Dbrand is suing Casetify for ripping off its Teardown designs
Image: Dbrand
Dbrand, the device skin company known for trolling brands like Sony and Nintendo, is waging a legal battle of its own. The company is suing rival Casetify over claims it blatantly copied Dbrand’s Teardown device skins and cases, which are made to look like the internals of whatever phone, tablet, or laptop you’ve purchased them for. (It’s also introducing some new X-Ray skins on the same day it’s revealing the lawsuit.)
Dbrand first revealed its Teardown products in 2019 in partnership with JerryRigEverything, a YouTuber who breaks down new devices and sometimes even gives them transparent mods. The Teardown skins and cases make it look as if you’ve taken your entire device apart and slapped on a transparent backing — when in reality, it’s just a vinyl decal or a case you slot your phone into.
Even though it’s pretty easy to stick a decal on the back of your phone, a lot of work still goes into making the designs. Dbrand has to carefully disassemble the devices it wants to make a Teardown design for, whether it’s an iPhone 15, iPhone 14, Google Pixel 8, MacBook Pro, or a Galaxy Z Flip 5. It then scans their internals using a commercial-grade machine and puts the image into editing software. There, it makes numerous tweaks, such as removing screws, ribbon cables, and wires, as well as shifting some of the components around to ensure the design fits on the back of the phone, laptop, or tablet before making the prints.
Casetify allegedly took all of this work to use on its own phone cases.
It all started when Casetify launched a similar line of phone cases, called Inside Parts, which similarly puts an image of the components inside your phone on the outside. However, users noticed something wasn’t quite right with the designs. In March, one user on X (formerly Twitter) pointed out that Casetify appeared to be reusing the image of the same internals across different phone models, which means they didn’t accurately represent the insides of each device they were sold for.
Video: Dbrand
Dbrand called out Casetify’s apparent gaffe in a video posted to X, which shows how Casetify seemed to have recycled the same design across Apple, Samsung, and Google devices, with a mocking caption reading “iNsiDe PaRtS.” Just months after Dbrand posted its response to Casetify, the company came back with a new line of transparent-style phone cases called Inside Out.
This time, the images are consistent with the devices the cases are made for — and Dbrand claims that’s because Casetify stole its designs. However, Dbrand alleges Casetify also attempted to conceal the copycats by rearranging parts of the designs to make them look slightly different. (You can see an example of this in the video embedded above.)
There’s some pretty strong evidence backing up Dbrand’s accusations, too. Dbrand spotted the many Easter eggs it planted within its own designs on Casetify’s Inside Out products. That includes the “R0807” tag, which alludes to Dbrand’s tagline as a brand run by robots, as well as the JerryRigEverything catchphrase “glass is glass and glass breaks.”
Image: Dbrand
After scrutinizing the images of the cases on Casetify’s website — and even ordering some to confirm its suspicions — Dbrand discovered Casetify allegedly copied 117 different designs, down to the many digital manipulations it made to the images. Dbrand says it holds registered copyrights for each of these products, all of which were registered before Casetify’s product launch.
“If CASETiFY had simply created their own Teardown-esque design from scratch, we wouldn’t have anything to take issue with,” Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz tells The Verge. “We are under no illusion that dbrand owns the idea of taking apart phones and scanning them. The fact of the matter is that they repurposed our existing designs for their products, then went to great lengths to conceal their illegitimate appropriation of our work.”
That’s why, instead of issuing a cease-and-desist order, Dbrand is hitting Casetify with a federal lawsuit in Canadian courts, where the company is based, and seeking eight figures in damages. It hasn’t given Casetify any warning, either, so you can see the cases in question right now from the company’s website and draw your own conclusions.
Dbrand is also launching a brand-new set of X-ray skins across its entire portfolio today that are rather different from the Teardown ones — they’re black and white, captured at 50 micron resolution by a lab called Haven Metrology, and show details that wouldn’t be visible simply by removing the back cover of a phone, laptop, or gaming handheld.
While Ijaz tells us he doesn’t want anyone to think the lawsuit is a cash grab, the timing of the new skins doesn’t seem to be a coincidence; JerryRigEverything’s video about the lawsuit prominently features the new X-Ray skins, and Nelson suggests twice that fans can buy one to support legal efforts against CASETiFY.
Microsoft, can we please just call it Windows 11.1 already?
Image: Microsoft
Every time I see a big Windows 11 update I wonder why it wasn’t a Windows 11.1 or Windows 11.2 release. Instead, Microsoft has used a number of confusing ways to name Windows updates in recent years instead of a simple method like point releases.
Let me illustrate my point to you:
Windows 10 Anniversary Update
Windows 10 Creators Update
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
Windows 10 October 2020 Update
Windows 10 May 2021 Update
Windows 11 22H2
Windows 11 2023 Update
As you can see, Microsoft is gradually getting to a more understandable naming strategy for Windows releases, but it still regularly uses 22H2 and 23H2 monikers that sound like weird codenames to regular people. If you head into Windows Update you’re also more likely to see a reference to 23H2, and even the about screen in Windows lists 23H2 as the current version of Windows 11.
I’m not entirely sure what’s stopping Microsoft from using point releases for Windows these days. Windows 8 got its own Windows 8.1 update, but it never had true point releases like Windows 8.1.1 or Windows 8.1.2. Then Windows 10 followed with a confusing mess of marketing and internal names that often don’t make sense.
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Even Windows 8 got its own point release.
A few years ago multiple sources told me that Microsoft was looking at naming its updates after animals or people, but ultimately decided against this for a variety of reasons, not least because people can do bad things and you don’t want an OS named after a bad person. Instead, Microsoft transitioned to monthly names over point releases, and now we’re back to yearly names that don’t really mean much when you consider Windows 11 has had multiple big updates in 2023 alone.
Apple successfully uses point releases for iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS, even if it stubbornly sticks to naming macOS releases after locations. It’s easy for me to troubleshoot a family member’s iPhone and get a quick and clear idea of what version of iOS they’re running. On Windows, the 23H2 version number doesn’t really tell me much, because there are monthly updates that can add features on top. It’s also far easier to Google “Windows 11.1” than “Windows 11 2023 Update November update” or “Windows 23H2 November features” to find out what got added.
I mean just look at Microsoft’s own update history page for Windows 11, it’s full of a mix of KB numbers and OS build numbers. Now look at Apple’s list of updates to iOS 17, it’s immediately easier to understand that iOS 17.1.1 is the latest. Microsoft lists OS builds 22621.2715 and 22631.2715, which don’t mean much to real humans. Good luck comparing those builds to 22621.2506 and 22631.2506, which were released just two weeks apart.
It could be worse.
Microsoft also has a long history of getting marketing names for its Windows operating systems horribly wrong. Jared Spataro, head of modern work and business applications at Microsoft, joked about Windows naming earlier this month. “Simplicity and naming, well, they haven’t always been our strong suit,” admitted Spataro, while discussing the Bing Chat rebranding to Copilot. “Anyone else remember Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems? Just rolls off the tongue,” he joked.
Still, it could be much worse. Believe it or not, Microsoft used to ship a product called “Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition” and even launched Windows Phone as “Windows Phone 7.1 Series” before quickly dropping the Series part. The Windows Mobile naming history was spread over at least 15 years of different brand names, so we might have a little while to go yet before things get better.
Hopefully with Windows 12, or whatever Microsoft ends up calling it, we’ll finally get point releases back or a clear and easy way to identify the latest version of Windows. Until then, good luck helping your family member with their Windows laptop during Thanksgiving. Oh, and don’t forget to turn off motion smoothing on your family’s TV while you’re at it.
Screensharing mistake gets Nvidia sued over alleged stolen trade secrets
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
If you’ve ever embarrassed yourself by publicly sharing a part of your screen you weren’t supposed to, spare a thought for Mohammad Moniruzzaman, who’s alleged to have shown off the source code he stole from a former employer during a Microsoft Teams call with that same company. The incident has come to light in a lawsuit filed by Moniruzzaman’s old employer, automotive technology company Valeo, which is suing Nvidia — the company Moniruzzaman moved on to — and accusing it of having benefited from these stolen trade secrets.
Nvidia has spent the better part of a decade attempting to branch out into the automotive market. Valeo is alleging that Moniruzzaman “downloaded without authorization the entirety of Valeo’s advanced parking and driving assistance systems source code” in early 2021, along with “scores of Valeo Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, and Excel spreadsheets explaining various aspects of the technology” before leaving to join Nvidia in August that year.
This alleged theft came to light in March the following year, when employees from both Nvidia and Valeo were on a call together working on a joint parking assistance project for an unnamed automotive parts maker. Nvidia had won the contract to develop software on the project, while Valeo was providing ultrasonic sensor hardware. The lawsuit claims:
“On March 8, 2022, one of these videoconference meetings was scheduled. Mr. Moniruzzaman, now employed by Nvidia, attended the videoconference call… and shared his computer screen during the call. When he minimized the PowerPoint presentation he had been sharing, however, he revealed one of Valeo’s verbatim source code files open on his computer. So brazen was Mr. Moniruzzaman’s theft, the file path on his screen still read “ValeoDocs.” Valeo participants on the videoconference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot before Mr. Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error. By then it was too late to cover his tracks.”
The lawsuit goes on to state that German police “discovered Valeo documentation and hardware pinned on the walls of Mr. Moniruzzaman’s home office” when they raided his home as part of a criminal investigation, and that Valeo’s software and documents were found on his Nvidia computer when it was seized by investigators. Moniruzzaman admitted to stealing Valeo’s software when questioned by German police, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Nvidia did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment, and declined to comment to Bloomberg. But in a letter sent to Valeo’s attorneys, a law firm representing Nvidia claimed the company “has no interest in Valeo’s code or its alleged trade secrets and has taken prompt concrete steps to protect your client’s asserted rights.” Moniruzzaman told Nvidia that the source code was only stored locally on his laptop and not shared with other Nvidia employees.
Bloomberg notes that Moniruzzaman was convicted of infringing Valeo’s business secrets in Germany in September and fined €14,400 ($15,724). But although Nvidia says it has no interest in using the stolen code, Valeo is alleging that its competitor has still benefited from it, saving “millions of dollars in development costs.” And if the code was merged into Nvidia’s database after “extensive edits and feedback loops by other employees,” then Valeo says it’s “unrealistic” to think it could ever be fully removed.
As a result, Valeo is seeking damages and an injunction to stop Nvidia and its employees from using or sharing its trade secrets. The Register reports that a date for the jury trial is yet to be announced.
Five Days of Chaos: How Sam Altman Returned to OpenAI On Friday, Mr. Altman was pushed out of the hot A.I. start-up he ran. But an intense pressure campaign and negotiations brought him back.
Breaking: Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI
Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 6th, 2023. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Sam Altman will return as CEO of OpenAI, overcoming an attempted boardroom coup that sent the company into chaos over the past several days. Former president Greg Brockman, who quit in protest of Altman’s firing, will return as well.
The company said in a statement late Tuesday that it has an “agreement in principle” for Altman to return alongside a new board composed of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. D’Angelo is a holdover from the previous board that initially fired Altman on Friday; he remains on this initial small board to give the previous board some representation.
A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations says that the sole job of this initial board is to vet and appoint a new formal board of up to 9 people that will reset the governance of OpenAI. Microsoft will likely have a seat on that expanded board, as will Altman himself.
Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have both now tweeted about the deal to return, which appears to be a done deal minus some last minute paperwork. When asked what “in principle” means, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company had “no additional comments at this time.”
We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.
We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.
i love openai, and everything i’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. when i decided to join msft on sun evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. with the new board and w satya’s support, i’m…
We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring… https://t.co/djO6Fuz6t9
Altman’s return is even more shocking than his sudden exit on Friday. OpenAI’s nonprofit board seemed resolute in its initial decision to remove Altman, shuffling through two CEOs in three days to avoid reinstating him. Meanwhile, the employees of OpenAI revolted, threatening to defect to Microsoft with Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman if the board didn’t resign.
During the whole saga, the board members who opposed Altman withheld an actual explanation for why they fired him, even under the threat of lawsuits from investors. On Sunday, a key member of the board, Ilya Sutskever, flipped back to Altman’s camp, leaving the remaining three board members more vulnerable. We are told interim CEO Emmett Shear, appointed by the board to replace the previous interim CEO Mira Murati, threatened to resign unless the board could provide documentation or evidence of wrongdoing to support Altman’s firing, which seems like the move that ultimately caused the board to restart negotiations in earnest.
Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now
The Apple Watch Series 9 isn’t a massive step up from the prior model, but it does offer a few new features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
A couple of months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.
But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, just launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the next big software update or whether it will be exclusive to newer watches.
Picking up a watch from the latest (or a recent) generation ensures you’re getting a smartwatch with an updated design, a robust number of features, and plenty of sensors. Now, let’s get into the deals.
Editor’s note:Black Fridayis nearly here. Fortunately, several retailers are already slashing prices on Apple’s latest smartwatches, along with AirPods, MacBooks, AirTags, and other Apple products. We’ve rounded up the most noteworthy Apple Watch deals below, but for other tech, check out our guide to thebest early Black Friday dealsyou can get.
The best Apple Watch Series 9 deals
The Apple Watch Series 9 represents the latest wearable in Apple’s flagship Series lineup. It introduces a slightly faster S9 SiP chip and a second-gen ultra wideband chip, which allow for onboard Siri processing and precision finding with your iPhone. It also offers a brighter, 2,000-nit display and works with Apple’s new “double tap,” a feature that lets you tap your thumb and index finger together to carry out various actions. While the improvements are welcome, the Series 9 isn’t a vast departure from the prior model, the Series 8.
The Apple Watch Series 9 only just arrived, but the GPS-equipped model is already on sale at Amazon, Walmart, and Target in the 41mm sizing for around $329 ($70 off) or in the larger 45mm configuration at Amazon, Walmart, and Target for as low as $359 ($70 off). As for the LTE model with cellular connectivity, it’s currently available at Amazon, Walmart, and Target starting at $429 ($70 off), matching its all-time low.
The Apple Watch SE received a refresh in late 2022. It has the same chipset as the Series 8, which is great, but with fewer sensors, no always-on display, and a slightly outdated design compared to the Series 8 and Series 9. Those omissions might take this out of the running for some people, but it still may be exactly what you’re after. Best of all, it starts at $249 for the 40mm Wi-Fi / GPS model, which is $30 less than the previous generation’s baseline cost. Opting for cellular connectivity bumps up the starting price to $299 for the 40mm size (44mm adds $20 to each configuration).
Right now, the 40mm Apple Watch SE with GPS is on sale at Amazon for $179 ($70 off); it’s also available for $189 ($60 off) at Best Buy and Target. The GPS-only model, meanwhile, is on sale at Amazon in the 44mm sizing for $209 ($70 off), or at Target and Best Buy for $219 ($60 off). And if you want the LTE configuration, it’s currently available at Amazon starting at just $239 ($60 off).
Apple’s latest Apple Watch Ultra launched at $799 in September with GPS and LTE support, much like the original model. The ultra-capable smartwatch has the most features, sensors, and ruggedness of any Apple Watch model available thus far, along with a display that’s 50 percent brighter than the first Ultra. The 49mm smartwatch also packs Apple’s new S9 SiP and second-gen ultra wideband chips, just like the Apple Watch Series 9, while maintaining long-lasting battery life, precise GPS tracking, and a bevy of diving-friendly sensors.
As part of a slate of Black Friday promos, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $739 ($60 off), an all-time low. What’s more, the current sale price applies to all style configurations, meaning you can pick it up with either an Alpine Loop, a Trail Loop, or an Ocean Band for the same price.
While all of the Apple Watch models and colorways covered here are encased in aluminum (except the Ultras, which have a titanium build), Apple does make a more premium range built out of stainless steel and titanium. These offerings are functionally and aesthetically similar to their aluminum counterparts, with slightly refined colors and finishings — polished for the stainless steel and brushed for the titanium. However, they start at much steeper prices of $749 and above. They, too, can often be found on sale, but they’re never discounted as low as the standard base models, so we don’t include them here.
Before Altman’s Ouster, OpenAI’s Board Was Divided and Feuding Sam Altman attacked a member over a research paper that discussed the company, while directors disagreed about who should fill board vacancies open for months.
Joe Biden’s birthday gift to himself is a Threads account
Joe Biden arriving to pardon the National Thanksgiving turkeys on November 20, 2023. | Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Biden’s first post on Meta’s X (formerly Twitter) competitor harkens back to his 2020 presidential victory speech with references to the country’s divisions and its current “inflection point.” Harris gestured to her travels throughout the US and her having met “over 100” world leaders, and Emhoff wrote about gender equity and “countering hate of all kinds.”
Biden and company signing up is a good sign for the platform. Before its name change, Twitter had far fewer regular users than bigger platforms like Facebook. But it tended to draw influential people of all stripes, including political leaders. Biden joining doesn’t mean Threads will become a 1:1 replacement for the Twitter that was, but it may indicate that it has potential as a news source — whether it wants that or not.
According to a statement provided to Axios, the new Biden administration accounts don’t preclude their participation on Elon Musk’s platform. Even so, X’s struggles to retain advertisers have gotten worse in the last week as heavy advertisers, including Apple and the European Commission, abruptly left following a Media Matters report that highlighted hate speech on the platform Musk’s apparent support of it.
Epic Games C.E.O. Says Google Has ‘De Facto Control’ on Android App Tim Sweeney, who runs the company that created Fortnite, testified in a case that, if he wins, could allow competing payment systems on the Play Store.
Linda Yaccarino: advertisers fleeing from X are just “temporarily paused investments”
Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media
Last week, Elon Musk appeared to endorse antisemitic conspiracy theories and posted about supporting white pride on his social platform X, formerly Twitter. Musk’s tweets were then highlighted by a Media Matters article that found advertising from major companies had shown up next to pro-Nazi content. Major advertisers then halted their ad spends on the platform. To address the controversy, CEO Linda Yaccarino sent a memo titled “Our Work Is Meaningful,” reiterating her commitment to X.
As pressure mounts for the company to distance itself from supporting antisemitism, Forbes reported that advertisers are urging Yaccarino to resign as well. A former NBCUniversal chairperson with close ties to the ad industry, Yaccarino had been brought into Musk’s company to restore relationships with the companies that make up the majority of X’s revenue. Advertisers were already concerned their paid content would show up next to antisemitic or otherwise bigoted posts, but they’re especially worried now, when the platform’s owner seems to be actively stoking conspiracies about the Jewish community.
Addressing X employees in a company-wide email, Yaccarino expressed her enthusiasm about the company’s current direction. In the memo, first published by The Hollywood Reporter and obtained by The Verge, she claimed that advertisers had “temporarily paused investments” — an interesting way to phrase major advertisers like Apple, Disney, and IBM pulling their business from the platform because of Musk’s seeming endorsement of antisemitism. She also blamed articles that she believed had been “manipulated” for damaging the platform’s reputation. “The data will tell the real story,” she wrote in her memo, possibly a reference to Musk’s post / screenshot indicating that he would sue Media Matters.
In response, Media Matters’ president Angelo Carusone said, “Elon Musk has spent the last few days making meritless legal threats, elevating bizarre conspiracy theories, and lobbing vicious personal attacks against his ‘enemies’ online. Even if he does not follow through with his threat to sue, the volatility of actions reinforce why major brands are rightly skittish of partnering with X.”
Meanwhile, Semafor reports that Yaccarino has enlisted her son Matt Madrazo to reboot X’s political advertising business, in hopes to make up for the revenue lost by the “temporarily paused investments” of what previously were some of the company’s biggest clients.
Sam Altman Is Said to Be Discussing Return to OpenAI With Company’s Board Mr. Altman was forced out of the artificial intelligence start-up on Friday, leading to an outcry from his supporters and the company’s investors.
Cruise’s C.E.O. Quits as the Driverless Carmaker Aims to Rebuild Trust Kyle Vogt, a founder of Cruise, resigned from the company on Sunday, weeks after it suspended all of its self-driving operations.
SpaceX’s new Starlink satellite internet terminal has a kickstand
Starlink Standard terminal | Image: SpaceX
SpaceX quietly introduced a new Standard Starlink terminal that’s slimmer and simpler than the previous version, with a 10 percent broader field of view and no motor for setting up — instead, it comes with a kickstand; to orient it, you simply move it. A Starlink support page says the kit is available “by invitation only to a small group of early customers in the US.”
SpaceX bumped its weather resistance rating up from IP54 to IP67, meaning it should be totally dust-proof and can be submerged in one meter of water for as long as 30 minutes before potential damage. Starlink’s specifications page says it can operate in winds over 60MPH. Speaking of which, the company will sell mounts in case you’d rather secure it in place. It’s otherwise roughly the same size as the previous Standard terminal (now called Standard Actuated).
The Wi-Fi router has been redesigned and now sits on its long edge instead of standing upright. It also comes with two coverable ethernet LAN ports and one ethernet WAN port that connects to the terminal (the older model had no ethernet ports at all). It’s now a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router, whereas the previous model was a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 device, and the site says it can cover up to 3,200 square feet versus the 2,000 square feet of the older router.
Are TikTok and X Amplifying Antisemitic Content? It’s Increasingly Hard to Know. People who study social media say the conflict between Israel and Hamas has underscored the need for better data transparency from platforms.
Breaking: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO
Sam Altman. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The OpenAI board is in discussions with Sam Altman to return to CEO, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. One of them said Altman, who was suddenly fired by the board on Friday, is “ambivalent” about coming back and would want significant governance changes.
The Fear and Tension That Led to Sam Altman’s Ouster at OpenAI The departure of the high-profile boss of the San Francisco company drew attention to a philosophical rift among the people building new A.I. systems.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman is leaving, too
Illustration: The Verge
Sam Altman isn’t the only major OpenAI executive leaving the company on Friday. Hours after Altman was fired, with the board saying it “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” co-founder and former board chair Greg Brockman revealed on X that he is also quitting.
When OpenAI announced the “leadership transition” and that CTO Mira Murati would take over as interim CEO, it said that Brockman would step down as chairman but remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO. Just a few hours later, that’s no longer true.
i'm super proud of what we’ve all built together since starting in my apartment 8 years ago. we’ve been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible.
but based on today’s news, i quit.
genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best. i continue to believe in the mission of creating safe AGI that benefits all of humanity.
OpenAI unexpectedly announced that it had fired Altman earlier on Friday. The company arguably kicked off tech’s current infatuation with artificial intelligence following the explosive popularity of ChatGPT.
Who Is Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Interim CEO? The company’s interim C.E.O. has been managing the development and distribution of ChatGPT and DALL-E for years.
Apple and Disney Halt Ads on X After Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post Disney, Apple and Lionsgate halted marketing on X, formerly Twitter, as Elon Musk faced a furor over antisemitic abuse on his social media platform.
X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post IBM, a major advertiser on X, has pulled its spending from the social media platform, whose employees are grappling with what to tell its other advertisers, according to internal messages.
Twitter’s decentralized offshoot Bluesky now has 2 million users
A Bluesky sign-in screen. | Image: Bluesky
Bluesky, a decentralized social media app alternative to X (formerly Twitter), has announced that it has now crossed 2 million users — doing so just two months after crossing 1 million users. The company is also finally about to add a public web interface, which might help make it a more attractive destination for journalists and other users.
One big hurdle for Bluesky to reach a bigger audience is that people can’t view links to posts without being signed in, so the upcoming public web interface should finally help alleviate that problem. The public interface is slated for launch “around the end of this month,” according to the company’s blog post.
Bluesky will also open the floodgates for federation early next year. Bluesky is technically decentralized, since it’s built on top of the AT Protocol, but users who sign up for Bluesky (which is still invite-only) still must sign up via the company’s main bsky.social network. A federated network would allow users to post through various providers instead of a large central platform like most big social media companies. Right now, Mastodon is the most prominent decentralized Twitter-like platform that already openly supports multiple providers and has attracted a lot of journalists and professionals.
Bluesky has also highlighted how it had recently added features like mobile push notifications, email verification for your account, and accessibility improvements like improvements to alt text.
Sonos teases a major new product coming next year
Illustration: The Verge
Sonos is in a bit of a rough patch with its consumer hardware business. Demand isn’t nearly on the same level that it was a few years ago, and CEO Patrick Spence has used the word “challenging” more than once when discussing the company’s last several financial quarters. Today’s earnings, which saw revenue decrease by 5.5 percent year over year, are another example.
“While it was a challenging year in the categories in which we play, the strength of the Sonos brand and product portfolio enabled us to retain a strong market share position,” Spence said in Sonos’ press release.
But Spence and the Sonos team predict big things ahead in 2024. Namely, some sort of significant new product is on the roadmap for later next year that Sonos seems pretty excited about.
“This is the beginning of a multi-year product cycle where we expect to reap the rewards of our R&D investments,” Spence said. “This cycle begins with our entry into a new multi-billion dollar category in the second half of the year that will complement our current offering, delight customers and drive immediate revenue.”
During Sonos’ earnings call, Spence shared a few more tidbits. “All told, we expect to generate over $100 million from new product introductions this year [fiscal 2024], with this exciting new product accounting for a large portion of this revenue in the second half,” he said.
Could he be talking about the long-rumored Sonos headphones? The headphone and earbud market is massive, and if Sonos is looking for a revenue driver, that’s certainly one way to get there. The mention of R&D could also mean we’re finally going to see the fruits of Sonos’ acquisition of Mayht, a startup that came up with an innovative new approach to speaker transducers to produce massive sound from small components.
Just about one year ago today, Spence announced that Sonos would be entering four new product categories over the coming years. The first one, Sonos Pro, ended up being commercially focused. It’s a subscription offering for businesses that are seeking easy control over the music played throughout their space. That kind of thing is important for Sonos’ long-term strategy, but it’s also a bit of a snooze for regular consumers like you and me. Hopefully we can count on something a little more intriguing next year. Based on Spence’s tease, I certainly am.
The timing is starting to feel right for headphones. Between LE Audio and upcoming earbuds that will use Wi-Fi to make up for Bluetooth’s weaknesses, Sonos might finally see an opening to do something unique compared to other tech players — perhaps with intelligent handoff with the company’s speakers, soundbars, and portable devices. As for new in-home audio products, I wouldn’t expect a new Sonos Arc anytime soon, but the Sonos Five is a prime candidate for a revision in the next couple years now that the company is so invested in spatial audio.
Microsoft investigating Windows activation issues after closing a key loophole
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft is investigating Windows activation issues that appear to be linked to the company’s recent move to block Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from activating copies of Windows 10 and Windows 11. If you have an installation of Windows 10 / 11 that has been activated using the free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, then there’s a chance it might become deactivated if you swap some hardware components or even upgrade your BIOS version.
I personally experienced this in late October on a copy of Windows 11 after swapping a motherboard in one of my test PCs and no longer being able to activate it using the digital key assigned to my Microsoft account. I had to purchase a new Windows 11 key instead.
A Verge reader experienced the same issue and claims to have filed a complaint with the FTC over the problems. Daniel Mittelman upgraded some PC parts and kept the same Windows installation and was met with activation issues.
“Automatic activation would not work, so I contacted customer support. They told me because my Windows 10 license had been upgraded from Windows 7, and that they had discontinued support for Windows 7 product keys, that they could not continue my license for Windows 10 Pro after the hardware change,” says Mittelman in an email to The Verge. “They also acknowledged that changing the hardware is not a violation of the Windows license so there is no reason my Windows 10 license should be revoked or altered in any way.”
Mittelman isn’t alone, others have noticed similar issues when swapping hardware. Microsoft moved to block a long-standing Windows activation loophole last month. This previously allowed people to install Windows 10 or 11 and use a Windows 7 or 8 key to activate the install. Windows 7 / 8 keys are now fully blocked from clean installs of Windows 10 / 11, and it appears this block is affecting anyone trying to reactivate due to a hardware change. BIOS upgrades can occasionally trigger a Windows reactivation, so this is a problem that custom PC builders could run into over time.
“Microsoft is aware of these customers reports and is investigating,” says Bill Babonas, principal product manager of Windows, in a statement to The Verge. “Customers who are experiencing technical difficulties should contact customer support.”
We No Longer Need a Big Carrier’s Wireless Plan. Discount Ones Are the Way. We are overpaying for phone plans from Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Budget wireless services, similarly fast and robust, can save thousands.
YouTube’s non-solution for AI podcasts
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign upherefor more.
Today we have a look at how YouTube’s new AI rules will (and will not) affect podcasting, another late-night host ditching TV for audio, and a bunch of your recs on podcasts covering the Israel-Hamas war.
What do YouTube’s new AI rules mean for podcasts? Not much.
This morning, YouTube released new terms regarding AI-generated content on its platform. As my Verge colleagues Mia Sato and Nilay Patel reported, the company is creating a two-tier system in the way it moderates such content: a strict set of rules for music and a looser, nearly unenforceable standard for everything else (including podcasts). For creators who make podcasts using AI and people who may discover an AI-generated clone of their voice on the internet, there are very slight new rules to which to adhere.
First, podcasts that use “realistic” AI-generated (or altered) content have to label their videos as such. That is something that is already happening with some of the bigger podcasts that use AI, like with The Joe Rogan AI Experience, but it’s generally good practice, so no harm in requiring people to do it. Even with the labeling, though, people can request YouTube take down videos that “simulate an identifiable individual, including their face or voice.” It is then up to YouTube’s discretion, based on factors such as whether the content counts as satire or if the person being replicated is a public figure. Music, meanwhile, has no such exceptions because YouTube needs to keep the labels happy (if you can believe it, the podcast lobby is somewhat less influential).
These guidelines, which will roll out next year, are being issued in the absence of any real legal framework for dealing with AI-generated content. While it does seem like an attempt by YouTube to do something, its effectiveness is necessarily limited — and the lack of clarity could lead to some confusing and inconsistent enforcement decisions.
“It doesn’t have the weight of law, and it doesn’t have the advantage of being done out in the open,” says attorney Emily Poler, who handles copyright infringement cases. “There are going to be situations where it’s really hard [for YouTube] to make a principled decision, and those [decisions] will be entrusted to some reasonably low level employee at YouTube. I don’t think that that’s a recipe for success.”
Moderation was already a mess for these platforms before AI got involved, and each one is taking a different approach. While Spotify is quite permissive (and even encouraging!) of AI spoken-word content, Audible has a blanket rule against AI-narrated audiobooks. YouTube seems to be attempting some middle ground. I’ll be curious to see how it plays out when the new AI rules are in place. As always, if you see anything weird, hit me up.
Another former late-night host turns to podcasting
Last year at Hot Pod Summit LA, we held a panel with Team Coco based on the premise that as late-night shows lose relevance, their hosts will (much like Conan O’Brien) turn instead to podcasts. Since then, Trevor Noah left The Daily Show and cut a deal with Spotify, and James Corden left The Late Late Show and will soon launch a show with SiriusXM. Now another former late-night host has a podcast deal: Daniel Tosh.
Tosh Show from iHeartMedia is refreshingly not a celebrity interview show, which makes sense! Tosh.0 was a hit in its day for being the opposite of standard late-night fare, tapping into lowbrow YouTube culture instead of featuring fluffy interviews with the rich and famous. If you are too young to remember or too old to care, it was a big deal circa 2009-2012. (Sidebar, I was truly shocked to learn that Tosh.0 did not end until 2020). Since dumb internet videos don’t exactly translate to podcasting, Tosh’s first interview is with his wife’s gynecologist. Respect!
Who from late night will be next? My money is on Jon Stewart, whose Apple TV Plus show was canceled last month. The podcast always outperformed the show, and it would be a relatively easy lift to continue without Apple’s support.
Your Israeli-Palestinian conflict podcast recs
You gotta love how the Hot Pod audience is always armed with recs. After my open call for suggestions, a number of you reached out with shows that approach this extremely complicated conflict with nuance. I have had a chance to listen to a few of them and return to some I haven’t tuned into in a while. Check it out:
The Ezra Klein Show, per Think Again host Jason Gots (and staffers at Vox, and various members of my family). It’s a go-to pick for a reason: Klein has dedicated several episodes of his show to exploring the conflict from different perspectives, including one standout episode in which he talks to pollster Amaney Jamal, who ran a public opinion survey in Gaza in the week leading up to the attack. Spoiler: Gazans aren’t big on Hamas.
Israel Story, as recommended by Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro. You might remember Israel Story — which is basically the Israeli This American Life — when it was featured on Radiolab in 2015. In the weeks since the war began, Israel Story has published two dozen accounts from Israelis about how the conflict has touched their lives.
On the Nose and Unsettled are recommended by audio producer Sam J. Leeds. On the Nose is from progressive outlet Jewish Currents and has been covering anti-war activism on the left in Israel and the US. Unsettled — which is sponsored by the Institute for Nonprofit News and was started by activists involved in IfNotNow — regularly features accounts from Palestinians and published an episode last week about the escalating violence in the West Bank since the war started.
Unholy: Two Jews on the News, per Sandra Shmueli, development editor at The Economist. It is hosted by Keshet 12 news anchor Yonit Levi and The Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland. So far, this is my favorite of the bunch — I particularly enjoyed its most recent episode with Kara Swisher on how discourse about the war is playing out on TikTok.
Keep the recs coming! Especially if you know of any great pods produced from a Palestinian perspective.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week with the latest audio news.
The best ebook reader to buy right now
Image: Will Joel / The Verge
From reading in the bath to scribbling notes in the margins, from diving into the Amazon ecosystem to avoiding it outright, there’s an e-reader for everyone.
Any ebook reader will let you cram a Beauty and the Beast-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes.
I’ve been using ebook readers for nearly a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the Pocketbook Era. Whether you want something your kid can throw against the wall or a waterproof, warm-glow Kindle that won’t ruin your spa ambiance, these are the best ebook readers for everyone.
As a final note, it’s worth mentioning many of these e-readers will likely be on sale during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We’re keeping tabs on e-readers and other gadgets in our roundup of the best early Black Friday deals, so be sure to bookmark that page and stay tuned in the weeks ahead.
The best Kindle
Dimensions:6.9 x 4.9 x .32 inches/Weight:205 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6.8-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:8GB or 16GB /Other features:IPX8 waterproofing, Bluetooth audio support
If you mostly buy ebooks from Amazon, you’ll want a Kindle, and the 11th-gen Kindle Paperwhite is the best choice for most people. Starting at $139.99, it’s cheaper than the Kobo Libra 2 — my top non-Amazon ebook reader, which I’ll dive into later — for many of the same features. Those include a large 300pi display and an adjustable warm white frontlight, which make for a clear and enjoyable reading experience. The latter also conveniently improves sleep by cutting down on blue light that interrupts melatonin production.
That warm white frontlighting is an advantage over the cool white of the $99.99 base-model Kindle, and unlike the base Kindle, the Paperwhite has IPX8 water resistance. The $189.99 Signature Edition Paperwhite also has an auto-adjusting frontlight and no lockscreen ads. It also has wireless charging, which is a rare feature to find in an e-reader.
Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge
The Kindle Paperwhite comes with an adjustable warm white frontlight.
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and it dominates the US ebook market, so Kindle owners have access to advantages owners of other ebook readers don’t. Much of Amazon’s hardware strategy depends on offering cut-rate discounts to pull you into its content ecosystem. If you have Prime and buy a lot of Kindle ebooks, the Paperwhite is the best choice because Amazon makes it incredibly easy to buy and read its stuff. Its ebooks and audiobooks are often on sale, and Prime members get more free content through Prime Reading. Rivals like Kobo offer sales, too, but it’s hard for them to offer discounts as steep as Amazon does.
There are downsides, though. The Paperwhite has lockscreen ads unless you pay $20 extra to get rid of them. It’s also too big to hold comfortably with one hand. Perhaps the Kindle Paperwhite’s biggest flaw, though — which it shares with all Kindles aside from Fire tablets — is that it’s not easy to read books purchased outside of Amazon’s store. Kindle ebook formats are proprietary and only work on Kindle. Unlike Kobo and other ebook readers, Kindles don’t support EPUB files, an open file format used by pretty much everyone except Amazon. So, for example, if you often shop from Kobo’s bookstore (or Barnes & Noble or Google Play Books or many other ebook stores), you can’t easily read those books on a Kindle without using a workaround. There are ways to convert and transfer file formats so you can read on the Kindle and vice versa, but it’ll take a couple of extra steps.
However, if you don’t buy your books elsewhere or you don’t mind shopping from Amazon, you’ll be more than happy with the Kindle Paperwhite.
Dimensions: 5.69 x 6.36 x 0.35 inches /Weight:215 grams /Screen area and resolution: 7-inch screen, 300ppi /Storage:Up to 32GB /Other features:Physical page-turning buttons, waterproofing, Bluetooth audio support
The Kobo Libra 2 is an excellent alternative to an Amazon ebook reader, especially for readers outside the US. It’s just as nice as the Paperwhite, with many of the Paperwhite’s standout features, like waterproofing, USB-C support, and a 300ppi display. It doesn’t work as well with Amazon’s ecosystem, of course, but it offers a few extra perks that make the e-reader, in some ways, even more enjoyable to use.
For one thing, it supports more file formats, including EPUB. It’s also much easier to directly borrow books from the Overdrive library system, while native support for Pocket means you can read your saved articles offline. The Libra 2 also comes with easy-to-use physical buttons and starts at 16GB of storage, double the capacity of the base Paperwhite. There are no annoying lockscreen ads to contend with, either. Plus, instead of a flat-front screen, the display is slightly recessed into the frame. I loved that as it meant I didn’t accidentally tap the screen and skip a page, as I often did with the Paperwhite. It also kept the screen cleaner and — combined with the wide side bezel — made the Libra 2 more comfortable to hold.
The Kobo Libra 2 is my favorite ebook reader to use. I kept having to restrain myself from using it all the time to give the other e-readers on this list a fair chance.
However, at $189, it costs $50 more than the ad-supported Paperwhite, though it’s only $20 more than the ad-free Paperwhite. That gap widens even more when the Paperwhite is on sale, which it regularly is. Plus, as somebody whose digital library consists mainly of Amazon ebooks, I found the fact that I couldn’t easily and quickly read my vast collection of Kindle books frustrating. You can do it, but you’ll have to convert file formats using third-party apps, which can take time, especially if you have a large library. But if those things don’t matter or apply to you, the Kobo Libra 2 will give you the best digital reading experience of all the e-readers on this list.
The best cheap ebook reader
Dimensions:6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches/Weight:158 grams /Screen area and resolution: 6-inch screen, 300ppi resolution /Storage:16GB /Other features:USB-C support, Bluetooth audio support
The base-model Kindle ($99.99 with ads) is the best cheap ebook reader. Its 300ppi resolution makes text clearer and easier to read than the lower-resolution screens on other ebook readers in its price range, and its 16GB of storage is double even that of the Paperwhite. It even has USB-C for relatively fast charging.
Reading on its six-inch screen feels a little more cramped than it does on the larger displays of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Libra 2. However, the flip side is that its small size makes it pocketable, light, and easy for small hands to hold. Combined with its relatively affordable price, the Kindle is also the best ebook reader for kids — especially in the kids version Amazon sells for $20 more. It shares the same exact specs but is ad-free with parental controls, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a case. It also comes with one year of Amazon Kids Plus, which grants kids access to thousands of kids books and audiobooks for free. After that, though, you’ll have to pay $79 per year.
Image: Kindle Kids
The kid-friendly version of the Kindle comes with colorful cases.
The base Kindle doesn’t have extra conveniences like the physical page-turning buttons found on Barnes & Noble’s entry-level e-reader, the Nook GlowLight 4e. However, you do get something more important: snappier responses. On most of the other entry-level ebook readers I tested, including the GlowLight 4e, I had to wait a few seconds after tapping the screen for the page to turn. The Kindle, in comparison, offered no perceptive lag.
There are other tradeoffs. There’s no water resistance, unlike the Paperwhite, and battery life is good, but it’ll last you three weeks tops — not months, like the Paperwhite. And because it’s an Amazon ebook reader, you’re also locked into the Amazon ecosystem and have to pay extra to get rid of ads. But if you can do without all of that, the Kindle delivers the essentials for under $100.
Dimensions:7.6 x 8.94 x 0.30 inches /Weight:390 grams /Screen area and resolution: 10.3-inches, 227ppi resolution /Storage:32GB /Other features:Handwriting to text conversion, magnetic stylus, Bluetooth audio support
Of all the large ebook readers I tested, the Kobo Elipsa 2E stood out the most because of its excellent note-taking abilities. You can directly write on pages, and the notes will not disappear, which makes for a more intuitive note-taking experience than the Kindle Scribe, which only supports on-page notes on select Kindle titles. Otherwise, you’re limited to making annotations on cards that are like disappearing sticky notes.
You can also sync your notes with Dropbox or view them online, and Kobo can even convert handwriting to typed text. Amazon recently rolled out a similar capability for the Kindle Scribe, but it can only convert handwriting to typed text when you export notebooks and not as accurately. By contrast, Kobo lets you convert your handwriting not just while exporting but also from within a notebook itself.
The Elipsa 2E also offers other helpful note-taking tools. It’s even capable, for example, of solving math equations for you. You can also insert diagrams and drawings, and it’ll automatically snap it into something that looks cleaner and nicer. There’s also a great selection of pen types and ink shades.
True, the Kindle Scribe starts at $60 less, but the Kobo Elipsa 2E comes with twice the storage. You can step up to the 32GB Kindle Scribe if you want the same storage capacity, but that puts it at essentially the same price as the Kobo. I recommend just forking out the money on the Elipsa 2E instead.
I also recommend the Elipsa 2E over the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus, even though it, too, offers much better writing tools than the Kindle Scribe. That’s because it costs a whopping $449 and also isn’t as readily available in the US market. The Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus also comes with too many distracting extras, like an easy-to-access music player and the Google Play app store preinstalled so you can download multiple reading apps, including both the Kindle and Kobo apps. However, Kindle and Kobo notes didn’t show up on the Onyx Boox Note Air 2 Plus — and you can’t annotate their books anywhere as easily as you can on their respective devices.
Note-taking capabilities aside, the Kobo Elipsa 2E is also a good e-reader, but it comes with the same strengths and weaknesses as other Kobo e-readers. There’s support for a wide range of file formats, but you can’t easily read Kindle books without converting them first. Its 227ppi display is also slightly less sharp than the 300ppi screen found on the Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Libra 2. However, the 10.3-inch screen does balance things out a bit and makes text easier to read, so it’s not really a noticeable drawback.
Other ebook readers that didn’t make the cut
There are some other ebook readers I tested that I didn’t feature above but are still worth highlighting. Here are the most notable:
If you’re looking for a non-Amazon alternative that’s more affordable than the Kobo Libra 2, the Kobo Clara 2E is worth a look. It sells for $139.99 and also offers waterproofing as well as a sharp, 300ppi display, but it lacks buttons. As I mentioned in my review earlier this year, I also liked that it doesn’t come with ads but found it’s not as fast as the Kindle Paperwhite. However, now that I’ve used the e-reader for quite some time, I find it’s snappy enough, and the occasional lag isn’t as distracting as I imagined it’d become. The Libra 2 is still faster, though.
I also didn’t mention the Kindle Oasis, which has physical page-turning buttons and which many consider a high-end device. At this point, though, it’s old and lacks some features even the base Kindle offers, like USB-C support. That makes it less appealing at $249.99. If you are willing to pay that much for a high-end reader, I’d take a look at the Kobo Libra 2 or the Kobo Sage instead. The latter is $269, yet not only does it come with buttons and USB-C, but you can also use it to take notes. The eight-inch screen feels very cramped to write on, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary note-taking device.
Finally, Barnes and Noble recently released the new Nook Glowlight 4 Plus. If you own a lot of digital books from Barnes and Noble, this could be a good Kindle alternative. Otherwise, I’d still recommend the Kobo Libra 2 to everybody else. The $199.99 Nook Glowlight 4 Plus is a good e-reader with a lot to offer, including a lovely 300ppi screen, waterproofing, physical page-turning buttons, and even a headphone jack. However, it’s just not as snappy, which makes setting it up, buying books from the device itself, and navigating the interface a slow ordeal. It didn’t help that the screen sometimes froze, too, which meant I had to restart the device while in the middle of a book.
Update November 14th, 2023:Refreshed links / prices and added a note about Black Friday.
Latest US climate assessment shows the extreme toll taken by climate change
Homes and businesses in Lahaina, Maui, are in ruins on August 16th, 2023, after a devastating wildfire swept through town. | Photo by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Climate disasters are costing the US billions of dollars a year, and the damage isn’t spread out evenly, according to a new national climate assessment.
The assessment, produced about every four years, lays out the toll climate change is taking across every region in the United States. This is the fifth one — but for the first time, this year’s report includes chapters dedicated to economic impact and social inequities. As floods, fires, heatwaves, and other calamities tied to climate change intensify, households pay the price with higher costs and worsening environmental injustices.
Climate change has created circumstances that the planet hasn’t seen for thousands of years, the report says. Global temperatures have risen faster over the past half-century than they have in at least 2,000 years. That’s led to all sorts of new threats, like the 2021 heatwave that killed more than 1,400 people in the typically temperate Pacific Northwest. And old problems get much bigger, like droughts sucking the Southwest dry. Drought in the Western US is currently more severe than it’s ever been in at least 1,200 years. Since 1980, drought and heatwaves alone have caused more than $320 billion in damages.
Extreme weather disasters make up some of the most devastating displays of climate change and are becoming way more common — and more costly. Back in the 1980s, a billion-dollar disaster hit the US once every four months on average (a figure that’s adjusted for inflation). Now, the US has to cope with one every three weeks. Those extreme events come with $150 billion in losses every year, according to the assessment. That’s a “conservative estimate that does not account for loss of life, healthcare-related costs, or damages to ecosystem services,” the report says.
There are also more insidious ways climate change takes a bite out of the US economy. Consumers have to shell out more money for food and other goods as prices reflect damages caused by climate change. In the Midwest, pests, diseases, and whiplash between wet and dry conditions linked to climate change threaten corn and apple harvests. And climate change has already supercharged 18 major fishery disasters in Alaska “that were especially damaging for coastal Indigenous Peoples, subsistence fishers, and rural communities,” according to the report.
None of these challenges are happening in a vacuum. Like pollution, climate disasters disproportionately affect Americans of color, low-income households, and other groups that have been historically marginalized. While 20 to 40 percent of small businesses that shutter after a natural disaster never open their doors again, those owned by women, people of color, and veterans are even more likely to close for good.
Flood losses are expected to balloon much faster in communities with a higher proportion of Black residents. Census tracts where at least 20 percent of the population is Black are projected to see average annual losses from floods rise at a rate twice as fast as other census tracks where less than 1 percent of the population is Black. It’s partly a symptom of racist housing policies like redlining that have left certain communities without the infrastructure and resources to cope with hazards brought on by climate change. Formerly redlined neighborhoods can also be around 12 degrees hotter than surrounding areas because of fewer green spaces and more paved surfaces that trap heat.
All of these risks grow as long as the US, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer, and other countries keep running on fossil fuels. The world has warmed by a little more than 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, and the report says 2 degrees of warming would more than double the economic toll from climate change.
The US isn’t taking action fast enough to stop that outcome, the report shows. Planet-heating pollution in the US has only fallen by an average of about 1 percent annually since 2005. It needs to drop by more than 6 percent per year to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which commits countries to keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
What Google Argued to Defend Itself in Landmark Antitrust Trial The tech giant, which is wrapping up its arguments in the federal monopoly trial, has framed itself as a good corporate citizen that has pushed innovation and helped consumers.
Google’s C.E.O. to Take Another Turn on the Antitrust Witness Stand Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, is expected to testify on Tuesday for the second time in two weeks to defend his company against monopoly claims.
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Image: Kindle Kids
