Innholdsfortegnelse for #539 i Techlife News

The CEO of Ford Motor Co. says the automaker has no plans to spin off its electric vehicle or internal combustion businesses, but is reinventing itself by removing costs and ramping up for large-scale EV and software sales. Ford CEO Jim Farley told the Wolfe Research virtual global auto technology conference this week that the company could hit Tesla-like profit margins by using common electric motors, electronic components and other parts across all sizes of vehicles. But to do that, Ford needs radically different human talent than it now has, Farley said in a surprisingly candid interview with analyst Rod Lache. He also said the company has too many people and too much complexity, and it doesn’t have the expertise to transition to battery-electric vehicles.“That’s the simple answer. There’s waste,”…

Just what a vulnerable world economy didn’t need — a conflict that accelerates inflation, rattles markets and portends trouble for everyone from European consumers to indebted Chinese developers and families in Africa that face soaring food prices. Russia’s attack on Ukraine and retaliatory sanctions from the West may not portend another global recession. The two countries together account for less than 2% of the world’s gross domestic product. And many regional economies remain in solid shape, having rebounded swiftly from the pandemic recession. Yet the conflict threatens to inflict severe economic damage on some countries and industries — damage that could mean hardships for millions of people. Russia is the world’s third-biggest producer of petroleum and is a major exporter of natural gas. Ukraine’s farms feed millions around the world.…

Former President Donald Trump’s social media app that he hopes will rival Twitter launched Monday as he seeks a new digital stage to rally his supporters and fight Big Tech limits on speech a year after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. His Truth Social app was offered for download from the Apple App Store to a limited number of subscribers who had preordered, with others added to a waiting list to be given access over the next 10 days. The site encountered technical glitches shortly after launch, with reports that subscribers were shut out for hours. Others had trouble signing on. The site is not expected to be open to anyone who wants to download it until next month. “Due to massive demand, we have placed you…

The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet announced the launch of a new joint fleet of unmanned drones with allied nations to patrol vast swaths of the region’s volatile waters as tensions simmer with Iran. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the 5th Fleet, told that 100 unmanned drones, both sailing and submersible, would dramatically multiply the surveillance capacities of the U.S. Navy, allowing it to keep a close eye on waters critical to the flow of the global oil and shipping. Trade at sea has been targeted in recent years as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. “By using unmanned systems, we can just simply see more. They’re high-reliability and remove the human factor,” Cooper said on the sidelines of a defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi, adding the systems…

President Joe Biden highlighted his efforts to counter China’s dominance of the electric battery market as he touted domestic efforts to mine and process lithium and rare metals necessary to create the technology that powers cars, electronics, wind turbines and more. The Democratic president announced his administration is giving $35 million to MP Materials, a company that mines rare earth metals near the Nevada border in Southern California,. The funding will boost MP’s ability to process the materials domestically for use in U.S. manufacturing. He also touted efforts to extract lithium from geothermal brine found around California’s Salton Sea. Biden said U.S. demand for such materials will grow by 400% to 600% over the next several decades. “We can’t build a future that’s made in America if we ourselves are…

U.S. consumer confidence declined modestly this month but remains high, even as prices for just about everything continue to rise. The Conference Board, a business research group, said this week that its consumer confidence index — which takes into account consumers’ assessment of current conditions and their outlook for the future — ticked down to 110.5 in February from 111.1 in January. The Conference Board’s present situation index, which measures consumers’ assessment of current business and labor conditions, rose slightly this month to 145.1 from 144.5 in January. The expectations index, based on consumers’ six-month outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, slipped to 87.5 in February from 88.8 in January. Concerns about inflation rose in February after declining the previous two months and the proportion of people planning…

The NFL is collaborating with the XFL for player safety and health data. The XFL, which plans to relaunch in 2023, will be working with the NFL on physical and mental fitness programs for players, the study of playing surfaces and equipment, and the sharing of game trends and data. “We are extremely pleased to collaborate with the NFL in these important areas,” said Dany Garcia, co-owner of the XFL, which also has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among its ownership group. “We are bringing forward an XFL that is progressive and forward thinking when it comes to innovation, leveraging the newest technology to enhance game-day experience. We have an open field for innovative rules to enhance in-game access. “Sharing insights and practices between the XFL and NFL will do a…

An hours-long hostage standoff at the Apple Store in Amsterdam ended late Tuesday with police in a car driving into the hostage taker as he ran from the store. His hostage was safe, police said. “We can confirm that the hostage taker is out of the Apple Store,” police said in a tweet. “He is lying on the street and a robot is checking him for explosives. Armed police officers have him under control from a distance. The hostage is safe.” Police then said that the man did not have explosives and that medical staff were attending to him. There was no word on his condition. The motive for the incident was not immediately clear. Local broadcaster AT5 suggested the standoff was the result of an attempted armed robbery. AT5…

China said it will impose new sanctions on U.S. defense contractors Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin due to their arms sales to Taiwan, stepping up a feud with Washington over security and Beijing’s strategic ambitions. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced the move at a daily press briefing, citing a newly passed Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law that took effect in 2021. It was in response to a $100 million deal approved by the U.S. for maintenance of Taiwan’s missile defense systems by the two companies. “China once again urges the U.S. government and relevant parties to . . . stop arms sales to Taiwan and sever military ties with Taiwan,” Wang said. “China will continue to take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and security interests in accordance with…

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak outlined his latest plans for spending billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief and other funds with an emphasis on reducing housing costs, upgrading infrastructure and expanding broadband internet access. In an off-year version of his state of the state speech, Sisolak emphasized he won’t propose any new tax increases. He said the $500 million he is proposing in an initiative he dubbed “Home Means Nevada” would be the single largest housing investment in state history. Other new initiatives are intended to lower child-care costs, provide free lunches for all school children the next two years, hire more health care workers, raise salaries for state law officers and combat climate change, he said. The Democratic governor is seeking re-election against a crowded field of Republicans who’ve…

Tensions in eastern Ukraine and heightened Western fears of a Russian invasion should not have a significant impact on the International Space Station or U.S.-Russia cooperation in space, the former head of the National Space Council told The Associated Press. Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut are currently on the space station. Scott Pace, who served as executive secretary of the space council under President Donald Trump and is now the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the space station “has been largely isolated” from political events. “It’s possible to imagine a break with Russia that would endanger the space station, but that would be at the level of a dropping diplomatic relations,” said Pace. “That would be something that would…

Attorneys in a federal court challenge to Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital ad tax argued about whether the law is a tax or an unconstitutional penalty targeting Big Tech. Attorneys for the state of Maryland and a lawyer representing Big Tech gave arguments in a virtual hearing before U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby in a case that is being closely watched by other states that are also considering a tax for online ads. Julia Bernhardt, a Maryland assistant attorney general, defended the law as a legitimate revenue-raising measure approved by the state legislature to raise money for education. Supporters have described it as a necessary step to modernize the state’s tax system. “It’s not a penalty, and it’s not a regulatory fee,” Bernhardt said of the law, adding: “It benefits the…

Elon Musk and his lawyers are escalating their fight with U.S. securities regulators, with a lawyer accusing them of leaking investigative information, and the Tesla CEO alleging on Twitter that government corruption is being exposed. Musk’s tweet early Tuesday and a Monday letter from Musk lawyer Alex Spiro to a federal judge didn’t offer any specifics about the leak, but the actions ramped up a war of words with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency isn’t the only federal regulator that Musk is sparring with. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently has stepped up enforcement against Tesla. Last week, Musk called the agency the “fun police” for making Tesla recall a “Boombox” function that can play sounds over an external speaker and obscure audible warnings for pedestrians. The…

New York wants to improve its cybersecurity defenses and will open a joint operations center in the coming months to coordinate between government agencies, critical businesses and utilities, Gov. Kathy Hochul said. Hochul said the Brooklyn-based hub will have a staff of 70 — both in-person and virtual — to provide “a centralized viewpoint of threat data” on the federal, state and local levels. “New York’s leadership in finance, energy, transportation, healthcare, and other critical fields makes the State an attractive target for cyberattacks,” Hochul said, adding that it no longer makes sense for the state’s various agencies to simply go it alone. The Democratic governor has proposed a budget with $62 million for cybersecurity improvements at the state level and a $30 million fund to help local governments afford…

The events of 2021 didn’t always play out as expected. A lingering pandemic, a shifting government response and a wave of career moves meant many people ended the year in a far different place from where they began. Now, as the income tax filing deadline approaches, those life changes may bring a new wave of surprises for U.S. taxpayers. If your income changed, or if you made money in the stock and cryptocurrency boom, you may find a larger-than-usual tax bill. If you welcomed a new child or had major medical expenses, you might qualify for new breaks. Whatever your situation, it may take longer than you expect to gather information and understand provisions that may not have applied to you before. “Take nothing for granted. Question everything. Don’t make…

For anyone who found the band tensions that reverberate in “The Beatles: Get Back” too tame, the Foo Fighters have made a movie in which arguments over recording an album lead to a trail of dead bodies — and, no, this isn’t Yoko’s fault, either. “Studio 666,” a horror-comedy starring the six members of the Foo Fighters as themselves, is one of the sillier concepts to reach the big screen in a while. That it even exists is part of the joke — maybe even the whole joke. While Dave Grohl and company were making their 10th album at a big, old house in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, they hit on the idea of a bloodier riff on “This Is Spinal Tap” that would parody not just themselves but…

A German newspaper said a leak of data from Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, reveals details of the accounts of more than 30,000 clients — some of them unsavory — and points to possible failures of due diligence in checks on many customers. Credit Suisse said in a statement that it“strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bank’s purported business practices.” The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it received the data anonymously through a secure digital mailbox over a year ago. It said it’s unclear whether the source was an individual or a group, and the newspaper didn’t make any payment or promises. The newspaper said it evaluated the data, which ranged from the 1940s until well into the last decade, along with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting…

The websites of Ukraine’s defense, foreign and interior ministries were unreachable or painfully slow to load after a punishing wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks as Russia struck at its neighbor, explosions shaking the capital of Kyiv and other major cities. In addition to DDoS attacks, cybersecurity researchers said unidentified attackers had infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware, some in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania. Asked if the denial-of-service attacks were continuing, senior Ukrainian cyber defense official Victor Zhora did not answer.“Are you serious?”he texted.“There are ballistic missiles here.” “This is terrible. We need the world to stop it. Immediately,” Zhora said of the offensive that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in the pre-dawn hours. Officials have long expected cyber attacks to precede and accompany any Russian military incursion. The combination of…

The World Health Organization is creating a global training center to help poorer countries make vaccines, antibodies and cancer treatments using the messenger RNA technology that has successfully been used to make COVID-19 vaccines. At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new hub will be in South Korea and will share mRNA technology being developed by WHO and partners in South Africa, where scientists are working to recreate the COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna Inc. That effort is taking place without Moderna’s help. “Vaccines have helped to change the course of the COVID-19 pandemic but this scientific triumph has been undermined by vast inequities in access to these life-saving tools,”Tedros said. It’s the first time that WHO has supported such unorthodox efforts to reverse-engineer…

Since the launch of Apple Pay back in 2014, Apple has changed the way we shop and spend money, with subsequent refinements and additions like Face ID and Apple Card that have made shopping even more convenient. Now, the Cupertino company plans to add yet another string to its bow and make iPhone and Apple Pay truly invaluable for merchants. SHOPPING WITH APPLE In markets like the United Kingdom, Apple has a stronghold over contactless payments, with a reported six in ten shoppers in the UK using Apple Pay in-store. And although the United States is behind European markets when it comes to shopping via their smartphones thanks to consumers favoring credit cards and platforms like PayPal and Venmo, Apple Pay is now growing its dominance in the market. Indeed,…

On the same day that President Joe Biden called out Russia and and issued harsh sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, his only other public appearance was an event focused on the need to unkink the supply chain for minerals used in batteries, electronics and other technologies. The back-to-back events on Tuesday highlighted the competing claims for Biden’s attention entering the spring of a midterm election year: the prospect of a calamitous European land war that will only add to inflation and other problems at home while also managing a vexing set of domestic challenges and must-do tasks. For Biden, the convergence of such urgent foreign and domestic issues puts to a test the often cavalier assertions of previous administrations that a president has to be able to “walk and…

The U.S. Postal Service said it cleared the final regulatory hurdle to placing orders for next-generation mail vehicles — and getting some of them on delivery routes next year — despite pushback from the Environmental Protection Agency. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the completion of an evaluation required by the National Environmental Policy Act is an important milestone for postal carriers who have soldiered on with overworked delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 to 1994. The U.S. Postal Service’s fleet comprises more than 230,000 vehicles, including 190,000 local delivery vehicles that are due to be replaced. “The men and women of the U.S. Postal Service have waited long enough for safer, cleaner vehicles,”DeJoy said in a statement. Environmental groups have pushed back because only 10% of the vehicles…

Dubai will open the doors to an architecturally stunning building housing the new Museum of the Future, a seven-story structure that envisions a dreamlike world powered by solar energy and the Gulf Arab state’s frenetic quest to develop. The torus-shaped museum is a design marvel that forgoes support columns, relying instead on a network of diagonal beams. It is enveloped in windows carved by Arabic calligraphy, adding another eye-popping design element to Dubai’s piercingly modern skyline that shimmers with the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa. The Museum of the Future projects Dubai’s ambitions and its desire to be seen as a modern, inclusive city even as its political system remains rooted in hereditary rule and hard limits exist on the types of expression permitted. It is the latest in…

Et tu, pause button? I thought you were my friend. Anticipating the inevitable guts and gore and murderous mayhem, I screened Netflix’s new “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on my TV in broad daylight, with sunlight streaming through the windows and the comforting din of traffic below, and with the remote in my hand throughout, ready to hit “pause” to delay the really bad stuff. But things dragged and I got complacent, and sure enough, that pause button was too far away when I really needed it — a truly shocking moment I did not see coming. I won’t reveal when this moment arrives, but if your plan is to be saved by your own pause button, well, good luck! Despite that admirably executed shocker of a scene, though, the question does…

The smartphones glowed. The irony echoed. As part of the closing ceremony Sunday night for the most locked-down and sequestered Olympics in human history, a carefully curated crowd packed — well, dotted, really — the famed Bird’s Nest stadium as a warm and humanistic show unfolded. The show itself, headed by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, fairly burst with color and music and energy and even joy. It felt disconnected from a COVID-compartmentalized Winter Games that, despite its insistent theme of “Together for a shared future,” kept people apart by the thousands — both those inside and outside its calibrated bubble. As the closing ceremony reached its denouement, something interesting unfolded. It was the kind of moment that has become common in the post-lighter-at-the-concert era. Before the ceremony, the official…