One Sentence News / July 17, 2023
Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
'Heat storm' stretches into southern Europe, health alerts issued
Summary: Following several days of at times record-setting heat in Spain, Italy, and Greece, experts are warning that things could become even more dangerous, soon, with temperatures in parts of Italy expected to climb above 45 degrees Celsius (which is about 113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days, with more neighboring countries racking up record temperatures, as well.
Context: This intense heatwave is of a kind with what we’ve seen elsewhere around the world this year, and there’s a similar story playing out across the US southwest right now, though that heatwave—which is impacting around a third of the total population of the US—is expected to peak sometime this week, while the so-called “heat storm” plaguing Europe hasn’t yet shown any sign of abating.
—Reuters
Chinese hackers breached government email accounts, Microsoft says
Summary: Last week, Microsoft announced that Chinese hackers gained access to email accounts from people working in about 25 government organizations, forging authentication tokens to do so.
Context: This attack has been described as sophisticated and targeted, compared to earlier, broad-brush approaches that didn’t have a clear target, and the hackers apparently had access to these accounts for a least a month before the hack was detected; the hackers seem to have used a vulnerability in Microsoft’s cloud security systems, which has reportedly raised questions about the use of such systems by the US government in the future, and some analysts are concerned the discovery of this hack could complicate ongoing attempts to cool US-China tensions.
—The New York Times
Netflix’s next act is investing in video games
Summary: More than 15 years after pivoting from mailed-DVDs to online streaming, Netflix is reportedly investing heavily in its video game offerings, aiming to further differentiate itself from competitors like Disney+ and Max.
Context: In recent years, Netflix has acquired four video game studios and started up two of its own, and there are currently 67 games in Netflix’s library, all of which are playable on iOS and Android devices by those with a Netflix subscription; there are reportedly 86 more games under development, and the company is apparently aiming primarily for casual games with broad appeal, hoping to avoid Apple’s missteps with its Arcade subscription offering, which initially opted for higher-end, innovative games before reorienting toward casual games that seemed to keep people around longer, and thus reduced subscriber loss.
—The Ringer
Though a small percentage of actors earn gobs of money from their work, the vast majority early relatively paltry incomes, making strikes (like the one SAG-AFTRA recently committed to, alongside the WGA writer’s union) financially painful for most of those on the picket lines.
—Chartr
5%
Approximate percentage of Americans who have ever participated in a clinical trial.
That represents a huge opportunity for pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, which hope to collaborate with entities in the clinical trial industry to bring more of their customers into the fold, telling folks when they’re eligible for a trial at the pharmacy counter, which would in turn make sign-ups and targeting for such trials dramatically more efficient and possibly increase participation amongst underrepresented groups.
—Axios
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