from the rash-and-burn dept

Measles. Yes, yes, I know you’re sick of hearing about it. For that, though, you must lay the blame at the feet of Donald Trump, RFK Jr., and this entire administration of clown-tools that isn’t bothering to do anything about what has become the worst continuous outbreak of the disease in America in several decades. Their fault, not mine.

And, yes, this is getting worse, not better. The CDC’s measles tracking site is a combination of woefully inaccurate and behind when it comes to current case counts (more to come on that shortly), but it’s at least useful in benchmarking what 2025 looked like. While certainly underreported, the CDC tallied 2,281 cases of measles in America last year. That site is updated only once a week on Fridays. Either due to that, or incompetence, or a more nefarious attempt to downplay the problem, the current case count is wrong.

The CDC site shows a 2026 case count of 982. That would be bad enough, but it’s actually worse. The actual count is well over 1,000 cases, which means we’re somewhere right around half of 2026’s case total as of right now. So you don’t feel the need to check a calendar, it’s still February.

“It is very concerning to see more than 1,000 cases in the U.S. this early in the year,” Martha Edwards, MD, president of the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told MedPage Today. “Already, we have more than half the number of cases seen in all of 2025, and the number of cases in 2025 was one of the highest annual case counts seen in decades.”

“As people continue to believe inaccurate information about vaccines, and as non-medical exemption rates continue to rise throughout the country, we can expect case counts to continue to rise, threatening children and immunocompromised individuals with a disease that was nearly eliminated in our country through vaccination,” she added.

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The true number is going to be even higher than that. There are outbreaks of one size or another in many, many states. South Carolina alone has nearly 1,000 reported cases. The truly frustrating thing about all of this is that this problem is a simple one to fix. More people need to get vaccinated for measles via the widely available MMR vaccine.

To achieve that, the government needs to do two simple things. First, cut the shit when it comes to the misinformation about vaccines that is scaring the hell out of a percentage of the population. In fact, advocate for those same vaccines. Get Kennedy hopped up on those psychedelics he likes if you need to, but he needs to be front and center telling people to get vaccinated. And stop the nonsense that is going on with supposed religious exemptions for vaccinations.

Edwards highlighted the need for “accurate information about the dangers of measles virus and the complications that can ensue, in addition to communicating the safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine.”

“Raising the bar to obtain non-medical exemptions for vaccines and requiring families to gain accurate information about the dangers of vaccine-preventable illnesses and the importance of vaccines would be a huge benefit in helping to raise vaccination rates in South Carolina and the rest of the country,” she added. “We would love to see a requirement for parents to come in person to the health department, watch a video on vaccine-preventable illnesses, and have a conversation with a healthcare professional before they choose non-medical exemptions.”

Second, take the data collection and sharing about measles seriously. Along those same lines, demonstrate leadership by helping state governments and local medical facilities collect and share data, strategize protective measures to stop the spread of the disease, and pump the ecosystem full of real-time accurate information about where the disease is, how it spreads, and how to handle an infection.

That isn’t happening. Instead, you get stories like how South Carolina’s state government doesn’t require any mandatory reporting of measles cases in the state when patients are admitted. One doctor in the state had to find out that patients in her own area had been hospitalized with measles from Facebook.

Dr. Leigh Bragg, a pediatrician working a county away, wasn’t even aware that anyone in South Carolina had been hospitalized with measles-related illnesses until a short time later when she logged on to Facebook and saw someone relay the distraught husband’s comments. 

Part of the reason Bragg didn’t know is that South Carolina doesn’t require hospitals to report admissions for measles, potentially obscuring the disease’s severity. In the absence of mandatory reporting rules, she and other doctors are often left to rely on rumors, their grapevines of colleagues, and the fragments of information the state public health agency is able to gather and willing to share. 

So, what you get is South Carolina reporting that roughly 2% of its measles cases have resulted in hospitalization. Nobody with any knowledge of measles thinks that is even remotely accurate.

“A hospitalization rate at 2% is ludicrous,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee. 

“It’s vast underreporting,” Offit said. “Measles makes you sick.”

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Without that sort of accurate data, neither the state nor federal government knows where to help, nor how how much help is needed. If Kennedy and Trump wanted to actually confront this growing problem, that’s the kind of organization the federal government and its health-related agencies could help with. But this administration seems content to put its hands over its eyes and shout, “Nuh uh, I can’t see you!”

This is going to continue to get worse until real action is taken. Until then, I guess we all just try to keep an eye out for rashes.

Filed Under: health, health & human services, measles, preventable diseases, rfk jr., south carolina, vaccines

If you drive a car that’s newer than 2008, a new study finds your vehicle’s tire pressure monitoring system can be used to track you. 

A group of researchers at IMDEA Networks Institute — an English-speaking research organization on data networks based in Madrid — discovered this privacy risk at the end of a 10-week study in which they collected roughly 6 million wireless signals from over 20,000 cars. Their findings point to a serious hacker threat hiding in the tire sensors of most modern vehicles. 

The TREAD Act of 2000 mandated that modern cars come equipped with TPMS for road safety. The system works by releasing wireless signals through tiny sensors attached to each tire, which communicate each tire’s pressure information to the car’s electronic control unit. A warning light on the vehicle’s dashboard indicates low tire pressure.

Instead of using a camera with a clear line of sight to the car, hackers can hypothetically track it using the wireless signals emitted by the car’s tire sensors. That signal is continuously sent out as an unencrypted unique ID number. 

Basically, anyone nearby with a cheap radio receiver can pick up the signal and later recognize the same vehicle without ever seeing the license plate. 

Information could help users track drivers

“Our results show that these tire sensor signals can be used to follow vehicles and learn their movement patterns,” Domenico Giustiniano, research professor at IMDEA Networks Institute, said in the peer-reviewed report. “This means a network of inexpensive wireless receivers could quietly monitor the patterns of cars in real-world environments. Such information could reveal daily routines, such as work arrival times or travel habits.”

The researchers were able to capture signals from more than 50 meters away from moving cars, through walls and from inside buildings. The tire pressure readings helped reveal the vehicle type, its weight and the driving pattern of the driver. It’s a cheap, tough-to-detect, potentially covert tracking method. 

While this may be a startling discovery, Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNET it’s not the only privacy threat in your car’s computer system.

“Any method that can be misused to surreptitiously track people’s movements without their knowledge is concerning,” he said. “But so are all of the technologies in modern cars that intentionally violate drivers’ privacy by collecting and sharing data for purposes of advertising, insurance risk assessment, and more. It’s sad that drivers have to worry about this, and everyone should learn how to protect themselves whenever possible while manufacturers are pressured to do better.”

This isn’t the first time a group of researchers has raised the red flag about this sensor system in cars. A 2010 study by researchers at Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina warned of the potential privacy threat hiding in a vehicle’s tire pressure system. Sixteen years later, the flaw persists. 

“TPMS was designed for safety, not security,” said Dr. Yago Lizarribar, one of the study’s authors. “Our findings show the need for manufacturers and regulators to improve protection in future vehicle sensor systems.”

The study urges policymakers and car manufacturers to design a more secure and privacy-preserving TPMS for future cars.

It turns out that making a phone thinner doesn’t automatically make it more popular. Reports suggest the iPhone Air hasn’t sold well, and now it appears Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge, a phone launched as a direct competitor to the iPhone Air, hasn’t performed much better.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Won-Joon Choi, chief operating officer of Samsung’s Mobile Experience Business, said that the sales for Galaxy S25 Edge were “relatively lower than other lineups.” He attributed the lower sales numbers to the small battery pack, which provides lower endurance than the company’s other offering. 

Samsung hasn’t decided whether there will be a Galaxy S26 Edge. As Choi put it, “People have different tastes and requirements and different criteria in selecting their device,” and the sales numbers suggest that an ultra-thin phone clearly isn’t everyone’s top concern.

Samsung’s foldable dilemma

Recently, Samsung released its first Galaxy TriFold, an engineering marvel in itself. However, its exorbitant $2,900 price tag has kept buyers at bay. While the phone appears to have sold out on Samsung’s website, the company is unsure if it will be making another one. 

Choi said the TriFold was initially about “creating a new category and putting all of our know-how into this.” Now, however, the company is rethinking its next move. “Now we wonder, should we develop a new one? We have not made a decision yet.”

While we might not see another TriFold this year, we are getting a new fold design, one I am pretty excited about. We learned from the leaks that Samsung is planning to release a passport-style, wider version of its Galaxy Fold, and Choi has all but confirmed it. 

Choi noted that user priorities vary. “All these productivity-related experiences, some people care about. And others are like ‘I want to watch Netflix or YouTube on a bigger screen,’” he said, adding, “Obviously, if you have a TriFold kind of aspect ratio, it’s optimized for that kind of experience and application.”

With no second-generation TriFold on the roadmap, a wider Galaxy Fold feels like the obvious move for Samsung to target users who want a better media consumption experience.

What does this mean for us

If you’re not waiting for a foldable and were thinking about upgrading to a new Galaxy Edge, there’s little reason to hold off. The Galaxy S26 series is the safer bet right now, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra is worth it for the privacy screen alone.

As for me, I’ll be holding out for the wider Samsung Galaxy Fold that’s all but guaranteed to arrive later this year. I loved the original Google Pixel Fold’s aspect ratio, and I’m excited to see how Samsung approaches it.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer?  Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Was today’s Mini Crossword too short for you? The New York Times now has a Midi Crossword, which is not as big as the original NYT Crossword, but longer than the Mini. Read on for the answers to today’s Mini Crossword. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Lacking locks
Answer: BALD

5A clue: One of the Great Lakes
Answer: ERIE

6A clue: Movie with the fake newspaper headline “Wonder Elephant Soars to Fame!”
Answer: DUMBO

8A clue: Live tweeter?
Answer: BIRD

9A clue: The slightest bit
Answer: ATAD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Hard thing to leave on a cold day
Answer: BED

2D clue: Caribbean island northwest of Curaçao
Answer: ARUBA

3D clue: The sky, in a saying
Answer: LIMIT

4D clue: Actress Messing
Answer: DEBRA

7D clue: Like this clue number
Answer: ODD

Although it may only feel like yesterday, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is now two years old and has been succeeded by both the S25 Ultra and, more recently, the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

So what’s really new with the Galaxy S26 Ultra in comparison to its older sibling? Are there enough changes to warrant an upgrade?

To help you decide, we’ve compared the specs of the Galaxy S26 Ultra to the Galaxy S24 Ultra and noted the key changes that Samsung has made with its top-end flagship. 

You should also visit our Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Galaxy S25 Ultra, to see how the smartphone has evolved since last year’s launch, while Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Honor Magic 8 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra vs iPhone 17 Pro Max compares Samsung’s flagship with Honor and Apple’s own alternatives. 

Otherwise, for more of an overview check out our best smartphones guide.

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	Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra	Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Battery	5000mAh	5000mAh
Chipset	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
Front Camera	12MP	12MP
Rear Camera	200MP + 50MP + 50MP + 10MP	200MP + 12MP + 50MP + 10MP
Screen Size	6.9-inches	6.82-inches
Storage Capacity	256GB, 512GB, 1TB	256GB, 512GB, 1TB
UK RRP	£1279	£1249
Wired Charging	60W	45W
Weight	214g	232g

Price and Availability

Along with the rest of the Galaxy S26 series, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can be pre-ordered now ahead of its official launch on March 11th. Starting at £1279/$1279, you can nab the handset in a choice of four colours: Black, White, Sky Blue or Cobalt Violet. There are also a couple of Samsung-exclusive colours too, including Pink Gold and Silver Shadow.

SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208275

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Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is no longer available to buy directly from Samsung’s official store. However, you can still nab the handset from third party retailers in both new and refurbished condition. The price will vary depending on the retailer and condition you opt for, as we’ve seen prices range from as little as £550 up to around £800.

SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10187680

Galaxy S26 Ultra is thinner and lighter

Not only is the Galaxy S26 Ultra thinner and lighter than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but it actually boasts the title of being the thinnest Ultra ever. It may not be as thin as the Galaxy S25 Edge, but at just 7.9mm it’s noticeably more agile in hand compared to the 8.6mm thick Galaxy S24 Ultra.

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In addition, the Galaxy S26 Ultra weighs just 214g whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra weighs 232g. However, the reason for this difference is due to the materials Samsung has used. While the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a premium titanium frame, the Galaxy S26 Ultra has the same Armour Aluminium as the rest of the S26 range. Even so, we still found the Galaxy S26 Ultra retains the premium feel that the Ultra models are known for.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Different custom Snapdragon chips

Both the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra are fitted with custom versions of Qualcomm chips. While the Galaxy S24 Ultra runs on the 2024 Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, which was Qualcomm’s flagship chip at the time, the Galaxy S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm’s current top-end chip: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. 

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As the Galaxy S24 Ultra was among the first to sport Samsung’s Galaxy AI toolkit, its chip needed to be powerful enough to ensure on-device AI ran as smoothly as possible. Fortunately, we concluded that to be the case with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. Not only did we find the likes of Circle to Search and Live Translation ran well, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra itself felt rapid in everyday use too. 

While we haven’t tested the Galaxy S26 Ultra yet, Qualcomm’s default Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip is behind many of the best Android phones of 2026 and offers seriously fast and powerful performance. Even during intensive tasks like video editing or gaming, we’ve rarely noticed any slowdown with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. With this in mind, we expect the Galaxy S26 Ultra to offer a similar impressive performance.

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Plus, naturally the Galaxy S26 Ultra will be fitted with Galaxy AI features alongside some new additions like Now Nudge which provides suggestions based on what you’re doing on screen. 

Galaxy S26 Ultra has a privacy display

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly larger than the S24 Ultra, measuring in at 6.9-inches compared to 6.82-inches. And that’s not where the differences end. In fact, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first smartphone ever to sport a privacy display.

Essentially, the privacy display hides itself when it’s viewed at certain angles. That means although you’ll be able to perfectly see your content, prying eyes sitting next to you won’t. You can even adjust the level of privacy too, by either setting it on a per-app basis or by only blocking out specific areas on the screen. Or you can simply turn it off altogether.

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This, combined with anti-reflective screen tech taken from the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Gorilla Armour 2 protection means the Galaxy S26 Ultra looks set to boast one of the best smartphone screens. Of course, we’ll need to spend more time with the phone before confirming this, but we’re certainly excited.

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However, do keep in mind that the two are fitted with many of the same premium screen technologies including LTPO-enabled 1-120Hz refresh rate, QHD+ resolution and S-Pen support.

Galaxy S26 Ultra promises faster charging

Battery prowess has never been high on Samsung’s list of priorities and, though the Galaxy S26 Ultra has some welcome improvements over the S24 Ultra, it still doesn’t quite match up to the likes of the OnePlus 15 or Oppo Find X9 Pro’s post-7000mAh batteries. 

Even so, we found the Galaxy S24 Ultra was easily an all-day device – in fact, we concluded that we’d end 16-hour days with around 50 to 60% left in the tank. While its 45W wired charging support isn’t particularly speedy, it still managed to get from 1-100% in just over 70 minutes.

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Although we’re yet to test the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s battery prowess, Samsung has upgraded the wired charging speed up to 60W. This, according to Samsung, means the S26 Ultra will take just 30 minutes to reach 75%. It’s a welcome improvement at least, but the phone still falls short from many of the best Android phones.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera has had a slight tweak

Samsung’s Ultra handsets have repeatedly made their way into our best camera phones guide, and we expect this tradition will continue with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Rather than a complete overhaul, the Galaxy S26 Ultra has made a few camera hardware improvements from the Galaxy S24 Ultra. 

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The biggest noticeable difference is the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 50MP ultrawide lens whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra sports a 12MP ultrawide instead. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s ultrawide lens might sound pretty average compared to the S26 Ultra, however it does do a solid job in good lighting conditions. However, we did find it let itself down when we tried to take photos at night.

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Galaxy S26 Ultra cameras
Galaxy S24 Ultra cameras

The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 50MP ultrawide was actually first introduced with Galaxy S25 Ultra. We found that the biggest difference with the 50MP ultrawide was its ability to capture photos in darker conditions, so we expect to see the same results with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Otherwise both handsets sport 200MP wide, 50MP and 10MP telephoto lenses, although Samsung has made some tweaks with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Essentially, Samsung promises the wide lens now has a 47% brighter aperture while the 50MP telephoto should offer 37% improvement in brightness too.

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Early Verdict

Although it isn’t a complete overhaul, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is fitted with plenty of improvements that make it a more appealing option over the Galaxy S24 Ultra. These tweaks include, but aren’t limited to, faster charging, a more capable camera and the latest top-end Qualcomm chip too. 

Having said that, that’s not to say the Galaxy S24 Ultra has aged poorly. In fact, it remains a brilliant option that offers speedy performance, a still solid camera set-up and decent battery life too – all for a much lower price. 

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At this stage, we’d suggest that if you do want the best of the best, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is an easy recommendation. However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is still a great smartphone that still works admirably.

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This week, the Uncanny Valley team dives into the feud that has been brewing between Anthropic and the Pentagon—and what it says about how the government interacts with tech companies. Later, Zoë Schiffer tells us why figuring out whether you are agentic or mimetic has become the new litmus test in Silicon Valley. Plus, we discuss the key takeaways from the State of the Union address and give a farewell to the TAT-8 undersea cables—the ones that made our modern internet possible.

As electric vehicles roll off assembly lines, a bottleneck sits upstream: lithium refinement. Turning raw lithium into the compounds needed for batteries is expensive, messy, and energy-intensive, but Mangrove Lithium, a Vancouver-based startup, has a better way. The company has developed an electrochemical refining process that converts lithium feedstocks into battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

Converting raw lithium to lithium hydroxide typically requires roasting spodumene—a mineral from which lithium is derived—at high temperatures, and then leaching it with acid to convert it to lithium sulfate. That compound then needs to be converted to lithium hydroxide. “It’s a thermochemical reaction that uses heavy amounts of reagent chemicals, and generates a sodium sulfate waste stream,” says Ryan Day, Mangrove Lithium’s director of operations.

Further tightening the bottleneck, the majority of the world’s lithium—60 to 70 percent—is now refined in China, and export restrictions and geopolitical tensions have disrupted supply chains in recent years. Shipping raw lithium overseas to be refined also adds to batteries’ total carbon footprint. A new model for lithium refining could reshape not just the economics of electric vehicles, but the geography and environmental footprint of the global battery supply chain.

Mangrove’s demo plant in British Columbia is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2026.

How Does Mangrove’s Refinement Work?

Mangrove replaces the conventional, resource-intensive reaction with a process that uses electricity, water, and oxygen. In an electrochemical cell, they flow brine through an electrolyzer, which consists of a metal box with three compartments between the cathode and anode. The compartments are separated by ion exchange membranes, semipermeable barriers that only allow certain ions to pass. Lithium sulfate flows through the central compartment, and the cell’s electric field splits the salt apart. “Lithium, which is a positive ion, will move across a membrane toward the cathode,” says Day. There, “we are reacting oxygen and water to create hydroxide ions, which join with the lithium from the salt to make lithium hydroxide.”

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the cell, the sulfate—a negative ion—moves towards the anode, where water is being split to produce protons and oxygen gas. The protons combine with sulfate ions to make sulfuric acid.

“You run that process continuously, and over time you’re generating lithium hydroxide, which you can send to a crystallizer,” Day says. “There’s no significant waste product and all you’re feeding in is brine, water, oxygen, and electricity.” The sulfuric acid is recovered and can be circulated back upstream to leach more brine from the raw feed material.

In general, keeping the ion exchange membrane intact is one of the biggest challenges for scaling this type of process, says Feifei Shi, assistant professor of energy engineering at Penn State. Shi, who researches electrochemical-based refinement methods, notes that the approach can more easily activate the necessary reactions, but faces limitations for large-scale applications.

The electrochemical process separates out lithium by passing it through three compartments separated by semipermeable barriers. Mangrove Lithium

Mangrove’s Oxygen-Based Cathode

Mangrove’s key innovation and what enables the process is an oxygen-based cathode. “Driving the reaction requires detailed engineering,” says Day. The company designed an electrode that lets a gas and a liquid react together, using just enough water to make the oxygen reaction work—without adding so much that it floods the system and creates hydrogen gas instead.

The electrodes are made with a proprietary process that combines several dedicated layers which allow for a balanced flow of water and oxygen to access the active catalyst sites. This design favors the oxygen reduction reaction for over 99.5 percent of the total cathode activity. It also reduces the amount of electricity needed to drive the process, because “oxygen reduction requires less voltage than water reduction,” Day says. Demand for battery minerals is surging beyond just lithium, with automakers competing for supplies of nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese. Simultaneously, utilities are deploying grid-scale batteries that use the same materials in even larger volumes. Refining capacity—not just mining—could become the critical choke point in this buildout, because battery makers require highly specified, ultra-pure compounds.

While Mangrove is initially targeting lithium, their electrochemical architecture is not inherently lithium-specific, and could be adapted to other battery materials that face similar purification bottlenecks. Nickel and cobalt sulfate production, for example, still rely on multi-step precipitation and solvent-extraction processes that generate significant waste and require large reagent inputs. “It would work immediately in application to other alkali-metal salts,” Day says.

Mangrove’s demo plant in British Columbia will make 1,000 tons per year of lithium hydroxide. If the company can scale its technology as it hopes, it could begin to reshape not just the battery supply chain, but the geopolitics of the energy transition.