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SUMMARY FACEBOOK PROFITS TOP $10B AS ITS CEO EXALTS THE ‘METAVERSE’

FORD OVERCOMES COMPUTER CHIP SHORTAGE, POSTS SURPRISE PROFIT

NOKIA PROFIT SUBSTANTIALLY UP ON NEW OPERATING MODEL, 5G

AMERICAN PLANS TO INVEST IN A BUDGET AIRLINE BASED IN CHILE

US ECONOMY SURPASSES PRE-PANDEMIC SIZE WITH 6.5% Q2 GROWTH

ASTRAZENECA TO SEEK US APPROVAL OF COVID VACCINE IN 2ND HALF

RUSSIAN LAB MODULE DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION AFTER 8-DAY TRIP

RUSSIA FINES GOOGLE FOR VIOLATING DATA STORAGE LAW

NEW TECHNOLOGY PROPELS EFFORTS TO FIGHT WESTERN WILDFIRES

SMART EYE DEPUTY CEO RANA EL KALIOUBY TALKS AUTOMOTIVE AI

GAME WAR: NETFLIX ENTERS THE BATTLE ROYALE OF GAMING PLATFORMS

TOWN WANTS NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY MINERS TO BE ‘PRESENTABLE’

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3 TECH GIANTS REPORT COMBINED PROFITS OF MORE THAN $50B

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TURN OFF, TURN ON: SIMPLE STEP CAN THWART TOP PHONE HACKERS

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WALZ SAYS ‘CLEAN CAR’ RULES HAVEN’T HURT IN 14 OTHER STATES

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TESLA REACHES MILESTONE WITH FIRST $1B QUARTERLY PROFIT

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AT MACK PLANT, BIDEN CHECKS OUT BIG RIGS, CHATS UP WORKERS

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DELIVERY APPS EXPAND REACH TO MEET CUSTOMER DEMANDS

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MARSQUAKES OFFER DETAILED LOOK AT RED PLANET’S INTERIOR

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CRYSTAL WATERS, SOFT SANDS, CLUNKY DIALOGUE IN ‘OLD’

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‘SNAKE EYES’ DOESN’T PLAY ITS CARDS RIGHT

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GOOGLE DELAYS RETURN TO OFFICE, MANDATES VACCINES

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BUSINESS TRAVEL STIRS, BUT MANY ROAD WARRIORS STAY GROUNDED

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UPS EARNS $2.7 BILLION BUT VOLUME DIPS AS STORES REOPEN

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CHINA LAUNCHES 6-MONTH CAMPAIGN TO CLEAN UP APPS

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CHINA’S TENCENT ORDERED TO END EXCLUSIVE MUSIC CONTRACTS

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PLANS FOR LARGEST US SOLAR FIELD NORTH OF VEGAS SCRAPPED

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FACEBOOK PROFITS TOP $10B AS ITS CEO EXALTS THE ‘METAVERSE’

company has a good chance to regain that share as the shortage wane, and it will work hard to fill orders. Ford had predicted in April that the chip shortage would cut its second-quarter production 50%, or by 1.1 million vehicles worldwide. Lawler said it did indeed lose about half of its production worldwide, with factory output about 700,000 vehicles below Ford’s initial plan. But the company allocated available chips to its most profitable vehicles, he said. Lawler said the Renesas plant’s production line damaged by the fire should produce more in the second half of the year, alleviating some of the chip shortage. He said he sees the shortage running through this year into the first part of 2022. “We need to see relief coming through before we can really feel comfortable that we’re out of the woods here,” he told analysts on a conference call. But Lawler cautioned that increased prices for raw materials will take about $2 billion out of its pretax income in the second half. Also, pretax profits at Ford’s credit arm — $1.6 billion last quarter — will likely fall by $1 billion from the first half as values of vehicles returning from leases drop closer to normal. “We do have some headwinds but we like the underlying strength of the business,” he said. High prices are likely to continue as long as there is an imbalance between low supplies and strong demand, Lawler said, although he said he expects prices to fall a bit in the fourth quarter. 23

in the U.S. who work in offices. Exceptions will be made for medical and other reasons. Google announced a similar policy earlier in the day. The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $10.39 billion, or $3.61 per share, in the AprilJune period. That’s up from $5.18 billion, or $1.80 per share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 56% to $28.58 billion from $18.32 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $3.04 per share and revenue of $24.85 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Advertising revenue growth was driven by a 47% year-over-year increase in the average price per ad and a 6% increase in the number of ads shown to people. Facebook said it expects ad prices, not the amount of ads it delivers, to continue to drive growth. The company predicted uncertainty for 2021 back in January, saying its revenue in the latter half of the year could face significant pressure. Because revenue grew so quickly in the second half of 2020, Facebook said at the time that it could have trouble keeping up that pace. Williamson said the third quarter will be an important one for the company, “as the full effects of the Apple update take hold.” “We will have a much better sense of how well Facebook has been able to adjust its core ad targeting products to manage the reduced amount of information it can tap into,” she said. Facebook had 2.9 billion monthly users as of June, up 7% from a year earlier. Shares fell $11.77, or 3.2%, to $373.28 in afterhours trading. Earlier in the day, the stock hit an alltime high of $377. 55 in anticipation of the results, so the decline wasn’t unexpected. 15

FORD OVERCOMES COMPUTER CHIP SHORTAGE, POSTS SURPRISE PROFIT

Sky-high sales prices for its pickup trucks and SUVs helped Ford Motor Co. turn a surprise second-quarter profit despite a global shortage of computer chips that cut factory output in half. The Dearborn, Michigan, company said Wednesday that it made $561 million from April through June, largely because of cost cuts and higher-than-expected prices for its vehicles. The automaker warned earlier in the year that it would be hit especially hard by the chip shortage and a fire at Japanese supplier Renesas that manufactures many of its automotive-grade chips, resulting in a second-quarter loss. But Ford surprised investors by earning 13 cents per share excluding one-time items. That was far better than Wall Street expectations of a 3-centper-share loss, according to FactSet. 18

Revenue was $26.8 billion, also above analysts’ forecasts of just over $23 billion. Ford raised its guidance for full-year pretax income by about $3.5 billion to between $9 billion and $10 billion. But it cautioned that higher commodity prices and capital investments would offset second-half wholesale volume that it expects to rise by about 30% over the first half. Orders are up for the electric Mustang Mach-E SUV and the new Bronco SUV, making Ford’s business “spring loaded” for a rebound when chip supplies stabilize, CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Ford expects production to improve in the second half of the year. He said it has a bank of orders seven times larger than it was a year ago due to new vehicles. For instance, the company has about 120,000 reservations for the new F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, and about three quarters of them are new customers for Ford, he said. During the latest quarter, sales in the U.S., Ford’s most profitable market, rose nearly 10% over last year’s pandemic-ravaged quarter. But the company lost more than a quarter of its U.S. market share, which fell to 10.6%, according to Edmunds.com. Still, Ford’s average U.S, vehicle sales price, led by the F-Series pickup, rose 6.3% to $47,961 for the quarter, bringing the company badly needed revenue. Lawler blamed the market-share decline on short supplies due to factories being shut down because of the lack of chips. He said the 21

sure the vehicles have the same quality as those that went directly through assembly lines, he said. Ford’s stock was up almost 4% in extended trading following the release of the earnings report after the close of Wall Street’s regular session Wednesday.

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www.sharpusa.com | simplybetterliving.sharpusa.com *Mobile Application and Home Assistant Skill available upon commercial release. © 2020 Sharp Electronics Corporation. All rights reserved. Sharp, Supersteam™ Oven and all related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation and/or its affiliated entities. Product specifications and design are subject to change without notice. Internal capacity calculated by measuring maximum width, depth and height. Actual capacity for holding food is less.

NOKIA PROFIT SUBSTANTIALLY UP ON NEW OPERATING MODEL, 5G

Wireless network maker and 5G technology provider Nokia reported substantially improved second-quarter profit Thursday, citing the help of its new operating model and booming sales of 5G equipment. The company, based in Espoo, Finland, reported net profit of 539 million euros ($640 million) for the April-June period, up 71% from 316 million euros a year earlier. Sales were up 4% at 5.3 billion euros. CEO Pekka Lundmark, who took over Nokia’s 29

top job a year ago and has drastically changed the business strategy, said the second-quarter results showed the company was on the right track. “We are already seeing the benefits of our new operating model, which helped us to deliver such a strong financial performance,” Lundmark said. The executive has vowed to make Nokia the world leader in 5G - the new generation of broadband technology - even if it means sacrificing short-term profitability. In 5G technology, Nokia is in a tight race with Nordic competitor Ericsson, China’s Huawei and South Korea’s Samsung, among others. Lundmark said Nokia has revised its full-year profit outlook upwards and “we now expect comparable operating margin between 10 and 12% for full year 2021, compared to our previous range of 7-10%.” “We have executed faster than planned on our strategy in the first half, which provides us with a good foundation for the full year,” he said. Lundmark acknowledged, however, that Nokia faced “headwinds” in markets like the United States ,where the company has lost market share. Challenges also loom in China, where Nokia’s market share has remained low despite the company recently securing an important 5G deal with key operator China Mobile.

RUSSIAN LAB MODULE DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION AFTER 8-DAY TRIP

Russia’s long-delayed lab module successfully docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, eight days after it was launched from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The 20-metric-ton (22-ton) Nauka module, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, docked with the orbiting outpost in an automatic mode after a long journey and a series of maneuvers. Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, confirmed the module’s contact with the International Space Station at 13:29 GMT. 63

AMERICAN PLANS TO INVEST IN A BUDGET AIRLINE BASED IN CHILE

American Airlines plans to invest in a Chilean budget airline and sell seats on each other’s flights to help American extend its reach in South America. American said Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent for the deal with JetSmart. American executives declined to say how much the airline proposes to invest in JetSmart other than describing it as a minority stake. If the companies close the deal and win government approval, travelers could earn and spend American frequent-flyer points on JetSmart flights. Vasu Raja, American’s chief revenue officer, said the deal would let both airlines grow profitably throughout Latin America as the travel industry recovers from the pandemic. He said two-thirds of passengers on American flights to and from South America start in South America, and the deal will give them more flight options. 35

JetSmart was founded in 2016 and has just 20 planes, although it has 79 more on order. It specializes in short hops among 33 destinations in South America, mostly in Chile and Argentina. JetSmart overlaps with American in a half-dozen cities including Buenos Aires; Santiago, Chile; and Bogota, Colombia. JetSmart is one of several low-cost carriers controlled or partly owned by U.S. private equity firm Indigo Partners. Others include Denverbased Frontier Airlines, Mexico’s Volaris and Hungary’s Wizz Air. American has struck deals in South America before. Its longtime partnership with the continent’s biggest airline, Latam, collapsed in 2019 when Delta Air Lines swooped in to make a $2 billion investment in the Chilean carrier. After the pandemic crushed air travel in 2020, Latam filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

US ECONOMY SURPASSES PRE-PANDEMIC SIZE WITH 6.5% Q2 GROWTH

Fueled by vaccinations and government aid, the U.S. economy grew at a solid 6.5% annual rate last quarter in another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession. The total size of the economy has now surpassed its pre-pandemic level. Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — accelerated in the April-June quarter from an already robust 6.3% annual growth rate in the first quarter of the year. The quarterly figure was less than analysts had expected. But that was mainly because supply chain bottlenecks exerted a strongerthan-predicted drag on companies’ efforts to restock their shelves. The slowdown in inventory rebuilding, in fact, subtracted 1.1 percentage points from last quarter’s annual growth. 40

technologies that can be key in early wildfire detection, said John Bailey, a former firefighter and now professor at Oregon State University. Some experts argue it’s a losing battle against wildfires worsened by global warming, a century of reflexive wildfire suppression and overgrown forests, and communities creeping into what once were sparsely populated areas. Climate change has made the West hotter and drier in the past 30 years, and scientists have long warned the weather will get more extreme as the world warms. Yet, firefighters’ goal is to replicate the outcome of a fire that started last week in the canyon community of Topanga, between Los Angeles and Malibu. It had the potential to swiftly spread through dry brush but was held to about 7 acres (3 hectares) after water-dropping aircraft were scrambled within minutes from LA and neighboring Ventura County. What firefighters don’t want is another wildfire like the one that ravaged the Malibu area in 2018. It destroyed more than 1,600 structures, killed three people and forced thousands to flee. In another bid to gain an early advantage, California is buying a dozen new Sikorsky Firehawk helicopters — at $24 million each — that can operate at night, fly faster, drop more water and carry more firefighters than the Vietnam War-era Bell UH-1H “Hueys” they will eventually replace. It will also soon receive seven military surplus C-130 transport aircraft retrofitted to carry 4,000 gallons (15,140 litres) of fire 79

By contrast, consumer spending — the main fuel of the U.S. economy — was robust last quarter: It advanced at an 11.8% annual rate. Spending on goods grew at an 11.6% rate, though down from a 27.4% surge in the first quarter. And spending on services, from restaurant meals to airline tickets, expanded at a 12% rate, up from a 3.9% gain in the JanuaryMarch period as vaccinations encouraged more Americans to shop, travel and eat out. For all of 2021, the economy is expected to expand perhaps as much as 7%. If so, that would be the strongest calendar-year growth since 1984. And it would mark a sharp reversal from last year’s 3.4% economic contraction — the worst in 74 years — as a result of the pandemic. Despite the lower-than-expected second-quarter growth, Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, still foresees solid gains ahead, with growth of around 7% for all of 2021. “We expect the economy to carry strong momentum into 2022, with growth underpinned by strong consumer and corporate fundamentals,” Boussour said. Yet overhanging the rosy economic forecasts is the possibility of a resurgent coronavirus in the form of the highly contagious delta variant. The U.S. is now averaging more than 60,000 confirmed new cases a day, up from only about 12,000 a month ago. Should a surge in viral infections cause many consumers to hunker down again and pull back on spending, it would weaken the recovery. For now, the economy is showing sustained strength. Last month, America’s employers added 850,000 jobs, well above the average of the 43

SMART EYE DEPUTY CEO RANA EL KALIOUBY TALKS AUTOMOTIVE AI

Rana el Kaliouby co-founded and led Boston startup Affectiva, which uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze mood and emotion. Now she’s got a new job as deputy CEO of Smart Eye, after the Swedish eye-tracking company bought Affectiva for $73.5 million in June. The auto industry is the prime market for Kaliouby and competitors like Australia-based Seeing Machines. Carmakers are bracing for new safety rules and standards around the world that could require dashboard cameras to detect dangerous driver behavior, especially in vehicles that are partly driving themselves but still need human attention. El Kaliouby says that’s just the beginning of where in-car AI systems are going. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 83

previous three months. And average hourly pay rose a solid 3.6% compared with a year earlier, faster than the pre-pandemic annual pace. “The fundamentals for consumers and businesses are still very good,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial, who said he had so far seen no effects from a rise in confirmed viral cases. Consumer confidence has reached its highest level since the pandemic struck in March 2020, a key reason why retail sales remain solid as Americans shift their spending back to services — from restaurant meals and airline trips to entertainment events and shopping sprees. Businesses are also showing renewed faith in the economy, with orders for manufactured goods pointing to solid corporate investment. Underpinning the recovery have been trillions in federal rescue money, ranging from stimulus checks to expanded unemployment benefits to small business aid to just-distributed child tax credit payments. And millions of affluent households have benefited from a vast increase in their wealth resulting from surging home equity and stock market gains. The economy is also receiving substantial support from the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, the Fed reaffirmed that it will maintain its key short-term interest rate at a record low near zero to keep short-term borrowing costs low. It will also continue to buy government-backed bonds to put downward pressure on long-term loan rates to encourage borrowing and spending. The recovery, in fact, has been so rapid, with pent-up demand from consumers driving 45

growth after a year of lockdowns, that one looming risk is a potential spike in inflation that could get out of control. Consumer prices jumped 5.4% in June from a year ago, the sharpest spike in 13 years and the fourth straight month of sizable price jumps. The measure of consumer inflation in the secondquarter GDP report showed an annual rise of 3.4% for core inflation, which excludes food and energy. It was the fastest such jump since 1991. In addition to the drag on GDP from weak inventory restocking, reflecting the supply chain problems, housing construction fell at a 9.8% annual rate last quarter. This decline reflected, in part, the troubles home builders have had in obtaining lumber and other supplies. Some economists have warned that by choosing not to begin withdrawing its extraordinary support for the economy, the Fed may end up responding too late and too aggressively to high inflation by quickly jacking up rates and perhaps causing another recession. But at a news conference Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell underscored his belief that recent inflation readings reflect price spikes in a narrow range of categories — from used cars and airline tickets to hotel rooms and auto rentals — that have been distorted by temporary supply shortages related to the economy’s swift reopening. Those shortages involve items like furniture, appliances, clothing and computer chips, among others. Magnifying the supply bottlenecks is a rise in viral cases at transportation ports in Asia that have caused some manufacturing plants to shut down. Those bottlenecks could, in turn, continue 47

to obstruct the flow of goods to retailers in the United States. A shortage of workers, too, has made it harder for restaurants, retailers and many other serviceindustry employers to fill jobs as consumer demand surges — even employers that have been raising wages. Despite the job market’s steady gains, unemployment, at 5.9%, is still well above the 3.5% rate that prevailed before the pandemic struck. And the economy remains 6.8 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic total. Should the economy’s shortages persist well into the future, the economy would likely struggle to maintain its current robust pace of growth. 48

across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games.” Although the announcement was light on any specifics, Netflix recently extended deals with creators such as Shonda Rhimes to include both feature films and games, suggesting that the potential to expand into the territory has been in the works for a while. With little detail thus far, it’s hard to know exactly how gaming could work on the platform - indeed, on iOS, users wouldn’t be able to download separate apps as premium Netflix games without the company allowing people to subscribe via iTunes, so it could be that the Netflix app serves as a way to stream new games, though that’s also currently against Apple’s terms of service. The company could follow in the footsteps of Apple Arcade (more on that later) by launching several new games via apps and let users subscribe to access them all. Although gaming has seen a significant uptake over the past two years, some might still question why the streaming giant would consider gaming its next move. But co-CEO Reed Hastings revealed that the company “competes with” and “loses to” Fortnite more than it does HBO - it’s a constant effort to compete with games for time and attention. Plus, it’s worth noting that Netflix already has games under its belt, releasing experiences like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Carmen Sandiego, and it may hold data that shows gaming makes sense. It won’t be an easy battle, but it’s a battle Netflix’s executives think is worth taking. 94

ASTRAZENECA TO SEEK US APPROVAL OF COVID VACCINE IN 2ND HALF

AstraZeneca said Thursday that it intends to seek U.S. approval for its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, further delaying the application even as the company announced it had already delivered more than 1 billion doses to other countries. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said the application has been delayed because it has decided to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for full regulatory approval, rather than the fast-track emergency use 52

Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which allows users to stream Xbox games onto their phones. Rather than watering down the gaming experience for mobiles, Microsoft developed technology that allows users to take advantage of hardware from an Xbox Series X and play cutting-edge titles, even if they’re away from home. It’s similar to a service launched by Google earlier last year, known as Stadia, and though both have enjoyed strong reviews from gamers and technology enthusiasts, the truth is that they’re limited in functionality compared with native apps, can’t send notifications, and can’t fully utilize a device’s hardware. What’s more, discoverability is poor - users have to remember a web address rather than an app icon, though there are some useful workarounds. 100

authorization originally anticipated. As part of this “biologics license application,” the FDA has requested extensive data from clinical trials around the world, as well as data on real world use of the vaccine. “We have an enormous amount of data, clinical data and all of the data coming from the work we’ve done around the world,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said on a conference call with reporters. “A BLA is a much bigger submission than the emergency use approval.” AstraZeneca has promoted its relatively cheap, easy-to-handle shot as a “vaccine for the world” and has already received authorization from more than 170 countries. The company, which has promised to deliver the vaccine on a nonprofit basis throughout the pandemic, says it provided about 90% of the doses distributed by the COVAX facility for low- and middle-income countries in the first half of the year. AstraZeneca is the second drugmaker to say it has delivered more than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine, following U.S.-based Pfizer’s announcement on Wednesday. Oxford University scientists who developed the AstraZeneca vaccine applauded the company and its partners for reaching the landmark but noted that most people around the world haven’t been inoculated against a disease that has already killed more than 4.1 million people worldwide. “There is still so much to do, and all in the supply chain are pushing on knowing the next billion people are still waiting for their doses,” said Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. 55

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Plans for AstraZeneca’s U.S. application are being closely watched because the timetable has slipped in recent months. When AstraZeneca released data from its U.S. vaccine trial on March 22, company officials said they expected to seek FDA authorization in April. Among the concerns AstraZeneca will have to address are reports that the vaccine may be linked to rare blood clots, which have caused some countries to limit its use in younger people. While the U.S. is currently “well supplied” with vaccines, AstraZeneca believes its shot could “play a role in the future,” Soriot said. “It’s a good vaccine, and we just want to make sure it’s ready to be used if needed,” he said. AstraZeneca said Thursday that sales of its COVID-19 vaccine generated $1.17 billion in revenue during the first six months of the year. By contrast, Pfizer reported $11.3 billion of revenue from its vaccine during the same period. When asked about Pfizer’s results, Soriot said he had no regrets about AstraZeneca’s strategy. “We don’t envy anybody,” he said.

the power in the iPhone, iPad, and Mac under the Apple Silicon migration, and Apple could further boost the chances of Arcade’s success, making Apple a serious gaming contender. The truth is that we’ve come a long way since the early days of gaming on the iPod touch, and Apple has transformed the way we play. With new competitors like Netflix and Facebook on its heels, and the possibility of Disney+ entering the landscape with its own games, Apple has a challenge on its hands. But if the firm continues to innovate and offer new, engaging experiences, Apple Arcade will continue to thrive, and eventually, prove victorious.

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“We don’t want it littered with these trailers that are pumping out Bitcoin,” he told WWNY-TV. “We just want to make sure if they’re going to come here, that it’s a nice presentable building.” Cryptocurrency operations have been drawn to this part of northern New York for years because of the availability of cheap hydropower. Operations can requires hundreds of computers to make the complex calculations required to mine cryptocurrencies. Massena Electric is currently negotiating with three cryptocurrency operations and has its own moratorium on working with any new ones. “The key components for the developers is low-cost electricity and reliability, which are two things we’ve always had,” said Andrew McMahon, Massena Electric superintendent.

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RUSSIAN LAB MODULE DOCKS WITH SPACE STATION AFTER 8-DAY TRIP

The launch of Nauka, which is intended to provide more room for scientific experiments and space for the crew, had been repeatedly delayed because of technical problems. It was initially scheduled to go up in 2007. In 2013, experts found contamination in its fuel system, resulting in a long and costly replacement. Other Nauka systems also underwent modernization or repairs. Nauka became the first new module in the Russian segment of the station since 2010. On Monday, one of the older Russian modules, the Pirs spacewalking compartment, undocked from the Space Station to free up room for the new module. Russian crewmembers on the station have done two spacewalks to connect cables in preparation for Nauka’s arrival. After docking, Nauka will require many maneuvers, including up to 11 spacewalks beginning in early September, to prepare it for operation. The International Space Station is currently operated by NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov of Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet. In 1998, Russia launched the station’s first module, Zarya, which was followed in 2000 by another big module, Zvezda, and three smaller modules in the following years. The last of them, Rassvet, arrived at the station in 2010.

Retail, along with travel and entertainment ads, were the biggest contributors to the revenue increase, the company said. Total revenue surged 62% from last year to $61.88 billion. Revenue after subtracting TAC, or traffic acquisition costs, was $50.95 billion. The April-June quarter looks particularly strong since the 2020 downturn forced Google to report its first decline in quarterly ad revenue from the previous year. Analysts were expecting Alphabet to earn $19.24 per share on revenue of $56.2 billion, and $46.2 billion after subtracting TAC. Alphabet’s stock jumped $135, or 5.1%, to $2,773 in afterhours trading after the results.

MICROSOFT Microsoft reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $16.5 billion, up 47% from the same period last year. Net income of $2.17 per share beat Wall Street expectations. The software maker also topped forecasts by posting revenue of $46.2 billion in the quarter that ended on June 30, a 21% increase over the same time last year. Analysts were expecting Microsoft to earn $1.91 per share for the April-June quarter on revenue of $44.1 billion. Microsoft profits have soared throughout the pandemic thanks to ongoing demand for its software and cloud computing services for remote work and study. But the company’s shares fell 2.9% to $278.19 in after-hours trading. Growth in sales of Microsoft’s cloud services, which compete with Amazon and other companies, and its Office productivity tools 120

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Russia’s state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has tried unsuccessfully for several years to force large tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to move the data of Russian users to Russia. The law allows online services that don’t follow the data storage requirement to be banned from Russia. The government has repeatedly threatened to block Facebook and Twitter, but stopped short of outright bans, likely fearing the move would elicit too much public outrage. So far, authorities only have banned LinkedIn for failing to store user data in Russia, and the social media platform was not very popular in the country before then. Pressure on major social media platforms increased this year after Russian authorities criticized them for being used to bring tens of thousands of people into the streets to demand the release of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most well-known critic. The wave of demonstrations across the country posed a major challenge to the Kremlin. Officials alleged that social media platforms failed to remove calls for children to join the protests, and Putin urged police to more steadfastly monitor social media platforms and to track down those who draw children into “illegal and unsanctioned street actions.” Facebook and Twitter have been fined repeatedly this year for failing to remove content that Russian authorities deemed unlawful. Roskomnadzor once threatened to ban Twitter and since March has slowed down the speed at which the platform can operate. 70

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NEW TECHNOLOGY PROPELS EFFORTS TO FIGHT WESTERN WILDFIRES

As drought- and wind-driven wildfires have become more dangerous across the American West in recent years, firefighters have tried to become smarter in how they prepare. They’re using new technology and better positioning of resources in a bid to keep small blazes from erupting into mega-fires like the ones that torched a record 4% of California last year, or the nation’s biggest wildfire this year that has charred a section of Oregon half the size of Rhode Island. There have been 730 more wildfires in California so far this year than last, an increase of about 16%. But nearly triple the area has burned — 470 square miles (1,200 square kilometers). Catching fires more quickly gives firefighters a better chance of keeping them small.

Fourteen other states already have adopted similar standards, which require manufacturers and dealers to supply more electric vehicles. The states’ rules are all based on California’s tough standards, and that’s been a major sore point for Minnesota auto dealers and other critics. “In the 14 other states, the sky did not fall,” Walz told reporters after his tour. “The car industry did not collapse. Jobs were not lost. In fact, just the opposite happened in all 14 other states.” The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency made the standards official by publishing them in the State Register following a contentious process. The Walz administration angered Republican lawmakers by bypassing the Legislature’s input and imposing them with its executive authority. Republicans held up an environmental projects bill for over a year and threatened to shut down state parks in an unsuccessful effort to force the governor to back down. And Walz paid a heavy political price for defying them. Laura Bishop resigned as commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency earlier this month when it became apparent that the GOP-controlled state Senate was about to vote to reject her confirmation over her agency’s leading role in the process. “It puts California bureaucrats in charge of our industry here in Minnesota,” Scott Lambert, president of the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, said in an interview. “The state has no ability to modify or amend these rules.” Lambert added that the changes will swamp Minnesota dealers with more electric vehicles than customers want to buy, and force up car prices for everyone. 136

That includes using new fire behavior computer modeling that can help assess risks before fires start, then project their path and growth. When “critical weather” is predicted — hot, dry winds or lightning storms — the technology, on top of hard-earned experience, allows California planners to pre-position fire engines, bulldozers, aircraft and hand crews armed with shovels and chain saws in areas where they can respond more quickly. With the computer modeling, “they can do a daily risk forecast across the state, so they use that for planning,” said Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for Cal Fire, California’s firefighting agency. That’s helped Cal Fire hold an average 95% of blazes to 10 acres (4 hectares) or less even in poor conditions driven by drought or climate change, she said. So far this year it’s held 96.5% of fires below 10 acres (4 hectares). Federal firefighters similarly track how dry vegetation has become in certain areas, then station crews and equipment ahead of lightning storms or in areas where people gather during holidays, said Stanton Florea, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. In another effort to catch fires quickly, what once were fire lookout towers staffed by humans have largely been replaced with cameras in remote areas, many of them in high-definition and armed with artificial intelligence to discern a smoke plume from morning fog. There are 800 such cameras scattered across California, Nevada and Oregon, and even casual viewers can remotely watch wildfires in real time. 75

TESLA REACHES MILESTONE WITH FIRST $1B QUARTERLY PROFIT

Tesla’s quarterly profit has surpassed $1 billion for the first time thanks to the electric car pioneer’s ability to navigate through a pandemic-driven computer chip shortage that has caused major headaches for other automakers. The financial milestone announced this week extended a two-year run of prosperity that has erased questions about Tesla’s long-term viability raised during its early years of losses and production problems. Tesla now has cemented its position as the leader in the shift away from gas-combustion that is expected to make it even more profitable than during its most recent quarter. The Palo Alto, California, company earned $1.1 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the April-June period. That was more than 10 times its profit at the same time last year. Revenue nearly doubled from last year to about $12 billion. 140

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retardant, more than three times as much as Cal Fire’s workhorse S-2 airtankers. For all that, firefighters’ efforts to outsmart and suppress wildfires is counterproductive if all it does is postpone fires in areas that will eventually burn, argued Richard Minnich, a professor in Riverside who studies fire ecology. “No matter how sophisticated the technology may be, the areas they can manage or physically impact things is small,” he said. “We’re in over our heads. You can have all the technology in the world — fire control is impossible.” Working with wildfires is more realistic, he said, by taking advantage of patches that previously burned to channel the spread of new blazes. Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter who now heads Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, also said firefighters need to adopt a new approach when confronting the most dangerous wind-driven wildfires that leapfrog containment lines by showering flaming embers a mile or more ahead of the main inferno. It’s better to build more fire-resistant homes and devote scarce resources to protecting threatened communities while letting the fires burn around them, he said. “We have these amazing tools that allow us to map fire spread in real time and model it better than weather predictions,” Ingalsbee said. strategic and working with fire to keep people safe, keep homes safe, but let fire do the work it needs to do — which is recycle all the dead stuff into soil.”

SMART EYE DEPUTY CEO RANA EL KALIOUBY TALKS AUTOMOTIVE AI

Q: Ten years from now, a family’s in a car. What might your technology be doing on their trip?

A: OK, family’s in the car. You’ve got two kids in the back seat. First of all, the kids are fighting. The car knows that and can see that mom, who’s driving, is getting frustrated, a little mad, distracted. The car intervenes by recommending content for the kids — or through a conversational interface, mediating a game between the kids. They play for a little. They fall asleep. The car can see that so the lights dim and the music or movie turns off. Then the car realizes mom is exhausted and also starting to doze off, so it gets into this chatty mode to reengage her. And then mom leaves the car, forgets the child is in there, and gets a text message that says, “Oh, you may have forgotten Little Baby Joe!” I’m making this up on the fly. It can basically personalize the whole cabin experience — music, lighting, temperature, based on knowing who’s inside the car and what they’re doing.

Q: What is Affectiva bringing to Smart Eye, and vice versa?

A: Smart Eye is a 22-year-old company. What they’ve been focused on the past couple years — and they are the undisputed market leader — is driver monitoring. They’re able to very accurately determine where a person is looking and they also monitor eye behavior. They can identify when a driver is distracted or drowsy. They’ve been contracted by 13 global automakers. Affectiva spun out of MIT 12 years ago and our focus is humanizing technology by bringing emotional intelligence to machines. 84

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while Amazon controls 22%, according to Edison Trends. DoorDash and Uber Eats together control 1%. Non-restaurant delivery makes up around 5% of sales at both Uber Eats and DoorDash. But that business is growing rapidly. DoorDash started working with convenience stores like 7-Eleven in April 2020 and more recently opened its own DashMart fulfillment centers. It’s already the market leader in convenience store delivery, with a 60% share of the market, according to Edison Trends. And there’s enormous opportunity ahead. Beri says around 3 million customers per month are ordering non-restaurant deliveries from Uber Eats, but the company has a total of 98 million active users around the world. And Mogherabi estimates there will be $1 trillion worth of deliverable goods and services in the U.S. by 2025. Delivery comes at a price. The in-store price of a gallon of milk at a Meijer in Michigan is $1.68; on the DoorDash app, it’s $2.99. But so far, the extra fees aren’t dampening demand. Uber Eats said non-restaurant delivery jumped 77% between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of this year. DoorDash said non-restaurant delivery rose 40% in the same period. Cynthia Carrasco White, a single mother and a lawyer for a Los Angeles nonprofit, used to think delivery was a luxury she couldn’t afford. But she started getting meals, groceries and other necessities delivered last year so she could avoid taking her young, unvaccinated daughters to the store. 159

We project there’s going to be an evolution in driver monitoring to everything that’s happening inside the vehicle. What are their mood and emotions? What activities are they engaged with? You become the eyes and ears of the car.

Q: How do you detect someone’s mood or emotions?

A: We do a lot of facial analysis but we’ve expanded to do a lot of body “keypoint” tracking so we can detect what people are actually doing — are you slouched in the car? Are you agitated? We monitor all of that.

Q: What about someone’s face will tell you they’re panicked?

A: There are expressions of fear. You can also start tracking other vital signs, like your heart rate or heart rate variability, breathing rate, via an optical sensor. That’s a direction we’re headed. It’s not at all ready for prime time but it’s something Affectiva and Smart Eye are exploring. And once you know a person’s baseline, you can find out if they are deviating from that baseline and the car can flag that.

uses DoorDash to move heavy bags of kibble and kitty litter to customers’ doorsteps, which is much faster and cheaper than shipping them. “It costs the same amount of money to take a 40-pound bag as it costs for a tennis ball in that DoorDasher’s trunk,” said Petco CEO Ron Coughlin. But not every delivery driver is pleased about delivery’s expansion. Barbara Mensch of Rutherfordton, North Carolina, who drives for both DoorDash and Instacart, said business was booming in the early days of the pandemic. But lately, customers have been tipping less generously, and she often turns down DoorDash orders. She doesn’t like shopping for goods in unfamiliar stores like Dollar Tree or idling at Walmart while a worker prepares a delivery. “A $13 order that takes you 45 minutes? It’s not a good value for your time,” she said. “I would do better to stay at home and not use my car at all than go out and work for peanuts.” But Kweli Murphy of Englewood, California, who drives for both DoorDash and Uber Eats, says he’s happy with the work. Murphy, 19, just bought his first car with his delivery earnings, which average around $150 for six hours of driving. Most of his deliveries still come from restaurants, but he occasionally shops for orders in places like AutoZone and CVS. “It’s not a big deal to go shopping for people. It’s just an opportunity to go into different places other than restaurants,” he said.

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These new studies confirm that the Martian core is molten. But more research is needed to know whether Mars has a solid inner core like Earth’s, surrounded by a molten outer core, according to the international research teams. Stronger marsquakes could help identify any multiple core layers, scientists said. The findings are based on about 35 marsquakes registered by a French seismometer on NASA’s InSight stationary lander, which arrived at Mars in 2018. The domed seismometer has actually detected 733 marsquakes so far, but the 35 with magnitudes from 3.0 to 4.0 served as the basis for these studies. Most of the sizable quakes originated in a volcanic region 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away where lava may have flowed just millions of years ago. Mark Panning of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who took part in the crust study, said even the biggest marsquakes are so weak they would barely be felt on Earth. He’s hoping for “the big one” which would make it easier to process the data and define the Martian interior. “Fingers crossed, we would love to see some bigger events,” Panning said. Current measurements show Mars’ crust possibly reaching as deep as 12 miles to 23 miles (20 kilometers to 37 kilometers); the mantle extending down nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers); and the relatively lightweight core with a radius of 1,137 miles (1,830 kilometers). By comparison, Earth’s crust ranges from a few miles (kilometers) beneath the oceans to more than 45 miles (70 kilometers) beneath the Himalayas. Earth is almost double the size of Mars. 166

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Snake Eyes | Final Trailer (2021 Movie) | Henry Golding, G.I. Joe

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FACEBOOK ENTERS THE CHAT Far from being the only new player to enter the gaming world in recent years, Facebook is also set to boost its interest in the market. Although the company has offered social gaming experiences for a number of years - remember, its platform was the pioneer behind titles such as Candy Crush and Farmville - the company confirmed in July that it was to launch a new gaming platform of its own. Facebook Gaming won’t be available on the App Store due to cloud gaming limitations from Apple, but it will be available via a progressive web app so that users can access engaging, attention-grabbing games from the Safari web browser. Speaking to The Verge at the launch of the new platform, Facebook’s vice president of gaming, Vivek Sharma, said that Apple’s game streaming limitations have hampered their efforts, but added that it “game to the same conclusion as others” like Microsoft that it made sense to launch via a web app instead. “We’ve come to the same conclusion as others: web apps are the only option for streaming cloud games on iOS at the moment. As many have pointed out, Apple’s policy to ‘allow’ cloud games on the App Store doesn’t allow for much at all. Apple’s requirement for each cloud game to have its own page, go through review, and appear in search listings defeats the purpose of cloud gaming. These roadblocks mean players are prevented from discovering games, playing cross-device, and accessing new games natively; even for those who aren’t using the latest and most expensive devices.” The criticism follows Microsoft’s launch of the 99

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A SLOW - BUT STEADY - START FOR APPLE ARCADE Although Apple might not be making the most noise when it comes to gaming, the company has taken a different approach that seems to be working. The truth is that it’s hard to say that any of Apple’s service offerings, other than iCloud and Apple Music, have been a hit, as it’s well-documented that Apple TV+ and Apple News+ have struggled to generate any major interest from consumers. It’s been almost two years since Apple Arcade was released, and whilst the $4.99 service on its own won’t make Apple billions, partnering it up with Apple One makes Arcade a more compelling product. Remember: Apple Arcade offers users access to more than 100 exclusive premium games on iOS, macOS, and tvOS for just $4.99 per month, and though favorites like What the Golf and Hot Lava were popular, paying the same five bucks per month to play the same one or two games seems excessive and expensive. However, Apple One has made the service more accessible, as those casual gamers who only dip into titles now and again can still access them under a $19.99 family plan, which also includes iCloud+, Apple TV+, and Apple Music. Add in that Apple has added dozens of classic titles - now taking the number of games on the platform to over 180 - and Arcade now seems more attractive than ever before. Cut the Rope, Monument Valley, Chameleon Run, Reigns, and Fruit Ninja Classic are just some of the nostalgic favorites, ideal for capturing the attention of casual gamers and those not interested in the more intensive titles of today like Chivalry 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake 105

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because of liability concerns, although it is not requiring vaccination before travel. Daniel believes that the pandemic will lead to different kinds of travel, but not necessarily less: fewer conferences, more chances for far-flung employees to get together on projects. “We realized how much we value in-person meetings -- that collaborative dynamic when people are with each other -- but we don’t want people to travel for things that could or should be handled virtually,” Daniel says. “We have learned how to take care of non-essential meetings in probably a better way for the environment and a better way for the budget.” Marie Swift, who runs a marketingcommunications firm in Falls Church, Virginia, used to travel about every other week for consulting, conferences and speaking engagements, but during the pandemic she didn’t fly for 14 months. Swift booked a flight to New York in early September for a gala where her company is up for an award. If the nation hasn’t reached “some sort of herd immunity” by then, Swift says, “I will be the double-masked lady with a ball cap and glasses on, air vents full-force ... wiping down my tray, armrests, and seat-belt buckle.” She has nine more business trips scheduled between September and early November. Will she be on board, or will she cancel? “We’ll see how it goes.”

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TOWN WANTS NEW CRYPTOCURRENCY MINERS TO BE ‘PRESENTABLE’

A New York town along the Canadian border plans to impose a 90-day moratorium on new cryptocurrency mining operations to make sure local roadsides are not cluttered with trailers and shipping containers loaded with computers. Massena Town Supervisor Steve O’Shaughnessy said officials decided to draw up new regulations for miners after noticing trailers with computers in them on a main road in the town. 111

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3 TECH GIANTS REPORT COMBINED PROFITS OF MORE THAN $50B

Three tech companies — Apple, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet — reported combined profits of more than $50 billion in the April-June quarter, underscoring their unparalleled influence and success at reshaping the way we live. Although these companies make their money in different ways, the results served as another reminder of the clout they wield and why government regulators are growing increasingly concerned about whether they have become too powerful. 114

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The massive profits pouring into each company also illustrated why they have a combined market value of $6.4 trillion -- more than double their collective value when the COVID-19 pandemic started 16 months ago.

APPLE Apple’s first iPhone model capable of connecting to ultrafast 5G wireless networks continued to power major increases in quarterly revenue and profits for tech’s most valuable company. With iPhone sales posting double-digit growth over the previous year for the third consecutive quarter, Apple’s profit and revenue for the AprilJune period easily exceeded analyst estimates. The Cupertino, California, company earned $21.7 billion, or $1.30 per share, nearly doubling profits earned during the same period last year. Revenue surged 36% to $81.4 billion. But a Tuesday conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook lamented that the steadily spreading delta variant of the coronavirus is casting doubt on how the rest of the year will unfold. “The road to recovery will be a winding one,” Cook said. That uncertainty has already led Apple to delay employees’ mass return to its offices from September to October. Most of Apple’s stores, though, are already open. The iPhone 12, released last autumn, is shaping up to be Apple’s most popular model in several years, largely because it’s the first to work on the 5G networks that are still being built around the world. Apple’s iPhone sales totaled nearly $40 billion in the latest quarter, up 50% from a year ago. 117

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Apple’s services division, the focal point of a high-profile trial revolving around the commissions it collects from iPhone apps, saw revenue climb 33% from last year to $17.5 billion. A potentially game-changing decision from the trial completed in May is expected later this summer. Among Apple’s upcoming challenges is whether shortages of computer chips and other key parts will force the company to delay its next iPhone this year, as it did last year. While Apple expects revenue to rise 10% in the current quarter, it said it may have more trouble getting parts for iPhones and iPad during the upcoming months. Executives skirted questions about another possible iPhone delay.

ALPHABET Google’s earnings improved markedly over the year-ago period, when the pandemic was starting to bite consumer spending and its partner, advertising. Now that vaccines have allowed people to shed the shackles of the pandemic and splurge again, a big chunk of that pent-up demand has spurred advertisers to spend more too, with a big chunk going to Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. Powered by Google, Alphabet earned $18.53 billion, or $27.26 per share, during the quarter, a nearly threefold increase from last year’s earnings of $6.96 billion, or $10.13 per share. Google’s advertising revenue soared 69% to $50.44 billion thanks to what CEO Sundar Pichai called a “rising tide” of online activity among consumers and businesses. 119

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for handling work documents and email both outpaced overall revenue growth. The company’s historical pillar — personal computing — grew just 9% in the quarter. Microsoft noted that supply issues were affecting its personal-computing division, including for its Surface and Windows products. The company recently unveiled the next generation of Windows, called Windows 11, its first major update in six years. It will be available later this year.

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TURN OFF, TURN ON: SIMPLE STEP CAN THWART TOP PHONE HACKERS

As a member of the secretive Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Angus King has reason to worry about hackers. At a briefing by security staff this year, he said he got some advice on how to help keep his cellphone secure. Step One: Turn off phone. Step Two: Turn it back on. That’s it. At a time of widespread digital insecurity it turns out that the oldest and simplest computer fix there is — turning a device off then back on again — can thwart hackers from stealing information from smartphones.

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Regularly rebooting phones won’t stop the army of cybercriminals or spy-for-hire firms that have sowed chaos and doubt about the ability to keep any information safe and private in our digital lives. But it can make even the most sophisticated hackers work harder to maintain access and steal data from a phone. “This is all about imposing cost on these malicious actors,” said Neal Ziring, technical director of the National Security Agency’s cybersecurity directorate. The NSA issued a “best practices” guide for mobile device security last year in which it recommends rebooting a phone every week as a way to stop hacking. King, an independent from Maine, says rebooting his phone is now part of his routine. “I’d say probably once a week, whenever I think of it,” he said. Almost always in arm’s reach, rarely turned off and holding huge stores of personal and sensitive data, cellphones have become top targets for hackers looking to steal text messages, contacts and photos, as well as track users’ locations and even secretly turn on their video and microphones. “I always think of phones as like our digital soul,” said Patrick Wardle, a security expert and former NSA researcher. The number of people whose phones are hacked each year is unknowable, but evidence suggests it’s significant. A recent investigation into phone hacking by a global media consortium has caused political uproars in France, India, Hungary and elsewhere after 127

researchers found scores of journalists, human rights activists and politicians on a leaked list of what were believed to be potential targets of an Israeli hacker-for-hire company. The advice to periodically reboot a phone reflects, in part, a change in how top hackers are gaining access to mobile devices and the rise of so-called “zero-click” exploits that work without any user interaction instead of trying to get users to open something that’s secretly infected. “There’s been this evolution away from having a target click on a dodgy link,” said Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, an internet civil rights watchdog at the University of Toronto. Typically, once hackers gain access to a device or network, they look for ways to persist in the system by installing malicious software to a computer’s root file system. But that’s become more difficult as phone manufacturers such as Apple and Google have strong security to block malware from core operating systems, Ziring said. “It’s very difficult for an attacker to burrow into that layer in order to gain persistence,” he said. That encourages hackers to opt for “in-memory payloads” that are harder to detect and trace back to whoever sent them. Such hacks can’t survive a reboot, but often don’t need to since many people rarely turn their phones off. “Adversaries came to the realization they don’t need to persist,” Wardle said. “If they could do a one-time pull and exfiltrate all your chat messages and your contact and your passwords, it’s almost game over anyways, right?”

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A robust market currently exists for hacking tools that can break into phones. Some companies like Zerodium and Crowdfence publicly offer millions of dollars for zero-click exploits. And hacker-for-hire companies that sell mobile-device hacking services to governments and law enforcement agencies have proliferated in recent years. The most well known is the Israeli-based NSO Group, whose spyware researchers say has been used around the world to break into the phones of human rights activists, journalists, and even members of the Catholic clergy. NSO Group is the focus of the recent exposés by a media consortium that reported the company’s spyware tool Pegasus was used in 37 instances of successful or attempted phone hacks of business executives, human rights activists and others, according to The Washington Post. The company is also being sued in the U.S. by Facebook for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with a zero-click exploit. NSO Group has said it only sells its spyware to “vetted government agencies” for use against terrorists and major criminals. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The persistence of NSO’s spyware used to be a selling point of the company. Several years ago its U.S.-based subsidy pitched law enforcement agencies a phone hacking tool that would survive even a factory reset of a phone, according to documents obtained by Vice News. 131

But Marczak, who has tracked NSO Group’s activists closely for years, said it looks like the company first starting using zero-click exploits that forgo persistence around 2019. He said victims in the WhatsApp case would see an incoming call for a few rings before the spyware was installed. In 2020, Marczak and Citizen Lab exposed another zero-click hack attributed to NSO Group that targeted several journalists at Al Jazeera. In that case, the hackers used Apple’s iMessage texting service. “There was nothing that any of the targets reported seeing on their screen. So that one was both completely invisible as well as not requiring any user interaction,” Marczak said. With such a powerful tool at their disposal, Marczak said rebooting your phone won’t do much to stop determined hackers. Once you reboot, they could simply send another zero-click. “It’s sort of just a different model, it’s persistence through reinfection,” he said. The NSA’s guide also acknowledges that rebooting a phone works only sometimes. The agency’s guide for mobile devices has an even simpler piece of advice to really make sure hackers aren’t secretly turning on your phone’s camera or microphone to record you: don’t carry it with you.

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WALZ SAYS ‘CLEAN CAR’ RULES HAVEN’T HURT IN 14 OTHER STATES

Minnesota became the first Midwestern state to adopt a plan for encouraging the switchover to electric vehicles as Gov. Tim Walz predicted that someday people will wonder why there was such a fuss. The Democratic governor visited Phillips and Temro Industries, which manufactures electric vehicle chargers, to highlight the state’s “clean car” rules, which take effect in 2024 for the 2025 model year. He said the rules will mean more choices for consumers shopping for electric cars, cleaner air at a time of growing concern about climate change, and more jobs. 135

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Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake, who has said he expects the rules to be a campaign issue in 2022. called them another example of Walz one-man rule, in line with his reliance on emergency powers to manage the pandemic. “I’m not surprised Governor Walz continues to issue mandates after the last 18 months,” Gazelka said in a statement. “His emergency powers may be over but his ego trip is not, and it looks like ‘One Minnesota’ is just ‘Walz’s Minnesota,’” he added, echoing the governor’s 2018 campaign theme. Walz said fears haven’t come true in the states that have already adopted the rules, and that he thinks it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the country catches up. And he predicted that electric vehicle buyers will flock to Minnesota because the state will offer more models than other states. “I think that this will be the national standard before long,” the governor said. Democratic Rep. Rick Hansen, of South St. Paul, who chairs a key environment committee, said proponents had overcome “unprecedented opposition” since Walz proposed the change in 2019. He gave a shout-out to Bishop for making it happen before she lost her job over it. “At the end of the day, this is going to benefit everybody,” Hansen said. “And whether we have some scars from this, whether it was difficult, whether it was challenging, it is worth it.”

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TESLA REACHES MILESTONE WITH FIRST $1B QUARTERLY PROFIT

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Adjusted to exclude one-time times items, Tesla earned $1.45 a share in the latest quarter, easily topping the 94 cents expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet. Tesla now boasts a market value of roughly $630 billion, far more than any other automaker and 14 times more than what the company was worth just two years ago. Its mercurial CEO, Elon Musk, is now sitting on the world’s third largest fortune at an estimated $163 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s calculations. For all its recent success, Tesla’s momentum could still be slowed by a persisting shortage of chips that have become vital parts in modern cars. While other major automakers had to dramatically curtail production during the first half, Tesla so far has been able to secure an adequate supply of chips to churn out vehicles at the fastest rate in its history. In a conference call, Musk said Tesla keep its manufacturing lines running largely by finding chips from alternate suppliers and then scrambling to rewrite some of the software in its cars to ensure all the technology remained compatible. Although he said things appear to be slightly approving, Musk described the chip shortage as still being “quite serious,” making it difficult to plan for the second half of the year. “The chip supply is a governing factor on our output,” Musk said. “It is out of our hands.” In a telling sign that Tesla isn’t immune to the shortage of chips and other components, the company disclosed that it will delay the introduction of a highly anticipated semi truck to some time next year. Its original plan was to introduce it this year. 143

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Musk, who jokingly anointed himself as Tesla’s “Technoking” earlier this year, let investors know that he might not be the executive discussing how the company is faring during the second half of the year. After holding regular quarterly updates since Tesla went public 11 years ago, Musk said he no longer intends to be on future calls with analysts unless he has something extremely important to say. He told analysts that he wants to use the time to focus on other work at Tesla. The company already has eliminated the department that communicates with reporters. In its most recent quarter, Tesla produced more than 206,000 vehicles within a three-month span for the first time in its history. It is also gearing up to add another sports utility vehicle, the Model Y, to its lineup later this year. Some of those vehicles will be manufactured at a new factory in Austin, Texas that’s still on schedule to be completed later this year. Despite Tesla is now on a production pace that has raised hopes it will be able to manufacture more than 800,000 vehicles this year. That would be a significant increase from nearly 510,000 last year, when government restrictions during the early stages of the pandemic forced the company to temporarily shut down its California factory. The uncertainty about the chip shortage may have somewhat dampened the investor response to Tesla’s surprisingly strong quarterly results. The company’s stock gained more than 1% after the second-quarter numbers came out. The stock has fallen about 25% from its peak price reached six months ago. 145

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AT MACK PLANT, BIDEN CHECKS OUT BIG RIGS, CHATS UP WORKERS

President Joe Biden on Wednesday checked out half-built big rigs and chatted up workers at a Mack Truck plant in Pennsylvania as his administration pushes new “buy American” efforts and advocates for government investments and clean energy as ways to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. Biden toured the Lehigh Valley operations facility, hoping to connect with the plant’s 2,500 workers. Biden has made manufacturing jobs a priority, and Democrats’ political future next year might hinge on whether he succeeds in reinvigorating a sector that has steadily lost jobs for more than four decades. The administration is championing a $973 billion infrastructure package, $52 billion for computer chip production, sweeping investments in clean energy and the use of government procurement contracts to create factory jobs. 147

On the visit, Biden heard about Mack’s electric garbage trucks. “The ability to build and sell these new trucks would be helped by the president’s proposed investment in buy American production incentives for domestic electric vehicle manufacturing,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre said. The plant was neatly organized, with the thousands of truck parts organized in aisles and the hulls of half-finished trucks awaiting the president’s inspection. The plant was silent other than the whir of fans. Work was halted to accommodate Biden’s visit. The president won Lehigh County in the 2020 election, but he is facing the perpetual challenge of past administrations to revive a manufacturing sector at the heart of American identity. Failure to bring back manufacturing jobs could further hurt already ailing factory towns across the country and possibly imperil Democrats’ chances in the 2022 midterm elections. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Biden should siphon off unspent money from his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to cover the investments in infrastructure, instead of relying on tax increases and other revenue-raisers to do so. “Hopefully, he will use his visit to learn about the real, physical infrastructure needs of Pennsylvanians — and the huge sums of unused ‘COVID’ funds which should pay for that infrastructure,” Toomey said in a statement. Layoffs of white factory workers led communities to vote for Republican challengers and turn 148

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against Democratic incumbents, according to a 2021 research paper by McGill University’s Leonardo Baccini and Georgetown University’s Stephen Weymouth. They found a connection between deindustrialization and greater racial division as white voters interpreted the layoffs as a loss of social status. Areas with more factory layoffs also became more pessimistic about the entire economy. The trends documented in the research were most pronounced in 2016, when Donald Trump won the White House while emphasizing blue-collar identity and racial differences. One challenge for Democrats is that they’re not being forced to deal with the most recent manufacturing job losses, but layoffs that began decades ago. “Biden would benefit from an improved manufacturing jobs outlook,” Weymouth said. “But a lot of economists think that many of these jobs are gone for good. And so, it’s an uphill battle. There’s alternatives: The president can pursue a more substantial social safety net for people who lose their jobs or investments in these communities that declined for decades.” The Biden administration is trying to help domestic manufacturers by proposing to increase the amount of American-made goods being purchased by the federal government. Administration officials said they are proposing that any products bought by the government must have 60% of the value of their component parts manufactured in the United States. The proposal would gradually increase that figure to 75% by 2029, significantly higher than the 55% threshold under current law. 151

The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the measures and spoke on condition of anonymity. Manufacturing has improved since the depths of more than a year ago during the coronavirus pandemic-induced recession. Labor Department data show that factories have regained about two-thirds of the 1.4 million manufacturing jobs lost because of the outbreak. Factory output as tracked by the Federal Reserve is just below its pre-pandemic levels. But the manufacturing sector — especially autos — is facing serious challenges. Automakers are limited by a global shortage of computer chips. Without the chips that are needed for a modern vehicle, the production of cars and trucks has dropped from an annual pace of 10.79 million at the end of last year to 8.91 million in June, a decline of nearly 18% as measured by the Fed. Analysts at IHS Market estimate that the supply of semiconductors will only stabilize and recover in the second half of 2022, right as the midterm races become more intense. For the past several decades, presidents have pledged to bring back factory jobs without much success. Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 at nearly 19.6 million jobs, only to slide downward with steep declines after the 2001 recession and the 2007-09 Great Recession. The figure now stands at 12.3 million. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump each said his policies would save manufacturing jobs, yet none of them broke the long-term trend in a lasting way.

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DELIVERY APPS EXPAND REACH TO MEET CUSTOMER DEMANDS

Spurred by skyrocketing consumer demand during the pandemic, restaurant delivery companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats are rapidly expanding their services to grocers, convenience stores, pharmacies, pet stores and even department stores. This week, Uber Eats unveiled its newest delivery option: flowers. Uber Eats will let users order flowers directly from its app as part of a partnership with ProFlowers, an FTD subsidiary. Flower delivery will be offered first in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and a few other U.S. cities; it will be available nationwide by early next year. 155

“If we can deliver your burrito in 30 minutes or deliver your ice cream still frozen, we should be able to deliver anything in under an hour,” said Fuad Hannon, the head of new verticals at DoorDash. “The technology makes that possible.” Expanding beyond restaurant delivery is critical for Uber Eats and DoorDash, which have struggled to make a profit on the slim margins they get from restaurants. Restaurant delivery can be profitable in dense urban markets, where drivers can complete multiple orders in an hour, said Ali Mogharabi, a senior equity analyst with Morningstar. But outside of cities, where deliveries take longer, adding orders from Walgreens or Costco makes better use of drivers’ time. Offering more items for delivery also attracts customers, many of whom will fork over the $9.99 monthly fee DoorDash and Uber Eats charge for unlimited deliveries. Raj Beri, Uber Eats’ global head of grocery and new verticals, said the company saw a huge influx of users after the pandemic began, and many are sticking with delivery even as the pandemic ebbs. To keep them, it needs to offer goods and services they value. “More of our users are trying these verticals outside of restaurants. Those customers have more stickiness on the platform,” he said. “They’re more engaged, so the membership becomes more valuable to them.” DoorDash and Uber Eats face stiff competition from established players like Instacart and Amazon, which are also experts in delivery logistics. Instacart currently controls 67% of the U.S. grocery pickup and delivery business, 156

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White has come to see delivery as a lifeline that saves her time, gas money and child care expenses. She uses various apps, including Uber Eats and DoorDash, and takes advantage of deals when she can. “Now that I’ve seen how beneficial it is, I’ll figure out a way to cut costs and continue to use it,” she said. Delivery also comes at a cost to stores, depending on the services they’re using. Some businesses, like Macy’s and Walmart, have customers order products on their own web site and use DoorDash to make deliveries. At other stores, like 7-Eleven or CVS, Uber Eats and DoorDash drivers do the shopping and make deliveries. In some cases, it’s a mix. The grocery chain Alberstons recently signed a deal with DoorDash for delivery from nearly 2,000 U.S. stores. In some locations, DoorDash drivers do the shopping and delivery. At other stores, Alberstons workers pack the groceries and DoorDash is only used for delivery. Albertsons laid off many of its own delivery workers earlier this year; at least some were given other jobs within the store, the company says. Amber Kappa, Albertsons’ vice president for e-commerce, said the chain simply couldn’t keep up with digital order demand, which nearly tripled last year. “If we don’t offer one- to two-hour delivery fast and near-free, I don’t know how long we’d last,” Kappa said. For some businesses, delivery companies are helping eliminate expensive shipping. Petco 160

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MARSQUAKES OFFER DETAILED LOOK AT RED PLANET’S INTERIOR

A quake-measuring device on Mars is providing the first detailed look at the red planet’s interior, revealing a surprisingly thin crust and a hot molten core beneath the frigid surface. In a series of articles published this week, scientists reported that the Martian crust is within the thickness range of Earth’s. The Martian mantle between the crust and core is roughly half as thick as Earth’s. And the Martian core is on the high side of what scientists anticipated, although smaller than the core of our own nearly twice-as-big planet. 165

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“By going from cartoon understanding of what the inside of Mars looks like, putting real numbers on it ... we are able to really expand the family tree of understanding” how our solar system’s rocky planet formed, Panning said. Its mission extended by another two years, InSight has been hit with a power crunch in recent months. Dust covered its solar panels, just as Mars was approaching the farthest point in its orbit around the sun. Flight controllers have boosted power by using the lander’s robot arm to release sand into the blowing wind to knock off some of the dust on the panels. The seismometer has continued working, but all other science instruments remain on hiatus because of the power situation — except for a German heat probe was declared dead in January after it failed to burrow more than a couple feet (half a meter) into the planet. The three studies and a companion article appeared in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science. 169

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CRYSTAL WATERS, SOFT SANDS, CLUNKY DIALOGUE IN ‘OLD’

“Can you believe I found this online?” a delighted Prisca asks husband Guy at the beginning of “Old,” as their family arrives at a glistening beach resort. Not to be a Debbie Downer quite so soon, but this isn’t a good sign — for the family OR the film. “Can you believe I found this online?” has become the hackneyed catchphrase of the vacation horror movie. Every time a character says that, whether at a dreamy English estate or a stunning coastal retreat, you can set your watch — the first body will appear in minutes. 171

Still, we hope for the best. “Old” is an M. Night Shyamalan film, so you know the premise will be clever and provocative. And frankly, we’re a captive audience. It’s summer, it’s been an awful year, and we could all use two hours on a beautiful beach, even if it’s virtual. Just give us a few meaty characters we can root for, a modicum of backstory to make us care, and decent dialogue to move things along. Not much to ask, right? Apparently, it is. Because Shyamalan bafflingly dispenses with all that, relying solely on an enticing premise and pretty scenery. It’s just not enough. The characters are quirky, but trust us, not in a good way — in an annoying, instantly tedious, I-dare-you-to-care-about-me way. The kids are nice enough, but each adult is more exasperating than the next, and more ridiculous. It’s perhaps not their fault. The dialogue is often cartoonishly clumsy. You’ll surely find yourself belly-laughing several times, only to sheepishly remind yourself this isn’t a comedy. Prisca and Guy are vacationing with their kids, Trent, 6, and Maddox, 10. Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) is an anxious insurance actuary — not the most logical use of Bernal’s charms, but OK — constantly spouting stats on how people die in accidents. Prisca (Vicky Krieps) is a museum curator, clearly holding back a secret. There are marital troubles, perfunctorily established in an early scene where the couple argues, kids listening in. “You’re always thinking of the future!” Prisca yells. “It makes me feel not seen!!” Guy replies: “You’re always thinking of the past!” The kids have no idea what the heck they’re talking about. Honestly, would you? 172

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The next day, they’re offered a tantalizing opportunity by the creepy resort manager: a trip to a secluded beach on a nature preserve, surrounded by cliffs. Soon they’re off in a hotel van (driven by Shyamalan himself, in a small part) along with another family: Charles, an imperious doctor (Rufus Sewell), Chrystal, his young, beauty-obsessed wife (Abbey Lee), their young daughter and the doctor’s older mother. On the gorgeous beach, things quickly turn weird. Maddox recognizes a well-known rapper named Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), sitting dazed in the distance. Trent goes swimming, only to confront the floating corpse of a woman, who’d recently been spending time with the rapper. The group tries to call for help, but there’s no signal. Two new guests arrive — Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird), a therapist who suffers epileptic seizures, and her husband Jarin (Ken Leung), a nurse. But all this turbulence pales against what’s suddenly happening to everyone: They’re aging. Rapidly. It’s more visible with the kids, who suddenly go from school-aged to teenagers (Alex Wolff and the lovely but underused Thomasin McKenzie). Panic sets in, and there’s no way out — when anyone tries to leave, something attacks their brain and they black out. What’s happening? The group calculates that a half-hour on that beach equals a year of life. Obviously, people will die. The only question is who goes first. But ... we don’t care about any of them! If we’d been made to care, maybe we’d be concerned when someone has a soccer-ball sized tumor removed from their stomach. 176

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Or by the unintended pregnancy, the mental breakdown, the murder, the drowning, the seizure … oh, and one very bad calcium deficiency! How silly is the dialogue? Small example: Amid the bloody mayhem on the beach, Trent says earnestly to his parents: “Dad, Mom, you guys gotta stay hydrated.” Again, this is NOT played for laughs. Of course, it all comes down to a Shyamalanstyle final twist — the most entertaining part of the film, but it comes way, way too late. Listen, we’re all up for some summer fun on the beach. But by the time we’re allowed in on the secret here, we’re feeling a bit tired. And maybe for good reason. This film lasts an hour and 48 minutes. So, just a warning: By the end, you’ll be four years older. “Old,” a Universal release, has been rated PG13 “for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language.” Running time: 108 minutes. Two stars out of four.

MPAA definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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‘SNAKE EYES’ DOESN’T PLAY ITS CARDS RIGHT

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Henry Golding has undeniable screen presence. He’s handsome, sure. Lots of actors are. But Golding also has that effortless charisma that the biggest movie stars possess. It’s no wonder that he was catapulted from relative, travel show host obscurity to film fame with just one role in “Crazy Rich Asians” and that his name often pops up as a fan choice for the next James Bond. If the powers in Hollywood don’t mess it up, he’s going to be around for quite some time. It’s also not surprising that the industry would capitalize on his breakthrough moment and come knocking with some piece of Intellectual Property for him to star in. Unfortunately that IP piece is “ Snake Eyes,” an origin story about a G.I. Joe character that completely misunderstands its star’s appeal. Golding is simply not the right actor for the part. He’s not exactly bad, just miscast and misused. And despite the novel trimmings and flash around him, his character is woefully generic.

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“Snake Eyes” has some things going for it. For one, the names Cobra and G.I. Joe aren’t even uttered for almost an hour. Credited screenwriters Evan Spiliotopoulos, Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel seem to have some understanding that a mere G.I. Joe association isn’t enough to get regular moviegoers into theaters. And after seeing Atlanta and Vancouver destroyed over and over again in superhero films it is a breath of fresh air to be transported to Tokyo, where director Robert Schwentke (RED, R.I.P.D.) makes sure to lovingly shoot both the neon and the ancient. He even takes our burgeoning hero to the Golden Gai and creatively utilizes the tiny alleyways for a fun fight. In fact, if you can make it to the Tokyo section, which takes almost a half hour to get to, you’ll be in for a fairly fun ride as Snake Eyes starts to train with an ancient Japanese clan called the Arashikage. In the unnecessarily dull first part, we learn that Snake Eyes’ father was murdered in front of him when he was a boy, he’s spent his life since as a loner living on the streets and stuffing fish with weapons for the Yakuza and he also saves the life of the Arashikage heir, Tommy (Andrew Koji). Is he just naturally a good fighter? Did he have training? You won’t learn that answer in “Snake Eyes,” but pretty soon both the Arashikage and another well-established crime syndicate are using him as their go-to muscle and brains. In other words, his ascent through these established ranks is alarmingly swift. This backstory also requires Golding to affect an unrefined American accent, which is a stretch and a mistake. His “ain’t” doesn’t sound like any 182

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“ain’t” you’ve ever heard before. That can be forgiven though, he’s not the first Brit to be in over his head in that regard. The true sin is that Snake Eyes as a character is so deathly dull. He barely has a personality. He is purely driven by revenge and also doesn’t seem to have to work all that hard at anything. It’s frustrating because he’s actually surrounded by some fairly interesting characters, like the naive but arrogant Tommy, who is desperate for his grandmother’s approval (Eri Ishida plays Sen, who leads the clan). And there’s Akiko too, 187

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played by Haruka Abe, who is not a blood relation in the clan but has risen through skill and grit to become one of the trusted inner circle. Either of these women’s stories would have been more interesting to focus on and hopefully we’ll be seeing Abe on screen again soon. The IP comes around to take over the story eventually and we meet a Cobra agent Úrsula Corberó’s Baroness, and a “Joe,” Scarlett, played by Samara Weaving who as usual does wonders with a no expectations role. Although, like many toy-based movies, “Snake Eyes” might be betting too much on audiences caring about the connections to a broader universe of Joes more than the story in front of them. “Snake Eyes,” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for, “sequences of strong violence, brief strong language.” Running time: 122 minutes. Two stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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GOOGLE DELAYS RETURN TO OFFICE, MANDATES VACCINES

Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened in an attempt to fight the spreading Delta variant. In a Wednesday email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1. 193

The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited. “This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” Pichai wrote. And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have be vaccinated. The requirement will be first imposed at Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters and other U.S. offices before being extended to the more than 40 other countries where the Google operates. The vaccine mandate will be adjusted to adhere to the laws and regulators of each location, Pichai wrote, and exceptions will be made for medical and other “protected” reasons. “Getting vaccinated is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our communities healthy in the months ahead,” Pichai explained. Google’s decision to require vaccines to be in the office comes on the heels of similar moves affecting hundreds of thousands government workers in California and New York as part of stepped-up measures to fight the Delta variant. The rapid rise in cases during the past month has prompted more public health officials to urge stricter measures to help overcome vaccine skepticism and misinformation. The vaccine requirement rolling out in California next month covers more than 240,000 government employees. The city and county of San Francisco is also requiring its roughly 35,000 workers to be vaccinated or risk disciplinary 194

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action after the Food and Drug Administration approves one of the vaccines now being distributed under an emergency order. It’s unclear how many of Google’s workers still haven’t been vaccinated, although Pichai described the rate as high in his email. Google’s decision to extend its remote-work follows a similar move by another technology powerhouse, Apple, which recently moved its return-to-office plans from September to October, too. The delays by Apple and Google could influence other major employers to take similar precautions, given that the technology industry has been at the forefront of the shift to remote work that has been triggered by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Even before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020, Google, Apple and many other prominent tech firms had been telling their employees to work from home. This marks the third time that Google has pushed back the date for fully reopening its offices. Google’s vaccine requirement also could embolden other employers to issue similar mandates to guard against outbreaks of the Delta variant and minimize the need to wear masks in the office. While most companies are planning to bring back their workers at least a few days a week, others in the tech industry have decided to let employees do their jobs from remote locations permanently

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BUSINESS TRAVEL STIRS, BUT MANY ROAD WARRIORS STAY GROUNDED

Of the 2 million people clogging airport security lines and gate areas again each day, one crowd is still largely missing: business travelers. Their absence is noteworthy because they are a key source of revenue and profit, underpinning a record-breaking stretch of financial gain for U.S. airlines that ended with the coronavirus. Business travelers tend to pay higher fares, and that is especially true on international flights, which are also still deeply depressed by the pandemic and travel restrictions around the globe. Because their fares subsidize other 198

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passengers, their absence is leading to higher leisure fares on many routes, experts say. Business travelers also spend money on hotels, meals and other things. The U.S. Travel Association estimates that domestic and international business travelers spent more than $300 billion here in 2019. The group forecasts that dwindled to about $95 billion last year and won’t fully recover to 2019 levels until 2024. During calls with Wall Street analysts last week, U.S. airlines said business travel has picked up in recent weeks but is still down more than half from this time in 2019. Airlines have been hoping for a major boost in business travel in September, as schools and more offices reopen. Now, however, that optimism is being tempered by the rise in COVID-19 cases around the country fueled the delta variant. “We are encouraged by the trends that we see out there, but we really are planning that a material amount of business travel won’t come back until after the October period,” Vasu Raja, American Airlines’ chief revenue officer, said last week. Airline executives are counting on people like Vazar Lukovic, who owns a digital marketing agency and a production company near London. Lukovic says he is willing to put up with higher prices on some of his flights to places like Moscow and Belgrade, plus the cost of mandatory COVID-19 tests. “You know, Zoom meetings, they can only go so far,” Lukovic said. “When you meet in person — whether it’s that energy or what they say about

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the feeling or the vibe — it’s just so much more personal.” Unable to travel last year, many companies relied instead on video platforms, including Zoom. Opinions vary about how quickly corporate travel will recover, and whether some of it will be permanently replaced by videoconferencing. Delta Air Lines says business travel was 20% of normal in the first quarter, 40% in the second, and will hit 60% in September. The airline isn’t predicting whether business travel will ever return to pre-pandemic levels, but if it does, it won’t happen quickly. A Delta survey of its corporate customers finds that only 57% plan to be back to full travel by the end of 2023. Delta CEO Ed Bastian says business travel will change. “I do think that maybe 10% to 20% of the previous business travel will be lost, but I think you’re going to find new forms of travel,” Bastian said in an interview. “There will be new reasons why people travel.” Bastian says some things, like overnight trips to business meetings in Europe, will be dropped because they are an inefficient use of time. But he says there will be new demand to network by meeting people after being introduced on Zoom. Aside from their own surveys, which airlines are often unwilling to disclose, there are few precise numbers about business travel. The industry trade group Airlines for America estimates that before the pandemic about 30% of trips were taken for business reasons, and that those travelers accounted for between 40% and 50% of airline revenue. 202

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Some experts thinks business trips might be fewer and more carefully selected. “Things have changed,” says Brendan Drewniany, public-relations director for Black Tomato, a luxury-travel company. “There is less an expectation to have a volume of back-to-back meetings, and in general the trips themselves have been longer and not as rushed, which is actually a plus.” In a survey conducted this month for the Global Business Travel Association, 50% of the 618 companies polled said they already allow non-essential business travel within their own country, with many others expecting to do so in the next three months. However, only 14% were traveling internationally with modest interest in soon resuming cross-border trips, which are more complicated because of travel restrictions, including quarantine requirements in many countries. A separate survey by Bank of America suggests that business travel will recover more slowly than some would want but gives airlines and hotels hope for the long term. Nearly half of U.S. corporate travelers surveyed expect their next business trip won’t happen until at least next year, but 56% expect to eventually travel more than they did before the pandemic, compared with 31% who expect to travel less, according to the bank. Denise Daniel, who manages travel for Domo Inc., says U.S. sales people are on the road while the business-research firm is doing little to no travel in Europe, Australia and Japan because of virusrelated restrictions. The 800-employee company has tightened its process for approving travel 205

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UPS EARNS $2.7 BILLION BUT VOLUME DIPS AS STORES REOPEN

Free from the pandemic lockdowns of last year, more shoppers are venturing into stores and relying just a bit less on brown UPS trucks. United Parcel Service said this week that it earned almost $2.7 billion in the second quarter. However, domestic volume was weaker than Wall Street expected, and the company’s shares tumbled nearly 7% in afternoon trading. Higher rates helped the delivery giant boost revenue, but shipping volume fell nearly 1% worldwide and almost 3% in the United States. Company executives said they couldn’t match the surge in online shopping and home deliveries during the height of the pandemic. “Many of our brick-and-mortar enterprise customers reopened their stores, and as economies reopened, customers went back to those stores,” CEO Carol Tomé said on a call with analysts. 209

Tomé said the company anticipated that shoppers would be eager to venture out of their homes — and suggested UPS is moving away from a laser focus on large retail customers that pump the most packages into the company’s network. Tomé said UPS is no longer seeking to simply boost volume, and instead the company is focusing on lucrative markets such as health care and small- and medium-size businesses. UPS said small and medium businesses made up 20% of its revenue last year, and that is now up to 27%. Helane Becker, an analyst with financial services firm Cowen, said investors probably read the weaker-than-expected domestic volume “as an indication the pandemic-driven demand trend is slowing.” For the three months ended June 30, United Parcel Service Inc. earned $2.68 billion, or $3.05 per share. Stripping out one-time costs, earnings were $3.06 per share, easily beating the $2.81 that Wall Street expected, according to 24 analysts surveyed by FactSet. A year earlier the Atlanta company earned $1.77 billion, or $2.03 per share. Overall revenue was $23.42 billion, also better than expected — analysts had forecast $23.08 billion. Domestic revenue still grew 10.2% to $14.40 billion in the second quarter, with per-piece revenue rising 13.4%. However, Wall Street had projected domestic revenue of $14.76 billion. Revenue from international operations spiked 30% to $4.82 billion, which was better than the $4.57 billion analysts had expected. 210

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CHINA LAUNCHES 6-MONTH CAMPAIGN TO CLEAN UP APPS

China’s industry ministry has announced a 6-month campaign to clean up what it says are serious problems with internet apps violating consumer rights, cyber security and “disturbing market order.” The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in an online notice that, among other things, companies must fix pop-ups on apps that deceive and mislead users or force them to use services they might not want. 212

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The order is part of a wider effort to crack down on tech industries and police use of personal information. Authorities have ordered fines and other penalties for some of China’s biggest tech companies. This latest campaign was launched with a teleconference call, the ministry said. It issued its 15th list of do zens of apps it has said require fixing. Among 22 specific scenarios it said required “rectification,” the ministry cited pop-up windows as a specific problem, especially situations where the entire screen of a pop-up window is a jump link with a false close button. Other problems it pointed to were malicious blocking of website links and interference with other companies’ products or services; threats to data security, due to a failure to encrypt sensitive information while it is being transmitted, and failure to obtain users’ consent before providing data to other parties. It also took aim at illicit broadband networks, which it called “black broadband” that failed to conform to website filing procedures or might be subletting or using illegal access to networks. The regulators have been stepping up enforcement of anti-monopoly, data security, financial and other rules against scores of tech companies that dominate entertainment, retail and other industries.

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CHINA’S TENCENT ORDERED TO END EXCLUSIVE MUSIC CONTRACTS

Internet giant Tencent was ordered by regulators to end exclusive contracts with music copyright holders, adding to increased enforcement of anti-monopoly and other rules as Beijing tightens control over booming online industries. Tencent controls more than 80% of “exclusive music library resources” following its 2016 acquisition of China Music Group, the State Administration for Market Regulation said. It said that gives Tencent the ability to get better terms than competitors receive or to limit the ability of rivals to enter the market. Tencent Holdings Ltd., best known abroad for its WeChat messaging service, has a sprawling business empire that includes games, music and 217

video. It is among the world’s 10 most valuable publicly traded companies, with a stock market value of $680 billion. In order to “restore market competition,” Tencent must end exclusive music copyright contracts within 30 days, the market regulator said in a statement. The company is barred from requiring providers to give better terms than competitors receive. Tencent promised on its social media account to “conscientiously abide by the decision.” Regulators are stepping up enforcement of antimonopoly, data security, financial and other rules against Tencent, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and other companies that dominate entertainment, retail and other industries. The enforcement has hurt the stock market value of some companies. Shares in ride-hailing service Didi Global Inc., which made its U.S. stock market debut last month, are down 21% after regulators announced a probe of its “network security” and ordered the company to overhaul handling of customer data. Regulators have publicly warned major companies not to use their market dominance to keep out new competitors. Tencent was blocked by regulators on July 10 from combining its game platforms Douyu and Huya on the grounds that might reduce competition. Last week, the Chinese internet regulator reprimanded Tencent, Alibaba, microblog platform Sina Weibo and e-commerce service Xiaohongshu for allowing sexually suggestive stickers or short videos of children to be distributed on their services. 218

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PLANS FOR LARGEST US SOLAR FIELD NORTH OF VEGAS SCRAPPED

The push to transition from carbon-emitting fuel sources to renewable energy is hitting a roadblock in Nevada, where solar power developers are abandoning plans to build what would have been the United States’ largest array of solar panels in the desert north of Las Vegas. “Battle Born Solar Project” developers this week withdrew their application with the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Moapa Valley hilltop where the panels were planned, KLAS-TV Las Vegas reported. California-based Arevia Power told the television station that its solar panels would be set far enough back on Mormon Mesa to not be visible from the valley. But a group of residents organized as “Save Our Mesa” argued such a large installation would be an eyesore and could 220

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curtail the area’s popular recreational activities — biking, ATVs and skydiving — and deter tourists from visiting sculptor Michael Heizer’s land installation, “Double Negative.” Solar Partners VII LLC, another California firm involved in the project, submitted a letter to the Bureau of Land Management saying it intended to withdraw its application “in response to recent communication” with the agency, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The proposed plant would have spanned more than 14 square miles (37 square kilometers) atop the scenic mesa and had an 850 megawatt capacity — roughly one-tenth of Nevada’s total capacity and enough to provide daytime energy to 500,000 homes, according to the company. The stalled project presents a setback for the Western state, which aims to transition to 50% renewable energy by 2030 and currently generates roughly 28% of its utility-scale electricity from renewables. Gov. Steve Sisolak sent a letter to federal officials in 2020 requesting they fast-track the project. Although a majority of the state’s voters approved an energy transition ballot question last year, large-scale projects like Battle Born Solar have drawn backlash from conservationists, endangered species advocates and local businesses that cater to tourists. Nevada fulfills most of its energy needs using natural gas plants or through importing power produced elsewhere. But developers have rapidly scaled up their investments in solar and geothermal in the windswept lands north of Las Vegas, where sunshine and open land are abundant. 223