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News: Hackers Target Real estate websites with skimmer in latest supply chain attack

• January 5, 2022
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Threat actors used a cloud-based video hosting service to perform a supply chain attack on more than 100 real estate websites operated by Sotheby’s Realty that involved the injection of malicious skimmers to steal sensitive personal information . “Others import videos, even their websites are embedded with skimmer codes,” researchers from Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks said in a report released this week.The skimmer attacks, also called formjacking, relates to a type of cyber attack wherein bad actors insert malicious JavaScript code into the target website, most often to checkout or payment pages on shopping and e-commerce portals, to harvest valuable information such as credit card details entered by users.In the latest incarnation of the Magecart attacks, the operators behind the campaign hacked Sotheby’s Brightcove account  and deployed malicious code in the cloud video platform player by forging a script that can be loaded to add JavaScript customizations to the video player. “The attacker modified the static script in his hosted location by attaching the skimmer code. On the next player update, the video platform reingested the compromised file and served it  with the affected player.” the researchers said, adding that he had worked with the video service and the real estate company to help remove the malware.The campaign is said to have begun as early as January 2021, according to MalwareBytes, with the harvested information — names, emails, phone numbers, credit card data — exfiltrated to a remote server “cdn-imgcloud[.]com” that also functioned as a collection domain for a Magecart Attack  targeting Amazon CloudFront CDN in June 2019.To detect and prevent the injection of malicious code into online sites, it is recommended that you perform periodic web content integrity checks, remembering to protect accounts from takeover attempts and pay attention to potential social engineering schemes. “The skimmer itself is highly polymorphic, elusive and ever-changing,” the researchers said. “When combined with cloud distribution platforms, the impact of such a skimmer  could be very significant.

Threat actors used a cloud-based video hosting service to perform a supply chain attack on more than 100 real estate websites operated by Sotheby’s Realty that involved the injection of malicious skimmers to steal sensitive personal information . 

“Others import videos, even their websites are embedded with skimmer codes,” researchers from Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks said in a report released this week.

The skimmer attacks, also called formjacking, relates to a type of cyber attack wherein bad actors insert malicious JavaScript code into the target website, most often to checkout or payment pages on shopping and e-commerce portals, to harvest valuable information such as credit card details entered by users.

In the latest incarnation of the Magecart attacks, the operators behind the campaign hacked Sotheby’s Brightcove account  and deployed malicious code in the cloud video platform player by forging a script that can be loaded to add JavaScript customizations to the video player. 

“The attacker modified the static script in his hosted location by attaching the skimmer code. On the next player update, the video platform reingested the compromised file and served it  with the affected player.” the researchers said, adding that he had worked with the video service and the real estate company to help remove the malware.

The campaign is said to have begun as early as January 2021, according to MalwareBytes, with the harvested information — names, emails, phone numbers, credit card data — exfiltrated to a remote server “cdn-imgcloud[.]com” that also functioned as a collection domain for a Magecart Attack  targeting Amazon CloudFront CDN in June 2019.

To detect and prevent the injection of malicious code into online sites, it is recommended that you perform periodic web content integrity checks, remembering to protect accounts from takeover attempts and pay attention to potential social engineering schemes. 

“The skimmer itself is highly polymorphic, elusive and ever-changing,” the researchers said. “When combined with cloud distribution platforms, the impact of such a skimmer  could be very significant.

News: Squid Game’s Hwang Dong-hyuk & Kim Ji-yeon Lawyer Up; Yorn, Levine, Barnes To Rep In All Areas

• January 5, 2022
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Image Credit: Agostini/Invision/APA competitive chase by representatives to sign the architects of the global streaming hit Squid Game is ending with a surprise. Deadline hears that the law firm of Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich & Gellman has signed and will rep in all areas Squid Game creator, writer-director and EP Hwang Dong-hyuk and EP Kim Ji-yeon and their production company Siren Pictures Inc.Partners Kevin Yorn, Gregg Gellman and Jared Levine will lead that rep team.The phenomenal success of Netflix’s Squid Game came seemingly out of nowhere, catapulting Hwang and the cast to global stardom and making them the hottest commodity in Hollywood. That created a stampede among the major agencies late last yearto sign Hwang and the actors, the vast majority of whom have no Hollywood representation. The courtship got underway when cast and creators came to Hollywood for a big press junket Netflix held. Several of the cast signed with agencies. It looks right now that the Squid Game EP duo will have the attorneys be their sole Hollywood reps, sources said.Hwang hinted recently at a third season for the show, even before the second season gets the official green light. Season 1 was made on a modest budget, reportedly $2.4 million per episode ($21.4 million in total), while projected to generate $900 million value for the streamer, according to data cited by Bloomberg.The cast and Hwang had no-frills contracts typical for local-language Netflix productions. Clearly the new reps will be out to change all that and help set up new series and films. “I’m not that rich,” Hwang told The Guardian last year. “But I do have enough. I have enough to put food on the table. And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.”Source: Yahoo News

Image Credit: Agostini/Invision/AP

A competitive chase by representatives to sign the architects of the global streaming hit Squid Game is ending with a surprise. Deadline hears that the law firm of Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich & Gellman has signed and will rep in all areas Squid Game creator, writer-director and EP Hwang Dong-hyuk and EP Kim Ji-yeon and their production company Siren Pictures Inc.

Partners Kevin Yorn, Gregg Gellman and Jared Levine will lead that rep team.T

he phenomenal success of Netflix’s Squid Game came seemingly out of nowhere, catapulting Hwang and the cast to global stardom and making them the hottest commodity in Hollywood. That created a stampede among the major agencies late last yearto sign Hwang and the actors, the vast majority of whom have no Hollywood representation. The courtship got underway when cast and creators came to Hollywood for a big press junket Netflix held. Several of the cast signed with agencies. It looks right now that the Squid Game EP duo will have the attorneys be their sole Hollywood reps, sources said.

Hwang hinted recently at a third season for the show, even before the second season gets the official green light. Season 1 was made on a modest budget, reportedly $2.4 million per episode ($21.4 million in total), while projected to generate $900 million value for the streamer, according to data cited by Bloomberg.

News: Emma Watson pro-Palestinian post sparks antisemitism row

• January 5, 2022
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Watson’s Instagram post had nearly one million likes and more than 89,000 comments by Tuesday [File: Henry Nicholls/Reuters]British actress Emma Watson’s official Instagram account  expressed solidarity with the Palestinians in a new post, eliciting widespread support from pro-Palestinian users but also drawing sharp criticism from Israeli officials.The account of the movie star, known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, on Monday shared a photo of a pro-Palestinian rally with the phrase “Solidarity is a verb.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emma Watson (@emmawatson) The picture was originally released by the Bad Activism Collective in May last year after Israel launched a deadly 11-day offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, in which several celebrities interfered with the conflict with figures such as Bella Hadid and Susan Sarandon posting messages of support for the Palestinians.In the caption, there is a quote from British-Australian activist Sara Ahmed, saying: “Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future.Solidarity involves commitment and work, as well as recognition that even though we don’t have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we  live on common ground. Watson’s Instagram bio  says her account “has been taken over by an anonymous feminist collective.”The post, which by Tuesday had nearly one million likes and more than 89,000 comments, was hailed by pro-Palestine social media users. Many thanked Watson for her support, while some added the hashtags #FreePalestine and #PalestineWillBeFree to their comments.On the other hand, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, criticized the publication:”Fiction may work in Harry Potter, but in reality it doesn’t work,” he wrote on Twitter. The wizarding world could eradicate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women and seeks to destroy Israel) and the Palestinian Authority (which supports terrorism). I would be for it! ” he said.His comments followed those of former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon.“10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite,” Danon tweeted.Several social media users slammed Danon for his comments.Leah Greenberg, the coexectual director of the indivisible project, a non-profit organization, which was founded in 2016 in response to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, released the allegations of Danons and said that they were “a perfect demonstration of liberation absolutely cynical and bad-faith weaponisation of antisemitism to shut down basic expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”Palestinian journalist and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who played a crucial role in raising international awareness about the forced eviction of Palestinians in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, responded saying that Watson’s “simple statement” had left “Zionists everywhere … in a frenzy”.

Watson’s Instagram post had nearly one million likes and more than 89,000 comments by Tuesday [File: Henry Nicholls/Reuters]

British actress Emma Watson’s official Instagram account  expressed solidarity with the Palestinians in a new post, eliciting widespread support from pro-Palestinian users but also drawing sharp criticism from Israeli officials.

The account of the movie star, known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, on Monday shared a photo of a pro-Palestinian rally with the phrase “Solidarity is a verb.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Watson (@emmawatson)

The picture was originally released by the Bad Activism Collective in May last year after Israel launched a deadly 11-day offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, in which several celebrities interfered with the conflict with figures such as Bella Hadid and Susan Sarandon posting messages of support for the Palestinians.
In the caption, there is a quote from British-Australian activist Sara Ahmed, saying: “Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future.
Solidarity involves commitment and work, as well as recognition that even though we don’t have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we  live on common ground. Watson’s Instagram bio  says her account “has been taken over by an anonymous feminist collective.”
The post, which by Tuesday had nearly one million likes and more than 89,000 comments, was hailed by pro-Palestine social media users. Many thanked Watson for her support, while some added the hashtags #FreePalestine and #PalestineWillBeFree to their comments.

On the other hand, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, criticized the publication:
“Fiction may work in Harry Potter, but in reality it doesn’t work,” he wrote on Twitter. The wizarding world could eradicate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women and seeks to destroy Israel) and the Palestinian Authority (which supports terrorism). I would be for it! ” he said.

Leah Greenberg, the coexectual director of the indivisible project, a non-profit organization, which was founded in 2016 in response to the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, released the allegations of Danons and said that they were “a perfect demonstration of liberation absolutely cynical and bad-faith weaponisation of antisemitism to shut down basic expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian journalist and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who played a crucial role in raising international awareness about the forced eviction of Palestinians in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, responded saying that Watson’s “simple statement” had left “Zionists everywhere … in a frenzy”.

News: A record 4.5 Mi)ion Americans quit their Jobs in November,

• January 4, 2022
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  A record 4.5 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This pushed the layoff rate to 3%, equivalent to the peak in September. Workers were more likely to quit their jobs in the hospitality sector, which had by far the highest exit rate at 6.1% in November, as were those in the health care sector. Figures in transportation, warehouses and utilities also increased.Workers have continued to quit work at a historic rate. Low-wage industries directly affected by the pandemic continued to be the source of much of the increase in quits, ”said Nick Bunker, research director  at  Indeed Hiring Lab, in comments by e -mail. The big question for 2022 is whether this momentum will persist. The high quits rate Data for November  released on Tuesday does not yet take into account the arrival of the Omicron variant on US shores, which has pushed infections on the rise. and put many workers at risk of contracting the virus in the workplace.Case in point, the UCLA Labor Center said in a report also released on Tuesday that nearly a quarter of fast food workers in the Los Angeles area have contracted Covid in the past 18 months. Less than half of them had been informed by their employers that they had been potentially exposed to the virus. Including layoffs and discharges, the total number of terminations was 6.3 million in November. Hotels and restaurants saw the biggest increase in departures, while also seeing the biggest drop in open jobs, the data showed. America had 10.6 million jobs to fill in November, down slightly from just over 11 million jobs opened in October. Available jobs in the United States peaked at 11.1 million last July.Positions in finance and insurance, as well as in the federal government, increased in November.Hires were little changed at 6.7 million and that paints a positive picture of the labor market:”People who quit are taking other jobs, not leaving the workforce,” said Heidi Shierholz, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute in a tweet Tuesday. “On net, the labor market is gaining a ton of jobs every month.”

 

A record 4.5 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This pushed the layoff rate to 3%, equivalent to the peak in September. Workers were more likely to quit their jobs in the hospitality sector, which had by far the highest exit rate at 6.1% in November, as were those in the health care sector.
Figures in transportation, warehouses and utilities also increased.

Workers have continued to quit work at a historic rate. Low-wage industries directly affected by the pandemic continued to be the source of much of the increase in quits, ”said Nick Bunker, research director  at  Indeed Hiring Lab, in comments by e -mail.
The big question for 2022 is whether this momentum will persist. The high quits rate Data for November  released on Tuesday does not yet take into account the arrival of the Omicron variant on US shores, which has pushed infections on the rise. and put many workers at risk of contracting the virus in the workplace.

Case in point, the UCLA Labor Center said in a report also released on Tuesday that nearly a quarter of fast food workers in the Los Angeles area have contracted Covid in the past 18 months. Less than half of them had been informed by their employers that they had been potentially exposed to the virus.
Including layoffs and discharges, the total number of terminations was 6.3 million in November.
Hotels and restaurants saw the biggest increase in departures, while also seeing the biggest drop in open jobs, the data showed. America had 10.6 million jobs to fill in November, down slightly from just over 11 million jobs opened in October. Available jobs in the United States peaked at 11.1 million last July.

News: Beware of fake Telegram Messenger App Hacking PCs with Purple Fox Malware

• January 4, 2022
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The Telegram messaging app Trojan installers are  used to deploy the Windows-based Purple Fox backdoor to compromised systems. That’s according to new research published by Minerva Labs, which describes the attack as different from intruders that typically exploit legitimate software to release malicious payloads. “This threat actor was able to keep most  of the attack under the radar by breaking the attack down into several small files, most of which had very low detection rates by the [antivirus] engines,  the last step leading  Purple Fox rootkit infection, said researcher Natalie Zargarov.First discovered in 2018, Purple Fox comes with rootkit capabilities that allow the malware to be planted beyond the reach of security solutions and evade detection. A March 2021 report from Guardicore  detailed its worm-like propagation feature, enabling the backdoor to spread more rapidly.Then, in October 2021, Trend Micro researchers discovered a .NET implant dubbed FoxSocket distributed in partnership with Purple Fox that uses WebSockets to contact its command and control (C2) servers for a more secure way to establish communications.”The capabilities of the Purple Fox rootkit make it more capable of achieving its goals in a more stealthy manner,” the researchers noted. “They allow Purple Fox to persist on affected systems and deliver additional payloads to affected systems.Last but not least, in December 2021, Trend Micro also  shed light on the later stages of the Purple Fox infection chain, targeting SQL databases by inserting a malicious SQL common language runtime (CLR) module to achieve a persistent and stealthier execution and ultimately abuse the SQL servers for illicit cryptocurrency mining.The new  chain of attacks observed by Minerva begins with a Telegram installer file, an AutoIt script that publishes a legitimate installer for the chat app, and a malicious downloader called “TextInputh.exe”, the latter being executed to retrieve the next malware from the C2 server. Then the downloaded files  block the processes associated with the different antivirus engines, before moving on to the final step of downloading and running the Purple Fox rootkit from a  remote server which is now down. installers providing the same version of the Purple Fox rootkit  using the same attack chain, ”Zargarov said.“ Some appear to have been delivered by email, while others, we assume, were downloaded from websites phishing. The beauty of this attack is that each step is separate for a different file, which is unnecessary without all of the files.Source: The Hacker News

The Telegram messaging app Trojan installers are  used to deploy the Windows-based Purple Fox backdoor to compromised systems. That’s according to new research published by Minerva Labs, which describes the attack as different from intruders that typically exploit legitimate software to release malicious payloads. 

“This threat actor was able to keep most  of the attack under the radar by breaking the attack down into several small files, most of which had very low detection rates by the [antivirus] engines,  the last step leading  Purple Fox rootkit infection, said researcher Natalie Zargarov.

First discovered in 2018, Purple Fox comes with rootkit capabilities that allow the malware to be planted beyond the reach of security solutions and evade detection. A March 2021 report from Guardicore  detailed its worm-like propagation feature, enabling the backdoor to spread more rapidly.

Then, in October 2021, Trend Micro researchers discovered a .NET implant dubbed FoxSocket distributed in partnership with Purple Fox that uses WebSockets to contact its command and control (C2) servers for a more secure way to establish communications.

“The capabilities of the Purple Fox rootkit make it more capable of achieving its goals in a more stealthy manner,” the researchers noted. “They allow Purple Fox to persist on affected systems and deliver additional payloads to affected systems.

Last but not least, in December 2021, Trend Micro also  shed light on the later stages of the Purple Fox infection chain, targeting SQL databases by inserting a malicious SQL common language runtime (CLR) module to achieve a persistent and stealthier execution and ultimately abuse the SQL servers for illicit cryptocurrency mining.

The new  chain of attacks observed by Minerva begins with a Telegram installer file, an AutoIt script that publishes a legitimate installer for the chat app, and a malicious downloader called “TextInputh.exe”, the latter being executed to retrieve the next malware from the C2 server.

 Then the downloaded files  block the processes associated with the different antivirus engines, before moving on to the final step of downloading and running the Purple Fox rootkit from a  remote server which is now down. installers providing the same version of the Purple Fox rootkit  using the same attack chain, ”Zargarov said.

“ Some appear to have been delivered by email, while others, we assume, were downloaded from websites phishing. The beauty of this attack is that each step is separate for a different file, which is unnecessary without all of the files.

Source: The Hacker News

News: Mars looks like a delicious dessert in stunning spacecraft image

• January 4, 2022
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 The red planet looks good enough to eat in this Trace Gas Orbiter image of a crater. ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSISThe European Space Agency (ESA) has released a breathtaking new photo of a two-and-a-half-mile-wide ice-covered crater on Mars affectionately nicknamed “Red Velvet.” Spotted by Digitaltrends, the image was captured by the Trace Gas Orbiter taking photos of the surface of the red planet, examining gases in the atmosphere, and serving as a communication link between landers and other devices on the surface and on planet Earth. The orbiter is officially a collaboration between  ESA and Russian space agency Roscosmos and the photo, originally taken on July 5, 2021, shows a nearly four-kilometer-wide perspective of the surface and the covered crater ice near the north polar region of Vastitas Borealis on Mars.Like a splash of icing sugar on a rich red velvet cake, this scene from ESA / Roscosmos Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter Captures The contrasting colors of brilliant white water against rusty red martian soil, “the ESA describes .The ESA says the crater is partially filled with water ice more prevalent on the north-facing slopes since that region receives fewer hours of sunlight throughout the year with the dark sections on the crater edges likely containing volcanic materials like basalt, giving it a sort of scorched looking appearance.The presence of water on the planet is a big deal for space exploration, since bringing the precious liquid would be too heavy to carry all the way to the planet on a potential future  manned mission. The presence of the ice means the liquid could be melted down and used for drinking water or fuel. The problem, according to the ESA, is that most of these deposits that have been found exist near the polar regions of the planet, and most missions want to land near the equatorial regions. Naturally, the next step is to seek out ice below the surface of the planet with missions like the upcoming  Marce Ice Caper, or the last option is to take the hydrated minerals from the soil and bake them to release any water they might contain.

 

The red planet looks good enough to eat in this Trace Gas Orbiter image of a crater. 

ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

News: World’s richest man gets $32BILLION richer: Elon Musk’s worth climbs to $304billion as Tesla stock soars after car maker rolled out nearly a million vehicles in 2021

• January 4, 2022
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Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii at a Time Person of the Year event on 13 December 2021 in New York City(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME)The  richest man in the world started the richest new year  with Tesla founder Elon Mask adding $ 32.6 billion to his net worth, bringing his fortune to $ 304.2 billion. first person to  do it. According to Forbes, the controversial social media billionaire who is also the founder of commercial space company SpaceX remained at the top of the world’s richest list for the new year. In second place and $ 103.6 billion behind Musk is Bernard Arnault,  CEO of the French fashion empire LVMH. Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos is in third place, Forbes said.The surge in the Tesla share price has again been attributed to South Africa’s growing wealth. The electric car maker said it  delivered more than 936,000 cars in 2021, beating analysts’ forecasts, but also said the company had recalled 475,000 of its cars built between 2014 and 2021. Forbes said Shares of Tesla had risen more than 13% when the market closed, with the company’s market cap once again surpassing the $ 1 trillion mark after falling below that level last month. As Tesla’s CEO, Musk, named  Person of the Year 2021 by Time Magazine, owns around 15.6% of the company’s shares.He has Continued to sell shares, ending the year after offloading 3 million shares on the open market  to face taxes on the approximately 5.7 million stock options  he exercised at the same time.If true, this would place him among the biggest ever individual tax payers in the history of the US, although this only represents roughly 0.0036 percent of his worth.He reportedly sold 15.7 million Tesla shares over the course of 2021 – worth more than $16 billion before tax.Musk’s fortune jumped more than $200 billion over 2020 and 2021. In 2021 alone, he added $116 billion to his net worth.This, Forbes said, is the biggest one-year gain by any billionaire since the news outlet began tracking the wealth of high net-worth individuals.Musk is set to earn another windfall later this month when Tesla reports its fourth quarter earnings. If the company meets certain operational and valuation goals, the world’s richest man is set to become even richer.2021 was an eventful year for Musk, marked by a hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, a break-up with girlfriend Grimes, and his self-coronation as ‘Technoking’ of Tesla.Musk made huge waves last month as he sold off many billions worth of his Tesla stock in a move purportedly dictated by a poll he posted on Twitter.Tesla’s soaring stock price has again been credited for Musk’s growing wealth. Tesla delivered more than 936,000 vehicles last year, a record figure that represents an 87 percent increase from its 2020 delivery count. Pictured: A Tesla factory in China (file photo)In reality, at least some of the stock sales were driven by mandatory taxes as he exercised stock options that will expire in August.He has sold $16.4 billion worth of shares since early November when he said he would sell 10 percent of his Tesla stock if Twitter users agreed, which they did.But Musk in September had set up a prearranged plan for stock sales related to options expiring next year, and Tesla in a filing on Tuesday said the program was complete.Musk said last week that he would be done selling shares after his programmed sales ended, meaning that the selloff is now complete.The final trades, reported on Tuesday, included exercising an option on 1.6 million shares and selling 934,090 of those shares to pay for taxes.In total, Musk has sold 15.7 million shares in Tesla late in this year, approximately the 10 percent stake the billionaire had pledged to sell.He exercised options granted in 2012 to buy nearly 23 million shares at $6.24 each, a fraction of Tesla’s share price, which stood at $1069.33 in late trading on Thursday, the final trading session of the year.Tesla delivers a record 936,172 electric cars in 2021 despite supply chain issuesTesla delivered more than 936,000 vehicles last year, a record figure that represents an 87 percent increase from its 2020 delivery count despite a number of hurdles the electric carmaker faced during the past year.The Austin, Texas-based company announced its fourth-quarter production and delivery results Sunday – just days after it recalled nearly half a million Model 3 and Model S cars to address issues that increase the risk of crashing.And last February, Tesla told workers it would temporarily halt some production at its car assembly plant in California as it faced a semiconductor shortage.Workers on a Model 3 sedan production line in Fremont were told their line would be down from February 22 until March 7, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.Despite the challenges Elon Musk’s electric car empire faced during the past year – including chip shortages and whistleblower scandals – demand for the sleek, futuristic cars has only grown.The amount of cars delivered last year dwarfs company figures from yearend 2020, when 499,550 vehicles were shipped to customers.Of the sales made last year, Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y rides accounted for 911,208 – or 97 percent – of the 936,172 vehicles delivered. Its most budget-friendly Model 3 sedan retails for $46,490 and up, while the Model Y midsized SUV starts around $61,000.It delivered 24,964 of its pricier Model S and Model X vehicles; its only full-sized SUV, the Model X is tagged about $110,000 while the flagship Model S starts about $100,000.Tesla in 2020 delivered 57,039 of its Model S and X vehicles in 2020, and 442,511 Model 3 and Model Y cars.It delivered 112,000 vehicles in 2019.Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said the latest numbers are ‘jaw-dropping’ given the ongoing global chip shortage affecting the automotive industry.Ives said the production increase was likely boosted by growing demand from car buyers in China, as well as broader enthusiasm for electric vehicles.Musk also chimed in on the accomplishment, tweeting: ‘Great work by Tesla team worldwide!’Tesla’s brand image took some hits last year, most recently last week when it recalled 356,309 Model 3 vehicles made between 2017 and 2020 due to problems with the rearview camera and 119,009 Model S vehicles due to front trunk problems.Tesla warned that for the specific Model 3 vehicles, opening and closing the trunk could damage the cable harness attaching the rearview camera, causing the camera to suddenly fail.And the Model S issue could stop the front trunk from latching, allowing it to swing up while the vehicle is in motion.According to Tesla, only about one percent of the Model 3 cars have the flaw, compared with 14 percent of the Model S vehicles.Tesla shares have fallen from their record highs, reached two days prior to Musk’s infamous Twitter poll, but are still on pace to end the year up 54 percent from January 1.The company has this week come under fire after it announced that it has opened a showroom in Xinjiang.The move has attracted criticism from U.S. rights and trade groups, making it the latest foreign firm caught up in tensions related to the far-western Chinese region.Xinjiang has become a significant point of conflict between Western governments and China in recent years, as U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps there.China has rejected accusations of forced labour or any other abuses there, saying that the camps provide vocational training and that companies should respect its policies there.The U.S. electric car maker announced the showroom’s opening in Xinjiang’s regional capital, Urumqi, on its official Weibo account last Friday. ‘On the last day of 2021 we meet in Xinjiang,’ it said in the post.On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest U.S. Muslim advocacy organization, criticised the move, saying that Tesla was ‘supporting genocide’.The United States has labelled Chinaâs treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang as genocide. The United States and a few other countries plan a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February over the issue.’Elon Musk must close Teslaâs Xinjiang showroom,’ Council on American-Islamic Relations said on its official Twitter account referring to Tesla’s founder.Similar criticism came from a U.S. trade group, the Alliance for American Manufacturing.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The carmaker operates a factory in Shanghai and is ramping up production there amid surging sales in China.A slew of foreign firms in recent months have been tripped up by tensions between the West and China over Xinjiang, as they try to balance Western pressure with China’s importance as a market and supply base.In July, Swedish fashion retailer H&M reported a 23% drop in local currency sales in China for its March-May quarter after it was hit by a consumer boycott in March for stating publicly that it did not source products from Xinjiang.Last month, U.S. chipmaker Intel faced similar calls after telling its suppliers not to source products or labour from Xinjiang, prompting it to apologise for ‘the trouble caused to our respected Chinese customers, partners and the public’.Although some have been trying to reduce their supply chain exposure to the region, especially as Washington bans imports such as Xinjiang cotton or blacklists Chinese companies that it says have aided Beijing’s policy there, many foreign brands operate stores there.     Tesla has also found itself under scrutiny from the NHTSA auto regulator, which is probing its autopilot system over safety concerns.The automaker has also agreed to update its software to prevent drivers from playing video games on the car’s system while the vehicle is in motion, following a government safety investigation.Source: Daily Mail Online

Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii at a Time Person of the Year event on 13 December 2021 in New York City(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME)

The  richest man in the world started the richest new year  with Tesla founder Elon Mask adding $ 32.6 billion to his net worth, bringing his fortune to $ 304.2 billion. first person to  do it. 

According to Forbes, the controversial social media billionaire who is also the founder of commercial space company SpaceX remained at the top of the world’s richest list for the new year. In second place and $ 103.6 billion behind Musk is Bernard Arnault,  CEO of the French fashion empire LVMH. Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos is in third place, Forbes said.

The surge in the Tesla share price has again been attributed to South Africa’s growing wealth.
The electric car maker said it  delivered more than 936,000 cars in 2021, beating analysts’ forecasts, but also said the company had recalled 475,000 of its cars built between 2014 and 2021. Forbes said

 Shares of Tesla had risen more than 13% when the market closed, with the company’s market cap once again surpassing the $ 1 trillion mark after falling below that level last month. As Tesla’s CEO, Musk, named  Person of the Year 2021 by Time Magazine, owns around 15.6% of the company’s shares.He has Continued to sell shares, ending the year after offloading 3 million shares on the open market  to face taxes on the approximately 5.7 million stock options  he exercised at the same time.

News: Google Photos removes ability to disable video backups over mobile data

• January 4, 2022
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Image Credit: GoogleGoogle Photos has long offered an option to upload photos and videos via mobile data. However, to ensure that you do not spend your monthly data volume, there is the option of only backing up videos via WiFi. In India and some other countries where  WiFi is available, connections are not as frequent, this feature is absent and users have the option to set a daily limit for mobile data usage. Now it seems that Google mistakenly implemented the same settings for Android users all over the world.As spotted by 9to5Google, if you head over to Google Photos > Photos settings > Backup & sync, you’ll find the option to set a daily backup limit when on mobile data. The available allowances include No data, 5MB, 10MB, 30MB, and Unlimited. There’s also another separate toggle for backing up your photos and videos while on roaming. However, the ability to specifically disable video backups while on mobile data has been removed.The implementation could be a Google mistake, as the Photos support page still references the previous settings. The iOS version of Google Photos also continues to display the option to enable / disable video backups on mobile data. Additionally, the daily data limits are very low by US and EU standards and users cannot manually increase them, further indicating that this is a loophole on Google’s part. Limits on daily mobile data usage are useful in countries like Brazil, Thailand, India, and Nigeria, where users have  relatively little data  and do not have access to a network. WiFi  on a regular basis. This is not a cause for concern in developed countries, and some users prefer  their photos to be saved to mobile data immediately. Since videos are considerably larger, it usually makes more sense to only save them  when over WiFi. Hopefully Google will bring this option back soon.

Image Credit: Google

Google Photos has long offered an option to upload photos and videos via mobile data. However, to ensure that you do not spend your monthly data volume, there is the option of only backing up videos via WiFi. In India and some other countries where  WiFi is available, connections are not as frequent, this feature is absent and users have the option to set a daily limit for mobile data usage. Now it seems that Google mistakenly implemented the same settings for Android users all over the world.

As spotted by 9to5Google, if you head over to Google Photos > Photos settings > Backup & sync, you’ll find the option to set a daily backup limit when on mobile data. The available allowances include No data, 5MB, 10MB, 30MB, and Unlimited. There’s also another separate toggle for backing up your photos and videos while on roaming. However, the ability to specifically disable video backups while on mobile data has been removed.

The implementation could be a Google mistake, as the Photos support page still references the previous settings. The iOS version of Google Photos also continues to display the option to enable / disable video backups on mobile data. 

Additionally, the daily data limits are very low by US and EU standards and users cannot manually increase them, further indicating that this is a loophole on Google’s part. Limits on daily mobile data usage are useful in countries like Brazil, Thailand, India, and Nigeria, where users have  relatively little data  and do not have access to a network. WiFi  on a regular basis. 

This is not a cause for concern in developed countries, and some users prefer  their photos to be saved to mobile data immediately. Since videos are considerably larger, it usually makes more sense to only save them  when over WiFi. 

Hopefully Google will bring this option back soon.

News: Omicron Cases Are Hitting Highs, But New Data Put End in Sight

• January 4, 2022
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 Image Credit:CIPhotos via Getty ImagesA number of new studies have confirmed the silver lining of the Omicron variant: Even if the number of cases climbs to a record level, the number of severe cases and hospital admissions is not the case. The data, some scientists say, points to a new and less worrying chapter in the pandemic. . “Now we’re in a completely different phase,” said Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California at San Francisco. “The virus will always  be with us, but I hope  this variant induces immunity enough that  the Omicron variant was discovered in South Africa a little over a month ago, and experts warn that it will be a long time before it Situation is changing, but last week’s data  suggest that a combination of widespread immunity and numerous mutations  resulted in a virus that causes much less serious illness than previous iterations.A study conducted in South Africa found that patients admitted  there during the  fourth wave, which was dominated by the virus’s omichron, were 73% less likely to develop serious illness than those admitted during the delta-dominated third wave . “The data is pretty strong now with hospitalizations and ‘cases decoupled,” said Wendy Burgers, an immunologist at the University of Cape Town. Initially, much of the concern about Omicron was due to the  large number of mutations in the variant, many of which Spike protein, the part of protein found not only easily infects unvaccinated people, but also bypasses antibody responses from  previous infections and vaccines. It worked its way past these first lines of defense. Several factors appear to make the Omicron variant less virulent or less virulent more severe than previous waves of Covid19. The ability of the virus to infect the lungs. Covid infections usually start in the nose and spread to the throat. A mild infection doesn’t go far beyond the upper respiratory tract, but when it does When the virus reaches the lungs, it is usually the hardest, and symptoms occur.But five separate studies from last week suggested that the variant doesn’t infect the lungs as easily as previous variants. In a study preprinted online  by a large consortium of Japanese and American scientists, omicron infected hamsters and mice  experienced much serious illness with earlier iterations of the virus. took a small number of lung tissue samples from patients  during surgery and found that Omicron grew more slowly  than other variants in these samples. Burgers said this change in virulence likely had to do with how the virus’s anatomy changed. Pathways into the cells, and now it prefers one of those pathways because of all the changes in the spike protein, “she said. It seems to prefers to infect the upper respiratory tract rather than the lungs. This, Burgers said, could mean less severe infection but also more transmissible as the virus replicates more often in the upper respiratory tract, from where it can spread more easily Second-line defense of previous vaccines and  infections: cells and cells.T-cells are responsible for attacking a virus once it makes its way into the body’s cells if antibodies fail to prevent infection in the first place. In a recent study by Burgers and colleagues, scientists used white blood cells from Covid patients to show that about 70-80% of the T-cell response is preserved compared with previous strains of the virus. That means that for those who are either vaccinated or had a Covid infection in the past 6 months, it is likely their T-cells can recognize omicron and fight it off relatively quickly.This latest research will need to be followed up with further study. If it holds up to additional scrutiny, it just might explain why current infections appear to be more mild than in previous waves of the virus.“When you start to see different kinds of data all pointing in the same direction, you begin to feel more confident that it’s going to hold up,” said Jessica Justman, a Columbia University Medical Center epidemiologist.However, as cases explode, the absolute number of hospitalizations and deaths with them will continue to rise, even if those numbers increase more slowly. “If your denominator is huge because lots and lots of people become infected, you still end up with lots of people who go to the hospital and need care,” Justman said.Gandhi of the University of California at San Francisco said that while the number of cases could break records, hope that the combination of highly transmissible omicron and a mild infection could signal the onset of the disease in another study, held in Hong Kong last week  showed that vaccinated patients infected with Omicron also evoked strong immune responses to other versions of the virus. This could explain why the number of cases in South Africa has quickly peaked. “I hope this variant creates deep immunity in the population.” Hopefully the pandemic will end. “

 

Image Credit:CIPhotos via Getty Images

A number of new studies have confirmed the silver lining of the Omicron variant: Even if the number of cases climbs to a record level, the number of severe cases and hospital admissions is not the case.
The data, some scientists say, points to a new and less worrying chapter in the pandemic. . “Now we’re in a completely different phase,” said Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California at San Francisco.
“The virus will always  be with us, but I hope  this variant induces immunity enough that  the Omicron variant was discovered in South Africa a little over a month ago, and experts warn that it will be a long time before it Situation is changing, but last week’s data  suggest that a combination of widespread immunity and numerous mutations  resulted in a virus that causes much less serious illness than previous iterations.

A study conducted in South Africa found that patients admitted  there during the  fourth wave, which was dominated by the virus’s omichron, were 73% less likely to develop serious illness than those admitted during the delta-dominated third wave .
“The data is pretty strong now with hospitalizations and ‘cases decoupled,” said Wendy Burgers, an immunologist at the University of Cape Town.
Initially, much of the concern about Omicron was due to the  large number of mutations in the variant, many of which Spike protein, the part of protein found not only easily infects unvaccinated people, but also bypasses antibody responses from  previous infections and vaccines.
It worked its way past these first lines of defense. Several factors appear to make the Omicron variant less virulent or less virulent more severe than previous waves of Covid19. The ability of the virus to infect the lungs. Covid infections usually start in the nose and spread to the throat.
A mild infection doesn’t go far beyond the upper respiratory tract, but when it does When the virus reaches the lungs, it is usually the hardest, and symptoms occur.

But five separate studies from last week suggested that the variant doesn’t infect the lungs as easily as previous variants. In a study preprinted online  by a large consortium of Japanese and American scientists, omicron infected hamsters and mice  experienced much serious illness with earlier iterations of the virus. took a small number of lung tissue samples from patients  during surgery and found that Omicron grew more slowly  than other variants in these samples.
Burgers said this change in virulence likely had to do with how the virus’s anatomy changed. Pathways into the cells, and now it prefers one of those pathways because of all the changes in the spike protein, “she said.
It seems to prefers to infect the upper respiratory tract rather than the lungs. This, Burgers said, could mean less severe infection but also more transmissible as the virus replicates more often in the upper respiratory tract, from where it can spread more easily Second-line defense of previous vaccines and  infections: cells and cells.

However, as cases explode, the absolute number of hospitalizations and deaths with them will continue to rise, even if those numbers increase more slowly.
“If your denominator is huge because lots and lots of people become infected, you still end up with lots of people who go to the hospital and need care,” Justman said.

Gandhi of the University of California at San Francisco said that while the number of cases could break records, hope that the combination of highly transmissible omicron and a mild infection could signal the onset of the disease in another study, held in Hong Kong last week  showed that vaccinated patients infected with Omicron also evoked strong immune responses to other versions of the virus.
This could explain why the number of cases in South Africa has quickly peaked.
“I hope this variant creates deep immunity in the population.” Hopefully the pandemic will end. “

News: Apple has become the world’s first $3 trillion company

• January 3, 2022
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Apple CEO Tim Cook greets fans outside the Apple Store on Fifth Ave in the Manhattan borough of New York, New York, U.S., September 20, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo AllegriApple has taken another important step. The iPhone maker surpassed a market value of $ 3 trillion on Monday – the first publicly traded company  to be worth that much. Apple shares (AAPL)  briefly rose about 3% to a new all-time high of $ 182.88, surpassing the $ 182.85 per share it needed to be worth $ 3 trillion. The title then retired from that level. Apple’s market value first crossed the $ 1 trillion mark in August 2018 and topped $ 2 trillion in August 2020.Apple shares rose nearly 35% in 2021. The company  benefited from booming demand for its new iPhone 13 and other previous models, as well as subscription services such as Apple Music. , Apple TV +, iCloud and its popular App Store. Sales rose nearly 30% to over $ 83 billion in Apple’s fall quarter, which ended in September. The company also has a whopping $ 191 billion in cash.But before long, Apple may have some company in the $3 trillion club. Microsoft (MSFT) is now worth about $2.5 trillion and Google owner Alphabet’s (GOOGL( market value is right around $2 trillion. Still giant but further behind are Amazon (AMZN), which has a market cap of $1.7 trillion, and Elon Musk  Tesla (TSLA), worth about $1.2 trillion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets fans outside the Apple Store on Fifth Ave in the Manhattan borough of New York, New York, U.S., September 20, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Apple has taken another important step. The iPhone maker surpassed a market value of $ 3 trillion on Monday – the first publicly traded company  to be worth that much. 

Apple shares (AAPL)  briefly rose about 3% to a new all-time high of $ 182.88, surpassing the $ 182.85 per share it needed to be worth $ 3 trillion. The title then retired from that level.

 Apple’s market value first crossed the $ 1 trillion mark in August 2018 and topped $ 2 trillion in August 2020.

Apple shares rose nearly 35% in 2021. The company  benefited from booming demand for its new iPhone 13 and other previous models, as well as subscription services such as Apple Music. , Apple TV +, iCloud and its popular App Store. 

Sales rose nearly 30% to over $ 83 billion in Apple’s fall quarter, which ended in September. The company also has a whopping $ 191 billion in cash.

But before long, Apple may have some company in the $3 trillion club. Microsoft (MSFT) is now worth about $2.5 trillion and Google owner Alphabet’s (GOOGL( market value is right around $2 trillion. Still giant but further behind are Amazon (AMZN), which has a market cap of $1.7 trillion, and Elon Musk  Tesla (TSLA), worth about $1.2 trillion.