Month: May 2021

Categories
Business

Flying and Local weather: Airways Below Stress to Lower Emissions

Flying and Climate: Airlines Under Pressure to Cut Emissions

The worst of the pandemic may be over for airlines, but the industry faces another looming crisis: an accounting over its contribution to climate change.

The industry is under increasing pressure to do something to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions from travel, but it won’t be easy. Some solutions, like hydrogen fuel cells, are promising, but it’s unclear when they will be available, if ever. That leaves companies with few options: They can make tweaks to squeeze out efficiencies, wait for technology to improve or invest today to help make viable options for the future.

“It’s a big crisis, it’s a pressing crisis — a lot needs to be done soon,” said Jagoda Egeland, an aviation policy expert at the International Transport Forum, a unit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “It’s a hard-to-abate sector. It will always emit some carbon.”

Experts say commercial air travel accounts for about 3 to 4 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. And while planes become more efficient with each new model, growing demand for flights is outpacing those advancements. The United Nations expects airplane emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, to triple by 2050. Researchers at the International Council on Clean Transportation say emissions may grow even faster.

Before the pandemic, a “flying shame” movement, which aims to discourage air travel in favor of greener options like rail, was gaining ground globally thanks to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist. There were early signs that it may have reduced air travel in Germany and Sweden. Now French lawmakers are considering a ban on short flights that can be replaced by train travel.

Investors are pushing businesses to disclose more about their efforts to lobby lawmakers on climate issues, too. And some large corporations, whose employees crisscross the globe and fill plush business class seats, are reviewing travel budgets to reduce expenses and emissions.

The urgency isn’t lost on the industry. Scott Kirby, the chief executive of United Airlines, speaks often about the need to address climate change, but even he acknowledges that it will be difficult for the industry to clean up its act. He wants United and other airlines to try different things and see what works.

“It is the biggest long-term issue that our generation faces. It is the biggest risk to the globe,” Mr. Kirby said in a recent interview. “There are plenty of things we can compete on, but we all ought to be trying to make a difference on climate change.”

There are efforts to electrify small planes for short flights — including one backed by United — but doing the same for longer, larger flights will be tough, maybe impossible. Commercial planes like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A320, which can carry a few hundred passengers, require an immense amount of energy to reach cruising altitude — more energy than modern batteries can efficiently supply.

Someday, hydrogen fuel cells and synthetic jet fuel could help to decarbonize the industry, and pilot projects have already begun, mainly in Europe, where Airbus says it plans to build a zero-emission aircraft by 2035. Boeing has put its emphasis on developing more fuel-efficient planes and is committed to ensuring that all of its commercial planes can fly exclusively on “sustainable” jet fuel made from waste, plants and other organic matter.

At a petrochemical plant outside Houston, Neste U.S. and Texmark Chemicals are converting imported undistilled diesel into renewable jet fuels. The undistilled diesel is made from used cooking oil and waste from vegetable and animal processing plants.

Neste, a Finnish company, is the world’s largest producer of renewable jet fuel. Its U.S. customers include American Airlines, JetBlue and Delta Air Lines.

United, which buys renewable jet fuel from Fulcrum BioEnergy and World Energy, recently announced a deal with more than a dozen major corporate customers, including Deloitte, HP and Nike, that will result in the airline’s buying about 3.4 million gallons of sustainable fuel this year. American has an agreement to buy nine million gallons of such fuel over several years, and Delta says it plans to replace a tenth of its jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2030.

“There is huge growth potential for sustainable aviation fuel,” said Jeremy Baines, president of Neste U.S. “It’s a niche market today, but it’s growing very rapidly. Between today and 2023 we are going to increase our production at least 15-fold.”

Neste produces 35 million gallons of renewable aviation fuel and hopes to reach 515 million gallons annually by the end of 2023 by ramping up production at refineries in Singapore and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. That is enough to fuel close to 40,000 flights by wide-body aircraft between New York and London, or well over a year’s worth of prepandemic air travel between the two cities.

But it is important to put those numbers in perspective. U.S. airlines used more than 18 billion gallons of fuel in 2019, and the country as a whole consumes more than 100 billion gallons of petroleum products annually.

Rystad Energy, a Norwegian consulting firm, predicts that renewable fuels will become increasingly economical after 2030 and supply 30 percent of all aviation fuel by 2050. But IHS Markit, a U.S. consulting firm, estimates that sustainable jet fuel will make up only 15 percent of all jet fuel by 2050.

Renewable jet fuel has its limits, too. The fuel reduces carbon emissions by only 30 percent to 50 percent compared with conventional jet fuel, according to Daniel Evans, the global head of refining and marketing at IHS Markit. What’s more, production of the fuel can cause deforestation when the raw materials are farmed.

Some companies want to get around those problems by avoiding agricultural crops. Fulcrum, in which United is invested, is planning to build a plant in Britain to produce jet fuel out of waste from landfills and other trash. Red Rock Biofuels, a Colorado company, hopes to use waste woody biomass.

But development of renewable fuels from waste or substances like fast-growing algae and switch grass has been frustratingly slow.

“It’s going to be a real stretch,” Mr. Evans said. “Even if you are burning 100 percent biofuel, it’s still not going to be getting you to carbon neutral.”

Biofuels are also about 50 percent more expensive to make than conventional fuel, according to Michael E. Webber, chief science and technology officer of Engie, a French utility working on advanced jet fuels.

Hydrogen offers another possibility, although probably not for several decades. Instead of batteries or fuel engines, the potential hydrogen-powered aircraft of the future would operate with hydrogen tanks and fuel cells, though the technology would need to be advanced to reduce the size of the tanks and cells. The hydrogen could be made with renewable power sources like the wind and sun to reduce planet-warming emissions. But such fuels cost two to three times more than conventional fuel, experts say.

Several European countries also require refiners to produce and blend renewable jet fuel. The European Union is financially supporting Airbus’s development of a hydrogen-fueled aircraft, and the French government is encouraging Air France to research a synthetic jet fuel.

In the United States, federal support is minimal, so far. Renewable jet fuel producers receive a $1 per gallon subsidy under existing federal tax credits for biodiesel, but a bill introduced this month in the House would provide a tax credit starting at $1.5 per gallon.

Another option that many airlines have turned to is carbon offsets. By buying an offset, a company or individual effectively pays somebody else to plant or not cut trees or to take other steps to reduce greenhouse gases.

But the benefits of some offsets are difficult to measure — it’s hard to know, for example, whether landowners would have cut down trees had they not been paid to preserve woods, a common type of offset. Mr. Kirby, the United chief executive, is skeptical that such offsets are effective.

“Traditional carbon offsets are a marketing initiative; they’re greenwashing,” he said. “Even in the few cases where they are real and are making a difference, they’re just so small that they can’t scale to solve the global problem.”

United helps passengers and corporate customers buy offsets, but Mr. Kirby said the company was focusing more on sustainable fuel and removing and storing carbon in perpetuity.

In December, the airline said it was investing in 1PointFive, a joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and a private equity firm that plans to build plants that suck carbon dioxide from the air and store the gas deep underground. This approach would theoretically allow United and other airlines to remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as their planes put into it.

“It’s the only solution I know of that can help get us as a globe to zero, because the others, if you understand the math, they just don’t work,” Mr. Kirby said.

Such efforts had long been dismissed as impractical, but corporations are increasingly pouring money into them as investors and activists pressure businesses to decarbonize. Mr. Kirby said such investments would help to drive down costs. But some experts warn that while direct air capture can help industries that are difficult to decarbonize, the ultimate aim should be to attack the problem at the source.

“If you can avoid the emissions in the first place, it’s so much cheaper and easier than having to pull it back out,” said Jennifer Wilcox, an Energy Department official and expert on direct air capture.

Despite the formidable challenges, Mr. Kirby is optimistic that investments in alternative fuels and carbon capture technology will yield a breakthrough.

“In the near term, it’s about getting them to work economically,” he said. “Once you cross that threshold, you will have an exponential increase.”

Categories
Health

Elizabeth Holmes’ attorneys cite unfavourable protection in request to develop jury choice

Elizabeth Holmes' lawyers cite negative coverage in request to expand jury selection

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former executive director of the Theranos Center, is leaving the U.S. Federal Court in San Jose, California on May 6, 2021.

Nina Riggio | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the case of Elizabeth Holmes, it seems that any advertisement is not a good advertisement.

Attorneys for the former Theranos CEO cite widespread negative media coverage as a reason to add to the pool of jurors in their upcoming criminal trial.

A 21-page motion filed late Thursday set out examples of extremely descriptive and unflattering stories about Holmes in recent years.

“The advertising is consistently negative,” said Holmes lawyers. In addition, she is “routinely mentioned in derisive and inflammatory terms directly relevant to the cable fraud charges in this case. Media coverage describes her as” fraud “,” cheater “,” cheater “,” more ashamed. ” Theranos Founder “. Cheater and an angry psychopath.

Holmes requests an extended subpoena from the jury and has proposed a written questionnaire for the jury. Holmes attorneys wrote, “Media coverage also addresses adverse tropes and recurring issues, often related to Ms. Holmes’ behavior, voice and physical appearance.” They say the negative publicity dates back to at least 2015 and “has focused intensely on Ms. Holmes personally, not just the circumstances surrounding the dissolution of Theranos’ company”.

In the court record, Holmes’ lawyers said they conducted a comprehensive search of news articles and other media that generated 462,000 entries. These included 3,755 results from “Negative Personal News” and 2,862 results from “Negative Business News”.

Holmes attorneys proposed a 46-page jury questionnaire covering topics ranging from working in the blood test or the medical industry to experience in the venture capital world.

The questionnaire also asks whether the prospective juror has ever been a victim of fraud, had a bad experience with an investment, or was involved in a dispute over misdiagnosis.

Holmes left Stanford at the age of 19 and founded Theranos. He claimed his technology could accurately perform thousands of tests on just a drop or two of blood. The former executive has pleaded guilty to under a dozen fraud charges relating to misleading patients and investors.

The judge has scheduled a court hearing on June 15th. The jury selection is scheduled to begin in San Jose on August 31st.

Categories
Entertainment

Summer season Motion pictures 2021: Right here’s What’s Coming to the Massive (and Small) Display screen

Summer Movies 2021: Here’s What’s Coming to the Big (and Small) Screen

Here is a list of noteworthy films scheduled this summer. Release dates and platform are subject to change and reflect the latest information as of deadline.

CHANGING THE GAME (on Hulu) This documentary profiles three transgender athletes and their high school sports careers, with a particular focus on Mack Beggs, a transgender man who as a teenager wanted to compete in boys’ wrestling but, because of a rule in Texas, could only wrestle against girls.

ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE (in theaters) The biases of surveillance — by the eye, by police body cameras and in the composite photography of the eugenics proponent Francis Galton, for example — are the subject of this haunting, wide-ranging essay film from the Baltimore experimental director Theo Anthony (“Rat Film”). It won a special jury prize at Sundance.

THE ANCIENT WOODS (in theaters) The biologist and filmmaker Mindaugas Survila investigates the floral and faunal mysteries of a mostly untouched forest in Lithuania. Film Forum says the movie, poised between nature documentary and folklore, is suitable for children “whose attention spans have not been destroyed by technology.”

BAD TALES (in virtual cinemas) This Italian feature, winner of best screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, pulls back the facade of family life in a seemingly idyllic Rome suburb.

THE CARNIVORES (in theaters and on demand) The illness of a dog triggers the unraveling of a couple (Lindsay Burdge and Tallie Medel). The trailer promises ample servings of the dark and the grotesque.

CITY OF ALI (in virtual cinemas) Other documentaries have captured the highlights of Muhammad Ali’s career, but “City of Ali” deals specifically with his life in Louisville, Ky., where he was born and raised.

THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (in theaters and on HBO Max) Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) return for what’s either the third or the eighth “Conjuring” movie. (Spinoffs like “Annabelle” and “The Nun” only sort of count.) This one involves the case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), who was convicted of manslaughter but who some believe was possessed. Michael Chaves (who directed another spinoff, “The Curse of La Llorona”) assumes the helm from the “Conjuring” director James Wan.

THE REAL THING (in virtual cinemas) Koji Fukada (the Cannes prizewinner “Harmonium”) directed this four-hour feature, based on a manga and condensed from a 10-episode series, about a toy seller who rescues a woman from being hit by a train and gets a whirlwind of adventure as his reward.

SLOW MACHINE (in virtual cinemas) In a fractured narrative, Stephanie Hayes plays an actress who has a series of bizarre encounters with a man who identifies himself as a New York City police intelligence specialist. The movie was shown in an experimental section of last year’s New York Film Festival.

SPIRIT UNTAMED (in theaters) The daughter (voiced by Isabela Merced) of a legendary horse rider (voiced by Eiza González) hops into her mother’s saddle in this computer-animated feature. Julianne Moore, Jake Gyllenhaal and Andre Braugher round out the vocal cast.

UNDINE (in theaters and on demand) Interweaving mythology and the history of modern Berlin, the German director Christian Petzold reunites the stars of his acclaimed “Transit” for a love story of sorts between a recently spurned tour guide (Paula Beer) and a diver (Franz Rogowski) who repairs bridges. What the film means is as slippery as the protagonists, who get soaked when a fish tank explodes during their meet-cute and are continually drawn to water.

THE AMUSEMENT PARK (on Shudder) In one of the stranger collaborations in cinema history, George A. Romero, just a few years removed from “Night of the Living Dead,” accepted an assignment from the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania to make a film about the mistreatment of the elderly. True to form, he turned it into a horror movie. Made in the early 1970s and rarely shown until the recent arrival of a restored version in 2020, it will be widely available for the first time.

AWAKE (on Netflix) A cataclysm knocks out Earth’s power grids and gives the world’s population insomnia; the collective exhaustion leads to “Purge”-like conditions. Gina Rodriguez plays a former soldier whose daughter is somehow immune to the sleeplessness, but harnessing the cure isn’t as simple as giving everyone valerian tea. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Frances Fisher co-star.

TRAGIC JUNGLE (on Netflix) Yulene Olaizola directed this 1920s-set magical-realist feature, shown at the Venice and New York film festivals last year. It centers on a fleeing woman (Indira Andrewin) who finds herself in the company of gum workers in the Mayan rainforest.

THE WOMAN WHO RAN (in theaters) In the latest film from the prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, a character played by Hong’s frequent star Kim Min-hee visits with three friends. There is also an argument with a neighbor about whether it’s all right to feed stray cats.

ASIA (in theaters) Shira Haas of “Unorthodox” plays a Russian immigrant in Israel who faces challenges both with her health and her mother (Alena Yiv). Ruthy Pribar directed, and it won the top prize from the body that gives out Israel’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.

CENSOR (in theaters) Shown at Sundance, this stylized British horror film is set in the 1980s, when what became known as “video nasties” — violent, cheaply made movies available on cassette — were all the rage. Niamh Algar plays a censor who does her utmost to protect the public (but maybe wasn’t so great at protecting her sister years earlier). Prano Bailey-Bond directed.

DOMINO: BATTLE OF THE BONES (in theaters) No, it’s not a sequel to Tony Scott’s 2005 movie “Domino,” in which Keira Knightley played a bounty hunter, or one to Brian De Palma’s recent film of the same title. Rather, it’s the story of how a man and his stepgrandson compete in a domino tournament. Baron Davis, the former N.B.A. star, directed and co-wrote.

HOLLER (in theaters and on demand) Jessica Barden plays a promising Ohio student who begins working in scrap-metal yards to keep her family together. Nicole Riegel directed; Pamela Adlon and Gus Halper co-star.

IN THE HEIGHTS (in theaters and on HBO Max) Expected to have been a huge hit in the summer of 2020, now destined to be a return-to-the-movies toe-tapper in 2021, this film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s best-musical Tony winner — the one before “Hamilton,” that is — stars Anthony Ramos (a.k.a. Philip Hamilton) as Usnavi, the bodega owner Miranda played on Broadway. Stephanie Beatriz (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) and Miranda also appear. Jon M. Chu, who showed his skill with screen musicals in two of the better “Step Up” movies, directed from a screenplay by the musical’s book writer, Quiara Alegría Hudes.

THE MISFITS (in theaters) Pierce Brosnan, two decades from his turn in the “Thomas Crown Affair” remake, plays another thief who joins forces with a group to steal gold bars that a businessman (Tim Roth) uses to finance terrorists. Renny Harlin directed.

PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY (in theaters) James Corden returns as the voice of Beatrix Potter’s famous hare, although Glenn Kenny of The Times wrote that the first film, from 2018, dispensed “with the sweetness and light and lyricism of the books.” Here, Peter ventures out of the garden to make trouble.

SKATER GIRL (on Netflix) Rachel Saanchita Gupta plays a teenager in northwestern India who discovers skateboarding and begins to dream of competing at a championship level.

SUBLET (in theaters) John Benjamin Hickey plays a grieving travel journalist (for The New York Times, no less) who rediscovers his zest for life in Tel Aviv. Eytan Fox directed.

WISH DRAGON (on Netflix) Jimmy Wong provides the voice of a college student and John Cho the voice of a wish-granting dragon in this animated feature, which is set in Shanghai and counts Jackie Chan among its producers.

REVOLUTION RENT (on HBO Max) How does “La Bohème” transplanted to Alphabet City play when it’s transplanted to Cuba? This documentary follows Andy Señor Jr., the son of Cuban exiles, as he works to put on an American-produced staging of “Rent” in that country. Señor directed with Victor Patrick Alvarez.

AN UNKNOWN COMPELLING FORCE (on demand) This documentary delves into the murky matter of what killed nine hikers in the Ural Mountains in 1959. (A study published earlier this year said it was quite possibly an avalanche.)

THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD (in theaters) “Samuel L. Jackson is the hit man. Ryan Reynolds is the bodyguard. What more do you want me to say?” A.O. Scott wrote of “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” in 2017. Well, Salma Hayek played the hit man’s wife in that movie, too, and now they’re all back for a sequel. Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman also star.

A CRIME ON THE BAYOU (in theaters) Nancy Buirski (“The Rape of Recy Taylor”) directs this documentary about Gary Duncan, who was convicted of simple battery in Louisiana after trying to stop a skirmish near an integrated school. The Supreme Court ultimately found that he had a right to a jury trial.

FATHERHOOD (on Netflix) Kevin Hart plays a widower adjusting to life as a single father in this drama directed by Paul Weitz. It’s adapted from a book by Matthew Logelin.

LUCA (on Disney+) In Pixar’s latest, two sea monsters disguise themselves as boys to experience the wonders of the Italian Riviera on land. Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer voice the two main characters; Enrico Casarosa (the Pixar short “La Luna”) directed.

RISE AGAIN: TULSA AND THE RED SUMMER (on National Geographic and Hulu) This documentary from Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble”) looks at the 1921 massacre in Tulsa when white residents destroyed what was known as “Black Wall Street.”

RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT (in theaters) The EGOT-winning actress revisits her career, recounting her experiences with discrimination in Hollywood, her breakthrough role in “West Side Story” and more. Mariem Pérez Riera directed.

SIBERIA (in theaters and on demand) The idea of Abel Ferrara directing Willem Dafoe as a bartender in Siberia will be irresistible to fans of a certain brand of uncompromising cinema. In an interview, Ferrara described it as “an odyssey movie.”

THE SPARKS BROTHERS (in theaters) Edgar Wright directed what feels like the definitive portrait of the band Sparks, a.k.a. the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, who straddle an almost imperceptibly thin line between the comic and the earnest and whose most consistent trait over 50 years has been their interest in reinventing their sound. Their first movie musical, “Annette” (Aug. 6), also comes out this summer.

SUMMER OF 85 (in theaters) François Ozon directed this tale of young summer romance, which was selected for the canceled Cannes Film Festival last year. A boy (Félix Lefebvre) is saved from a boating accident and then taught worldly ways by his rescuer (Benjamin Voisin).

SWEAT (in theaters) Another selection from the Cannes-that-wasn’t, this Polish feature from Magnus von Horn stars Magdalena Kolesnik as a “fitness influencer” who faces the burdens of being extremely online.

SWEET THING (in theaters) Alexandre Rockwell, a mainstay of American independent filmmaking in the 1990s with films like “In the Soup,” directs his children in a coming-of-age film about a long and fantastical day.

TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION (in theaters and virtual cinemas) The documentarian Lisa Immordino Vreeland puts Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams in an artistic dialogue with each other. Jim Parsons reads Capote’s words in voice-over and Zachary Quinto reads Williams’s.

12 MIGHTY ORPHANS (in theaters) Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw and Martin Sheen star in this true story of a how an orphanage’s football team went to compete for championships in Texas during the Great Depression.

SISTERS ON TRACK (on Netflix) Three sisters — Tai, Rainn and Brooke Sheppard — raised in tough circumstances in Brooklyn won medals in the Junior Olympics and were declared “SportsKids of the Year” for 2016 by the children’s edition of Sports Illustrated. This documentary tells their story, on the track and off.

AGAINST THE CURRENT (in theaters) No, it’s not a “Great Gatsby” spinoff. It’s a documentary about Veiga Gretarsdottir, a transgender kayaker who sets out to circumnavigate Iceland in the more difficult counterclockwise direction.

F9 (in theaters) Just when Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) thought they had settled into a quiet family life, Dom’s brother (John Cena) — who is every bit the driver Dom is, and also an assassin — turns up to settle scores. Justin Lin directed.

FALSE POSITIVE (on Hulu) Ilana Glazer and Justin Theroux play a couple trying to get pregnant who discover that their doctor (Pierce Brosnan) has a dark side.

I CARRY YOU WITH ME (in theaters) The documentarian Heidi Ewing (“Detropia”) turns to dramatized filmmaking, though not entirely (to say more would be a spoiler), with this story of the love between two Mexican men (Armando Espitia and Christian Vázquez) and how their bond endures after one, with his eye on working as a chef, crosses into the United States.

THE ICE ROAD (on Netflix) Liam Neeson plays a badass big-rig driver trying to rescue entombed miners in the frozen reaches of Canada.

KENNY SCHARF: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (in theaters and on demand) Malia Scharf, with Max Basch, directed this look at her father, who emerged from the East Village art world of the 1980s.

WEREWOLVES WITHIN (in theaters) Holed up in a snowstorm, the residents of a small town must contend with lycanthropy. Josh Ruben directed; Milana Vayntrub and Sam Richardson star.

WOLFGANG (on Disney+) Not Amadeus Mozart, but Puck. David Gelb (“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”) directed this portrait of the celebrity chef’s career.

AMERICA: THE MOTION PICTURE (on Netflix) With the voice of Channing Tatum as a “chainsaw-wielding” George Washington, this irreverent animated feature makes a travesty of key figures of the American Revolution. Jason Mantzoukas and Olivia Munn also supply voices. Matt Thompson directed.

LYDIA LUNCH — THE WAR IS NEVER OVER (in theaters and virtual cinemas) The New York underground filmmaker Beth B directed this portrait of another figure from the scene, the No Wave singer Lydia Lunch.

ZOLA (in theaters) A tale originally told in a viral 148-tweet thread (and then in a Rolling Stone article about the thread) is now a major motion picture, directed by Janicza Bravo (“Lemon”) and written by Bravo and the playwright Jeremy O. Harris (“Slave Play”). Taylour Paige stars as a waitress and occasional stripper who is taken on a wild trip to Florida by another stripper (Riley Keough). Colman Domingo also stars.

NO SUDDEN MOVE (on HBO Max) The pandemic hasn’t slowed down Steven Soderbergh. His latest feature is a crime thriller starring Don Cheadle as an ex-con who plots a convoluted scheme that goes awry. Benicio Del Toro, Ray Liotta, Jon Hamm and Amy Seimetz are among the many familiar faces populating Detroit in 1954, when the film is set.

BEING A HUMAN PERSON (in theaters) The Swedish commercial director turned deadpan filmmaker Roy Andersson is the subject of this documentary, which follows the making of his latest movie, “About Endlessness,” which opened in April.

FEAR STREET (on Netflix) R.L. Stine’s “Fear Street” books have become three feature films — set in 1994, 1978 and 1666, respectively — that will be released on a weekly basis starting July 2. Stine has said that the content won’t be toned down for children. Leigh Janiak directed all three movies, and cast members recur throughout.

FIRST DATE (in theaters and on demand) Tyson Brown plays a teenager who takes his dream girl (Shelby Duclos) on a misadventure-filled outing in a dilapidated Chrysler.

THE FOREVER PURGE (in theaters) In the “Purge” franchise, murder is made legal for one day a year. This fifth film in the series dares to ask, what if it were more than one day? Judging from the trailer, you should also count on commentary on United States-Mexico border politics.

SUMMER OF SOUL (… OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) (in theaters and on Hulu) In his first feature documentary as director, Questlove assembles joyous archival footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of concerts that developed a reputation as the Black Woodstock. The film features electrifying performances from Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Ray Barretto and more.

TILL DEATH (in theaters and on demand) The “Jennifer’s Body” star Megan Fox plays a woman who wakes up handcuffed to her husband’s corpse in this thriller.

THE TOMORROW WAR (on Amazon). Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski and J.K. Simmons are all tapped for a war effort against aliens that won’t happen until 30 years in the future. Time travel makes this possible.

BLACK WIDOW (in theaters and on Disney+) The Marvel universe continues to swallow promising actors by casting “Midsommar” and “Little Women” standout Florence Pugh as Yelena, who is brought together as a family with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow. The Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (“Berlin Syndrome”) directed.

SUMMERTIME (in theaters) Carlos López Estrada (“Blindspotting”) directed this vibrant panorama of life in Los Angeles. It’s like a musical, but instead of bursting into song, the characters share their emotions in poetry, written by the cast members, who are poets.

THE WITCHES OF THE ORIENT (in theaters) Julien Faraut, an archivist whose documentary “John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” posed intriguing parallels between tennis and cinema, recounts how textile workers in Japan became an internationally celebrated volleyball team.

CAN YOU BRING IT: BILL T. JONES AND D-MAN IN THE WATERS (in theaters and virtual cinemas) The dancer Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz direct a portrait of the choreographer as LeBlanc oversees a production of his 1989 work “D-Man in the Waters,” which addressed the AIDS epidemic in dance.

ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (in theaters) Taylor Russell and Logan Miller, who played escapees in the first “Escape Room” (2019), find themselves ensnared again.

ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN (in theaters) Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor”) directed this portrait of the “Kitchen Confidential” chef, who died in 2018.

SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (in theaters and on HBO Max) In 1996, Michael Jordan joined the Looney Tunes on the basketball court. This time it’s LeBron James who assembles Bugs and the gang for a hybrid live-action/animated round of hoops, with a lot of other Warner Bros. intellectual property filling out the sidelines. Malcolm D. Lee directed.

AILEY (in theaters and on demand) Using archival footage and its subject’s words, the director Jamila Wignot’s documentary recounts the career of the dancer-choreographer Alvin Ailey (1931-89).

EYIMOFE (THIS IS MY DESIRE) (in theaters) The siblings Arie and Chuko Esiri directed this film set in Lagos, Nigeria, about two people separately trying to leave for Europe.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA (in theaters) The transformation in this fourth feature of the animated franchise happens when a “monsterfication ray” turns humans into monsters and monsters into humans. But there’s a behind-the-scenes transformation, too: Dracula’s vocal cords aren’t supplied by Adam Sandler this time, but by Brian Hull.

THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER (on Netflix). In this summer’s addition to the tear-jerker sweepstakes, Felicity Jones plays a journalist who uncovers an affair from the 1960s between another journalist (Callum Turner) and a married woman (Shailene Woodley).

MANDIBLES (in theaters and on demand) The French absurdist and electronic musician Quentin Dupieux (“Deerskin”) serves up another deadpan oddity, about two friends trying to train a giant fly.

OLD (in theaters) It wouldn’t be an M. Night Shyamalan film if the premise weren’t shrouded in mystery, but judging from the Super Bowl trailer, it stars Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”) as parents vacationing with their family on a beach that magically turns their children … old.

SNAKE EYES: G.I. JOE ORIGINS (in theaters) Based on the line of action figures, this franchise adds to its collection by giving an origin story to Snake Eyes, played by Ray Park in earlier movies and now embodied — during his ninja-training phase — by Henry Golding.

RESORT TO LOVE (on Netflix). Christina Milian plays a singer who aspires to superstardom but is reduced to performing at her ex’s wedding.

ENEMIES OF THE STATE (in theaters and on demand) Executive produced by Errol Morris, this documentary, directed by Sonia Kennebeck, unravels the case of Matt DeHart, a hacktivist who sought refuge in Canada and claimed the F.B.I. had tortured him.

THE GREEN KNIGHT (in theaters) Dev Patel has a seat at the round table as Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, in the director David Lowery’s quest to revive the Arthurian legend onscreen. Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton and Sarita Choudhury also star.

JUNGLE CRUISE (in theaters and on Disney+) In 1916, a British researcher (Emily Blunt) travels to South America and hires a roguish, Bogartian skipper (Dwayne Johnson) as her guide through the Amazon. It’s based on a ride at Disneyland, and indirectly on a long lineage of Hollywood adventure films. Edgar Ramírez, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti co-star. Jaume Collet-Serra directed.

THE LAST MERCENARY (on Netflix) French authorities falsely allege that a young man has been trafficking arms and drugs. Unfortunately for them, his father is played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.

NINE DAYS (in theaters) Winston Duke plays an interrogator at a way station of sorts, where he interviews people — actually unborn souls — some of whom will earn the right to be born as humans. Zazie Beetz plays an interviewee who confounds him. Edson Oda wrote and directed.

SABAYA (in theaters and on demand) This documentary trails intrepid volunteer workers in Syria who extract women and girls held captive as sex slaves by the Islamic State.

STILLWATER Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”) directed Matt Damon as an American oil-rig worker whose daughter (Abigail Breslin) is imprisoned for murder in Marseille, France. She says she is innocent; he scrambles to help her.

ANNETTE (in theaters) While Edgar Wright’s documentary about the band Sparks (June 18) covers the cinephile musicians’ history of movie projects that never came to fruition, this feature film gives them their chance: They wrote the screenplay, the songs and the score for this love story, and Leos Carax (“Holy Motors”) directed. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star.

EMA (in theaters) The Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín directs this story of a dancer (Mariana Di Girolamo) and a choreographer (Gael García Bernal) whose lives are thrown out of whack after they return the boy they adopted.

JOHN AND THE HOLE (in theaters and on demand) At the age of 13, John (Charlie Shotwell) gains a measure of adult independence by drugging his immediate family (Jennifer Ehle, Michael C. Hall and Taissa Farmiga) and imprisoning them in a bunker. Pascual Sisto directed this detached, chilly open-ended allegory.

THE MACALUSO SISTERS (in theaters) The Italian playwright and theater director Emma Dante directed this story of five orphan sisters in living in Palermo. She adapted it from her play.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD (in theaters and on HBO Max) If it doesn’t work the first time, add a definite article. Poised somewhere between a reboot of and a sequel to “Suicide Squad” (2016), the movie sets several DC characters, including Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, loose on a jungle island. James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) wrote and directed. With Idris Elba, John Cena, Sylvester Stallone and Viola Davis.

THE KISSING BOOTH 3 (on Netflix) This entry in the series finds Elle (Joey King) getting ready for college.

CODA (in theaters and on Apple TV+) A crowd-pleaser (and awards-grabber, with four prizes) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the movie tells the story of a child of deaf adults (Emilia Jones) in a working-class Massachusetts fishing family. She wants to sing, a passion that is alien to her non-hearing parents (Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) and brother (Daniel Durant). Sian Heder directed this remake of a French film.

DAYS (in theaters) A highlight of last year’s New York Film Festival, the director Tsai Ming-liang’s feature follows two men — one in Taipei, then Hong Kong (the Tsai regular Lee Kang-sheng); the other in Bangkok (Anong Houngheuangsy) — who in the second half meet, and for a little while are not alone.

DON’T BREATHE 2 (in theaters) In the first “Don’t Breathe” (2016), Stephen Lang played a blind veteran whose dark secrets were among that home-invasion tale’s surprises. There’s more on those in this sequel. Rodo Sayagues directed, co-writing with Fede Alvarez, who directed the original.

FREE GUY (in theaters) Ryan Reynolds plays a bank teller who finds out, “Truman Show”-like, that he is actually a background character in a video game. Shawn Levy directed. Jodie Comer and Lil Rel Howery also star.

THE MEANING OF HITLER (in theaters and on demand) The documentarians Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker examine the rise of Nazi Germany and draw parallels with the rumblings of authoritarianism across the globe today.

THE LOST LEONARDO (in theaters) Andreas Koefoed’s documentary investigates the dealings that surround “Salvator Mundi,” the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, when in 2017 it was billed as a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees.

RESPECT (in theaters) Find out what it means to her: Jennifer Hudson plays Aretha Franklin in this biopic of the Queen of Soul, directed by the theater vet Liesl Tommy. With Mary J. Blige as Dinah Washington, Audra McDonald as Franklin’s mother and Forest Whitaker as Franklin’s father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin.

CRYPTOZOO (in theaters and on demand) It’s really more of a cryptid zoo, a cryptid being an animal that is the subject of lore but does not actually exist, like the dream-eating creature that everyone is after in this movie. It’s an animated film, from the graphic novelist Dash Shaw. Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Louisa Krause and Thomas Jay Ryan provided some of the voices.

THE NIGHT HOUSE (in theaters) Rebecca Hall plays a widow who discovers that her husband had a … thing for women who looked quite a bit like her, one of whom is played by Stacy Martin. What was he up to? David Bruckner directed, with an appetite for jump scares.

PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE (in theaters) The techno-fitted animated canines of the children’s TV series make the leap to the big screen.

THE PROTÉGÉ (in theaters) This is the second movie of the summer in which Samuel L. Jackson plays a hit man (after “The Hitman’s Bodyguard’s Wife”) — except that this one concerns the hit man’s daughter (Maggie Q), or at least the woman he raised like a daughter, a hit woman herself, who seeks revenge after he is murdered. Michael Keaton co-stars, also playing a killer. Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”) directed.

REMINISCENCE (in theaters and on HBO Max) Lisa Joy, a creator of “Westworld,” wrote and directed this thriller, which casts Hugh Jackman as a sleuth who digs up lost memories. Rebecca Ferguson plays his latest customer.

WILDLAND (in theaters) This dark Danish feature concerns a teenager (Sandra Guldberg Kampp) who, after her mother’s death, goes to live with an aunt (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and an extended clan filled with criminality and addiction.

THE BEATLES: GET BACK (in theaters) Peter Jackson, who used archival footage to bring World War I back to life in “They Shall Not Grow Old,” uses tens of hours of restored footage and audio — billed as previously unseen and unheard — to showcase the Beatles as they were in 1969.

CANDYMAN (in theaters) Even without anyone saying Candyman’s name to a mirror, a haunting teaser trailer with only shadow puppets, from last year, set the bar high for this remake, directed by Nia DaCosta (“Little Woods”) and co-written by, among others, Jordan Peele. Interestingly, it appears to retain the milieu of Chicago’s mostly defunct Cabrini-Green housing project, where much of the 1992 original took place. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Teyonah Parris star. Colman Domingo also appears.

HE’S ALL THAT (on Netflix) Mark Waters (“Mean Girls”) directed this gender-swapped remake of “She’s All That.” Addison Rae plays an influencer who gives a dork (Tanner Buchanan) an image makeover.

VACATION FRIENDS (on Hulu) A couple (Yvonne Orji and Lil Rel Howery) is mortified when some casual friends from a vacation (Meredith Hagner and John Cena) crash their wedding.

THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD (in theaters) Spoiler alert: The word is “socialism,” and Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are among the interviewees in this documentary about its history in the United States.

FAYA DAYI (in theaters) When the director Jessica Beshir’s experimental documentary, shot in Harar, Ethiopia, played at New Directors/New Films in the spring, Beatrice Loayza, writing in The Times, called it “dreamy and visually dazzling.” The film, she wrote, considers the toll that the economics of khat — a plant that is used as a drug — takes “on a rural community across generations.”

MOGUL MOWGLI (in theaters) Riz Ahmed plays a rapper whose body begins to fail him, but it’s not “Sound of Metal” redux. Rather, it’s a story of British-Pakistani identity, and the character’s denial of his heritage may even be responsible for his autoimmune condition. Bassam Tariq (the well-regarded documentary “These Birds Walk”) directed.

Listings compiled with the assistance of Gabe Cohn.

Categories
Business

Wall Road lukewarm on HSBC’s U.S. retail exit

Wall Street lukewarm on HSBC’s U.S. retail exit

LONDON – HSBC announced on Wednesday that it would end its money-losing US retail business, which Wall Street analysts received with lukewarm applause.

Europe’s largest bank in terms of assets will be selling some parts of its mass market business and winding up others to draw attention to its largest market – Asia.

In a statement on Thursday, Goldman Sachs bank analysts reiterated that HSBC’s lack of scalability in US retail banking is the main reason for the low profitability and high cost-to-income ratio in the US.

“We therefore view the announced measures as positive, as they represent a small step towards a potentially more focused, simpler and more profitable HSBC group,” said analysts Martin Leitgeb, Andreas Scheriau and Gurpreet Singh Sahi.

After battling the big domestic players in the US and some parts of Europe, the UK lender has been looking to get out of its less profitable activities for some time.

Although HSBC is letting go of most residential and small business clients, it will maintain a low physical presence in the US to serve its richest international clients.

The group will leave 90 of its 148 branches, which comprise a small network of 20-25 physical locations that are being recalibrated as international asset centers. The remaining branches will be closed.

Goldman analysts noted that while the financial impact of the transactions in the broader corporate context is negligible and no further details have been released on the profitability of US assets and private banking after the exit, the outlook is more positive.

“We see scope for improved profitability as the branch’s footprint has been reduced by over 80% while credit will only decrease by 13% (all others equal),” they said, continuing their buy rating on HSBC stock.

Key downside risks that Goldman highlighted included weaker macro trends such as pandemic setbacks, limited progress in restructuring the bank, escalating geopolitical tensions, increased competition and “delays in optimizing capital efficiency within the group”.

Citizens Bank and Cathay Bank, subsidiaries of Citizens Financial Group and Cathay General Corp., have agreed to buy HSBC’s businesses on the east and west coasts respectively.

The deal would represent much of HSBC’s 850,000 customer relationships sold, mostly customers with balances under $ 75,000. However, Bank of America found that a 2% deposit bonus on sales is “low” compared to the industry average, reflecting the high cost structure of the business. “

“The number of remaining customers is small, but the dominant part of US retail deposits. The customer base is active internationally or in line with HSBC’s wealth management ambitions,” said BofA bank analysts Alastair Ryan and Rohith Chandra-Rajan in one Announcement on Thursday.

BofA estimates full year revenue loss at $ 200 million and a $ 250 million reduction in recurring costs for its US wealth and personal banking businesses.

“Given the large excess of deposits in this business – as in the rest of the group – better dollar rates would likely make matters a lot better,” they added, calling the latest move “small steps.”

The BofA found that HSBC is heavily exposed to global interest rates due to its “world-leading deposit base” and predicted that while the bank currently has a “cost / income problem”, the situation would “mechanically improve” should the bank Market a three year Fed implying fund rate materialize.

“However, we note that the group is pursuing a relatively costly wealth management expansion that would put additional cost / income pressure in the short term,” added Ryan and Chandra-Rajan, reiterating their “neutral” rating on the stock and maintaining it £ 4.80 ($ 6.80) per share price target.

Categories
Health

Why Apple and Google’s Virus Alert Apps Had Restricted Success

Why Apple and Google’s Virus Alert Apps Had Limited Success

Sarah Cavey, a Denver real estate agent, was delighted last fall when Colorado rolled out an app to warn people of potential coronavirus exposures.

Based on software from Apple and Google, the government smartphone app uses Bluetooth signals to recognize users who are in close contact. If a user later tests positive, that person can anonymously notify other app users that the person may have crossed over with on restaurants, trains, or elsewhere.

Ms. Cavey immediately downloaded the app. After testing positive for the virus in February, she couldn’t get the special verification code she needed from the state to warn others, she said, even after calling the Colorado Health Department three times.

“You promote this app to make people feel comfortable,” said Ms. Cavey, adding that she has since deleted the CO Exposure Notifications app in frustration. “But it doesn’t really matter.”

The Colorado Health Department said they have improved their process and are now automatically issuing verification codes to anyone in the state who test positive.

When Apple and Google announced last year that they were working together to create a smartphone-based system to contain the virus, their collaboration seemed like a game changer. Human contact tracers have struggled to keep up with the rise in virus levels, and the trillion-dollar competing companies, whose systems power 99 percent of the world’s smartphones, had the potential to quickly and automatically alert far more people.

Soon after, Austria, Switzerland, and other nations introduced virus apps based on Apple’s Google software, as did around two dozen American states, including Alabama and Virginia. According to an analysis by Sensor Tower, an app research company, the apps have been downloaded more than 90 million times to date.

However, some researchers say that companies’ product and policy decisions limited the usefulness of the system, raising questions about big tech’s ability to set global standards for public health tools.

Computer scientists have reported accuracy issues with Bluetooth technology, which is used to detect proximity between smartphones. Some users have complained about failed notifications. So far, there has hardly been any rigorous research into whether the apps’ potential to precisely alert people to virus loads outweighs potential disadvantages – for example, incorrectly warning not exposed people, over-testing or not recognizing users who are exposed to the virus.

“It’s still an open question whether these apps help, or just distract, or even cause problems with real-world contact tracing,” Stephen Farrell and Doug Leith, computer science researchers at Trinity College Dublin, wrote an April report on Ireland’s virus alert- App.

In the United States, some public health officials and researchers said the apps had shown modest but important benefits. In Colorado, more than 28,000 people have used the technology to inform contacts of potential virus exposures. In California, where a virus tracking app called CA Notify was launched in December, around 65,000 people have used the system to alert other app users.

“Exposure notification technology has shown success,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, UC San Diego Health’s chief information officer, who manages the California app. “Whether it’s hundreds of lives saved or dozens or a handful, when we save lives it’s a big deal.”

In a joint statement, Apple and Google said, “We are proud to work with health officials to provide a resource that has enabled millions of people around the world and that has helped protect public health.”

Let us help you protect your digital life

The Apple and Google system, based in part on ideas developed by the Singapore government and scientists, includes privacy measures that provide health officials with an alternative to more invasive apps. Unlike virus tracking apps, which continuously track users’ whereabouts, Apple and Google software use Bluetooth signals that can estimate the distance between smartphones without knowing where users are. It also uses rotating ID codes – not real names – to log app users who have been in close contact for 15 minutes or more.

Some health officials predicted last year that the technology could inform users of virus exposure faster than human contact tracers. Others hoped the apps could warn commuters sitting next to an infected stranger on a bus, train, or plane – people at risk who contact tracers typically cannot identify themselves.

“Everyone who uses the app helps to keep the virus under control,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel in a video to advertise the country’s warning system called Corona-Warn-App last year.

However, the apps never received the extensive efficacy tests that were normally done before governments introduced public health interventions such as vaccines. And the software’s privacy features, which prevent government agencies from identifying app users, have made it difficult for researchers to determine if the notifications were hindering the transmission of viruses, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

“The apps played virtually no role in investigating any outbreaks that occurred here,” said Dr. Osterholm.

Some restrictions already occurred before the apps were released. For one, some researchers find that exposure notification software inherently excludes certain vulnerable populations, e.g. B. older people who cannot afford smartphones. Second, the apps could trigger false positives as the system is not set up to take damage control factors into account, e.g. B. whether users are vaccinated, wearing masks or sitting outside.

Proximity detection in virus alert apps can also be inconsistent. Last year, a study of Google’s system for Android phones carried out on a Dublin tram reported that the metal walls, floors and ceilings distorted Bluetooth signal strength enough that the likelihood of accurate proximity detection would be “similar” Trigger notifications by randomly selecting passengers.

Such glitches angered early adopters like Kimbley Craig, the Mayor of Salinas, California. Last December, when virus rates rose there, she downloaded the state exposure notification app on her Android phone and tested positive for Covid-19 shortly afterwards. After she entered the verification code, the system was unable to send a notification to her partner, with whom she lived and who had also downloaded the app.

“Unless it takes one person in the same household, I don’t know what to tell you,” said Mayor Craig.

In a statement, Steph Hannon, Google’s senior director of product management for exposure notifications, said there are “known challenges in using Bluetooth technology to approximate the exact distance between devices” and that the company is continually working to improve accuracy.

Company policies have also influenced usage trends. For example, in certain US states, iPhone users can turn on exposure notifications with one click by simply enabling a feature in their settings. However, Android users need to download a separate app. As a result, by May 10, about 9.6 million iPhone users in California had the notifications turned on, far exceeding the 900,000 app downloads on Android phones.

Google has set up its system in such a way that states work on a wide variety of devices and can be made available as quickly as possible.

Some public health experts admitted that the exposure warning system was an experiment where they and the tech giants learned and built improvements over time.

One problem they discovered early on: To prevent false positives, states review positive test results before a person can send exposure notifications. However, it can sometimes take days for local laboratories to send test results to health officials, limiting the ability of app users to quickly notify others.

In Alabama, for example, the government’s GuideSafe virus alert app has been downloaded around 250,000 times, according to Sensor Tower. However, state health authorities said they could confirm the positive test results from only 1,300 app users. That’s a much lower number than health officials expected, as more than 10 percent of Alabamians tested positive for the coronavirus.

“The app would be much more efficient if these processes were less manual and automated,” said Dr. Scott Harris, who oversees the Alabama Department of Health.

Colorado, which automatically issues verification codes to people who test positive, has reported higher usage rates. In California, UC San Diego Health has set up a dedicated hotline that app users can call if they haven’t received their verification codes.

Dr. Longhurst, the medical center’s chief information officer, said the California app proved useful as part of a larger statewide public health push that included wearing masks and virus testing.

“It’s not a panacea,” he said. But “it can be an effective part of a pandemic response.”

Categories
Business

To Take a look at Covid Protocols, Cruise Traces Flip to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

To Test Covid Protocols, Cruise Lines Turn to Volunteer Guinea Pigs

Since March of last year, cruise ships carrying more than 250 people have been prohibited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from sailing in U.S. waters. To start again, they need to follow a complex process that, in some cases, involves simulated cruises designed to test Covid-19 protocols. Hundreds of thousands of frustrated and restless cruise fans have lined up to be guinea pigs.

Jennifer Juenke is one of them.

“Ever since the C.D.C. shut down the cruise industry, we have been living through a complete nightmare,” said Ms. Juenke, one of more than 250,000 people who signed up for a test sailing with Royal Caribbean, a major cruise company. “It has been too long, and we are just raring to go.”

On Tuesday, Royal Caribbean became the first cruise line to receive approval from the C.D.C. to conduct simulated voyages, which are planned for its Freedom of the Seas ship starting from PortMiami in Florida in late June.

For some of the volunteers, it’s a way to offer support to the $150 billion industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic. For others it’s a chance to get a feel for what post-pandemic cruising will feel like. But for most who’ve raised their hands, it’s a way to sate their longing to get back on a boat after more than a year of being stuck onshore.

“The C.D.C. has been holding us all captive and I really can’t wait any longer, I can’t wait until July,” said Justin Marks, a 59-year-old retired Alabama resident, referring to one target date that has been floated for when ships might start sailing.

Mr. Marks, who has 12 cruises booked through 2022, is undeterred by the outbreaks onboard cruise ships at the start of the pandemic last year.

“I’m dying to be picked for the test cruise, mostly because I need to start cruising again for my sanity,” he said, “but also because I want to show the world how much safer a cruise ship is than any plane or hotel that has been allowed to operate throughout the whole pandemic.”

Exactly how the cruise lines will return to operations in the United States remains unclear. Earlier this month, the C.D.C. said it would allow cruise lines to skip test voyages if they attest that 98 percent of the crew and 95 percent of passengers on board a cruise are fully vaccinated.

Several major cruise companies have already announced Alaska sailings starting in late July, which will require all passengers to prove that they are vaccinated. But in Florida, the cruise lines’ biggest U.S. departure point, recently enacted state law bans businesses from requiring proof of immunizations from people seeking to use their services.

Florida officials have said they will not exempt the cruise lines. If cruise companies decide to sail with a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers, they will have to carry out simulation cruises with volunteers to test health and safety protocols.

That has avid cruisers like Mark Zumo, 53, from Baton Rouge, La., eager to help out, even though, he said, he realizes the test cruises will not be like the real thing. (He had 20 cruises canceled during the pandemic and has already booked 25 between this August and December 2022.)

“A lot of people think it’s going to be a free holiday, but I realize that it won’t be,” he said. “It’s about testing Covid protocols and could mean being confined to your room for the entire cruise.”

“But I’m more than willing to do it,” he continued. “When you look at the devastation caused by the shutting down of the cruise industry, it reaches so far — from farmers to port workers to hotels and taxi cabs. I’ll do whatever I can to help get things running again.”

The simulated voyages must be between two to seven days in length with at least one overnight stay, according to C.D.C. guidelines. They are required to test embarkation and disembarkation procedures, medical evacuations, onboard activities such as meal service and entertainment, recreational activities like fitness classes and swimming, and shore excursions.

All volunteers will be issued with a written notice advising them about the risks of participating in health and safety protocols that are unproved and untested in the United States.

Most of the simulation cruise volunteers said they are fully vaccinated and do not have safety concerns about testing out health protocols for upcoming voyages. More than 66,000 people joined Royal Caribbean’s Facebook group “Volunteers of the Seas” to express interest in the initiative. “I feel safer on a cruise ship than I do in my grocery store,” Ms. Juenke said. “Cruises have restarted in Europe and it’s going fine.”

MSC, a global cruise line based in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first major cruise company to resume international sailings in Europe, which it started last August. It has relied on a stringent testing and contact tracing program to avoid large Covid outbreaks like the one on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan last year where 700 people became infected with the disease and 14 people died.

“At the beginning we must appreciate that no one knew anything about the virus and how it behaved and was transmitted,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, the executive chairman of MSC Cruises and global chair of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the industry’s trade group.

“We have come so far from that moment in terms of scientific knowledge and technology,” he said.

On MSC European cruises, all guests receive antigen tests when they board and if they test positive, they are given an additional PCR test. Non-vaccinated guests boarding its cruises in Britain must also present proof of a PCR test taken 48 hours before they embark. Passengers are also tested mid-cruise after three or four days and are required to wear contact tracing bracelets so that they can be tracked down if someone they have come into contact with tests positive.

All passengers who test positive while on board are isolated until the ship returns to the port of embarkation or have the option to disembark at the next port of call if they need urgent medical attention. MSC said it had identified a handful of positive cases on board its ships since resuming operations last year, which were handled swiftly and effectively, but declined to provide the exact number of cases.

On Monday, four crew members on board Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, tested positive for Covid-19 en route to the United States from Israel. The ship was not carrying passengers and the crew members were immediately isolated before disembarking in Spain, Royal Caribbean said.

Mr. Vago views MSC’s protocols — which run to 700 pages — as a model for the industry and after participating in a recent technical round table discussion between the C.D.C. and cruise industry representatives in Washington, he said he is optimistic that U.S. cruises will begin again this summer.

“People have been really affected psychologically by this pandemic and we understand how important and urgent it is for them to be able to get back out there and see a sunset and mingle,” Mr. Vago said.

After receiving brain surgery last year and working night shifts as a surgery technician at a hospital, Cristie Nino, of Salinas, Calif., said she is ready to volunteer on a test cruise.

“I think I would be the perfect person to go on one of these test cruises because I’m not scared,” she said. “I’ve been on the Covid floor, I’ve seen Covid patients, I’ve been through the toughest part.”

Cruise ships, she said, “have always been a cesspool for viruses, like planes, and I think there were risks at the height of the pandemic, but now with vaccines and health and safety measures I think they are ready to go again.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021.

Categories
Politics

Russia Seems to Carry Out Hack By way of System Utilized by U.S. Support Company

Russia Appears to Carry Out Hack Through System Used by U.S. Aid Agency

Hackers connected to Russia’s main intelligence agency secretly seized an email system used by the Foreign Ministry’s international aid agency to dig into the computer networks of human rights groups and other organizations that President Vladimir V. Microsoft Corporation announced on Thursday that they were critical of Putin.

The breach was only discovered three weeks before President Biden’s planned meeting with Putin in Geneva and at a moment of increasing tensions between the two nations – also due to a series of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks from Russia.

The newly uncovered attack was also particularly bold: By breaching the systems of a supplier used by the federal government, the hackers only this week sent e-mails from more than 3,000 real-looking accounts addressed to more than 150 organizations that are receiving regularly Communications from the United States Agency for International Development.

The e-mail was implanted with code that gave the hackers unrestricted access to the recipient’s computer systems, from “stealing data to infecting other computers on a network,” wrote Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, on Thursday evening.

Last month, Mr Biden announced a series of new sanctions against Russia and the expulsion of diplomats for an elaborate hacking operation called SolarWinds that used novel methods to injure at least seven government agencies and hundreds of large American companies.

This attack went undetected by the US government for nine months until it was discovered by a cybersecurity company. In April, Mr Biden said he could have reacted much more strongly but chose “proportionate” because he did not want to “start a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia”.

However, the Russian response appears to have been an escalation. The malicious activity had only started for the past week. This suggests that the sanctions and any additional covert measures the White House has put in place – part of a strategy to create “seen and invisible” costs for Moscow – have not stifled the Russian government’s appetite for disruption.

A spokesman for the agency for cybersecurity and infrastructure security in the Department of Homeland Security said late Thursday that the agency is “aware of the possible compromise” with the agency for international development and is working “with the FBI and USAID to better understand it. ” Level of compromise and support for potential victims. “

Microsoft identified the Russian group behind the attack as Nobelium and said it was the same group responsible for the SolarWinds hack. Last month, the US government explicitly stated that SolarWinds was the work of the SVR, one of the KGB’s most successful Soviet-era spin-offs

The same agency was involved in the National Democratic Committee hacking attacks in 2016 and previously in attacks on the Pentagon, White House email system, and State Department unclassified communications.

It’s gotten increasingly aggressive and creative, say federal officials and experts. The SolarWinds attack was never discovered by the US government and was carried out through code implanted in network management software that is widely used by the government and private companies. When customers updated SolarWinds software – much like an iPhone would do overnight – they were unwittingly letting in an intruder.

The victims last year included the ministries of homeland security and energy, as well as nuclear laboratories.

When Mr Biden took office, he ordered a study into the SolarWinds case, and officials have been working to prevent future supply chain attacks where adversaries infect software used by federal agencies. This is similar to this case when Microsoft’s security team caught the hackers using a widely used Constant Contact email service to send malicious emails that appeared to come from real-world addresses belonging to the International Development Agency.

Updated

May 26, 2021, 9:17 p.m. ET

But the content was barely subtle at times. In an email sent through the Constant Contact service on Tuesday, the hackers highlighted a message claiming that “Donald Trump had published new emails about election fraud.” The email contained a link that, if clicked, would place malicious files on recipients’ computers.

Microsoft noted that the attack was “significantly” different from the SolarWinds hack and used new tools and craftsmanship to avoid detection. It was said that the attack was still ongoing and that the hackers continued to send spearphishing emails with increasing speed and reach. Because of this, Microsoft took the unusual step of naming the agency whose email addresses were used and posting examples of the spoofed email.

Essentially, the Russians got into the Agency for International Development’s email system by circling the agency and going straight to their software suppliers. Constant Contact manages bulk emails and other communications on behalf of the aid organization.

“Nobelium launched this week’s attacks by gaining access to USAID’s Constant Contact account,” wrote Microsoft’s Burt. Constant contact could not be reached for comment.

Microsoft, like other large cybersecurity companies, maintains a large network of sensors to search for malicious activity on the Internet and is often a target itself. It was instrumental in uncovering the SolarWinds attack.

In this case, Microsoft reported, the hackers’ goal was not to track down the State Department or the aid agency, but rather to use their connections to get into groups that work on the ground – and in many cases, Putin’s most powerful ones Critic.

“At least a quarter of the target organizations were involved in international development, humanitarian and human rights work,” wrote Burt. Although he did not name them, many such groups have exposed Russian actions against dissidents or protested the poisoning, conviction and imprisonment of Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei A. Navalny.

The attack suggests that Russian intelligence agencies are stepping up their campaign, perhaps to demonstrate that the country would not step down in the face of sanctions, the eviction of diplomats and other pressures.

Mr Biden raised the SolarWinds attack on a phone call with Mr Putin last month, telling him that the sanctions and expulsions are evidence that his government would no longer tolerate an accelerated pace of cyber operations.

Mr Putin has denied Russia’s involvement, and some Russian news outlets have argued that the United States launched the attack against itself.

At the same time, the White House also imposed a number of new sanctions on Russian individuals and assets, including new restrictions on buying Russia’s national debt that will make it difficult for Russia to raise money and support its currency.

“This is the beginning of a new US campaign against malicious behavior by Russia,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said at the time.

Tensions over the housing of cybercriminals in Russia increased significantly this month after a ransomware group took corporate networks of the Colonial Pipeline hostage. The attack forced the company to shut down a pipeline that brings nearly half of its gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to the east coast, sparking a spike in gas prices and panic buying at the pump.

Mr Biden said two weeks ago: “We spoke in direct communication with Moscow about the need for the responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks. ”

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World News

Taiwan Drought: Residents Pray for Rain and Scramble to Save Water

Taiwan Drought: Residents Pray for Rain and Scramble to Save Water

TAICHUNG, Taiwan — Lin Wei-Yi once gave little thought to the water sluicing through her shower nozzle, kitchen faucet and garden hose.

But as Taiwan’s worst drought in more than half a century has deepened in recent weeks, Ms. Lin, 55, has begun keeping buckets by the taps. She adopted a neighbor’s tip to flush the toilet five times with a single bucket of water by opening the tank and directly pouring it in. She stopped washing her car, which became so filthy that her children contort themselves to avoid rubbing against it.

The monthslong drought has nearly drained Taiwan’s major reservoirs, contributed to two severe electricity blackouts and forced officials to restrict the water supply. It has brought dramatic changes to the island’s landscape: The bottoms of several reservoirs and lakes have been warped into cracked, dusty expanses that resemble desert floors. And it has transformed how many of Taiwan’s 23.5 million residents use and think about water.

“We used too much water before,” Ms. Lin said this week in the central city of Taichung. “Now we have to adapt to a new normal.”

No typhoons made landfall in Taiwan last year, the first time since 1964. Tropical cyclones are a prime source of precipitation for the island’s reservoirs. Some scientists say the recent lack of typhoons is part of a decades-long pattern linked to global warming, in which the intensity of storms hitting Taiwan has increased but their annual frequency has decreased.

Ordinary rainfall has also been drastically lower than normal this year, particularly in the central region that includes Taichung, a city of 2.8 million people and the second-largest on the island. The water shortage could begin to ease this weekend if heavy rains arrive on Saturday, as some forecasters predict. But as of Friday, the water levels at two main reservoirs that supply Taichung and other central cities were hovering between 1 percent and 2 percent of normal capacity.

In a few cases, the usual residents of the island’s lakes and reservoirs — fish — were replaced by other species: tourists and social media influencers taking pictures of the visually startling terrain for Instagram posts. In one of the most photogenic locations, Sun Moon Lake, a reservoir in central Taiwan, the receding waterline has revealed tombstones that historians say may date to the Qing dynasty.

“It’s been meltingly hot in Taichung for a while now,” said Huang Ting-Hsiang, 27, a chef who works out of his home and stopped cooking last month for lack of water. “The images of the dangerously low levels at those reservoirs are scary, but there’s nothing we can do.”

To fight the drought, the government has been drawing water from wells and seawater desalination plants, flying planes and burning chemicals to seed clouds above reservoirs, and halting irrigation over an area of farmland nearly the size of New York City.

It has also severely restricted residential water deliveries. In Taichung and other hard-hit cities, the taps have been cut off for two days a week since early April. Some residents have low water pressure even on the other days. Officials have said the curbs will become more severe, starting on Tuesday, if the heavy rainfall that is expected over the weekend does not materialize.

Lo Shang-Lien, a professor at the Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering at National Taiwan University, said that the current restrictions were necessary in part because people on the island tend to use a lot of water.

In Taichung, the daily rate of domestic consumption per person is 283 liters, or nearly 75 gallons, according to government data from 2019. In Taipei, the capital, it is 332 liters per day. By contrast, average residential water consumption in Europe is about 144 liters per person per day and 310 liters in the United States, according to official estimates.

Professor Lo said that Taiwan’s water usage was relatively high in part because its water prices — some of the lowest in Asia, according to Fitch Ratings — incentivize excess consumption. “Given all the extreme climatic events of recent years, water policies have become something that we need to reconsider and replan,” he said.

Raising those prices would be politically sensitive, though, and a spokesperson for the Water Resources Agency said that the government had no immediate plans to do so.

For now, many people in Taiwan are watching the skies and praying for rain.

In one sign of the public mood, more than 8,000 social media users tuned in to a recent government livestream of an hourlong afternoon thunderstorm at a reservoir in northern Taiwan. A bubble tea shop in the northern city of Taoyuan said that it would stop serving ice with drinks until the water restrictions were lifted. And in Taichung, irrigation officials held a rain-worshiping ceremony at a temple — the first such event there since 1963 and only the fourth since the temple was built, in 1730.

Ms. Lin, who stopped washing her car, cleans dishes in an assembly line of metal pots with dishwater that she arranges from dirtiest to cleanest.

“I still need to wash whatever I need to wash,” she said, “but now every drop needs to be used twice.”

For the first few weeks of the rationing, some people looked for ways to escape life without running water. Ms. Lin went sightseeing in the eastern city of Hualien and visited one of her daughters in Taipei. Others went bathing in hot springs.

Lin Ching-tan, who owns the Kylin Peak Hotspring resort in Taichung, said that he had lowered the admission price by half, to about $5, as a humanitarian gesture. He also started bathing at work before going home in the evenings.

“If you don’t have water to take a shower, it can be torture,” he said.

But as the government restricts movement in an effort to fight Taiwan’s most severe coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic, more of the island’s residents are stuck at home, looking for creative ways to make scarce water supplies last longer. On Facebook and other social media platforms, people have been sharing water-saving tips, including how to flush toilets more efficiently or install a second rooftop water tank.

Mr. Huang, the chef, said that he and his family have a system for storing water in buckets, pots and tanks before their taps run dry every Tuesday and Wednesday. They also try to order takeout so that they won’t have to use water for cooking, he added, although their favorite restaurants and food stalls sometimes close for the same reason.

Ms. Lin’s system includes placing a plastic container under her feet while showering, then flushing the toilet with it.

This week, on her balcony, she poured used kitchen water over some flowers but left others to wilt. “There’s no turning back from extreme weather,” she said. “Developing good habits for saving water is probably just a rehearsal for frequent droughts of the future.”

Amy Chang Chien reported from Taichung, Taiwan, and Mike Ives from Hong Kong.

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Business

Nike break up with Neymar after sexual assault investigation, report says

Nike split with Neymar after sexual assault investigation, report says

Lionel Bonaventure | Getty Images

Nike said it ended its partnership with Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. — better known simply as Neymar — when the soccer superstar refused to cooperate with an investigation into sexual assault allegations against him.

“Nike ended its relationship with the athlete because he refused to cooperate in a good faith investigation of credible allegations of wrongdoing by an employee,” Nike said in a late Thursday statement.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

The company announced last summer it had parted ways with Neymar but had not given a reason for the sudden move. The Journal reported that, at the time, there were still eight years left in Neymar’s contract with Nike.

The company said it was “deeply disturbed” by an incident that the employee alleged occurred in 2016.

A spokeswoman for Neymar told the WSJ that he denies the allegations.

Nike said the employee reported the allegations in 2018 and initially wanted to keep it confidential and avoid an investigation. As a result, Nike said it did not share details with law enforcement or a third party, out of respect for the employee’s privacy.

Nike said it commissioned an independent investigation into the allegations in 2019 when the employee expressed interest in pursuing the matter. The company said, however, the investigation was inconclusive.

“No single set of facts emerged that would enable us to speak substantively on the matter. It would be inappropriate for Nike to make an accusatory statement without being able to provide supporting facts,” the company said.

In 2017, Neymar left Spanish club FC Barcelona to join Paris Saint Germain for a record transfer fee of $263 million.

— CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.

Categories
Health

Africa wants at the very least 20 million doses within the subsequent six weeks, WHO says

Africa needs at least 20 million doses in the next six weeks, WHO says

A medical worker injects a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine into a man at a hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, on May 19, 2021.

Seth | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Africa will need at least 20 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine within the next six weeks to allow people who have already received the first round of shooting, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The data shows that one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 70% effective for at least 12 weeks, but the second dose offers 81% protection against Covid over a longer period, according to the WHO. Antibodies have been seen in the body for up to six months after a dose.

In order for the continent to be able to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by September, another 200 million doses of an approved Covid-19 vaccine are urgently needed, according to the WHO.

As of Thursday, 28 million doses of Covid-19 had been administered in Africa by various drug manufacturers that have nearly 1.4 billion people, which is less than two doses for every 100 people on the continent. For comparison, more than 165 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost half the country’s population.

“Africa needs vaccines now. Any break in our vaccination campaigns will result in deaths and a loss of hope,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “We urge countries that have vaccinated their high-risk groups to speed up dose distribution to fully protect the most vulnerable.”

France has pledged to share half a million cans with six African countries over the next few weeks and has already sent 31,000 cans to Mauritania. Another 74,400 doses are to be delivered soon, the WHO announced.

The European Union has announced that it will send 100 million doses to low-income countries by the end of 2021, and the United States has pledged 80 million doses. Other countries around the world have also expressed an interest in sharing the doses. Countries in Africa that don’t use all of their cans are also sharing them with other countries on the continent, according to the WHO.

Redistributing vaccine doses is helpful, but expensive. WHO says Africa needs to increase its vaccine production capacity.

“Giving up intellectual property is a critical first step, but it needs to go hand in hand with sharing expertise and critical technologies,” the WHO wrote in a press release.

In Africa, 54 countries are involved in WHO efforts in more than 100 countries to submit a draft resolution to the World Health Assembly. The resolution aims to “strengthen local production, promote technology transfer and innovation and examine the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights and intellectual property rights from the point of view of increasing local production,” according to the WHO.

Around 40 African countries have also followed WHO training on building production capacities. The WHO claims to be working with the African Union on a plan to support feasibility studies and technology transfers upon request.

“It’s too early to say if Africa is on the verge of a third wave. We do know, however, that cases are rising and the clock is ticking,” said Moeti.