Category: Silicon Valley

As global warming intensifies and deadly heatwaves spread across the world, becoming the “new normal,” the World Meteorological Organization is calling on governments to adopt heat action plans to protect “hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year.”

WMO’s protective policies incorporate early warning and response systems for urban and nonurban settings that target vulnerable people and critical support infrastructure such as power lines, refrigeration units, roads and rail lines that often buckle under extreme heatwaves.

“Worldwide, more intense and extreme heat is unavoidable,” said John Nairn, senior extreme heat adviser. He said it was imperative to prepare and adapt as cities, homes and workplaces are not built to withstand prolonged high temperatures “and vulnerable people are not sufficiently aware of the seriousness of the risk heat poses to their health and well-being.”

A study published last week in the scientific journal Nature Medicine found more than 60,000 people died in Europe last year from heat-related causes.

Nairn said experts and governments consider this a conservative estimate. “And it is worth noting, those numbers are for Europe, which has some of the strongest early warning systems and heat-health action plans in the world.

“So, you can imagine what the numbers are likely to be globally,” he said.

Heatwaves to be expected

Scientists say global temperatures are at unprecedented levels. While this year’s extensive and intense heatwaves are alarming, they say this should come as no surprise as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been warning of multiple hazards over the next two decades if global temperatures climb 1.5 degrees Celsius or more.

Meteorologists forecast temperatures in North America, Asia, and across North Africa and the Mediterranean will rise above 40 degrees Celsius for a prolonged number of days this week as heat waves intensify.

“These types of events are very concerning and have increased sixfold since the 1980s,” said Nairn.

Minimum temperatures, which are expected to reach new highs, he said, are particularly dangerous for human health because the body is unable to recover from hot days, “leading to increased cases of heart attacks and death.”

“Whilst most of the attention focuses on daytime maximum temperatures, it is the overnight temperatures which have the biggest health risks, especially for vulnerable populations,” he said.  

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies calls heatwaves “an invisible killer.” According to the IFRC World Disasters Report, climate and weather-related disasters have killed more than 400,000 people worldwide in the past 10 years.

Panu Saaristo, IFRC emergency health unit team leader for the Europe region, noted that the continent was experiencing hotter and hotter temperatures for longer stretches of time every summer.

“Seven countries across southern Europe have issued ‘red’ warnings for heat waves for the coming days, with temperatures likely to stay above average into August,” he said, noting that “infants, the elderly and chronic health conditions are at particular risk.”

Causes of heat-related deaths

Saaristo said most heat-related deaths do not occur because of heatstroke, but because of the impact heatwaves have on people with pre-existing conditions.  

“Extreme heat can worsen cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,” although he added that death was not a foregone conclusion.

“Deaths from heat waves can be greatly reduced with relatively simple solutions,” he said. “Red Cross societies around Europe are implementing these simple, low-cost actions all over Europe.”

For example, he said the Italian Red Cross was checking on elderly people by telephone to make sure they were safe from extreme heat. The Portuguese and French Red Cross societies, he said, were sharing practical tips through social media, telling people they must never leave children or animals in parked cars.

He said other potentially lifesaving actions include handing out drinking water so people do not become dehydrated, opening shelters so people can cool off and reminding people impacted by wildfires “to protect themselves from breathing in wildfire smoke, which can aggravate pre-existing health conditions and be dangerous.”

The WMO and IFRC agree that heat is a rapidly growing health risk due to rapid urbanization, increased high temperature extremes and an aging population. The United Nations reports that more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and that this is expected to increase to two-thirds by 2050.

“Now is the time for cities to incorporate heat-reduction measures in their strategy, planning for more green spaces in their cities,” said Saaristo.

The IPCC says limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of 2 degrees Celsius “could result in around 420 million fewer people being frequently exposed to extreme heat waves.”

WMO’s heat adviser Nairn said a major way to address climate change is to “electrify everything. It is a simple way to stop global warming.” 
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The heatwave engulfing the northern hemisphere is set to intensify this week, causing overnight temperatures to surge and leading to an increased risk of heart attacks and deaths, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.

“Temperatures in North America, Asia, and across North Africa and the Mediterranean will be above 40°C for a prolonged number of days this week as the heatwave intensifies,” the WMO said in a statement.

Overnight minimum temperatures were also set to reach new highs, according to the WMO, creating risks of increased cases of heart attacks and deaths.

“Whilst most of the attention focuses on daytime maximum temperatures, it is the overnight temperatures which have the biggest health risks, especially for vulnerable populations,” the WMO said.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, a researcher specialized in the study of heatwaves said that the high temperatures Europe was experiencing currently were bound to increase.

“The Mediterranean heatwave is big but nothing like what’s been through North Africa,” said John Nairn, Senior Extreme Heat Advisor for WMO. “It’s developing into Europe at this stage.”
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The White House on Tuesday along with companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet’s Google and Best Buy will announce an initiative that allows Americans to identify devices that are less vulnerable to cyberattacks.

A new certification and labeling program would raise the bar for cybersecurity across smart devices such as refrigerators, microwaves, televisions, climate control systems and fitness trackers, the White House said in a statement.

Retailers and manufacturers will apply a “U.S. Cyber Trust Mark” logo to their devices and the program will be up and running in 2024.

The initiative is designed to make sure “our networks and the use of them is more secure, because it is so important for economic and national security,” said a senior administration official, who did not wish to be named.

The Federal Communications Commission will seek public comment before rolling out the labeling program and register a national trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the White House said.

Other retailers and manufacturers participating in the program include LG Electronics U.S.A., Logitech, Cisco Systems and Samsung.

In March, the White House launched its national cyber strategy that called on software makers and companies to take far greater responsibility to ensure that their systems cannot be hacked.

It also accelerated efforts by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Department to disrupt activities of hackers and ransomware groups around the world.

Last week, Microsoft and U.S. official said Chinese state-linked hackers secretly accessed email accounts at around 25 organizations, including at least two U.S. government agencies, since May.
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The excavator tore into the remnants of the damaged building in southeast Turkey, bringing it crashing down into a cloud of dust — the latest menace facing survivors of the deadly February quake that ravaged the region.

Extending to the horizon, a cocoon of fine grey dust envelops the city of Samandag in the south of Hatay province, devastated by the February 6 earthquake that killed more than 55,000 people and laid waste to parts of Turkey and Syria.

“We survived the earthquake, but this dust will kill us,” Michel Atik, founder and president of the Samandag Environmental Protection Association, said. “We are going to die of respiratory diseases and lung cancer with all these hazardous materials.”

Five months after the quake, the scale of cleanup and reconstruction is enormous, with the government estimating that nearly 2.6 million buildings have been destroyed.

According to the UN Environment Programme, some 210 million tonnes of rubble must be disposed of.

By comparison, some 1.8 million tonnes of rubble had to be hauled away after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City that brought down the World Trade Center skyscrapers.

Environmental activists and local residents worry that in the rush to clean up and rebuild, crucial safety measures are being ignored, with potentially adverse effects on the health of local residents, the environment and the economy.

Landfills

The landfill near Samandag is one of several that have been set up in this province bordering Syria. It lies next to the Mediterranean and the Milleyha natural bird reserve, which is natural bird reserve, which is a nesting site for endangered green sea turtles.

Another landfill, in the Antakya region, lies near a valley of olive trees at the foot of the Nur Mountains. With olive oil the primary source of income in the province, there are fears that the dump could harm the trees.

“They don’t even hose it down,” said Cagdas Can, 33, an environmental activist with the Reconstruct group, as he watched trucks filled with debris leave Samandag toward the huge open-air landfill that lies next to one of Turkey’s longest beaches.

“There were other possible sites. … But the companies that won the tenders (for clearing) chose here to save fuel,” said Can.

“All they care about it recovering the iron and the metal,” he said.

“Nobody wears a mask. The demolition sites are not covered or hosed down and neither are the holds of the trucks, as required by law,” he said.

Can said that his environmental organization had tried to stop the trucks by forming human chains, “but the police intervened. Eighteen people were arrested, and I had my collarbone broken,” he said.

The exhausted local population, faced with a myriad of problems after the quake, has not mobilized, he said, but they are as worried as the conservationists about the impact of the cleanup.

Hidden hazards

“The children are the first to be affected, they cough a lot, so do we. As soon as it’s windy, everything is covered in dust,” said Mithat Hoca, 64, who sells vegetables at a stall in central Samandag.

“We have to cover everything,” said Mehmet Yazici, a 61-year-old retiree who passed by on a scooter. “We wipe the table 15 to 20 times a day. You have to do it every half hour.”

Ali Kanatli, a doctor in Antakya, some 26 kilometers (16 miles) away from Samandag, has already seen cases of “conjunctivitis, allergies, asthma, bronchitis.”

But above all, he worries about the long-term effects, like an increase in cancers, that the hazardous materials in the rubble and dust could cause in the region.

Turkey did not ban asbestos until 2013 and most of the buildings affected by the quake are older, he said.

“In addition to asbestos, we have lead in paint, heavy metals including mercury in electronic equipment such as televisions, household appliances,” he said.
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The United Nations said Tuesday vaccinations for children have generally rebounded since a drop during the COVID-19 pandemic but warned that vaccination rates in many smaller and poorer countries are not experiencing the same progress.

The U.N. said 20.5 million children missed one or more routine vaccinations in 2022, an improvement from 24.4 million the year before.  In 2019, before the pandemic hit worldwide, that figure was 18.4 million.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the overall figures “encouraging,” but said global and regional numbers “mask severe and persistent inequities.”

“When countries and regions lag, children pay the price,” he said.

The U.N. said 73 countries saw substantial declines in child vaccination rates during the pandemic, and that 34 of those countries have seen their rates either fail to improve or get worse.

Rates for measles vaccines followed the larger global trend, with 83% of children receiving a first does during their first year of life in 2022, improving from 81% in 2021 but not reaching the 86% level achieved before the pandemic.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the mammal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday.

The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick — since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year.

The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA.

“Additional cases will continue to be reviewed, and animals will be added if appropriate, as more information is obtained,” Gomez said.

Thirty-six of the 114 whales included in the estimate had died, NOAA documents state. The agency cautioned that only about a third of right whale deaths are documented, so the total number of dead or injured animals could be much higher.

Right whales are found off the Atlantic coast of the U.S. They are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. The federal government has worked to craft stricter rules to protect the whales from both threats.

Commercial fishing and shipping interests have both vowed to fight stricter protections. A federal appeals court sided with fishermen last month after they filed a complaint that proposed new restrictions could put them out of business.

The new data illustrate how dire the situation is for the whales, said Sarah Sharp, an animal rescue veterinarian with International Fund for Animal Welfare. The number of injured animals is especially significant because injured whales are less likely to reproduce, Sharp said.

“If animals are putting energy into healing from a wound, they are not necessarily going to have those energy stores for other things,” Sharp said. “I think this just paints a much more accurate picture of the threats these whales are facing.”

The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia and feed off New England and Canada. They have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for decades, and federal authorities ruled in December that they must retain that protection.
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Norway’s data protection agency said Monday it would ban Facebook and Instagram owner Meta from using the personal information of users for targeted advertising, threatening a $100,000 daily fine if the company continues. 

The business practices of big U.S. tech firms are under close scrutiny across Europe over concerns about privacy, with huge fines handed out in recent years. 

The Norwegian watchdog, Datatilsynet, said Meta uses information such as the location of users, the content they like and their posts for marketing purposes. 

“The Norwegian Data Protection Authority considers that the practice of Meta is illegal and is therefore imposing a temporary ban of behavioural advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” it said in a statement.  

The ban will begin on August 4 and last three months to give Meta time to take corrective measures. The company will be fined one million kroner ($100,000) per day if it fails to comply.  

“We will analyze the decision … but there is no immediate effect on our services,” Meta told AFP in a statement. 

The Norwegian regulator added that its ruling was neither a ban on Facebook and Instagram operating in the country nor a blanket ban on behavioral advertising. 

The Austrian digital privacy campaign group noyb, which has lodged a number of complaints against Meta’s activities, said it “welcomes this decision as a first important step” and hopes data regulators in other countries will follow suit. 

Meta suffered a major setback earlier this year when European regulators dismissed the legal basis Meta had used to justify gathering users’ personal data for use in targeted advertising. 

Meta suffered another major setback earlier this month when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected its various workarounds and empowered antitrust regulators to take data privacy issues into account when conducting investigations. 
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Jomarie Oliva, 33, led an afternoon workshop with 10 teenagers on topics that many in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines consider taboo. The conversation included the reasons that some teens have sex.

“Out of curiosity?” Oliva asked the group? “For pleasure,” responded one of the teens, while the rest of the group laughed.

Later, Oliva talked about the responsibilities of parenthood as well as different types of birth control, including “abstinence, pills, condoms, IUDs, implants, injectables,” she said, before explaining each one.

Oliva is a community mobilizer for Likhaan Center for Women’s Health, a non-government organization that works on reproductive health, access to contraceptives and sex education.

In some countries, in-depth classroom discussions about sex and contraceptives are common for teenagers, but not in the Philippines. “Not every student gets sex education in schools,” Oliva told VOA. “You don’t always learn all the ways to protect yourself from unplanned pregnancies, how to use condoms and other contraceptives.”

Advocates for comprehensive sex education say the lack of lessons for many youths is one of the reasons one out of 10 births in the Philippines is by a mother younger than 19.

Government data reports the number of females ages 15 to 19 who became pregnant during the previous five years fell from 8.6% in 2017 to 5.4% in 2022. Health advocates, however, say they are very concerned that about 2,300 girls ages 10 to 14 gave birth in 2021.

“There are teens who don’t know that a woman can get pregnant the first time she has sex,” Oliva says. “Some kids think a girl needs to have sex multiple times to get pregnant.”

Oliva holds workshops in community centers and neighborhood gathering spots in metropolitan Manila. At a recent session, 17-year-old Hanah Ilajas listened carefully. Ilajas said this was first time anyone explained to her how birth control pills work.

“I’ve heard about pills before, but I only really learned about them now,” she said, adding that in school, her teachers don’t discuss contraceptives. “It’s just not something that really comes up.”

Sex education and access to contraceptives are controversial subjects in the Philippines, where the Catholic Church holds significant influence on a population that’s about 80% Catholic. The church fought a reproductive health law, passed in December 2012, that expanded sex education in public schools and made contraceptives available for free at public health clinics. Minors, however, can only legally access contraceptives with parental approval.

The Rev. Jerome Secillano, a spokesperson for the Catholics Bishops Conference of the Philippines, says teaching people about contraceptives might encourage them to use them. The Catholic Church advocates only for natural birth control methods and Secillano says for teens, the only one that should be encouraged is abstinence.

“We start by telling them that sex should be done not outside the marriage but inside the marriage,” Secillano said. “Secondly, do not use contraceptives, do not use pills, do not use condoms and thirdly, you need to preserve your body. You’re still young and sexual intercourse is not for your biological age.”

Erickson Bernardo, a youth advocacy officer for Likhaan, believes complete education for teens on all forms of birth control, including pills and condoms, is important. “You don’t actually encourage them to have sex, but basically you allow them to make responsible decisions,” Bernardo said.

Bernardo and other advocates for comprehensive sex education say in reality, many teens still aren’t getting these lessons in schools. Although the reproductive health law was passed in late 2012, it took the Department of Education more than five years to issue guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education. According to Bernardo, it still faces resistance

“There are some school administrators who are willing to adopt comprehensive sexuality education so long as not in their schools,” Bernardo said. The Department of Education did not answer questions, sent in writing from VOA, about implementation of comprehensive sexuality education.

Bernardo and Oliva say while the pace is slow, gradually more schools are teaching students about all methods of birth control. Both, however, say the issue also has roots in the home.

“Parents often shy away from having reproductive health discussions with their children,” Oliva said. “In some cases, it’s because it makes them uncomfortable and sometimes, they don’t have enough knowledge themselves.”

Seventeen-year-old Hanah Ilajas said participating in Oliva’s workshop was time well spent.

“It helped me understand things better,” she said.
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In the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, a debate is raging over whether to teach teenagers about contraceptives. Comprehensive sex education is required in public schools but not all schools are following through. Dave Grunebaum has the story.
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Britain’s financial watchdog on Monday proposed toughening up safeguards against the illegal marketing of financial products on social media by applying a stringent “consumer duty” that is being rolled out to banks, funds and insurers on July 31.

The Financial Conduct Authority has said its new duty will be a step change in protecting retail investors after years of mis-selling scandals, by forcing firms to demonstrate how they are giving consumer good outcomes.

“Where applicable, the Consumer Duty will raise our expectations of firms communicating financial promotions on social media above the requirement… to be ‘clear, fair and not misleading’,” the FCA said in proposals out to public consultation.

“Firms advertising using social media must consider how their marketing strategies align with acting to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.”

In the fourth quarter of last year, nearly 70% of amended or withdrawn financial marketing following FCA intervention involved a promotion on websites or social media, the FCA said.

The watchdog is targeting so-called ‘finfluencers’ or widely followed people on social media who promote financial products.

“Consumers exhibit high levels of trust in finfluencers, but their advice can often be misleading,” the FCA said.

“Promoting a regulated financial product or service without approval of an FCA authorized person, or providing financial advice without FCA authorisation, may be a criminal offense.”

Promotions should also include risk warnings, it added.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted air quality alerts Sunday for several states stretching from Montana to Ohio because of smoke blowing in from Canadian wildfires.

“Air Quality alerts are in place for much of the Great Lakes, Midwest, and northern High Plains,” the National Weather Service said. “This is due to the lingering thick concentration of Canadian wildfire smoke over these regions. While the concentration of smoke in the atmosphere should begin to wane by Monday, there is still enough smoke to support unhealthy air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups in parts of these regions into the start of the upcoming week.”

The U.S. EPA’s AirNow air quality page rated the air in Chicago as “unhealthy” as of 9 a.m. CDT Sunday. And in Michigan, state environmental officials said the air “is unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services advised people in the state to check the Air Quality Index regularly to decide if they should be participating in outdoor activities.

The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability issued a Knozone Action Day for Sunday, saying people throughout central Indiana should avoid time spent outdoors as much as possible, especially active children, the elderly, anyone who is pregnant, and those with asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), emphysema, heart disease or COVID-19. Sensitive groups should remain indoors Sunday and refrain from activities that degrade indoor air quality, including burning candles and vacuuming.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that unhealthy air from the wildfires in Canada was expected to hit parts of New York state again Monday, mostly in the northern and western parts of the state. She said the air quality index was forecast to be 100 to 150 in those areas, when 0 to 50 is the norm. Her comments came at a news conference about heavy rain and flooding.

“As if the rain coming out of the sky isn’t enough, if you start looking up tomorrow, you’re going to see a similar situation to what we had a couple of weeks ago because of the air quality degradation resulting from the wildfires in Canada,” she said. “We’re likely to be issuing [an] air quality alert for portions of our state. It seems to be projected to be mostly around western New York and the North Country at this time. But as we saw, it can shift very quickly and start developing in more populated areas.”

Health officials have recommended people can stay safe by taking steps such as wearing a mask, staying indoors and keeping indoor air clean.
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As much of the world swelters in record temperatures, spare a thought for Issam Genedi, who ekes out a living washing cars in one of the planet’s hottest regions, the Gulf.

Pausing from his work at an outdoor carpark in Dubai, the Egyptian migrant says the United Arab Emirates’ furnace-like summer feels even hotter this year. 

“This summer is a little more difficult than other years,” says Genedi, who shines cars for about 25 dirhams ($6.80) a time in temperatures that pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) each day. 

“Between noon and 3 p.m. or 3:30 p.m., we simply cannot work.”

The oil-rich UAE — host of this year’s COP28 United Nations climate talks, where the world will try to sharpen its response to global warming — is no stranger to unbearable summers.

In the blistering summer months, those who can decamp to cooler climes, or stay cocooned inside air-conditioned homes, offices and shopping malls.

The streets are largely deserted, apart from laborers hired cheaply from abroad. Many manual workers have a compulsory rest period in the hottest hours of the day.

It’s a similar story all around the energy-rich desert region. In Bahrain, an island nation off Saudi Arabia, July average temperatures threaten to beat the record of 42.1C (107.8F) set in 2017.

Two weeks ago, more than 1.8 million Muslims battled through a days-long hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in temperatures up to 48C (118F), with thousands treated for heat stress.

And in Kuwait, which regularly records some of the world’s highest temperatures, experts warn the mercury could pass a formidable 50C (122F) in the coming weeks. 

Where ‘real feel’ is 60C

Genedi is right that this summer seems unusually hot. Apart from last week being identified as the hottest ever recorded worldwide, a wave of humidity has been suffocating the Gulf.

“People have been left wondering if the temperatures are even higher” than usual, Ahmed Habib of the UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology told AFP. 

“An increase in relative humidity … combined with already high temperatures, makes the temperature seem higher than it really is,” he said, adding that “real-feel” temperatures have ranged between 55-60C (131-140 F) in some areas.

The Gulf’s extreme heat and high humidity are a dangerous mix because, in such conditions, the human body struggles to cool itself by evaporating sweat on the skin.

The combination is measured by a thermometer wrapped in a wet cloth to calculate the “wet bulb temperature” — the lowest possible through evaporative cooling.

The Gulf is one of the few places to have repeatedly measured wet bulb temperatures above 35C (95F), the threshold of human survivability beyond which heat stress can be fatal within hours, regardless of age, health and fitness.

It is for this reason that experts warn accelerated climate change will make parts of the Gulf region unliveable by the end of this century.

In Kuwait, meteorologist Issa Ramadan said “the increase in temperature over the past year has been significant.”

“It is expected that from the middle of the month until August 20 there will be a noticeable rise in temperatures that may reach and even exceed 50C (122F) in the shade,” he told AFP.

Humidity could top 90% in Bahrain by the end of the week, with maximum temperatures ranging between 42-44C (108-111F), according to official forecasts.

‘Our profession is difficult’

Gulf temperatures will rise to disruptive levels if global warming is left unchecked, according to projections by Barrak Alahmad of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dominic Roye of the Foundation for Climate Research. 

In the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi, the number of 40C-plus (104F-plus) days will rise by 98% by 2100 if global temperatures increase by 3C, according to the findings published in June by Vital Signs, a coalition of rights groups working on migrant laborer deaths in the Gulf. 

The same 3C global increase will see Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia experiencing 180 days of 40C-plus temperatures a year by the end of the century, it said.

“These conditions could seriously disrupt human societies in ways we are just beginning to understand,” Alahmad told the Vital Signs Partnership.

Intense heat and humidity is already a daily reality for many in the Gulf, not least the thousands of mostly South Asian delivery motorcyclists who crisscross its cities carrying food and other packages. 
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Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half.

In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

“Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he concluded.

Ever since he took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Musk has tried to reassure advertisers who were concerned about the ouster of top executives, widespread layoffs and a different approach to content moderation. Some high-profile users who had been banned were allowed back on the site.

In April, Musk said most of the advertisers who left had returned and that the company might become cash-flow positive in the second quarter.

In May, he hired a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, an NBCUniversal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry.

But since then, Twitter has upset some users by imposing new limits on how many tweets they can view in a day, and some users complained that they were locked out of the site. Musk said the restrictions were needed to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.

Twitter got a new competitor this month when Facebook owner Meta launched a text-focused app, Threads, and gained tens of millions of sign-ups in a few days. Twitter responded by threatening legal action.
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The U.K.’s oldest medical union Saturday hit out at government plans to increase the amount migrant workers pay to use the state health care service, to cover public-sector wage increases.  

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government this week approved recommendations to boost wages of teachers, doctors and police by between 5.0 to 7.0 percent.  

Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the raise but instead said hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise $1.3 billion.  

Doctors in Unite, which represents junior doctors, general practitioners and hospital consultants, said it was “appalled” at the move, as it would see migrants pay double to use the National Health Service (NHS).  

Most employees in the U.K. have National Insurance contributions deducted at the source on their salaries, which pays for the National Health Service, as well as state pension and unemployment schemes. 

“Just like other workers, migrants contribute to NHS funding through general taxation. Doubling the NHS surcharge to over $1,570 per year is an unjust additional penalty,” Doctors in Unite said.  

“Migrants are effectively ‘taxed twice’ to access the same service,” it added, calling the move “immoral and divisive.”  

The IHS, initially brought in to prevent “medical tourism,” is now paid by most migrants under tighter post-Brexit entry rules. 

It is paid per person in addition to visa fees for stays of more than six months.  

Over-18s pay $817 per year while students and under-18s pay $615 per year.  

The government has proposed raising the IHS for adults to $1,355, and $1,016 at the reduced rate. 

Work and visit visas will go up by 15 percent, while the cost of student and leave-to-remain visas among others will rise by at least 20 percent.  

Net migration in the U.K. hit a record 606,000 in 2022, according to official figures released in May, heaping pressure on the government, which has pledged to cut dependency on foreign labor.  

Sunak has described legal immigration levels as “too high,” and is separately battling record levels of asylum claims from migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.  

Critics warn the IHS increases — paid for by individuals or their companies — could worsen under-staffing in many sectors, and prompt high-skilled workers and students to go elsewhere. 

Migrant and refugee charity Praxis has accused ministers of treating people born outside the U.K. as “cash cows” at a time when they were struggling to repay already high visa renewal fees. 

The genomics research center The Wellcome Sanger Institute said it spent more than $393,000 in immigration fees for its employees in 2022. 

“These proposed increases create further barriers for global talent… and will have a detrimental effect on [the] U.K. and global science,” said head of policy Sarion Bowers. 
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United Nations agencies said Friday that millions of Sudanese cannot obtain treatment for emergency and chronic health conditions because fighting has brought the country’s fragile health system to near total collapse.   

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement violence and “shortages of supplies, damage or occupation of facilities and assaults on medical staff” are having a devastating impact on people’s lives and on their ability to access health care. 

The World Health Organization has said that some 50 attacks on health care facilities have caused 10 deaths and 21 injuries since fighting began between the Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces three months ago. 

“Ongoing violence, rampant insecurity, repeated attacks on health, and limited access to essential health supplies, are putting the people of Sudan in a life-or-death situation, with no immediate political solution in sight,” Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean said.  

Speaking from Cairo, Brennan said the violence has had a huge impact on access to the most basic health care, including treatment of such common infections as pneumonia and diarrhea, trauma treatment, and obstetric care.   

He said the conflict is preventing people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension from getting treatment.   

“Patients who have been receiving dialysis for kidney failure and treatment for cancer are facing a sudden cessation of their treatment, with life-threatening consequences,” he said. 

He said disrupted access to those services is risking the lives of 8,000 people, including 240 children who need regular dialysis sessions.  He said many of an estimated 49,000 Sudanese cancer patients could die “without restoration of access to their cancer care.” 

He said lack of access to health care is raising the risk of malaria, measles, dengue, and cholera outbreaks.  The dangers, he said, are particularly acute with the onset of the rainy season. 

“The delivery of health care across the entire country is limited by shortage of supplies, lack of health workers and functioning health facilities, and logistic constraints due to insecurity and roadblocks by militias,” he said. 

The World Health Organization estimates 11 million people in Sudan need urgent health assistance, but few health facilities still are functioning.   Brennan said that between two-thirds and 80% of hospitals are not functioning and “in West Darfur, only one hospital is operational, but only partially.” 

Despite the ongoing insecurity and bureaucratic impediments, he said the WHO was working with local health authorities and U.N. agencies, including UNICEF and the U.N. Population Fund, to provide health care. 

For example, he said more than 170 tons of medical supplies have been delivered to hospitals and therapeutic treatments have been provided for more than 100,000 severely malnourished children. 

He said the WHO and and the U.N. Population Fund were working to provide women and girls access to sexual, reproductive, and maternal health care.   

He added that survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, which reportedly “is widespread in this conflict, as it is in so many conflicts,” were receiving medical and psychosocial support. 

“But the reality is that there are large proportions of the population to whom we do not have access, especially in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan,” he said. 

“Therefore, together with our U.N. partners, we are exploring all options to expand our operations, including through cross-border assistance.” 
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Visitors to Las Vegas on Friday stepped out momentarily to snap photos and were hit by blast-furnace air. But most will spend their vacations in a vastly different climate — at casinos where the chilly air conditioning might require a light sweater.

Meanwhile, emergency room doctors were witnessing another world, as dehydrated construction workers, passed-out elderly residents and others suffered in an intense heat wave threatening to break the city’s all-time record high of 47.2 degrees Celsius this weekend.

Few places in the scorching Southwest demonstrate the surreal contrast between indoor and outdoor life like Las Vegas, a neon-lit city rich with resorts, casinos, swimming pools, indoor nightclubs and shopping. Tens of millions of others across California and the Southwest, were also scrambling for ways to stay cool and safe from the dangers of extreme heat.

“We’ve been talking about this building heat wave for a week now, and now the most intense period is beginning,” the National Weather Service wrote Friday.

Nearly a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings. The blistering heat wave was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona and California, where desert temperatures were predicted to soar in parts past 48.8 degrees Celsius during the day and remain above 32.2 C overnight.

Sergio Cajamarca, his family and their dog, Max, were among those who lined up to pose for photos in front of the city’s iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. The temperature before noon already topped 37.8 C.

“I like the city, especially at night. It’s just the heat,” said Cajamarca, 46, an electrician from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

His daughter, Kathy Zhagui, 20, offered her recipe for relief: “Probably just water, ice cream, staying inside.”

Meteorologists in Las Vegas warned people not to underestimate the danger. “This heatwave is NOT typical desert heat due to its long duration, extreme daytime temperatures, & warm nights. Everyone needs to take this heat seriously, including those who live in the desert,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said in a tweet.

Phoenix marked the city’s 15th consecutive day of 43.3 degrees Celsius or higher temperatures on Friday, hitting 46.6 degrees Celsius by late afternoon, and putting it on track to beat the longest measured stretch of such heat. The record is 18 days, recorded in 1974.

“This weekend there will be some of the most serious and hot conditions we’ve ever seen,” said David Hondula the city’s chief heat officer. “I think that it’s a time for maximum community vigilance.”

The heat was expected to continue well into next week as a high pressure dome moves west from Texas.

“We’re getting a lot of heat-related illness now, a lot of dehydration, heat exhaustion,” said Dr. Ashkan Morim, who works in the ER at Dignity Health Siena Hospital in suburban Henderson.

Morim said he has treated tourists this week who spent too long drinking by pools and became severely dehydrated; a stranded hiker who needed liters of fluids to regain his strength; and a man in his 70s who fell and was stuck for seven hours in his home until help arrived. The man kept his home thermostat at 26.7 C, concerned about his electric bill with air conditioning operating constantly to combat high nighttime temperatures.

Regional health officials in Las Vegas launched a new database Thursday to report “heat-caused” and “heat-related” deaths in the city and surrounding Clark County from April to October.

The Southern Nevada Health District said seven people have died since April 11, and a total of 152 deaths last year were determined to be heat-related.

Besides casinos, air-conditioned public libraries, police station lobbies and other places from Texas to California planned to be open to the public to offer relief at least for part of the day. In New Mexico’s largest city of Albuquerque, splash pads will be open for extended hours and many public pools were offering free admission. In Boise, Idaho, churches and other nonprofit groups were offering water, sunscreen and shelter.

Temperatures closer to the Pacific coast were less severe, but still made for a sweaty day on picket lines in the Los Angeles area where actors joined screenwriters in strikes against producers.

In Sacramento, the California State Fair kicked off with organizers canceling planned horseracing events due to concerns for animal safety.

Employers were reminded that outdoor workers must receive water, shade and regular breaks to cool off.

Pet owners were urged to keep their animals mostly inside. “Dogs are more susceptible to heat stroke and can literally die within minutes. Please leave them at home in the air conditioning,” David Szymanski, park superintendent for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the wildfire season was ramping up amid the hot, dry conditions with a series of blazes erupting across California this week, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, said at a media briefing.

Global climate change is “supercharging” heat waves, Crowfoot added.

Firefighters in Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles, were battling multiple brush fires that started Friday afternoon.

Stefan Gligorevic, a software engineer from Lancaster, Pennsylvania visiting Las Vegas for the first time said he planned to stay hydrated and not let it ruin his vacation.

“Cold beer and probably a walk through the resorts. You take advantage of the shade when you can,” Gligorevic said. “Yeah, definitely.”
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The chief executives of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc are planning to visit Washington next week to discuss China policy, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The executives plan to hold meetings with U.S. officials to talk about market conditions, export controls and other matters affecting their businesses, one of the sources said. It was not immediately clear whom the executives would meet.

Intel and Qualcomm declined to comment, and officials at the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

The sources said other semiconductor CEOs may also be in Washington next week. The sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.  

U.S. officials are considering tightening export rules affecting high-performance computing chips and shipments to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, sources told Reuters in June. The rules would respectively affect Intel, which is preparing a new artificial intelligence chip that could be shipped to China, and Qualcomm, which has a license to sell chips to Huawei.

The Biden administration last October issued a sweeping set of rules designed to freeze China’s semiconductor industry in place while the U.S. pours billions of dollars in subsidies into its own chip industry.

The possible rule tightening would hit Nvidia particularly hard. The company’s strong position in the AI chip market helped boost its worth to $1 trillion earlier this year.

The chip industry has been warmly received in Washington in recent years as lawmakers and the White House work to shift more production to the U.S. and its allies, and away from China. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon have met often with government officials.

Next week’s meetings, which one of the sources said could include joint sessions between executives and U.S. officials, come as Nvidia Corp NVDA.O and other chip companies fear a permanent loss of sales for an industry with large amounts of business in China while tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing.

One of the sources familiar with the matter said the executives’ goals for the meetings would be to ensure that government officials understand the possible impact of any further tightening of rules around what chips can be sold to China.

Many U.S. chip firms get more than one-fifth of their revenue from China, and industry executives have argued that reducing those sales would cut into profits that they reinvest into research and development.
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Microsoft says hackers used a flaw in its code to steal emails from government agencies and other clients. 

In a blog post published Friday, the company said that Chinese hackers were able to take advantage of “a validation error in Microsoft code” to carry out their cyberespionage campaign. 

The blog provided the most thorough explanation yet for a hack that rattled both the cybersecurity industry and China-U.S. relations. Beijing has denied any involvement in the spying. 

Microsoft and U.S. officials said on Wednesday night that since May, Chinese state-linked hackers had been secretly accessing email accounts at about 25 organizations. U.S. officials said those included at least two U.S. government agencies. 

Microsoft has not identified any of the hack’s targets, but several victims have acknowledged they were affected, including personnel at the State Department, the Commerce Department and the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday that any action that targets the U.S. government, U.S. companies or American citizens “is of deep concern to us, and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable,” according to a senior State Department official. 

Microsoft’s own security practices have come under scrutiny, with officials and lawmakers calling on the Redmond, Washington-based company to make its top level of digital auditing, also called logging, available to all its customers free of charge.
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