ACCESSIBILITY:

APPLE’S BIGGEST
PUSH YET

56

WWDC 2019 PART 2: HOW DO YOU

MAC INNOVATION AND TEACH KIDS ABOUT
A FIRST FOR THE iPAD TEXTING? BRING IN
THE TEENAGERS

34
STRANGER IN THE
KITCHEN:
WALMART TO
DELIVER INSIDE
HOMES

08 78
 3 MILLION US STUDENTS DON’T HAVE HOME INTERNET 24

SCHOOLS RECKON WITH SOCIAL STRESS: ‘I’M ON MY PHONE SO MUCH’ 46

FACEBOOK STOPS HUAWEI FROM PRE-INSTALLING APPS ON PHONES 74

CUSTOMS SAYS HACK EXPOSED TRAVELER, LICENSE PLATE IMAGES 84

UBER, VOLVO CARS LAUNCHING NEW SELF-DRIVING VEHICLE 88

THE X-MEN STRUGGLE TO THE END IN ‘DARK PHOENIX’ 106

CELLPHONE-FOCUSED VIDEO SERVICE QUIBI PLANNED FOR APRIL 2020 114

STATES SUE TO STOP $26.5 BILLION SPRINT-T-MOBILE DEAL 116

RAYTHEON AND UNITED TECHNOLOGIES TO CREATE A DEFENSE GIANT 126

SALESFORCE BUYING TABLEAU AS BUSINESSES EMBRACE DATA 134

TECH ON TRIAL: HOUSE MULLS ANTITRUST HELP FOR NEWS INDUSTRY 148

LONG-DISTANCE TRIP: NASA OPENING SPACE STATION TO VISITORS 158

CANADIAN RADARSAT SATELLITES LAUNCHED ABOARD SPACEX ROCKET 166

BRITAIN TO INTENSIFY FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE 170

UN PANEL: CONNECT HALF THE WORLD, AND $20 PHONES CAN HELP 174

EU PUBLISHES EUROPE-WIDE RULES ON DRONE OPERATION 182

iTUNES REVIEW 90

TOP 10 SONGS 138

TOP 10 ALBUMS 140

TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 142

TOP 10 TV SHOWS 144

TOP 10 BOOKS 146

8
9
THE LEGENDARY TABLET FINALLY GETS
ITS OWN OPERATING SYSTEM
Last week, we looked at a number of key events
from day one of WWDC 2019, Apple’s annual
Worldwide Developers Conference. However,
so much was revealed – even just on the first
day – that we couldn’t possibly cover it all in a
single article. In Part 2 of our WWDC 2019 review
(or version 2.0 if you like!), we’ll take an in-depth
look at two more key software announcements
from day one, and round up the highlights from
the rest of the event that ran from June 3 to 7.

iPAD SOFTWARE TAKES A

GIANT STEP FORWARD
We’ll begin with some incredible news for
iPad users, who are finally getting their
own dedicated OS. The annual developers’
conference is traditionally the place where Apple
announces updates to its operating systems,
iOS and macOS – and the Cupertino firm didn’t
disappoint with either expectation. However,
the biggest surprise of the opening keynote
came when senior vice president of Software
Engineering, Craig Federighi, announced
iPadOS; the first operating system specifically for
iPad owners.
“The time has come to recognize the platform
in a special way,” he said, in a move that finally
transforms the iPad into something more than
a large iPhone. When iPadOS lands later this
year, compatible devices will immediately
function in their own unique way, distancing
themselves from the iPhone and edging closer
to performing every function you’d expect
in a laptop.

10
11
 iPadOS 13 - Mouse Support Demo!

12
This appears to be a long-term ambition for
Apple, not to mention a long-held desire for iPad
users. Last year, CEO Tim Cook had referred to
the iPad as “the most popular computer in the
world,” rather than the most popular tablet or
mobile device. iPadOS is consequently designed
to enhance productivity, giving owners more
multitasking and viewing options, including
side-by-side apps and widgets pinned to the
home screen.

To further the iPad’s evolution, App Expose will

also soon work on the iPad. This feature, taken
from macOS, allows for a similar navigation
to the home screen of a Mac, with the ‘Files’
app essentially functioning as ‘Finder’ does for
Mac users. ‘Files’ will also be compatible with
external drives and devices; for instance, a
USB-C memory stick, which can be inserted
into the bottom of the iPad. This also means
that a camera can be connected, and images
transferred directly into an editing app without
the need to import into Photos first.

Other key features of iPadOS include

compatible mouse support to make the
transition from desktop or Mac to iPad more
seamless, and a ‘Sidecar’ option for people who
use both a Mac and an iPad. Sidecar effectively
turns the iPad into a second screen for the
Mac, either mirroring what’s on screen or
extending the content for additional viewing.
For this feature to be used, compatible Macs and
iPads must be owned, and both macOS Catalina
(more on this to come!) and iPadOS must be
running simultaneously.

Like iOS13, which we covered last week, iPadOS

will feature Dark Mode, providing a viewing

13
14
option that’s easier on the eyes and battery
life when required. Apple’s own apps and their
notifications will immediately be compatible,
and you can expect app developers to quickly
take heed and adapt their own iPad software to
be available in this viewing mode. Safari will also
receive an overhaul, with a dedicated download
manager and the more effective resizing of
websites. Overall, iPad users are finally getting
their fingertips and connected devices on
software designed specifically for them.

CATALINA THE NEW CATALYST

FOR MAC OWNERS
macOS Catalina will be the first Mac operating
system in nearly two decades not to feature
iTunes. Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts will
instead provide the entertainment in Apple’s
new generation of macOS, and will sync across
the rest of your Apple devices. The ability to use
mobile apps on desktop will also become more
prominent over time, as Project Catalyst comes
to the fore.

This is another long-term plan from Apple,

whereby Mac users will have access to the same
range of apps as mobile (and newly enhanced
iPad) users. Apple refers to Catalyst as ‘porting’
iPad apps directly to the Mac, and developers
have already been working on this task for some
time. Along with ‘Sidecar’, which we mentioned
briefly above, this development will help to
make the Mac and iPad much closer and easier
to use simultaneously.
Mac users will now be able to screenshot
images – including webpage content – and
immediately mark them up on the iPad, using

15
the stylus. Designs and images can be carefully
edited on the touchscreen iPad, while real-
time editing takes place on the Mac. Owners
of slightly older Macs lacking the Touch Bar
will be delighted to learn that the iPad can
become a Touch Bar itself. Effectively, with
Sidecar, you can manipulate a Mac from an iPad
and an iPad from a Mac.

To run Catalina and use Sidecar, you’ll

need a MacBook 2015 or later, a MacBook Air, macOS Catalina’s Sidecar running on iPad
MacBook Pro, Mac Mini or iMac 2012 or later, using Apple Pencil on Mac apps

an iMac Pro 2017 or later, or a Mac Pro 2013

or later. The Catalina beta is currently open,
although Sidecar has not yet been added, and
MacOS Catalina is expected to be released in
full this fall.

16
17
SECURITY AMONG MANY OTHER
WWDC HIGHLIGHTS
During the conference, Tim Cook also unveiled
Apple’s new user authentication platform, ‘Sign
In with Apple’. This new feature will significantly
reduce the amount of time that people spend
setting up accounts across different websites,
by instead enabling them to log in with the
verified information already collected and
authenticated by Apple.

Developers will be able to add a simple button

to their site or app to allow users or visitors to
simply tap and authenticate their credentials
with Face ID without revealing any new
personal information. People will still have the
option of personalizing the information they
provide and setting up unique user names and
alternative contact details, but the process of
registration will be much quicker, simpler, and
easier to manage over time.
This new single-sign-on platform (SSO) will
mean less sharing of personal data between
multiple developers (Google and Facebook, for
instance), and is another one of Apple’s longer-
term goals that came to fruition at WWDC
2019. Last year, Tim Cook’s speech at the
International Conference of Data Protection
and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) in
Brussels signaled Apple’s strong focus on
privacy by chastising the way other companies
used personal data.
Finally, a brand new Mac Pro was announced
before the end of WWDC. The most powerful
Mac ever will be released later this fall, and is
designed to look similar to some of Apple’s
much earlier, classic ‘cheese-grater’ models.

18
Image: Apple Inc.
19
Inside the new Mac Pro, however, is hardware
that enhances modularity and flexibility alike,
making it the perfect device to make full
use of macOS Catalina and the collaborative
capabilities of iPadOS. Featuring a new Intel
Exon processor, the new Mac will have up
to 28 cores, with up to 300W of power and a
formidable cooling system. The system memory
can be raised to as much as 1.5 TB, and the
desktop will feature more external drives than
the majority of PCs.

Usually, Apple saves hardware announcements

for later in the year. But with so much focus on
the capabilities of the various new operating
systems, it does make sense to announce new
devices that make the most of this astounding
software range. Given the capabilities of
the first iPadOS, you can expect the next
generation of iPad devices to be designed to
function seamlessly with all of these exciting
new features. We’ll probably learn much more
during Apple’s fall keynotes, which are usually in
September and October – and we can’t wait!

by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

20
21
24
 3 MILLION US
STUDENTS DON’T
HAVE HOME
INTERNET

With no computer or internet at home, Raegan

Byrd’s homework assignments present a nightly
challenge: How much can she get done using
just her smartphone?
On the tiny screen, she switches between web
pages for research projects, losing track of tabs
whenever friends send messages. She uses her
thumbs to tap out school papers, but when
glitches keep her from submitting assignments
electronically, she writes them out by hand.

25
“At least I have something, instead of nothing, to
explain the situation,” said Raegan, a high school
senior in Hartford.

She is among nearly 3 million students around

the country who face struggles keeping up
with their studies because they must make do
without home internet. In classrooms, access to
laptops and the internet is nearly universal. But
at home, the cost of internet service and gaps
in its availability create obstacles in urban areas
and rural communities alike.

In what has become known as the homework

gap, an estimated 17% of U.S. students do not
have access to computers at home and 18% do
not have home access to broadband internet,
according to an Associated Press analysis of
census data.

Until a couple of years ago, Raegan’s school

gave every student a laptop equipped with an
internet hot spot. But that grant program lapsed.
In the area surrounding the school in the city’s
north end, less than half of households have
home access.
School districts, local governments and others
have tried to help. Districts installed wireless
internet on buses and loaned out hot spots.
Many communities compiled lists of wi-fi-
enabled restaurants and other businesses
where children are welcome to linger and
do schoolwork. Others repurposed unused
television frequencies to provide connectivity, a
strategy that the Hartford Public Library plans to
try next year in the north end.

Some students study in the parking lots of

schools, libraries or restaurants — wherever they
can find a signal.

26
Image: Rogelio V. Solis
27
The consequences can be dire for children in
these situations, because students with home
internet consistently score higher in reading,
math and science. And the homework gap in
many ways mirrors broader educational barriers
for poor and minority students.
Students without internet at home are more
likely to be students of color, from low-income
families or in households with lower parental
education levels. Janice Flemming-Butler,
who has researched barriers to internet access
in Hartford’s largely black north end, said
the disadvantage for minority students is an
injustice on the same level as “when black
people didn’t have books.”

Raegan, who is black, is grateful for her iPhone,

and the data plan paid for by her grandfather.
The honors student at Hartford’s Journalism and
Media Academy tries to make as much progress
as possible while at school.

“On a computer — click, click — it’s so much

easier,” she said.

Classmate Madison Elbert has access to her

mother’s computer at home, but she was
without home internet this spring, which added
to deadline stress for a research project.
“I really have to do everything on my phone
because I have my data and that’s it,” she said.
Administrators say they try to make the school
a welcoming place, with efforts including
an after-school dinner program, in part to
encourage them to use the technology at the
building. Some teachers offer class time for
students to work on projects that require an
internet connection.

Image: Rogelio V. Solis

28
29
English teacher Susan Johnston said she also
tries to stick with educational programs that
offer smartphone apps. Going back to paper and
chalkboards is not an option, she said.
“I have kids all the time who are like, ‘Miss, can
you just give me a paper copy of this?’ And I’m
like, ‘Well, no, because I really need you to get
familiar with technology because it’s not going
away,’” she said.

A third of households with school-age children

that do not have home internet cite the expense
as the main reason, according to federal
Education Department statistics gathered in
2017 and released in May. The survey found
the number of households without internet
has been declining overall but was still at 14
percent for metropolitan areas and 18 percent in
nonmetropolitan areas.
A commissioner at the Federal Communications
Commission, Jessica Rosenworcel, called
the homework gap “the cruelest part of the
digital divide.”

In rural northern Mississippi, reliable home

internet is not available for some at any price.

On many afternoons, Sharon Stidham corrals

her four boys into the school library at East
Webster High School, where her husband is
assistant principal, so they can use the internet
for schoolwork. A cellphone tower is visible
through the trees from their home on a hilltop
near Maben, but the internet signal does not
reach their house, even after they built a special
antenna on top of a nearby family cabin.

A third of the 294 households in Maben have no

computer and close to half have no internet.

30
31
Her 10-year-old son, Miles, who was recently
diagnosed with dyslexia, plays an educational
computer game that his parents hope will
help improve his reading and math skills. His
brother, 12-year-old Cooper, says teachers
sometimes tell students to watch a YouTube
video to help figure out a math problem, but
that’s not an option at his house.

On the outskirts of Starkville, home to

Mississippi State University, Jennifer Hartness
said her children often have to drive into
town for a reliable internet connection. Her
daughter Abigail Shaw, who does a blend of
high school and college work on the campus
of a community college, said most assignments
have to be completed using online software,
and that she relies on downloading class
presentations to study.
“We spend a lot of time at the coffee shops,
and we went to McDonald’s parking lot before
then,” Abigail said.

At home, the family uses a satellite dish

that costs $170 a month. It allows a certain
amount of high-speed data each month
and then slows to a crawl. Hartness said it’s
particularly unreliable for uploading data.
Abigail said she has lost work when satellites
or phones have frozen.
Raegan says she has learned to take
responsibility for her own education.
“What school does a good job with,” she said,
“is making students realize that when you
go out into the world, you have to do things
for yourself.”

32
33
HOW DO YOU
TEACH KIDS
ABOUT TEXTING?
BRING IN THE
TEENAGERS

How do you teach tech-savvy kids to safely

navigate the digital world? In Germany, you
bring in the teenagers.

On a recent day, 18-year-old Chantal Hueben

stood in front of a group of fifth-graders and
asked them to brainstorm about the messaging
program Whatsapp, which most are using to
participate in a group chat for their class. They
spoke about themes like cyberbullying and
what material is OK to post.
“Many are not really aware yet of the impact
their messages can have on others,” says
Hueben, dressed all in black except for white
sneakers. “We’re teaching them not to post
anything private on the class chat, not to send
photos of others and not to insult anybody.”

34
35
The session at the Gesamtschule Borbeck high
school, in the western German city of Essen, is
part of a large-scale program in which teenagers
teach their younger schoolmates how to stay
safe and sane online.

As they grow older, they also participate in

workshops about media copyright issues or
sexting, and, at the end of eighth grade, they
take a test to get a laminated “mobile license”
that allows them to use their smartphones at
certain times at school.

The exam includes 10 multiple choice questions.

One asks what to do when somebody sends
an embarrassing Snapchat photo of a fellow
student. The answer, of course, is to not forward
the picture to others.

Over two-thirds of kids in Germany have

smartphones by the age of 11 and, like children
around the world, many are stressed by the
huge number of messages they receive and
don’t know how to handle inappropriate and
hurtful posts. With many parents and teachers
lacking in digital skills and unable to relate to
what it means to grow up with a smartphone,
German authorities decided peer education was
the best approach.

At Borbeck, which has about 1,000 students and

is considered one of the most advanced schools
in Germany when it comes to teaching digital
skills, there are 32 students teaching in the
“Medienscouts,” or media scouts, program.

“We’re also students, so we have this buddy and

role model relationship with the younger kids
that definitely motivates them to learn from us,”
Hueben says.

36
37
With the program, Germany is ahead of many
other countries, where “media skills” are often
taught by teachers and are more about how
to read or watch news media rather than the
personal impact.
It was founded in 2011 by public authorities in
the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In Germany, education is managed by the
country’s 16 separate states, and now 11 of them
have established similar programs in hundreds
of schools.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, 766 schools have
so far participated in the media scout program.
More than 3,120 high school students have been
trained as scouts and around 1,500 teachers
have acted as guidance counselors to help the
kids grow up as mature cyber world citizens.
“It would be great if the media scouts would
be established at every high school,” said Sven
Hulvershorn from the media authority agency
for the western German state, who oversees the
media scout program. “We’re not there yet, but
we’re working on it.”

38
39
40
 As children around
the globe often feel
stressed when it comes
to dealing with the
demands of the digital
world, Germany has
taken a more hands-
on approach to teach
the young generation
media competence.

41
42
Beyond teaching children how to deal with the
daily stress of digital communications, experts in
Germany agree there’s a need to coach them in
how to protect themselves from online bullying,
sexual predators or fake news.

“We first had a complete ban on phones in

our school,” explained teacher Vera Servaty,
who is the media scouts’ guidance counselor
at Borbeck high school. “But the reality is that
media is a central aspect of the students’ lives.
If the school doesn’t help them navigate the
media and the parents aren’t of any help either
then how should the children learn responsible
ways with the digital world?”

The program is more developed than in many

other countries. In the United States, many
schools have not fully embraced peer-to-
peer tutoring in social media, says Liz Kolb,
a professor of education technology at the
University of Michigan.

43
 Image: John Tlumacki
44
U.S. schools are required by a federal program
to teach appropriate online behavior, but that is
done by teachers and while some schools offer
peer-to-peer tutoring, it is not on the scale of
what Germany is doing.

“Schools are pretty much figuring out their own

way because there really is no strong mandate
they have to have a certain curriculum or
specific goals,” Kolb said of the U.S. “It’s definitely
needed and schools are seeing that it’s needed,
they just don’t know how to go about fitting it
into the already tight curriculum they have.”

At Borbeck high school, the media scouts spend

several hours teaching the fifth graders how not
to let WhatsApp take over their lives. Beyond
practical tricks, like turning off the setting that
lets the sender know if a message has been read,
the older students also talk with the fifth-graders
about learning how to take breaks from their
smart phone.

After the end of Hueben’s workshop, 11-year-old

Simon Scharenberg looked relieved.

He said he often felt overwhelmed by the

hundreds of WhatsApp messages he receives
every day, most of them from schoolmates in
the class group chat. He felt obliged to follow up
on all of them out of fear of missing important
information about homework or school activities.
After the WhatsApp workshop, Scharenberg
said he felt more confident about taking a break
from messaging.

“I will put down my phone in the kitchen when I

come home from school,” he said, explaining his
new strategy. “Before I go to sleep, I will check all
the messages. But I only reply if I really feel like it.”

45
SCHOOLS RECKON
WITH SOCIAL
STRESS: ‘I’M ON
MY PHONE
SO MUCH’

High school biology teacher Kelly Chavis

knew smartphones were a distraction in her
class. But not even her students realized the
psychological toll of their devices until an in-
class experiment that, of course, was then
spreading on social media.
For one class period, students used a whiteboard
to tally, in real time, every Snapchat, Instagram,
text, call or other notification that popped up.
Students were told not to respond to avoid
generating replies ... and further notifications.
Teachers around the country have run similar
experiments, typically recording dozens of trips
to the board.
“One girl, just during the one hour, got close
to 150 Snapchat notifications. 150!” marveled

46
47
48
Chavis, who teaches honors-level courses at
Rock Hill Schools in South Carolina.
She’s among a growing number of teachers,
parents, medical professionals and researchers
convinced that smartphones are now playing a
major role in accelerating student anxiety — a
trend so pervasive that a National Education
Association newsletter labelled anxiety a
”mental health tsunami .”
Testing, extracurricular-packed schedules,
and perpetual stressors like poverty can all
weigh on students. But research now points
to smartphones-driven social media as one
of the biggest drivers of stress. After all, that’s
where college acceptance letters fill Instagram,
everyone knows where everyone else is going
for spring break, and athletic failures and
awkward social moments can live forever.
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San
Diego State who has studied the issue, said it’s
no coincidence that youth mental health issues
have risen with the number of phones. “What
a lot of teens told me is that social media and
their phones feel mandatory,” she said, leading
to a loss of sleep and face-to-face interactions
necessary for their mental well-being.
Last year, an editorial in the American Academy
of Pediatrics’ flagship journal recommended
that doctors ask adolescent patients about their
social media use as part of routine screening,
alongside older questions about home life
and drug and sexual activity. “Aberrant and/or
excessive social media usage may contribute to
the development of mental health disturbance
in at-risk teenagers, such as feelings of isolation,
depressive symptoms, and anxiety,” three
researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers are still arguing whether phones

49
drive student depression or depression drives
phone use. But 70 percent of teens view anxiety
and depression as major problems among their
peers , according to a February Pew Research
Center report. Nearly 60 percent of parents said
they worry about the influence of social media
on their child’s physical and mental health in
the American Psychological Association’s 2017
Stress in America survey.
Schools are starting to react. Many districts now
hire outside companies to monitor students’
social media postings for signs of distress. Others
invite in yoga instructors and comfort dogs to
teach even the youngest kids to keep technology
from putting them on edge.
Belfast Area High School in Maine even staged an
#unplugged event day in April — but it served to
underline the technology’s pull when less than 20
percent of students and staff took part.
Meanwhile, students and parents are
filling school auditoriums for screenings of
documentaries such as ”LIKE ” and ”Angst ,” which
explore social media, technology and anxiety.
Movements like Away for the Day and Wait Until
8th discourage cellphones in middle school.
Wen she first got a smartphone around seventh
grade, all the posting, messaging and liking
pushed Nia Coates’ anxiety level to “probably
a 10,” she said. Now a high school junior, the
Buffalo, New York, teen has figured out to
manage the distractions.
She’ll completely log out of her Snapchat,
Instagram and Twitter, and sometimes will
delete an app altogether for a while. “The older
I’ve gotten, the more I realize it doesn’t really
matter so it’s not as stressful,” Coates said,
recalling how in the past she’d post something
only to delete it to avoid being judged.

50
51
52
Anxiety has taken over as the most significant
obstacle to learning among Chris Doyle’s high
school students at Avon Old Farms School in
Connecticut. Some rack up absences because
they feel overwhelmed by the day ahead,
Doyle said. A teacher for 30 years, he has seen a
profound shift toward constant self-evaluation
that he associates with social media, YouTube,
and even school grade portals sometimes
checked dozens of times a day — things
students have never before had to manage.
“That kind of awareness of other people’s
lives, even maybe what used to be considered
other people’s private lives, is kind of hyper
right now,” Doyle said. “And I don’t think that
usually leaves most people feeling good,
because nobody’s perfect and most kids feel
very imperfect.”
But putting the genie back in the bottle isn’t
easy. In Illinois, Glenbrook High Schools District
225 experimented with limiting teens’ access
to their grades on a digital portal. But for every
student who said the grade book caused them
anxiety, there was another who said losing
regular access created even more stress, said
instructional innovation director Ryan Bretag.
Some students simply appear overwhelmed by
nonstop social-media notifications during the
school day. “It becomes an anxiety — ‘well, if I
don’t answer them back right now I’m missing
something,’” said Troy, Missouri, high school
teacher Elizabeth Utterback. Freshmen are
particularly susceptible, she said. Her own class
tallying experiment netted 80 notifications
among 20 students in less than 30 minutes.
“I definitely feel stress with online profiles, social
media, to keep up, maintain my profiles and
stuff,” said Emily Mogavero, a 17-year-old student

53
54
in Buffalo, New York. “It kind of worries me that
I’m on my phone so much.” Mogavero said she
sometimes puts her phone out of reach or
powers it down so she doesn’t hear notifications.
Last fall, Seattle Public Schools last fall began
testing a toll-free hotline to help middle- and
high-school administrators deal with social
media stressors like harassment. Other districts
have hired companies like Geo Listening,
Bark or Social Sentinel that use algorithms to
monitor their students’ public social media
posts. Administrators can then intervene if they
see a student’s mental well-being deteriorating.
Fayette County schools in Kentucky say in the
first three months of monitoring this year, it
helped prevent a suicide and led to help for
a second troubled young person who had
posted references to past school shootings
and bullying.
Western New York yoga instructor Erin Schifferli
says the demand is high for her “Teen Yoga for
Stress Relief” sessions. Her 12-year-old daughter,
Aeva, won’t get a phone until she’s 16, she said.
Setting such limits at earlier ages might help.
Deirdre Birmingham of Montclair, New Jersey,
signed onto a campaign called “Wait Until
Eighth” because she didn’t think her video
game-loving 10-year-old son was ready to
manage a smartphone’s pull.
The idea, which got its start in Texas two years
ago, is to lessen the peer pressure of being the
only kid without a phone by enlisting parents
of classmates to agree to hold off until at least
eighth grade. So far, almost 20,000 people have
signed on, founder Brooke Shannon said.
“I had a gut level that it would be difficult for my
child to manage,” Birmingham said. “As a grown-
up, I find it difficult sometimes to manage.”

55
56
57
In all of the excitement of Dark Mode on iOS
and the removal of iTunes on the Mac, you’d
be forgiven for missing one of Apple’s biggest
cross-platform updates to date. At WWDC,
the firm announced plans to introduce a slew
of new features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS,
designed to make lives easier, and Apple
products accessible to everyone. This week, we
delve deeper into the changes, exploring how
the technology will impact users of all abilities.

MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN EVER

Apple has always been one to fly the flag for
accessibility, telling the world that “technology
is most powerful when it empowers everyone.” An Introduction To Voice Over On The Mac

It’s a trademark for the Cupertino firm’s

commitment to building products that work
for every human being, not just the able-
bodied, and over the years, that mindset has
allowed Apple to introduce truly innovative
features that have changed the way people
communicate, work, and play. Whether taking
a selfie with family, catching up with friends on
FaceTime or raising the blinds on a morning,
Apple has made it easy for everyone to use
its software and hardware to live better, more
fulfilled lives.
For those with vision problems, VoiceOver has
been a useful tool on Mac and iPhone for
years, allowing users to navigate their devices
without looking at a screen. Those suffering
from color blindness or challenges with vision
can take advantage of Invert Colors or fine-
tune colors on their screen to suit their needs;
Magnifier increases the size of the content on
the screen and Larger Dynamic Type converts
text into easy-to-read sizes.

58
 How to Make Font Size Larger on iPhone XS Max

Image: Ryan Lowry

59
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing,
Apple’s Live Listen tool allows users to fine-
tune their Made for iPhone hearing aids
and AirPods to help them hear clearly, and
moving an iPhone towards a conversation can
help to amplify what they’re saying so users
are never left out. That’s without mentioning
the power of FaceTime for people who use
sign language to communicate, LED light
flashing for notification alerts, Guided Access,
Typing Feedback, AssistiveTouch, Apple
Watch workouts for wheelchairs, and Switch
Control which allows for switches, a joystick,
or other adaptive devices to control what’s on
an iPhone or iPad - without having to touch
the screen itself.

It would be easy to argue Apple had “done

enough” to make its hardware and software
as accessible as possible, but the company
is always one step ahead of the competition
when it comes to such features. At WWDC,
Apple lifted the lid on the latest round of
accessibility features coming to the devices
we all know and love, with Tim Cook, Craig
Federighi and others sharing details on what’s
potentially Apple’s greatest accessibility push
to date.

VOICE CONTROL TAKES AWAY THE NEED

FOR PERIPHERALS
First announced during the Accessibility
segment of WWDC 2019 is Voice Control. The
feature supports editing and menu navigation
in macOS Catalina and iOS 13, meaning users
who cannot control a keyboard or mouse can
still use their iPhone, iPad or Mac in the same
way as everyone else, taking advantage of

60
AirPods with iOS 12! (How to use Live Listen!)

61
its advanced functionality, whether that’s for
taking screenshots, editing and sharing video,
and organizing files. Users can ask Siri to “show
numbers,” and Safari will display labels next to
each tool or favorites option - if AppleMagazine
is saved as a favorite in your Safari browser
and it’s labeled one, you can ask Siri to open
one, and you’ll immediately be taken to our
website. It goes beyond favorites, however
- Voice Control can be used to bookmark,
save, download, input data, click, tap, pinch
and zoom, and many other common Safari
features on the Mac.

Apple has been working hard to improve Voice

Control’s speech detection system, according
to an interview with Sarah Herrlinger, director
of Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives at
Apple. She told TechCrunch that Apple had
been working to allow iOS and macOS devices
to parse users’ commands regardless of how
they speak, including those with stutter,
offering significant improvements on previous
voice recognition tools.

What’s interesting about Voice Control on iOS

especially is that the feature utilizes attention
awareness to know when a user with physical
motor limitations is using their device, offering
an attentive personal assistant experience.
And for those worrying about privacy, Apple
has said that none of the audio processed by
Voice Control can be accessed outside of the
Voice Control session, including Apple, with
the feature taking advantage of the built-in
anonymity and encryption found on iPhones
and MacBooks through chips and other
security hardware.

62
63
 Introducing Voice Control on Mac and iOS — Apple

64
65
66
MAKING THE MAC MORE ACCESSIBLE
Voice Control is only the tip of the iceberg on the
Mac, with Hover Text on macOS another tool that
was previewed at the WWDC event. Herrlinger
said that the feature was “a subset of the existing
Zoom functionality,” designed to allow users to
place a mouse pointer over a selection of text
to get a bubble with enlarged text. Working
system-wide, rather than only in Apple-designed
apps, Hover Text can be used in places such as
the menu bar to increase the size of the text.
What’s even more interesting is that Hover Text
is customizable, so users can choose their own
fonts and colors to make their own Bubbles
based on their needs. Text can be enlarged up
to size 128pt, and users can experiment with
different permutations, like yellow backgrounds
with blue text, to find a happy medium that
offers readability and access.

According to Apple, Hover Text serves as an

alternative to Dynamic Type found on iOS, as it
offers the same end goal without enlarging the
text automatically. Users can press the Control
key when hovering over the text with their
cursor, and a window with zoomed text appears
alongside the standard interface, helping them
stay contextually aware. For those who prefer, it’s
possible to see the same screen up close and at
a distance simultaneously with a second display,
keeping one monitor zoomed in and another at
standard resolution.
And there are tons of smaller accessibility
features coming to macOS Catalina, too, such as
VoiceOver support in Xcode (VoiceOver will now
read warnings, line numbers, and breakpoints,
so developers can code new software and
applications), punctuation in iCloud, new

67
international braille tables, the ability to filter
colors on the Mac to easily differentiate areas
of confusion, the ability to tint your entire
screen using a color of your choice, simplified
keyboard navigation that requires less drilling
into unique focus groups, Siri for VoiceOver and
Speech (which offers a more natural-sounding
experience), word and emoji suggestions, rich
text editing, the ability to add custom words,
on-device processing, and more accurate
dictation when compared with previous releases
of macOS. All in all, macOS Catalina will be a
bumper release that will have a major impact on
productivity and ease of use, making the Mac
even greater for everyone, regardless of their
physical ability.

MOUSE SUPPORT AND MORE ON iOS

Whilst mouse support on iPad has been a long-
awaited feature in the developer community
for productivity reasons, Apple has decided
to introduce mouse support for the first time
as an accessibility feature, allowing users to
connect a USB mouse to their iPad or iPhone. It
is not a standard feature - instead, it’s available
as an extension of the AssistiveTouch feature
already available on the iPad and iPhone,
designed for users with physical motor delays
who can’t easily interact with the touchscreen
itself. Apple hasn’t offered a list of Bluetooth
and USB mice that are compatible just yet,
although developers revealed that it will work
with Apple’s Magic Trackpad.
It’s important to note that the new feature
does not work in the same way as a cursor as a
primary input method - instead, pointer support

Image: Concept by Guilherme Martins Schsiepen

68
69
70

How to Enable Sidecar for second monitor
display on iOS 13 and MacBook Pro 10.15
Image: Apple Inc.
serves as a niche feature and doesn’t offer the
flexibility of a PC mouse. Apple unveiled Sidecar
at WWDC, a macOS feature that turns iPads
into second displays on the Mac, so it’s only
a matter of time before out-of-the-box Magic
Mouse support comes to iPad as a standalone
feature. For now, though, Mouse Support was
engineered for a specific use case to bring the
power of its iOS and iPadOS devices to more
people - and for that, it works well.
iPadOS and iOS introduce a raft of new
accessibility features in a similar manner to
macOS, including Voice Control, the latest
advances in machine learning for audio-to-text
transcription, audio processing on the
71
device, seamless transitions from dictation to
commands, comprehensive navigation, voice
gestures (the ability to swipe, zoom, press, and
tap with your voice) and recorded commands -
the ability to record multistep gestures for apps
on your iPad or iOS device), whilst Attention
Awareness only activates when users look at
their screens, meaning they can talk to friends
nearby without Voice Control activating.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Making technology more accessible isn’t Apple’s
job to do alone, but comparing its efforts with
rivals like Microsoft and Google demonstrates
the company’s commitment to every user. Users
with vision problems can use their devices with
or without a screen, users with hearing problems
can use AirPods to increase the volume, and
those with physical problems can use a mouse
to control their touch-screen device, or Voice
Control to avoid the use of peripherals entirely.
And for those with cognitive issues, Apple’s
friendly fonts, dictation, and predictive tools
help improve productivity, learning, and
enjoyment across the entire Apple ecosystem.
We still have a way to go if we want to build
a truly accessible world where everyone can
work, play, and learn equally, but Apple is miles
ahead on that journey. Combining the power of
its hardware with the ingenuity of its software
provides a second-to-none experience that just
keeps getting better. iOS 13, iPadOS and macOS
Catalina are packed with great new additions
like home screen widgets and iPad apps on the
Mac, but it’s their accessibility features that will
have the biggest impact on users for the years
and decades to come.

72
Image: Apple Inc.

73
74
 FACEBOOK STOPS
HUAWEI FROM
PRE-INSTALLING
APPS ON PHONES

Facebook said it has stopped letting its apps

come pre-installed on smartphones sold by
Huawei in order to comply with U.S. restrictions,
a move that deals a fresh blow to the Chinese
tech giant.

The social network said it has suspended

providing software for Huawei to put on its
devices while it reviews recently introduced
U.S. sanctions.
Owners of existing Huawei smartphones that
already have Facebook apps can continue to use
them and download updates.

75
Facebook said people who have Huawei phones
or buy new ones will still be able to download
Facebook on their own.

Facebook’s move is the latest fallout in the

escalating U.S.-China tech feud.

The Commerce Department last month

effectively barred U.S. companies from
selling their technology to Huawei and other
Chinese firms without government approval.
China’s Commerce Ministry responded this
week by warning it would release its own
list of “unreliable” foreign companies in the
near future.

U.S. officials are pressing their global campaign

to blacklist Huawei, the world’s No. 1 network
equipment provider and second-largest
smartphone maker. They say Beijing could use
the company’s products for cyberespionage,
though they haven’t presented evidence of
intentional spying.

“We are reviewing the Commerce Department’s

final rule and the more recently issued
temporary general license and taking steps to
ensure compliance,” Facebook said, referring to a
90-day grace period allowing continued support
of existing Huawei equipment.

Huawei declined to comment.

Google, which makes the Android operating
system used by Huawei, has already said
that while it would continue to support
existing Huawei phones, future devices won’t
come with its flagship apps and services,
including maps, Gmail and search. Only
basic services would be available for future
versions of Android.

76
77
 Image: Eduardo Munoz
78
 STRANGER IN
THE KITCHEN:
WALMART TO
DELIVER INSIDE
HOMES

How much do you trust a stranger with

your fridge?
Walmart is now offering to have one of its
employees deliver fresh groceries and put them
in your refrigerator when you’re not home.

The nation’s largest grocer said that it will be

offering the service this fall for more than one
million customers in three cities: Pittsburgh,
Kansas City, Missouri, and Vero Beach, Florida.
Later this year, the service, called InHome
Delivery, will also accept returns for items
purchased on Walmart.com.
The new service, announced Friday ahead of
Walmart’s annual shareholders’ meeting in
Fayetteville, Arkansas, is part of the company’s
drive to expand its shopping options that

79
80
include curbside pickup and online grocery
delivery and cater to time-starved shoppers.
And it comes as the world’s largest retailer
is locked in an arms race with online leader
Amazon.com to bring packages faster and faster
to customers’ homes. Amazon offers a similar
service in certain cities, dropping off packages
inside homes, garages or car trunks. But its
service does not deliver groceries.

“We will learn and then we will scale from there,”

Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO told the crowd of
Walmart workers and shareholders on Friday at
the University of Arkansas’ Bud Walton arena.

Two years ago, Walmart tested a similar service

in the Silicon Valley area but teamed up with
delivery startup Deliv and worked with August
Home, makers of smart locks and smart home
accessories. That test has since been stopped.
With Walmart’s new service, customers place a
grocery delivery order online and then select
InHome Delivery and a delivery day at checkout.

Walmart workers will use smart entry technology

and a proprietary wearable camera to access the
customer’s home. That allows shoppers to control
access into their home and give them the ability
to watch the delivery remotely.

Walmart said that the workers will go through

an extensive training program to prepare
them for things like how to select the freshest
groceries and how best to organize the
refrigerator. Workers need to be with the
company for at least one year. Walmart declined
to give specifics on the technology. It said that
ahead of the launch it will share the fee details
for the delivery service, which in addition to

81
82
fresh food will include grocery essentials such as
canned pears and peanut butter.
The last mile from a transportation hub to
someone’s home has been the key logistical
hurdle for delivery services.

“Now, we can serve customers not in just

the last mile, but in the last 15 feet,” wrote
Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce
division, in a corporate blog post.

Still, while analysts applauded the idea of

in-home delivery, they noted challenges.

“What remains unclear for us is how much

could this cost to roll-out at scale, how much
demand will there ultimately be, and how
much are consumers willing to pay for the
service,” wrote Moody’s vice president
Charles O’Shea in a report. “We remain
concerned that companies may end up
overspending in their development of
various delivery options by overestimating
the potential demand, though that is a
‘down-the-road’ issue.”

Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy

officer of Publicis Communications, noted
that even with the body cameras, many
customers may not trust a stranger into
their home. That worry could ease over
time, he said.
“Getting in a strangers’ car didn’t feel all
that safe at first either, yet rideshare
companies were able to get enough initial
customers and then expand through
customers’ changing perceptions,” said
Goldberg. “In-home delivery is likely to follow
a similar trajectory.”

83
84
 CUSTOMS SAYS
HACK EXPOSED
TRAVELER, LICENSE
PLATE IMAGES

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said this

week that photos of travelers and license plates
collected at the nation’s borders have been
exposed in a malicious cyberattack.

The federal agency did not name the

subcontractor whose computer network was
hacked, but the announcement followed news
that a Tennessee-based company that bills itself
as the sole provider of stationary license plate
readers at U.S. borders had been compromised.

The U.K. computer security website The Register,

which said the hacker responsible alerted it to
the breach in late May, identified the company
as Perceptics.
A spokesman for the company did not
immediately respond to an email from The
Associated Press seeking comment.

85
A congressional staffer whose office was
notified by the agency said the breach affected
fewer than 100,000 people. The staffer was not
authorized to speak publicly on the matter
and spoke on condition that the staffer not be
further identified.
CBP said none of the data had surfaced on the
internet or Dark Web. The Register said the
hacker provided it with a list of files exfiltrated
from the Perceptics corporate network and said a
company spokesperson had confirmed the hack.
“Initial information indicates that the
subcontractor violated mandatory security and
privacy protocols outlined in their contract,” the
agency said in a statement.
CBP said it learned of the data breach May
31. It said the subcontractor had transferred
copies of the images to its company network in
violation of government policies and without
the agency’s authorization.
Perceptics, of Farragut, Tennessee, bills itself as
the sole provider of license-plate readers “for
passenger vehicle primary inspection lanes at all
land border ports of entry in the United States,
Canada and at the most critical lanes in Mexico.”
It says it has secured “thousands of border
checkpoints” and says its products automate over
200 hundred million vehicle inspections annually.
Perceptic technology is also used in electronic
toll collection and roadway monitoring.
Civil liberties groups including the ACLU and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation have expressed
alarm at the general lack of regulation of license
plate-reading cameras and databases, saying
the technology has great potential to be abused
for surveillance and location-tracking.

86
87
UBER, VOLVO
CARS LAUNCHING
NEW SELF-DRIVING
VEHICLE

Uber is teaming with Volvo Cars to launch its

newest self-driving vehicle.
The ride-hailing company said Wednesday that
it can easily install its self-driving system in
the Volvo XC90 SUV. The vehicle’s steering and
braking systems are designed for computer
rather than human control, including several
backup systems for both steering and braking
functions and battery backup power. If the
primary systems fail, the backup system will
immediately act to bring the car to a stop.
Various sensors will allow Uber’s self-driving
system to safely operate and maneuver in
urban areas.
Uber and Volvo Cars partnered in September
2016. This is the third car they’ve developed
together and the first production car to be
capable of fully driving itself.
Uber made the announcement at its third
annual Uber Elevate Summit.

88
89
 High Life | Official Trailer HD | A24

Movies
&
90
TV Shows
 High Life

A group of criminals on death row is

dispatched on a spaceship to carry out
experiments near a black hole. However,
after much of the crew, led by doctor Dibs
(Juliette Binoche) vanishes, father Monte
(Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter
are left to fend for themselves as the ship
hurtles towards the black hole.

FIVE FACTS:
1. Early in the film’s development, novelists
and married couple Nick Laird and Zadie
Smith helped director Claire Denis to write
the screenplay, but creative disagreements
arose between Denis and Smith.
by Claire Denis
Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2. As a result, Laird and Smith left the project
Released: 2019 as screenwriters, although Laird was later
Price: $9.99 the script’s consultant.
3. Actors considered for the lead role
10 Ratings during the film’s early stages of
development included Vincent Gallo and
Philip Seymour Hoffman.
4. After casting Pattinson as the lead, Denis
praised him as “very enigmatic, with a
powerful presence. He gives off an aura that
immediately makes you want to film him.”
5. The rapper André 3000, whose real, off-
stage name is André Lauren Benjamin, also
appears in the film as the character Tcherny.

Rotten Tomatoes

83 %

91
92
Why Robert Pattinson Chased Claire Denis
Down to Work on ‘High Life’ | TIFF 2018

93
Wonder Park

An imaginative girl called June (voiced by

Brianna Denski) invents an amusement park
that she even creates in model form, but it isn’t
until she stumbles across an old rollercoaster
car and climbs inside it that the park is
magically brought to full-scale life. With this
recreated park falling apart without her, the
onus is on June to reverse its fortunes.

FIVE FACTS:
1. Wonder Park lacks any credited director
– as, although former Pixar animator Dylan
Brown was at the directorial helm for most
of the production, the studio dismissed him
in January 2018.
by Josh Appelbaum
2. A representative for the studio, André Nemec
Paramount, revealed in a statement that Genre: Kids & Family
the dismissal was due to “allegations of Released: 2019
Price: $19.99
inappropriate and unwanted conduct”.
3. Pixar films for which Brown has provided
animation include The Incredibles, Finding 46 Ratings

Nemo and Ratatouille.

4. This year, the Nickelodeon television
network is set to air a series based on the film.
5. For the film, American singer and
songwriter Rachel Platten performed
an original song, “Wonder”, which was
subsequently released as a single.

Rotten Tomatoes

34 %

94
Wonder Park (2019) - Official Trailer
Paramount Pictures

95
96
Joe Sugg & Caspar Lee Spill Behind The Scenes
Secrets From Wonder Park | MTV Movies

97
 Tyga - Taste (Official Video) ft. Offset

98
Music
 Legendary
Tyga

Rapper Tyga has released his seventh studio

album, and his first since last year’s Kyoto.
Fans of the artist’s California-inspired beats
will delight in hearing his signature sound
yet again on Legendary, which also features a
long list of guest stars, including Chris Brown,
J Balvin, Lil Wayne and Blueface.

FIVE FACTS:
1. Tyga’s real name is Michael Ray Stevenson.
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Released: Jun 7, 2019 2. The stage name Tyga is a backronym for
14 Songs “Thank you God always”.
Price: $9.99
3. His first studio album, No Introduction,
was released on the independent label
193 Ratings Decaydance in 2008.
4. It was not until 2011 that Tyga finally
released a studio album, Careless World: Rise
of the Last King, on a major label.
5. The new album’s lead single, “Taste”, was
released over a year ago and peaked at
number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart
last August.

99
100
Tyga - Goddamn (Official Video)

101
 Hans Zimmer - Gap
(Dark Phoenix Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

102
 Dark Phoenix
(Original Motion
Picture Soundtrack)
Hans Zimmer

The legendary German film score composer

Hans Zimmer, who has scored a range
of top-tier films including The Lion King,
Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Interstellar and
Dunkirk, has now also composed the score
for Dark Phoenix, the final installment in
the main X-Men film series that started
Genre: Soundtrack back in 2000.
Released: Jun 7, 2019
10 Songs
Price: $9.99

FIVE FACTS:
31 Ratings 1. Zimmer’s musical trademark has long been
his integration of electronic music sounds
with traditional orchestral arrangements.
2. Directors with which he has collaborated
for film scores include Sir Ridley Scott,
Ron Howard, Michael Bay, John Woo and
Christopher Nolan.
3. Originally, after scoring 2016’s Batman
v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zimmer
announced that he had “officially retired”
from composing scores for superhero films.
4. However, Zimmer later explained that
director Ron Howard had persuaded him to
wait for a suitable story rather than avoid a
whole genre – hence his acceptance of the
Dark Phoenix job.
5. The film has had mixed reviews, with
criticism particularly focused on its plot and
character development, although Sophie
Turner’s performance in the eponymous role
has attracted praise.

103
104
X-Men:Dark Phoenix - Dark (Official Soundtrack)

105
106
 THE X-MEN
STRUGGLE TO
THE END IN
‘DARK PHOENIX’

The good news is ”Dark Phoenix ” is neither an

apocalypse nor is it “X-Men: Apocalypse,” but
this latest installment is not exactly a solid step
forward or a satisfying ending for anyone.

It’s supposed to be the culmination of 20 years

of X-Men movies, and yet it feels more like
a rushed and inconsequential spinoff than
something that we’ve been building toward
for two decades. Perhaps that’s because we’ve
barely gotten to know this version of Jean Grey
(Sophie Turner), whose transformation into the
all-powerful Phoenix is the thing that divides the
X-Men into a tiny civil war.

107
A brief flashback to 1975 shows a young Jean’s
defining trauma, when the telekinesis she can’t
yet control results in a horrific car crash and her
becoming an orphan. She’s taken in by Charles
Xavier (James McAvoy) who offers her help and
guidance and tells her that she can decide to use
her powers for good, which is not exactly top of
mind for her when, 17 years later, she absorbs a
deadly cosmic energy field.
The main action is set in 1992, a decade after
the events in “Apocalypse” and 30 years after
the events in “X-Men: First Class,” and you
might find yourself wondering just how old
are all of these mutants and what is their skin
care regime. If there is a reason this had to be
set in 1992, the movie certainly doesn’t give
you any explanation, nor does it really attempt
to capture the look of the early ’90s at all in
costume or production design. But it’s 1992,
the title card says so, and Charles is riding
high on a tide of public goodwill. The X-Men
are finally being regarded as heroes and he’s
become the public face of the operation,
with a direct line to the President of the
United States and everything.

Yet he’s getting a little cavalier with his people,

sending them off on an impossible rescue
mission to space which will render Jean into
the Dark Phoenix. Even his longtime allies like
Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and Hank/
Beast (Nicholas Hoult) are starting to question
his motives. This, frankly, is the more interesting
thread but the film, written and directed by
Simon Kinberg, instead uses Jean/Phoenix —
who, again, we don’t know very well — as the
embodiment of all of his ambition and failings.

108
Dark Phoenix | Final Trailer

109
 Dark Phoenix | “X-Women” Clip

110
111
112
Essentially, Jean discovers that Charles has been
hiding some information from her about her
childhood and she gets angry (dangerously
so) and starts racking up a body count. Even
Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who is living in
what looks like a dystopian sleepaway camp,
doesn’t want any part of it and she becomes an
outcast. So when an intense alien with nefarious
plans and sky high stilettos, Vuk (Jessica Chastain)
tells her that she’s just misunderstood and to
follow her, Jean is all ears.
It’s a lot of fussy plot with not much heart behind
it, and while Turner is excellent at looking like a
woman in distress, she needs a character to back
up all that conflict and make us care. Even a pretty
shocking death barely registers emotionally. It
probably also doesn’t help that this is coming on
the heels of “Avengers: Endgame.”
As with the other X-Men movies featuring this
younger cast, the best parts are usually when
Magneto and Charles are in the same scene,
which we do get a bit of here in a pretty fun
action sequence on a train which introduced me
to the concept of “dreadlock fighting.”
But all in all, “Dark Phoenix” is a whiff. The most
suspenseful thing that happened had nothing
to do with the movie at all, but the theater’s fire
alarm that went off during a review screening
during the epic climax.
“Dark Phoenix,” a 20th Century Fox release, is
rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of
America for “intense sequences of sci-fi violence
and action including some gunplay, disturbing
images, and brief strong language.” Running time:
113 minutes. Two stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material

may be inappropriate for children under 13.

113
CELLPHONE-
FOCUSED VIDEO
SERVICE QUIBI
PLANNED FOR
APRIL 2020

There’s yet another new streaming service

coming in the next year.
Quibi’s twist is that it’s focused on short videos
for cellphones. Spokeswoman Gina Stikes
confirmed that Quibi will launch in April 2020
and cost $5 a month with ads and $8 a month
without ads.
It’s run by big names — Jeffrey Katzenberg,
the former Disney chairman and co-founder of
DreamWorks Animation, and Meg Whitman, the
former head of eBay and Hewlett-Packard —
and it has attracted top Hollywood stars to make
videos. It has raised $1 billion to pay for content
and expects to raise $500 million for business
purposes including marketing.
It would enter an increasingly crowded market
of subscription streaming video services,
including upcoming offerings from Disney,
Apple and AT&T.

114
Image: Martina Albertazzi

115
STATES SUE TO
STOP $26.5 BILLION
SPRINT-T-MOBILE
DEAL

A group of state attorneys general led by

New York and California filed a federal lawsuit
Tuesday to block T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion bid for
Sprint, citing consumer harm.
The state attorneys general said the promised
benefits, such as better networks in rural
areas and faster service overall, cannot be
verified, while eliminating a major wireless
company will immediately harm consumers by
reducing competition and driving up prices for
cellphone service.

116
117
New York Attorney General Letitia James
said in a statement that combining the two
companies would reduce access to affordable,
reliable wireless service nationwide and would
particularly affect lower-income and minority
communities in New York and other urban areas.
Other attorneys general joining Tuesday’s
lawsuit are from Colorado, Connecticut, the
District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan,
Mississippi, Virginia and Wisconsin. All 10
attorneys general are Democrats. The lawsuit
was filed in U.S. District Court in New York.
The lawsuit is an unusual step by state officials
ahead of a decision by federal antitrust
authorities. The Justice Department’s decision is
pending. The Republican majority of the Federal
Communications Commission supports the deal,
though the agency has yet to vote.
Too many “mega mergers have sailed through
the governmental approval process,” so it’s
up to the states to “step up,” James said at a
news conference.
“There’s no rule or regulation that we have
to wait for the DOJ,” she said. She added the
attorneys general will “continue to litigate
whether the DOJ approves the merger or not.”
Diana Moss, the president of the American
Antitrust Institute and an advocate for tougher
antitrust enforcement, said the states’ lawsuit
could signal to other potential merger partners
that there would be tougher enforcement from
states even if the federal government permitted
deals to go through.
James said Tuesday that her office’s renewed
focus on mergers and anti-competitiveness
goes beyond the tech industry, though she did
not elaborate.

118
119
T-Mobile and Sprint have argued that they need
to bulk up to upgrade to a fast, powerful “5G”
mobile network that competes with Verizon and
AT&T. The companies are appealing to President
Donald Trump’s desire for the U.S. to “win” a
global 5G race.
Consumer advocates, labor unions and many
Democratic lawmakers worry that the deal could
mean job cuts, higher wireless prices and a hit to
the rural cellphone market.
Amanda Wait, an antitrust lawyer and former
Federal Trade Commission lawyer, said states are
acting because they disagree with what they
have seen the federal government doing.
“They see the FCC accepting certain remedies
and concessions that don’t, in their minds, solve
the problem,” she said.
T-Mobile declined comment. Sprint and the
Justice Department did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.
One famous example of when the states
and federal government diverged on a big
antitrust case was in the fight against Microsoft,
although that was not a merger case. Several
states dissented from the Justice Department’s
settlement roughly 20 years ago, pushing
for tougher sanctions to curtail Microsoft’s
ability to use its dominance in the Windows
operating system to thwart competition in
other technologies.
More recently, in the Bayer-Monsanto
agribusiness merger, five states last year
criticized the federal government’s approval.
T-Mobile and Sprint previously tried to
combine during the Obama administration but
regulators rebuffed them. They resumed talks on
combining once Trump took office, hoping for
more industry-friendly regulators.

120
121
122
T-Mobile has a reputation for consumer-friendly
changes to the cellphone industry. T-Mobile and
Sprint led the return of unlimited-data cellphone
plans, for example.
T-Mobile, trying to reassure critics, promised the
FCC it would build out a 5G network and invest
in rural broadband on a specific timeframe or
pay penalties. It also promised to sell off Sprint’s
prepaid Boost Mobile brand and keep price
increases on hold for three years.
That was enough for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai
to back the deal. The other two Republican
commissioners indicated they would join him.
But public-interest advocates said these
conditions did not address concerns about
higher prices and reduced competition— and
would be difficult for regulators to enforce.
The Justice Department evaluates deals using
stricter criteria than the FCC’s “public interest”
standard — namely whether they harm
competition and raise prices for consumers.
Staff attorneys at DOJ have reportedly told
the companies they won’t approve the deal as
proposed, but the ultimate decision lies with
Makan Delrahim, the top antitrust official who is
a political appointee.
The state attorneys general said in Tuesday’s
lawsuit that combining Sprint and T-Mobile
would make the industry as a whole — Verizon
and AT&T, too — less likely to offer plans and
services that consumers like. And they say the
companies have already been working to roll
out 5G and don’t need to combine to do so.
Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank owns
Sprint, while Germany’s Deutsche Telekom
owns T-Mobile.

123
 A group of state attorneys
general led by New York
and California filed a
federal lawsuit Tuesday
to block T-Mobile’s $26.5
billion bid for Sprint,
citing consumer harm.

124
125
126
 RAYTHEON
AND UNITED
TECHNOLOGIES
TO CREATE A
DEFENSE GIANT

Raytheon and United Technologies will join to

create a massive aerospace and defense company
in a sector that is already rapidly consolidating.
The combined company, which will count
among its portfolio of weaponry the F-35
fighter jet engines, Patriot and Tomahawk
missile systems in addition to space suits and
intelligence technology as well as Pratt &
Whitney engines used in both commercial and
military aircraft, anticipates annual revenue of
$74 billion if approved.
That means it still trails Boeing Co. in heft, but
the deal may give the soon to be renamed
Raytheon Technologies Corp. leverage
with suppliers and contractors over other
heavyweights in the industry like Lockheed
Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

127
Costs for the company could eventually be
trimmed by $1 billion each year as it strips away
duplicative functions.
The combined company would be valued at well
over $100 billion even after United Technologies
completes the planned spin-off of a good chunk
of its commercial, industrial wing. The deal is
expected to close in the first half of 2020, after
those assets are shed by United Technologies.
“The combination of United Technologies and
Raytheon will define the future of aerospace and
defense,” said Greg Hayes, United Technologies
chairman and CEO, who will become the CEO of
the combined company.
The companies will push to develop new
technologies more quickly with combined R&D
spending of $8 billion annually and more than
60,000 engineers. Raytheon Technologies will
focus on hypersonics — vehicles or weapons
which can fly five times faster than the speed of
sound — as well as intelligence and surveillance
systems, artificial intelligence for commercial
aviation and cybersecurity for connected planes.
The deal would push United Technologies
further from the cyclical nature of its
commercial businesses, and more deeply into
the defense sector.
Industry analysts saw fewer advantages for
Raytheon, but noted that it has ensured that it
is not left behind in the push to grow bigger in
aerospace and defense.
“The rationale seems to address (United
Technologies’) needs more than Raytheon’s,
unless this was also about simply finding the
best partner in a consolidating space,” wrote
Joseph DeNardi, a defense analyst with Stifel.

128
Image: Ben Margot
129
130
Image: Mandel Ngan

“A scenario whereby Raytheon would be

competing longer-term against Lockheed
Martin and a combined Northrop + (United
Technologies) may have been an unacceptable
outcome of consolidation for Raytheon.”

DeNardi also once saw Boeing as the likely

buyer of Raytheon, but said it may have been
hobbled by the grounding of its fleet of its 737
Max aircraft.

Raytheon shareholders will receive 2.33

shares in the new company for each
Raytheon share. Once the merger is complete,
United Technologies shareholders will own
approximately 57% of the company; Raytheon
shareholders will own the rest.

Two years after the deal closes, Hayes will

also become chairman. Until then, Raytheon
Chairman and CEO Tom Kennedy will be the
executive chairman. The company’s board will
have eight directors from United Technologies
and seven from Raytheon.

Both executives said Monday that there is

little overlap between the companies and that
they do not anticipate pushback from anti-
monopoly regulators.

However, President Donald Trump voiced

concerns about the deal when he phoned in
to the CNBC early Monday.
“When I hear they’re merging ... does that
take away more competition?” asked Trump.
“It becomes one big, fat beautiful company,
but I have to negotiate, meaning the United
States has to buy things. Does that make it
less competitive?”

131
In 2018 there were eight mergers in defense
and aerospace exceeding $1 billion in
value, including an all-stock deal between
L3 Technologies and Harris, and General
Dynamics’ acquisition of CSRA Inc., according to
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Raytheon Co., is based in Waltham,
Massachusetts. United Technologies Corp.,
based in Farmington, Connecticut. Raytheon
Technologies will be based near Boston.

Shares of Raytheon rose about 2% early this

week, a day after the deal was announced.
United Technologies fell 2%.

132
133
SALESFORCE
BUYING TABLEAU
AS BUSINESSES
EMBRACE DATA

134
Salesforce, a maker of customer-management
software, is buying Tableau Software in an all-
stock deal valued at $15.7 billion.
By scooping up Tableau, which provides easy-
to-use tools for visualizing and organizing data,
Salesforce is the latest big tech firm to carve
itself a role in helping businesses analyze data
and make smarter decisions.
Cloud computing giants Microsoft and Amazon
offer similar insights, and Google stepped up
its game last week when it announced it was
acquiring private data analytics firm Looker for
$2.6 billion to expand its Google Cloud business.
It’s part of a “democratization of business
intelligence” using software tools that work

135
like “Microsoft Excel on steroids,” Baird analyst
Rob Oliver said, referring to the widely used
spreadsheet tool.
“Instead of having just lines of data, you can
press a button and create charts,” he said.
“Tableau’s vision has always been it could be as
ubiquitous as Excel.”
He said Tableau has been the “premier asset” in
the increasingly competitive business intelligence
sector, with a rabid following among data
analysts. Companies that use Tableau’s services
include Charles Schwab, Verizon and Netflix.
Forrester analyst Boris Evelson said it’s become
harder for independent business intelligence
vendors such as Tableau to remain profitable on
their own because the market has matured and
bigger companies such as Microsoft can offer
lower prices as part of a package. He said Tableau
and Salesforce complement each other, and the
deal could be successful if Tableau is able to stay
“laser focused” on its core analytics product.
Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff
said in a statement that the deal will pair
Tableau’s strengths in helping businesses
understand data with Salesforce’s focus on
helping businesses understand customers.
The acquisition is expected to add about $350
million to $400 million to Salesforce.com Inc.‘s
fiscal 2020 revenue. Each share of Tableau
common stock will be exchanged for 1.103
shares of Salesforce. The deal was approved
by both companies’ boards and is expected to
close by October.
The companies said Tableau will operate as an
independent subsidiary and stay headquartered
in Seattle. Salesforce is based in San Francisco.
Shares of Tableau Software Inc. jumped 34.2% in
afternoon trading. Salesforce’s fell 5%.

136
137
138
 OLD TOWN ROAD
(FEAT. BILLY RAY CYRUS) [REMIX]
LiL Nas X

I DON’T CARE - SINGLE

Ed shEEraN

EVEN THOUGH I’M LEAVING

LukE Combs

GOD’S COUNTRY
bLakE shELtoN

BAD GUY
biLLiE EiLish

NO GUIDANCE (FEAT. DRAKE)

Chris browN

SHALLOW
a star is borN souNdtraCk

SUCKER - SINGLE
JoNas brothErs

DREAM GLOW (BTS WORLD

ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK) [PT. 1]
bts

WHISKEY GLASSES
morgaN waLLEN

139
140
 HAPPINESS BEGINS
JoNas brothErs

THE PREQUEL
LukE Combs

TIM
aviCii

A STAR IS BORN SOUNDTRACK

Lady gaga

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP,

WHERE DO WE GO?
biLLiE EiLish

CENTER POINT ROAD

thomas rhEtt

ALADDIN
(ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)
various artists

DIAMONDS
ELtoN JohN

SAVE ME
FuturE

DISGUISE
motioNLEss iN whitE

141
142
 OLD TOWN ROAD
(FEAT. BILLY RAY CYRUS) [REMIX]
LiL Nas X

DARK BALLET
madoNNa

SOUTHBOUND
CarriE uNdErwood

SUCKER
JoNas brothErs

GOD’S COUNTRY
bLakE shELtoN

I DON’T CARE
Ed shEEraN & JustiN biEbEr

ME! (FEAT. BRENDON URIE OF

PANIC! AT THE DISCO) - SINGLE
tayLor swiFt

BAD GUY
biLLiE EiLish

NIGHTMARE
haLsEy

BOY WITH LUV (FEAT. HALSEY)

bts

143
144
 CAUGHT BETWEEN AN EX AND
A HARD PLACE
thE rEaL housEwivEs oF NEw york City, sEasoN 11

A DOUBLE SHOT OF BRANDI

thE rEaL housEwivEs oF bEvErLy hiLLs, sEasoN 9

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE HOUSE

southErN Charm, sEasoN 6

PARDON YOUR FRENCH

bELow dECk mEditErraNEaN, sEasoN 4

UNHAPPY CAMPER
kEEpiNg up with thE kardashiaNs, sEasoN 16

THE PRICE OF ADMISSION

ELEmENtary, sEasoN 7

THE POLITICIAN’S SON

LoNdoN kiLLs: sEriEs 1

ONE ELLE OF A DAY

proJECt ruNway, sEasoN 17

CHAPTER NINETY-TWO
JaNE thE virgiN, sEasoN 5

EPISODE 1
LuthEr, sEasoN 5

145
146
 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
dELia owENs

UNSOLVED
JamEs pattErsoN & david ELLis

THE TWO-WEEK ARRANGEMENT

kENdaLL ryaN

CITY OF GIRLS
ELizabEth giLbErt

THE STOLEN MARRIAGE

diaNE ChambErLaiN

SKIN GAME
stuart woods & parNELL haLL

PROTECTING PIPER
CyNthia EdEN

LITTLE GIRLS SLEEPING

JENNiFEr ChasE

THE HONEYMOON
roNa haLsaLL

UNSPOKEN
Lisa JaCksoN

147
TECH ON TRIAL:
HOUSE MULLS
ANTITRUST HELP
FOR NEWS
INDUSTRY

Members of both parties suggested legislation

may be necessary for the financially-struggling
U.S. news industry as lawmakers began a
bipartisan investigation into the market
dominance of Silicon Valley companies.
At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s
antitrust panel, news media associations
accused the tech companies of jeopardizing the
news industry’s economic survival by putting
out news content on their platforms without
fairly compensating them for it.
“This is the first significant antitrust investigation
undertaken by Congress in decades,” Rep. David
Cicilline, D-R.I., the subcommittee’s chairman,
said at the start of the hearing. The investigation

148
Image: Cliff Owen
149
is long overdue, he said, and Congress must
determine whether the antitrust laws “are
equipped for the competition problems of our
modern economy.”
Cicilline noted the steep layoffs in the news
industry in recent years, saying the dominant
position of the online platforms in the
advertising market has created “an economic
catastrophe for news publishers, forcing them
to cut back on their investments in quality
journalism.” At the same time, he said, tech
platforms that are gateways to news online
“have operated with virtual immunity from the
antitrust laws.”
As a partial solution, Cicilline proposed
legislation to establish an antitrust exemption
that would allow news companies to band
together to negotiate revenue rates with big
tech platforms. He called it “a life support
measure, not the remedy for long-term health”
of the news business.
The senior Republican on the full committee,
Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, said he backs
Cicilline’s proposal. Addressing the broader
question of antitrust, however, he said, “Big is
not necessarily bad,” adding that lawmakers
need to proceed cautiously.
The head of an association that represents
technology and telecom companies said the
government scrutiny of successful companies is
appropriate. However, an antitrust exemption for
the news industry wouldn’t solve the problem,
said Matt Schruer, vice president of the Computer
and Communications Industry Association.
Before the internet, “news publishers received
an exemption to deal with previous competitors
like radio and TV news (and they) have not

150
Image: Francisco Seco
151
152
worked,” Schruer said. “The results were fewer
choices for readers and less competition among
news outlets.”
Stepping ahead of the criticism, Google’s vice
president of news Richard Gringas said the
company has “worked for many years to be a
collaborative and supportive technology and
advertising partner to the news industry.”
“Every month, Google News and Google
Search drive over 10 billion clicks to publishers’
websites, which drive subscriptions and
significant ad revenue,” he said in a statement
this week.
In a Capitol steeped in partisanship, inflamed
by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and
Democrats’ intensifying probes of President
Donald Trump, Congress’ new investigation of
tech market power stands out. Not only is it
bipartisan, but it’s also the first such review by
Congress of a sector that for more than a decade
has enjoyed haloed status and a light touch
from federal regulators.
With regulators at the Justice Department
and Federal Trade Commission apparently
pursuing antitrust investigations of Facebook,
Google, Apple and Amazon, and several state
attorneys general exploring bipartisan action
of their own, the tech industry finds itself in
a precarious moment — with the dreaded
M-word increasingly used to describe their
way of doing business. Cicilline has flatly called
them monopolies.
Politicians on the left and right have differing
gripes about the tech giants. Some complain of
aggressive conduct that squashes competition.
Others perceive a political bias or tolerance of
extremist content. Still others are upset by the
industry’s harvesting of personal data.

153
Several Democratic presidential candidates
think they have the solution: breaking up
the companies on antitrust grounds. Cicilline
has called that “a last resort,” but the idea has
currency with both major political parties,
including at the White House.
Trump noted the huge fines imposed by European
regulators on the biggest tech companies.
“We are going to be looking at them differently,”
he said in an interview on CNBC.
“We should be doing what (the Europeans)
are doing,” Trump said. “Obviously, there is
something going on in terms of monopoly.”
The tech giants have mostly declined to
comment on the antitrust investigations.
Google has said that scrutiny from lawmakers
and regulators “often improves our products
and the policies that govern them,” and that in
some areas, such as data protection, laws need
to be updated.
Facebook executives have been calling broadly
for regulation while explicitly rejecting the idea
of breaking up “a successful American company.”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called for new rules
in four areas: harmful content, election integrity,
privacy and data portability.
When Democratic presidential contender
Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted in April that
tech giants like Amazon should be broken up,
Amazon tweeted back, “Walmart is much larger.”
And Apple has countered a legal challenge to its
management of the App Store by saying it “will
prevail when the facts are presented and the
App Store is not a monopoly by any metric.”
In hearings and closed-door work over coming
months, lawmakers in the House aim to unpeel
the complex onion of the tech industry’s
dominance. They are expected to summon the

154
Image: Alex Edelman

155
156
chief executives of the major companies to
appear before the panel. Not showing up, as
some CEOs have done in the past, is unlikely to
be tolerated.
“There could be something really useful” to
emerge as legislation, said Allen Grunes, who led
merger investigations at the Justice Department
as an antitrust attorney.
Lawmakers could address, for example, the
galloping acquisition of small companies by the
tech giants or craft an update of antitrust laws
to apply better to complex tech behemoths,
suggested Grunes, a co-founder and attorney at
the Konkurrenz Group in Washington.
“It’s not illegal to be a monopoly,” he said. “But
it’s wrong for someone at the top of the hill to
kick the people off who are trying to climb it.”

157
158
 LONG-DISTANCE TRIP:
NASA OPENING SPACE
STATION TO VISITORS

You’ve heard about the International Space

Station for years. Want to visit?

NASA announced that the orbiting outpost is

now open for business to private citizens, with
the first visit expected to be as early as next year.

There is a catch, though: You’ll need to raise your

own cash, and it won’t be cheap.

A round-trip ticket likely will cost an estimated

$58 million. And accommodations will run
about $35,000 per night, for trips of up to
30 days long, said NASA’s chief financial officer
Jeff DeWit.

159
“But it won’t come with any Hilton or Marriott
points,” DeWit said during a news conference at
Nasdaq in New York City.

Travelers don’t have to be U.S. citizens. People

from other countries will also be eligible, as long
as they fly on a U.S.-operated rocket.
Since the space shuttle program ended in
2011, NASA has flown astronauts to the space
station aboard Russian rockets. The agency
has contracted with SpaceX and Boeing to fly
future crewed missions to the space station.
Private citizens would have to make travel
arrangements with those private companies to
reach orbit.

“If a private astronaut is on station, they will

have to pay us while they’re there for the life
support, the food, the water, things of that
nature,” DeWit added.
Depending on the market, the agency will allow
up to two visitors per year, for now. And the
private astronauts will have to meet the same
medical standards, training and certification
procedures as regular crew members.

The space station has welcomed tourists before

by way of Russian rockets. In 2001, California
businessman Dennis Tito became the first
visitor by paying for a journey and several
others have followed.

The announcement marks the first time NASA is

allowing private astronauts on board. The space
agency will not be selling directly to customers.
Instead it will charge private companies that
ferry passengers, which can pass on the costs
to visitors, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie
Schierholz said in an email.

160
161
 NASA announced that it
will open the International
Space Station to private
astronauts, with the first
visit as early as next year.

162
163
The program is part of NASA’s efforts to open
the station to private industries, which the
agency hopes will inherit the orbiting
platform someday.
Eventually, the space station will become too
expensive for the government to maintain,
said Bill Gerstenmaier, a NASA associate
administrator. So the idea is to let the private
sector start using the station now and
perhaps eventually take it over, he said.

The NASA officials said some revenue from

commercial activities will help the agency
focus its resources on returning to the
moon in 2024, a major goal of the Trump
administration. The agency said this will
also reduce the cost to U.S. taxpayers for
this next lunar mission.

164
165
166
 CANADIAN
RADARSAT SATELLITES
LAUNCHED ABOARD
SPACEX ROCKET

Three satellites for the Canadian Space Agency’s

Earth-monitoring Radarsat program were
launched into orbit from California on Wednesday
aboard a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The rocket lifted off from fog-shrouded
Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:17 a.m. and arced
over the Pacific west of Los Angeles.
The first stage separated a few minutes into flight
and headed back to the coastal base, extended
its legs and set down on a landing zone.

167
The first stage previously was used in March
for a demonstration flight of SpaceX’s Crew
Dragon capsule.

The Radarsat Constellation Mission satellites

were deployed a few minutes apart from the
upper stage about an hour after liftoff.
The identical satellites will bounce signals
off the Earth’s surface to create images, even
during adverse weather conditions.
The images are used for a range of purposes,
including tracking of sea ice, vessels, surface
winds and oil pollution, as well as disaster
management — especially the recurring
problem of flooding — and monitoring of
agriculture, forestry and land changes.

The spacecraft were designed to operate in

the same orbital plane at an altitude of about
373 miles (600 kilometers), separated from
each other by about 9,072 miles (14,600
kilometers) while circling the globe in about
96 minutes.

The program’s first orbiter, Radarsat-1,

was launched in 1995 and is now inactive.
Radarsat-2 was launched in 2007 and is
still operational, but the new three-satellite
constellation is designed to greatly increase
coverage, according to the space agency.
The system targets specific areas for imaging
rather than making continuous images.
Primary control of the satellites is from
the space agency’s headquarters in in Saint-
Hubert, Quebec.

Each satellite is expected to have a

seven-year lifespan.

168
169
170
 BRITAIN TO
INTENSIFY FIGHT
AGAINST CLIMATE
CHANGE

Britain’s outgoing prime minister on Wednesday

announced plans to eliminate the country’s net
contribution to climate change by 2050.
Theresa May said the plan will be put before
Parliament later in the day. The amendment to the
2008 Climate Change Act will intensify Britain’s
push to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
“Standing by is not an option,” she said in a
statement. “Reaching net zero by 2050 is an
ambitious target, but it is crucial that we achieve
it to ensure we protect our planet for future
generations.” She added that Britain was already
taking a leading role in fighting climate change.

171
The government’s Committee on Climate
Change says the change will help public
health by reducing air and noise pollution and
also help biodiversity. It had urged an urgent
upgrade of the government’s approach.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the

Confederation of British Industry, said
the business community backs the
government’s commitment.

“This legislation is the right response to the

global climate crisis, and firms are ready to play
their part in combating it,” she said.

May is leaving office shortly after her party

chooses a replacement leader. She stepped
down because of her inability to win
parliamentary support for her Brexit deal.

172
173
174
 UN PANEL:
CONNECT HALF
THE WORLD, AND
$20 PHONES
CAN HELP

An independent U.N. panel called this week

for much greater cooperation to bring digital
technology to roughly half the world’s people,
and a senior Google executive said mobile phones
with internet access are being created to sell for
about $20 that can help make this possible.
Google Vice President Vinton Cerf said at a news
conference after the panel’s report was officially
launched that “it’s going to cost a lot of money”
to end the digital divide.
But without driving down costs of phones and
communications, he said, “we won’t succeed
in getting the other 4.5 billion, or 3.5 billion,
people online.”

175
Nonetheless, Cerf was optimistic. “I think
that we’re going to see the investment made
primarily out of pure, simple incentive on the
business side and demand on the consumer
side,” he said.

He said the new cheaper cellphones won’t have

all the features of a $1,000 smartphone, “but
they have enough to be useful — they have
enough to get access to the content of the
internet and the applications that it offers.”

Cerf is one of 20 members of the panel

established by Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres in July 2018 to advance a global
dialogue on how the world can work better
together to realize the potential of digital
technologies to advance the well-being of all
people while mitigating their risks.

It is led by Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill

& Melinda Gates Foundation, and by Jack Ma,
executive chairman of China’s Alibaba Group.

“We are living at the dawn of a new digital era,”

Ma said in a statement. “Global cooperation
among all parties — private sector, government,
citizens, academics and civil society — is needed
to use technology to achieve more prosperity,
more opportunity, and more trust for people
around the world.”
Cerf, who is also Google’s “chief internet
evangelist,” said the most significant places
without access to digital technology are in rural
areas, not only in countries in Africa but in the
United States, where perhaps 10% to 15% of the
population doesn’t have reliable internet access.

In addition to costs, he said, having internet

applications that are useful is also a problem.

176
Image: Mark Garten
177
It’s not helpful if on the web “you can discover
a plumber in New York but you happen to
be in Bogota,” and you can’t find much in the
language you speak, Cerf said.
Norway’s minister of digitalization, Nikolai
Astrup, also a panel member, said he strongly
believes new technologies can help developing
countries make “that quantum leap” to achieving
U.N. goals for 2030, including ending extreme
poverty while protecting the environment.

“Digital technology is no longer a luxury,” he

said. “It is essential for development, also for a
developed country like Norway.”

Whatever the cost, Astrup said, it will be

overshadowed by the benefits of improving
people’s lives, solving some major global
challenges and using big data, for example, to
predict and prevent famine.
But Gates said in a statement that “digital
technologies can help the world’s poorest
people transform their lives, but only if we are
willing to address the inequalities that already
keep them from fully participating in the
economic and social lives of their countries.”

The report recommends that every adult in the

world have affordable access to digital networks
and digital financial and health services by 2030.
But the panel also cautioned that growing
opportunities from digital technologies “are
paralleled by stark abuses and unintended
consequences.” It noted the serious problem of
harmful content on social media and challenges to
privacy, and it called for more effective action to
prevent the erosion of trust by the proliferation of
irresponsible uses of cyber capabilities.

178
179
180
 The panel also urged Guterres to conduct a
global review of how human rights apply to
digital technologies.

Panel member Nanjira Sambuli of Kenya,

who is a senior policy manager at the
World Wide Web Foundation, said a key
recommendation is that technology companies
“shouldn’t only consult on the human rights
element as an afterthought.”

“They have to start figuring out among

themselves the proactive steps to engage at
every step of the way on the human rights
implications,” she said.

Guterres said that every day he sees how digital

technology can advance the U.N.’s mission to
promote peace, human rights and development
— but also “news of the disruption digital
technology can cause and the threats it can
bring to that mission.”

Image: Jean-Marc Ferré

181
182
 EU PUBLISHES EUROPE-WIDE
RULES ON DRONE OPERATION

The European Union has published EU-wide

rules on drones to provide a clear framework
for what is and isn’t allowed, improve safety and
make it easier for drone users to operate their
craft in another European country.
The European Aviation Safety Agency said that
the new rules will come into force from July
2020, giving member countries and operators
time to prepare. The rules will override any
relevant existing national rules.

EASA said the rules specify that new drones

must be “individually identifiable,” allowing
authorities to trace a particular drone if needed.
They will also allow operators authorized in one
EU country to fly their craft in others.

183