An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: With a few notable exceptions — such as during the 1918 influenza pandemic, World War II and the HIV crisis — life expectancy in the U.S. has had gradual upward trajectory over the past century. But that progress has steeply reversed in the past two years as COVID and other tragedies have cut millions of lives short. U.S. life expectancy fell by a total of 2.7 years (PDF) between 2019 and 2021 to 76.1 years — the lowest it has been since 1996, according to provisional data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The drop was 3.1 years for male individuals and 2.3 years for female ones. Non-Hispanic Native American and Alaska Native peoples saw the biggest decline — a staggering 6.6 years. But every racial and ethnic group suffered: life expectancy decreased by 4.2 years in the Hispanic population, by four years in the non-Hispanic Black population, by 2.4 years in the non-Hispanic white population and by 2.1 years in the non-Hispanic Asian population.

“Basically, all the gains between 1996 and 2019 are as if they never happened,” says Elizabeth Arias, director of the U.S. life table program at the NCHS and co-author of a report on the new data. COVID deaths drove much of the decline as the country grappled with the world’s worst pandemic in a century. But unintentional injuries — largely driven by drug overdoses — also played a significant role, the data show. Increases in deaths from heart disease, chronic liver disease and suicide also contributed. “This isn’t supposed to happen,” says Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, who studies demographic trends and inequality. “I think it’s a wake-up call for us … that we can’t put public health on autopilot; that we don’t have this invisible hand of development just raising living standards over time.” The drop in life expectancy would have been even more stark if it had not been partially offset by declines in influenza and pneumonia deaths, which were likely reduced by pandemic-related precautions such as masking and social distancing.

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Source: Slashdot – The US Just Lost 26 Years’ Worth of Progress On Life Expectancy

The failure rate of semiconductors shipped from China to Russia has increased by 1,900 percent in recent months, according to Russian national business daily Kommersant. The Register reports: Quoting an anonymous source, Kommersant states that before Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine the defect rate in imported silicon was two percent. Since that war commenced, Russian manufacturers have apparently faced 40 percent failure rates. Even a two percent defect rate is sub-optimal, because products made of many components can therefore experience considerable quality problems. Forty percent failure rates mean supplies are perilously close to being unfit for purpose.

According to Kommersant, Russian electronics manufacturers are not enjoying life at all because, on top of high failure rates, gray market gear doesn’t flow with the same speed as legit kit and supply chains are currently very kinked indeed inside Russia. The newspaper lays the blame on economic sanctions that have seen many major businesses quit Russia. Gray market distributors and other opportunistic operators have been left as the only entities willing to deal with Russian businesses. Gray market folks are not renowned for their sterling customer service nor their commitment to quality. They get away with it because buyers of products with — ahem — unconventional origins self-incriminate if they complain to authorities. Perhaps they’re even dumping dud product on Russian buyers, knowing that they can’t easily access alternatives.

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Source: Slashdot – China Dumps Dud Chips On Russia, Moscow Media Moans

“Everyone visiting Qatar for the World Cup needs to install spyware on their phone,” writes security researcher Bruce Schneier. His comments are in response to an article from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), reporting: Everyone traveling to Qatar during the football World Cup will be asked to download two apps called Ehteraz and Hayya. Briefly, Ehteraz is an covid-19 tracking app, while Hayya is an official World Cup app used to keep track of match tickets and to access the free Metro in Qatar. In particular, the covid-19 app Ehteraz asks for access to several rights on your mobile., like access to read, delete or change all content on the phone, as well as access to connect to WiFi and Bluetooth, override other apps and prevent the phone from switching off to sleep mode.

The Ehteraz app, which everyone over 18 coming to Qatar must download, also gets a number of other accesses such as an overview of your exact location, the ability to make direct calls via your phone and the ability to disable your screen lock. The Hayya app does not ask for as much, but also has a number of critical aspects. Among other things, the app asks for access to share your personal information with almost no restrictions. In addition, the Hayya app provides access to determine the phone’s exact location, prevent the device from going into sleep mode, and view the phone’s network connections. It remains to be seen whether Qatar will strictly enforce the installation of these apps. “I know people who visited Saudi Arabia when that country had a similarly sketchy app requirement,” says Schneier. “Some of them just didn’t bother downloading the apps, and were never asked about it at the border.”

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Source: Slashdot – Visitors of Qatar World Cup Need To Install Spyware On Their Phone

Germany’s cybersecurity chief has been fired after allegations of being excessively close to Russia through an association he helped set up. The BBC reports: Arne Schonbohm had led the Federal Cyber Security Authority (BSI) — charged with protecting government communications — since 2016. German media have accused him of having had links with people involved with Russian intelligence services. The interior ministry is investigating allegations made against him. But it confirmed he had been fired with immediate effect.

Mr Schonbohm had come under scrutiny after his potential links to a Russian company through a previous role were highlighted by Jan Bohmermann, the host of one of Germany’s most popular late-night TV shows. Before leading the BSI, Mr Schonbohm had helped set up and run the Cyber Security Council Germany, a private association which advises business and policymakers on cybersecurity issues. He is said to have maintained close ties to the association and attended their 10th anniversary celebrations in September. One of the association’s members was a cybersecurity company called Protelion, which was a subsidiary of a Russian firm reportedly established by a former member of the KGB honored by President Vladimir Putin. Protelion was ejected from the association last weekend, and Cyber Security Council Germany says the allegations of links to Russian intelligence are untrue.

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Source: Slashdot – Germany Fires Cybersecurity Chief ‘Over Russia Ties’

An anonymous reader quotes a report from STAT: Research at Boston University that involved testing a lab-made hybrid version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is garnering heated headlines alleging the scientists involved could have unleashed a new pathogen. There is no evidence the work, performed under biosecurity level 3 precautions in BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, was conducted improperly or unsafely. In fact, it was approved by an internal biosafety review committee and Boston’s Public Health Commission, the university said Monday night. But it has become apparent that the research team did not clear the work with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was one of the funders of the project. The agency indicated it is going to be looking for some answers as to why it first learned of the work through media reports.

Emily Erbelding, director of NIAID’s division of microbiology and infectious diseases, said the BU team’s original grant applications did not specify that the scientists wanted to do this precise work. Nor did the group make clear that it was doing experiments that might involve enhancing a pathogen of pandemic potential in the progress reports it provided to NIAID. “I think we’re going to have conversations over upcoming days,” Erbelding told STAT in an interview. Asked if the research team should have informed NIAID of its intention to do the work, Erbelding said: “We wish that they would have, yes.” The research has been posted online as a preprint (PDF), meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed. The senior author is Mohsan Saeed, from BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. STAT reached out to Saeed on Monday but had not received a response by the time this article was published.

In the paper Saeed and colleagues reported on research they conducted that involved creating a hybrid or chimeric virus — in which the spike protein of an Omicron version of SARS-2 was fused to a virus of the Wuhan strain, the original version that emerged from China in 2020. Omicron viruses first emerged in late 2021 and have since splintered into multiple different sub variants. The goal of the research was to determine if the mutations in the Omicron spike protein were responsible for this variant’s increased ability to evade the immunity to SARS-2 that humans have built up, and whether the changes led to Omicron’s lower rate of severity. The testing actually showed, though, that the chimeric virus was more lethal to a type of lab mice than Omicron itself, killing 80% of the mice infected. Importantly, the original Wuhan strain killed 100% of mice it was tested in. The conclusion of the study is that mutations in the spike protein of the Omicron variant are responsible for the strain’s ability to evade immunity people have built up via vaccination, infections, or both, but they are not responsible for the apparent decrease in severity of the Omicron viruses. The university disputed the claims made by some media outlets that the work had created a more dangerous virus, saying: “In fact, this research made the virus [replication] less dangerous.” They noted that other research groups have conducted similar work.

“That 80% kill rate, that headline doesn’t tell the whole story,” Erbelding said. “Because Wuhan” — the original strain — “killed all the mice.” The fatality rate seen in this strain of mice when they were infected with these viruses raises questions about how good a model they are for what happens when people are infected with SARS-2. The Wuhan strain killed less than 1% of people who were infected.

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Source: Slashdot – Boston University Researchers’ Testing of Lab-Made Version of COVID-19 Draws Government Scrutiny

The new, 10th-generation iPad only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil, meaning that it requires an adapter to charge separately via a wired connection since the device has moved to USB-C. MacRumors reports: The new iPad has no magnetic wireless charger on the side to connect to the second-generation Apple Pencil. Only the first-generation Apple Pencil is supported by the device, which normally needs to be plugged into a Lightning port to charge. The iPad now has a USB-C port, meaning that the Apple Pencil can no longer be charged directly via the iPad. Entry-level iPad users who want to use the Apple Pencil will need to charge the accessory using a USB-C cable and a separate adapter.

The first-generation Apple Pencil came with a female to female Lightning adapter allowing it to be charged separately, but now Apple is offering a new variant of the accessory called the “USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter” that enables Apple Pencil users to charge. The adapter is available separately at a price of $9 for existing Apple Pencil users, while new Apple Pencil units include the adapter in the box. For those interested in a more powerful tablet, Apple announced the new sixth-generation iPad Pro, featuring the M2 chip that first debuted in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year and support for Wi-Fi 6E.

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Source: Slashdot – New iPad Only Supports First-Gen Apple Pencil, Requires Adapter To Charge