, those giant Pelican cases are the proof. It would cost Apple a fortune to ship 79 pounds of equipment to individual homes all over the country, even with corporate discounts. The Verge is obviously far, far smaller than Apple, but it would cost us upwards of $200 just to return those cases to their sender. Yet Apple offers free shipping both directions with your $49 rental, plus a dedicated support team to validate your parts and facilitate returns. (Though, apparently, it doesn’t do the latter anywhere near its Silicon Valley HQ: when I took the support team up on its offer of picking up my battery, they told me they didn’t have a driver within 250 miles of my location, and I should just drop it off at the nearest Home Depot.)
I don’t think Apple expects anyone to seriously take it up on the offer of self-service repair kits. It stacked the deck in favor of taking your phone to an Apple Store, where it can tempt you to buy something new instead. The real victory will come months or years down the road, though. That’s when Apple can tell legislators it tried to give right-to-repair advocates what they wanted — but that consumers overwhelmingly decided Apple knows best.
Millions of Samsung phones reportedly shipped with a major security flaw –
Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Security researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel found a significant security flaw in several Samsung phones.
- The company reportedly shipped over 100 million devices with this flaw.
Samsung is usually pretty prompt with security updates for its phones, but according to a new report, the company shipped over 100 million devices with a major security flaw.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel found (via SamMobile) that several Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S20, and Galaxy S21 models went to market with a security loophole that could have allowed hackers to steal sensitive information such as passwords.
The report claims that the phones did not store their cryptographic keys properly. The vulnerability was found in the TrustZone Operating System (TZOS) that runs alongside Android for security-sensitive functions on Samsung phones. The fault lay with the implementation of the cryptographic functions within the TZOS.
You can find the details of how the security researchers reverse-engineered the flaw here.
So how were you affected? Well, the problem remained hidden until recently. Anyone with one of the aforementioned models could have been targetted with the exploit. However, there’s no evidence of the same.
The good news is that Samsung has already patched the issues. Security researchers notified the OEM when they first discovered the problem. A fix was rolled out with the August 2021 security patch. The October 2021 security update also addressed a subsequent vulnerability.
At-home COVID tests shipped through cold weather might not be accurate
COVID-19: Tips to find at-home tests
Starting January 19, Americans will be able to have at-home COVID-19 tests shipped to their homes, for free.
Staff Video, USA TODAY
At the same time most Americans are facing cold fronts and winter storms, they’re also expecting their at-home COVID-19 tests from the government to arrive in the mail.
Most at-home COVID-19 test brands recommend storing the tests above 35 degrees. The liquid reagent inside the cartridge that comes with the at-home tests is susceptible to freezing, and if that happens, the accuracy of the results decreases, Cindy Prins, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida, told USA TODAY.
With the federal government launching a program to send free at-home COVID-19 tests to Americans who sign up through the website COVIDTests.gov, 1 billion tests have been ordered for distribution via the U.S. Postal Service.
But could prolonged cold or freezing temperatures affect the results of the government-sent tests? It depends on how long it’s been cold, experts said.
Free COVID home tests for everyone?: Here’s why Medicare, veterans’ insurance are excluded
Nursing homes and COVID tests: At nursing homes, long waits for results render COVID tests ‘useless’
What does it mean if your at-home tests comes in the mail and it’s cold?
Dr. Geoffrey Baird, Chair, chair of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, said the issue with the at-home tests is that if the liquid inside the cartridge is frozen, the results can be skewed.
If the test is outside for a few hours, odds are the test is fine, although not as accurate as it once was. If your test is in your mailbox for a day or more, Baird advises using a PCR test instead. Baird said if your test spent a night in your mailbox in 25-degree weather, it may be best to order another test.
“Just as anything with liquid, if it’s chilled or frozen, it changes. That’s the same with these at-home tests,” Baird said. “At a time where temperatures are freezing in most places, it’s safer to choose another test.”
Most studies have found a change in the temperature of the at-home test may result in a false-negative test rather than a false-positive, she added. She said if someone is exposed and tests negative with the at-home test, they should receive a PCR test to confirm the results.
“The sensitivity to coronavirus on these tests can be decreased with temperature changes, and it’s always tricky to tell by how much,” Prins said. “But more often than not, a wrong test shows a false-positive, so then you should get a PCR test.”
Antigen tests exposed for extended periods of time to temperatures below 36 degrees or above 86 degrees can deliver inaccurate results, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health.
“Consequences may include false-negative test results,” the researchers wrote. “Storage and operation of [antigen tests] at recommended conditions is essential for successful usage during the pandemic.”
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What to do if your test comes in the mail cold or frozen
As soon as you get an email confirming your at-home test has arrived, Prins recommended immediately storing it indoors. If the test arrives cold, the room temperature environment will help thaw the liquid inside. But Prins said not to place the test in immediate sun because high temperatures can also affect the results.
“Your best bet is room temperature. Nothing colder or hotter because the test is sensitive to those temperatures,” Prinssaid.
Baird recommends waiting at least four to five hours before using the cold or frozen at-home test. Fortunately, the packaging of the tests was created to be durable through the shipping and arrival process.
The U.S. Postal Service said tests will ship within 7-12 days of ordering and all orders are mailed through First Class Package Service.
Abbott BinaxNOW recommends that its tests remain between 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, adding “test kit reagents must be at room temperature before use,” a spokesperson for Abbott told USA TODAY.
However if a test is stored outside the recommended temperature “for a relatively short period of time,” it will be fine to use after being placed back in room temperature, the spokesperson said.
If the test lines on your at-home test appear in the incorrect order or color, Baird said that’s an indicator it’s been contaminated by the weather.
“When you freeze and thaw something, the solutions in it may not actually get back into solution as it once was before. That’s where the inaccuracy in these at-home tests can come from,” Baird said.
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Pittsburgh CBP officers seize fake COVID vaccine cards shipped from China
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Pittsburgh have seized two shipments of phony COVID-19 vaccination cards shipped from China.
CBP seized the first of the two international parcels on August 24. CBP officers determined that the parcel of 20 cards had a “low-quality appearance.”
A collection of fake vaccination cards shipped from China.
(Customs and Border Protection)
CBP said the cards were being shipped to someone in Beaver County, Pa. That individual, whose identity was not released, is not from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or a certified medical entity, CBP said.
THOUSANDS OF FAKE COVID-19 VACCINE CARDS, SOME FROM CHINA, SEIZED BY US CUSTOMS
Officers intercepted a second shipment of phone vaccine cards destined for the same individual on September 7. That parcel contained 50 fake COVID vaccine cards.
Both international parcels had been shipped from China, CBP said.
“Coronavirus and its variants continue to pose a serious health and safety threat to American citizens, and so do unscrupulous vendors who peddle counterfeit COVID vaccination cards,” CBP’s port director in Pittsburgh, William Fitting, said in a statement, “Customs and Border Protection will continue to intercept counterfeit goods, such as these fake vaccine cards, that threaten our nation, our people and our economy.”
No additional details were released. An investigation is ongoing.
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To date, CBP said, officers in Chicago, Memphis, Anchorage, Alaska, have seized more than 6,000 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards.
U.S. Customs officials seize 3,000 faked vaccination cards shipped through Anchorage
Federal customs officials have seized more than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards at shipping warehouses processing international cargo in Anchorage, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Thursday.
“The shipments of these cards are low-quality printing, and closely resemble the authentic CDC certificates provided by healthcare providers when administering the COVID vaccine,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.
The counterfeit certificates are coming from China and being distributed around the United States, said Kymberly Fernandez, an assistant area port director with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Anchorage.
Anchorage is a hub for international cargo flights.
Vaccination mandates have stoked an illegal marketplace for counterfeit vaccination record cards nationally. Faking the certificates is illegal under federal law that bars unauthorized use of official government seals.
Fernandez said a criminal investigation into the faked cards is ongoing.