Innholdsfortegnelse for #442 i Techlife News

Have you liked or commented on a Facebook post about the COVID-19 pandemic? Facebook is about to begin letting you know if you’ve spread bad information. The company will soon be letting users know if they liked, reacted to, or commented on posts with harmful misinformation about the virus that was removed by moderators. It will also direct those who engaged with those posts to information about virus myths debunked by the World Health Organization. Social media is awash in bad takes about the outbreak and platforms have begun to combat that misinformation. Facebook said that people will begin seeing warning messages in coming weeks. Facebook and other platforms have already taken steps to curb the wave of dangerous misinformation that has spread along with the coronavirus. Facebook has banned…

The major banks in the U.S. are anticipating a flood of loan defaults as households and business customers take a big financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs raised the funds set aside for bad loans by nearly $20 billion combined in the first quarter, earnings reports released over the past two days show. And Wall Street expects that figure may go even higher next quarter, a possibility bank executives acknowledged on earnings conference calls. Bank of America and Citigroup said Wednesday that their profits sank more than 40% in the first quarter as both set aside billions for potentially bad loans. A day earlier, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reported even steeper drops in profit as those banks also…

China, where the coronavirus pandemic started in December, is cautiously trying to get back to business, but it’s not easy when many millions of workers are wary of spending much or even going out. Factories and shops nationwide shut down starting in late January. Millions of families were told to stay home under unprecedented controls that have been copied by the United States, Europe and India. The ruling Communist Party says the outbreak, which had killed more than 3,340 people among more than 82,341 confirmed cases as of Thursday, is under control. But the damage to Chinese lives and the economy is lingering. Truck salesman Zhang Hu is living the dilemma holding back the recovery. The 27-year-old from the central city of Zhengzhou has gone back to work, but with…

Apple has unveiled a new low-cost iPhone SE on its website. The company had been widely expected to release the new budget device at its March Special Event, but that was put on hold following concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Others predicted that the firm would wait until its new virtual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, but it appears as though Apple was ready to lift the lid on the device at a time when much of the world is beginning to feel the pinch. The new iPhone SE – which was rumored to be called the iPhone 9 – has a 4.7-inch display and a physical home button like the iPhone 8, alongside touch ID, a single rear-facing camera and the supercharged A13 Bionic chip, designed…

Should you wash your hands? Are you going out to get the mail? Should you touch the mailbox? Should you touch the mail? Should you clean the mail? Should you take a walk? Should you wear a mask? What about gloves? What about neighbors — stay six feet away? Ten? Will they approach? What will you do? Will you be standoffish, or laugh it off? Should you go to the supermarket? Should you wipe down the groceries? What if you run out of wipes? Should you stop to get gas? Should you wear gloves at the pump? Should you douse your credit card in sanitizer after sticking it in the slot? Should you remove the gloves before you handle your steering wheel? Should you throw the gloves on the car…

A leap in U.S. unemployment has thrown a spotlight on one type of work in high demand during the coronavirus pandemic: Gig work delivering groceries, meals and packages. Some app-based delivery companies have announced hiring sprees to cope with a surge in online shopping. That comes as 16.8 million Americans have filed for unemployment aid in just the past three weeks. Many gig jobs in delivery are relatively easy to get, often requiring little more than the ability to carry heavy loads, access to a bike or car and passing a background check. But they also come with the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 22,000 in the U.S. Most such jobs come with little to no access to benefits like health insurance and paid…

“Mrs. America,” which dramatizes the Equal Rights Amendment fight that pitted a surprising and determined opponent against a deep bench of supporters, is a marvel in many ways. The impressive cast includes Cate Blanchett and Margo Martindale. The miniseries was created by a woman, Dahvi Waller, and largely written and directed by women. It drills down on how the constitutional amendment was blocked while deftly painting both the broader and finer points of America circa 1970, when a wife, as a jaw-dropping moment illustrates, needed her husband to co-sign for credit. One more achievement: While the story is driven by Blanchett’s conservative powerhouse Phyllis Schlafly, attention is paid to the women of color who fought for civil rights and to make “second-wave” feminism of the 1960s and ’70s — successor…

NBCUniversal says its video-streaming service Peacock will launch nationally in July as planned, even though just a handful of its original series will be ready. The service was meant to have a mix of originals, classic shows and movies, and current NBC programming like its late-night shows and “Law & Order: SVU.” Original shows are key to hooking consumers inundated with new streaming services, but the coronavirus pandemic has largely shut down Hollywood production. Peacock was also supposed to get a big push from the Olympics this summer, but the quadrennial games have been postponed until 2021. Peacock now expects to have “dozens” of premieres of originals in 2021, said Matt Strauss, the company’s chairman. It’s tricky to predict when Hollywood production will return to normal after the coronavirus shutdown.…

A Mercury-bound spacecraft swooped past Earth last weekend, tweaking its roundabout path to the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet. Launched 1 1/2 years ago, Europe and Japan’s BepiColombo spacecraft passed within 8,000 miles (12,700 kilometers) of Earth. The closest approach occurred over the South Atlantic, with telescopes in Chile catching a glimpse of the speeding spacecraft. The gravity tug from Earth slowed BepiColombo and put it on a course closer to the sun. It was the first of nine planetary gravity assists — and the only one involving Earth — on the spacecraft’s seven-year journey to Mercury. The spacecraft — comprised of two scientific orbiters — should reach Mercury in 2025, after swinging twice past Venus and six times past Mercury itself. The next flyby will be at Venus…

The drone glides up toward a high-rise until it reaches an apartment window where a woman waves from inside, proving to police that she is self-isolating after testing positive for the coronavirus. Israeli police are deploying drones as part of efforts to stem the outbreak, allowing officers to keep a safe distance from infected people. Israel has also approved the use of phone-spying technology that was previously used against Palestinian militants. Israel and other countries have rapidly come to see such methods as crucial tools to prevent the spread of the virus, which has infected nearly 2 million people worldwide, killed more than 120,000 and prompted economically devastating lockdowns. But the increasing use of such technology against civilians has raised privacy concerns and difficult questions about how far authorities can…

Evidence of the coronavirus’ devastating impact on the U.S. economy has been steadily emerging, and the signs have grown ominous. Sales at stores and restaurants plunged in March by the largest amount on records dating back to 1992. The nation’s industrial output fell by the largest amount since the end of World War II. And the outbreak keeps ravaging the global oil market. That was just Wednesday’s news. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. “You don’t want to look, but you know you have to.” The picture will likely worsen in the coming weeks and months. Retail sales — a primary driver of the U.S. economy — are almost surely suffering further during April because business shutdowns will have been in…

The Pentagon’s process for awarding a highly lucrative cloud computing contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon was in line with legal and government purchasing standards, a government watchdog agency said Wednesday. The Defense Department inspector general found no evidence of White House interference in the contract award process. But the report said investigators could not fully review that aspect of the matter because the White House would not allow unfettered access to witnesses. The contract, potentially worth $10 billion, was awarded to Microsoft last October, prompting tech rival Amazon to cry foul. Amazon Web Services, a market leader in providing cloud computing services, had long been considered a leading candidate to run the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, known as JEDI. The project will store and process vast amounts…

Energy company Royal Dutch Shell told investors that it aims to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2050, a move that was welcomed by some climate campaigners even as others called it “corporate greenwash.” The British-Dutch oil and gas giant said in a statement that it wants to achieve “net zero” emissions from production by mid-century “at the latest.” Shell also said that it will set a stricter 30% target for reducing the net carbon footprint of its energy products by 2030, from 20% currently, and aim for a cut of 65% by 2050, from 50% at present. Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from the extraction, refining and burning of fossil fuels are one of the main drivers of man-made global warming. A group of institutional investors…

As parents grapple with school closures and working from home, they’re also facing a bigger challenge: homeschooling their children for the first time in their lives. Indeed, it might not be possible to recreate the classroom in your lounge, but with the right mindset, equipment and software, teaching your kids from the sofa doesn’t have to leave you scratching your head. INCREDIBLE FREE RESOURCES With half of the world now on a government-imposed lockdown and all-but-essential outdoor trips banned, kids are adapting to a new life at home; an extended Spring Break, if you will. Though it would be impossible to predict exactly when life will return to some kind of normal in the United States, one thing is for clear: schools will be remaining shut for a considerable period,…

The closure of doctors’ offices across Michigan during the new coronavirus pandemic has spurred a statewide surge in the embrace of telemedicine, a practice that allows doctors to treat patients remotely by phone or computer, officials said. Hospitals and doctors have moved quickly to adopt the technology after government agencies and lawmakers removed regulatory obstacles starting in early March. Experts say the telemedicine technology has advanced and spread quickly in a matter of weeks amid Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home, stay-safe executive order, the Detroit News reported. The Clarkston Medical Group has been providing limited telemedicine services since 2018 through eVisit, a virtual office visit platform that can be accessed through an iPhone or personal computer. The number of virtual visits has spiked from a range of 250 to 350 monthly…

Walt Disney World plans to stop paying wages to 43,000 workers in about a week while allowing them to keep their benefits for up to a year in what is the largest wave of furloughs since the theme park resort closed in mid-March because of the new coronavirus spread. Workers will be able to keep their medical, dental and life insurance benefits for the length of the furlough period, or up to a year. Seniority and wage rates will remain unchanged for the workers whose furloughs start April 19, according to a statement from the Service Trades Council, the coalition of unions representing the Disney World workers. “The union agreement provides stronger protections and benefits for 43,000 union workers at Disney than virtually any other furloughed or laid-off workers in…

Music snobbery is making a comeback. On the heels of the excellent serial remake of “High Fidelity,” about a tasteful Brooklyn record store owner, comes “Trolls World Tour,” in which different pixie clans each representing a music genre vie for sonic domination. Both are quaint in their own way, pretending that our musical borders didn’t years ago disintegrate into a digital soup. “Trolls World Tour,” a sequel to the 2016 DreamWorks original, had been planned for theatrical release before the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Universal Pictures instead released it straight into the home, as a $19.99 digital rental — a rare breaking of the theatrical release window by a major studio. That makes “Trolls World Tour” a kind of trial balloon, albeit a very glittery one. Is it worth it?…

Greg Calvin believed his job as an audio technician could survive most economic downturns because people will keep watching sports while the networks that air the games still receive advertising revenue. But that was before the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down all sports and put Calvin and his fellow technicians out of work and on unemployment. “I don’t see a time in the near future where they are going to put 45,000 fans in a stadium,” said Calvin, who has been an audio technician in New York since 1989. The new coronavirus has caused a global pandemic that has sickened at least 1.68 million and killed over 101,000 worldwide, halted sports and forced restrictions on the movement of millions of people in an effort to stop the virus from…

In stark contrast to the normal hustle and bustle of tourists and enophiles, the grounds sit empty at California’s oldest commercial winery — the historic Buena Vista. Tasting rooms statewide shut down last month after the governor ordered businesses to close to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. So Buena Vista and other wineries that want to stay viable and connected to their customers during the pandemic are harnessing technology and platforms such as Facebook Live to offer virtual wine experiences. Actor George Webber, dressed in period clothing as “The Count” Agoston Haraszthy — the founder of Buena Vista in 1857 — takes online viewers back in time, broadcasting several days a week inside the oldest wine cave dug in the state and offering a “virtual tasting.” “While it’s…

American industry collapsed in March as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. Manufacturing and overall industrial production posted the biggest declines since the United States demobilized after World War II. The Federal Reserve reported that manufacturing output dropped 6.3% last month, led by plunging production at auto factories that have entirely shut down. Overall, industrial production, which includes factories, utilities and mines, plummeted 5.4%. The declines were the biggest since 1946 and far worse than what economists had expected. Production of autos and auto parts went into freefall, dropping 28%. The lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed to combat COVID-19 have brought economic activity to a near-standstill. Output dropped 3.9% at utilities and 2% at mines as oil and gas drilling plunged, the Fed said. Factories were running at…

The world’s richest countries agreed to freeze poor nations’ debt obligations, shortly after nearly 20 European and African leaders made a joint appeal for a massive international effort to boost Africa’s coronavirus response, saying that “only a global victory that fully includes Africa can bring this pandemic to an end.” Finance ministers of the G-20 group of major economies, which includes the U.S., China, India and others, said they will immediately put on hold poor countries’ obligations to service debt they owe. The statement issued after a videoconference put to rest concerns that China would block such a measure, which is aimed at helping the poorest nations focus their spending on healthcare and assistance to vulnerable people to contain the outbreak and its fallout. The joint appeal signed by the…

Jennifer Page jokes that four months in, this decade is already the worst of her life. A server at a nearby resort, she’s out of work due to the pandemic. After someone tested positive at her mother’s nursing home, Page moved her into a room off the dining room. Two weeks ago, her father died. The day after his memorial, she and her family went for a walk, and her 5-year-old daughter, Roxa, asked for something coveted by children for more than a century. “She was just like, ‘Mama, when this is over, can we go to the movies?’” recalled Page, 36, of Buffalo. “She went through the whole process of going to the movies. She said, ‘We can get popcorn and each have our own drink and each get…

Staggered school start times. Class sizes cut in half. Social distancing in the hallways and cafeteria. These are a few of the possible scenarios for California schools that Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out as part of a roadmap for reopening the state amid the coronavirus. The timeline for reopening schools remains unclear, as it does for reopening California society at large. But Newsom said this week that when the state’s 6 million students do return, things will look dramatically different. “We need to get our kids back to school,” Newsom said. “And we need to do it in a safe way.” The outline he presented for what it will take to lift coronavirus restrictions in the nation’s most populous state asked more questions than it answered. He sought to temper…

The sick who still go to work because they have no paid leave. Families who face ruin from even a temporary layoff. Front-line workers risking infection as they drive buses, bag takeout meals and mop hospital floors. For years, financial inequality has widened in the United States and elsewhere as wealth and income have become increasingly concentrated among the most affluent while millions struggle to get by. Now, the coronavirus outbreak has laid bare the human cost of that inequality, making it more visible and potentially worse. Congress, the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve have mounted the largest financial intervention in history — a full-scale drive that includes mandating sick leave for some, distributing $1,200 checks to individuals, allocating rescue aid to employers and expanding unemployment benefits to try…

The Treasury Department said this week that the nation’s major airlines have tentatively agreed to terms for $25 billion in federal aid to pay workers and keep them employed through September. The assistance will include a mix of cash and loans, with the government getting warrants that can be converted into small ownership stakes in the leading airlines. The airlines did not want to give up equity, but Treasury demanded compensation for taxpayers. The airlines have little leverage — their business has collapsed as the COVID-19 pandemic reduces air travel to a trickle and they face mass layoffs without the federal aid. The nation’s six biggest airlines — Delta, American, United, Southwest, Alaska and JetBlue — along with four smaller carriers have reached agreements in principle, and the Treasury Department…

Weeks of quarantine with kids have a way of burning through a movie collection. Even with the libraries of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus and others, there are plenty of households that have already had their fill of “Frozen” and overdosed on “Onward.” In the best of times, the canon for kids movies can feel limiting. Disney overwhelms. But there’s a wider world of movies out there for young ones. We’ll assume they’ve already accrued a solid foundation of some of the essentials: “Fantastic Mr. Fox,”“The Iron Giant,” Pixar, the Muppets, et cetera. So here’s a few slightly further afield options — all available to stream, rent or are free — that your kids might not have seen. “Fly Away Home”: The outlines of this 1996 film, with…

Cameron Karosis usually strives to protect his personal information. But a scary bout of COVID-19 that began last month with headaches and fevers, progressed to breathing problems and led to a hospital visit has now left him eager to disclose as much as possible to help halt the virus’ spread. Karosis has already shared personal details with Massachusetts health investigators. And if he was asked to comply with a disease-tracking phone app that monitored his whereabouts but didn’t publicly reveal his name and Cambridge street address, he said he’d do that, too. “I’m sick and I’m under a quarantine -- hold me accountable for it,” the 27-year-old software salesman said. “You have the potential to kill other people.” As countries around the world edge toward ending lockdowns and restarting their…

A French court has ordered Amazon to stop selling, receiving or delivering non-essential goods for the next month to protect its employees from the virus. Amazon protested Tuesday’s emergency ruling, while unions hailed it as a victory for workers’ rights and public health. The ruling requires Amazon to evaluate health risks at all its facilities around France and negotiate new safety measures with worker representatives. Amazon must suspend its nonessential trade within 24 hours or face 1 million euros ($1.1 million) in fines per day. Sales of food, medicine and hygiene supplies are still allowed. Online giants like Amazon have clashed for years with European legal systems, and virus safety measures have become the latest battleground. The decision also serves as a reminder to governments and companies that essential workers…