Innehållsförteckning för #544 från AppleMagazine

The race is on to produce more lithium in the United States. The U.S. will need far more lithium to achieve its clean energy goals — and the industry that mines, extracts and processes the chemical element is poised to grow. But it also faces a host of challenges from environmentalists, Indigenous groups and government regulators. Although lithium reserves are distributed widely across the globe, the U.S. is home to just one active lithium mine, in Nevada. The element is critical to development of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are seen as key to reducing climate-changing carbon emissions created by cars and other forms of transportation. Worldwide demand for lithium was about 350,000 tons (317,517 metric tons) in 2020, but industry estimates project demand will be up to six times greater…

A Vietnamese automaker announced plans to build a plant in North Carolina to manufacture electric vehicles, promising to bring 7,500 jobs and ending the state’s streak of near-misses for landing carmakers. VinFast will build its first North American plant in Chatham County southwest of Raleigh, with production expected to start in 2024. It expects to employ 7,500 by 2027 with average salaries of $51,000, according to the state Commerce Department. “VinFast’s transformative project will bring many good jobs to our state, along with a healthier environment as more electric vehicles take to the road to help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. The company is expected to invest $4 billion in building the plant on a nearly 2,000-acre (800-hectare) site about a 30-minute drive…

When “CODA” won the Oscar for best picture in Los Angeles, movie stars from Samuel L. Jackson to Nicole Kidman waved their hands instead of clapping — recognition of a culture and community that proudly calls itself Deaf. At home in suburban New York, Laurie Ann Barish cried, overcome by what she said was a long overdue feeling of acceptance. Like the film’s acronymic title, Barish was raised by a deaf parent, her mother, now 85. She said she saw her own life in the story about a Massachusetts family “that wants to be heard” and to be seen as no different from anyone else. “The deaf world is finally unmuted,” said Barish, a 61-year-old personal assistant who lives in Long Beach, New York. “I wish this happened when I…

Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they’ll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic. Europe’s space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit. And what of the world’s quest for carbon-free energy if 35 nations cooperating on an experimental fusion-power reactor in France can’t ship vital components from Russia? In scientific fields with profound implications for mankind’s future and knowledge, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of relationships and projects that bound together Moscow and the West. Post-Cold War bridge-building through science is unraveling as Western nations seek to punish and isolate the Kremlin by drying up support for scientific programs involving…

Melt My Eyez See Your Future Denzel Curry In advance of the release of Melt My Eyez See Your Future, rapper Denzel Curry indicated to fans what they can expect from this, his fifth studio album. “I don’t have to create an alter ego for me to be myself”, he insisted, adding: “Y’all are not going to hear the same type of Denzel anymore.” FIVE FACTS: 1. The list of special guests on the new album includes T-Pain, slowthai, Rico Nasty, Kenny Beats and Thundercat. 2. In a live-streamed Q&A on Instagram Live, Curry revealed to fans that he had left behind his alter egos from previous albums, adding: “I’m Denzel. I’m a human being. I have feelings.” 3. He said that the album marks “the end of an era”.…

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates European Union defense cooperation, a watchdog said that EU institutions face vulnerabilities on another front: cybersecurity. The warning by the European Court of Auditors covers the wide range of EU bodies — from the executive arm based in Brussels to specialist agencies located across Europe — that run the 27-nation bloc’s day-to-day business. “The EU must step up its efforts to protect its own organizations,” Bettina Jakobsen, a member of the ECA, said in a statement accompanying a special report on cyberthreats. “Such attacks can have significant political implications.” Cyberattacks against EU bodies are increasing “sharply,” with major incidents jumping more than tenfold between 2018 and 2021, according to the Luxembourg-based ECA. Cybersecurity has jumped up the political agenda in Europe following attacks in…

Six months after being released by Canadian authorities following a diplomatic standoff involving Washington and Beijing, Huawei’s chief financial officer said the telecom equipment giant may be emerging from a “black zone” of business disruptions due to U.S. sanctions. Huawei Technologies Ltd. reported its 2021 profit rose 75.9% while sales fell under pressure from curbs on access to most U.S. technology that crippled its smartphone business and led to an overhaul of its global operations. Sanctions have “significantly affected our business,” but Huawei might be recovering as it develops new product lines, Meng Wanzhou said in her first appearance at a public business event since returning from Canada in September. “For Huawei in 2021, we may have perhaps passed through the black zone of this catastrophe,” Meng said at a…

Waymo’s self-driving ride-hailing service is branching out to San Francisco. The autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said that it started carrying employees in electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs without human backup drivers. Previously the company had been testing the vehicles with a safety driver behind the wheel just in case. Waymo didn’t elaborate on when it might offer autonomous rides to the public in San Francisco. The company has been using autonomous minivans without human backups to carry passengers in the East Valley of the Phoenix metro area since 2020. Waymo also announced this week that soon it will expand driverless rides to Downtown Phoenix. The program will start by carrying Waymo employees with safety drivers in the vehicles, with a goal of opening those rides to residents…

When she co-led Google’s Ethical AI team, Timnit Gebru was a prominent insider voice questioning the tech industry’s approach to artificial intelligence. That was before Google pushed her out of the company more than a year ago. Now Gebru is trying to make change from the outside as the founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, or DAIR. Born to Eritrean parents in Ethiopia, Gebru spoke recently about how poorly Big Tech’s AI priorities — and its AI-fueled social media platforms — serve Africa and elsewhere. The new institute focuses on AI research from the perspective of the places and people most likely to experience its harms. She’s also co-founder of the group Black in AI, which promotes Black employment and leadership in the field. And she’s known for…

Nielsen is being acquired for $16 billion, including debt, about a week after the media measurement company rejected a smaller offer earlier this month. Viewing data collected by Nielsen plays a big role in determining where billions in advertising dollars are spent each year. The company itself has annual global revenue of about $3.5 billion. A group of private equity investors led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P., and Brookfield Business Partners L.P. along with institutional partners will pay $28 for each outstanding Nielsen share. Brookfield Business Partners will invest approximately $2.65 billion via preferred equity, convertible into 45% of Nielsen’s common equity. The equity version of the deal is worth just over $10 billion in cash, with the remainder in debt held by…

Dog (2022) Former Army Ranger Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) takes ex-military dog Lulu – a Belgian Malinois – with him on a road trip down the Pacific Coast in a bid to make it to a funeral on time. Along the way, Briggs helps himself to heal from experiencing the horrors of war. FIVE FACTS: 1. Co-directors Tatum and Reid Carolin are making their feature directorial debuts on this film. 2. In the film, Lulu is portrayed by three different dogs: Britta, Lana 5 and Zuza. 3. However, the dog who appears most often as Lulu is Britta. 4. In a review for ComingSoon.net, critic Jonathan Sim called Dog “a familiar yet enjoyable entry in the mid-budget road movie genre.” 5. Meanwhile, in a review for The Washington Post ,…

The European Union and United States made a breakthrough in their yearslong battle over the privacy of data that flows across the Atlantic with a preliminary agreement that paves the way for Europeans’personal information to be stored in the U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal during Biden’s stop in Brussels while on a European tour amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. Business groups hailed the announcement, saying it will provide relief to thousands of companies, including tech giants like Google and Facebook, that faced uncertainty over their ability to send data between the U.S. and Europe, which has much stricter regulations on data privacy. Data may be related to employees or customers and users, and companies use it for all types of…

To her 1.4 million followers across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, Vica Li says she is a “life blogger” and “food lover” who wants to teach her fans about China so they can travel the country with ease. “Through my lens, I will take you around China, take you into Vica’s life!” she says in a video posted in January to her YouTube and Facebook accounts, where she also teaches Chinese classes over Zoom. But that lens may be controlled by CGTN, the Chinese-state run TV network where she has regularly appeared in broadcasts and is listed as a digital reporter on the company’s website. And while Vica Li tells her followers that she “created all of these channels on her own,” her Facebook account shows that at least nine…

A small maker of autonomous vehicle systems could be in hot water with U.S. highway safety regulators over how much time elapsed before it reported the crash of one of its test vehicles last fall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents released this week that it’s investigating Pony.ai’s reporting of an Oct. 28 crash in Fremont, California, about two weeks after it occurred. A software error caused one of the company’s autonomous test vehicles to crash into a median road sign. Recall documents filed by the company say there were no injuries or other property damage. The agency says it opened the investigation to see whether Pony.ai complied with reporting requirements under a general order issued last June to all manufacturers testing autonomous vehicles, or those with…

A woman accused of harassing Apple CEO Tim Cook with pleas for sex and other crude suggestions before showing up at his Silicon Valley home in a threatening manner last October agreed to stay away from him for the next three years under an agreement approved Tuesday. Julie Lee Choi consented to the deal negotiated with Apple during a appearance in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Cook, Apple’s CEO for the past decade, wasn’t present at the proceeding held in San Jose, California. Choi, 45, declined to comment after the hearing while angrily waving off two reporters taking her picture outside the courthouse. An Apple lawyer also declined to discuss the stipulation. The court order requires Choi to refrain from coming within 200 yards of Cook during the next three…

A NASA astronaut caught a Russian ride back to Earth on Wednesday after a U.S. record 355 days at the International Space Station, returning with two cosmonauts to a world torn apart by war. Mark Vande Hei landed in a Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan alongside the Russian Space Agency’s Pyotr Dubrov, who also spent the past year in space, and Anton Shkaplerov. Wind blew the capsule onto its side following touchdown, and the trio emerged into the late afternoon sun one by one. Vande Hei, the last one out, grinned and waved as he was carried to a reclining chair out in the open Kazakh steppes. “Beautiful out here,” said Vande Hei, putting on a face mask and ballcap. Despite escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Vladimir Putin’s…

Ukraine, which has waged a staunch defense against Russian invasion, says it has pioneered a new source of financial support: People around the world who have donated millions of dollars directly to its war effort via cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Since Feb. 26, when Ukrainian officials began tweeting calls for cryptocurrency donations, the Ukrainian government says it has taken in almost $67 million of its $200 million goal as of last weekend. “Today, crypto is playing a significant role in Ukraine’s defense,” Alex Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister for digital transformation, wrote on the nation’s donation website. Ukraine has spent about $34 million of the funds received as of last week, converting about 80% to traditional currencies and using the remainder with merchants that already accept cryptocurrencies, Bornyakov said in…

“The Lost City” is the kind of charming, star-driven, action-adventure that makes moviemaking look easy and effortless from the outside. It’s hard to imagine a world in which you pair Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum as a romance novelist and her himbo cover model on a “Romancing the Stone”-esque journey not being enjoyable. Throw in a bit of Brad Pitt kicking butt without breaking a sweat and a dash of Daniel Radcliffe as an eccentric heir and you’ve got a surefire hit, right? But if star charisma alone was enough to make a movie watchable, there would be many more good movies in the world. It’s why “The Lost City” is such a special creation. Sure, it lives or dies on Bullock, Tatum and the ensemble (including a delightful Da’Vine…

General Motors is shutting down its pickup truck factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for two weeks next month because the company has run short of computer chips. The auto industry continues to face supply chain issues more than a year after a global chip shortage first emerged in late 2020. Chip supplies have improved during the first three months of this year compared with 2021, GM said, improving production and deliveries in the first quarter. But there’s still uncertainty in getting supplies from chip manufacturers. The Fort Wayne plant will be closed the weeks of April 4 and 11. It has been running on three shifts per day making Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierra light duty pickups. The plant employs more than 4,000 blue collar workers. “There is still uncertainty…

The world must take “radical action” by investing $5.7 trillion in private and public money each year through 2030 to shift away from fossil fuels and ensure the planetary warming they cause doesn’t pass dangerous thresholds, the International Renewable Energy Agency says. In a 348-page report published this week on the state of the global energy transition, the agency said a massive increase in solar and wind power generation is needed, along with improved energy efficiency, electrification of transport and heating systems, expanded use of hydrogen made with renewables and greater efforts to capture carbon emissions. Scientists say global emissions need to drop 45% by the end of this decade compared to 1990 levels. But recent data show that despite rapid growth in renewable energy, total emissions are going up,…