Apple Magazine №550 2022

DETAILED ‘OPEN SOURCE’ NEWS INVESTIGATIONS ARE CATCHING ON One of the more striking pieces of journalism from the Ukraine war featured intercepted radio transmissions from Russian soldiers indicating an invasion in disarray, their conversations even interrupted by a hacker literally whistling “Dixie.” It was the work of an investigations unit at The New York Times that specializes in open-source reporting, using publicly available material like satellite images, mobile phone or security camera recordings, geolocation and other internet tools to tell stories. The field is in its infancy but rapidly catching on. The Washington Post announced last month it was adding six people to its video forensics team, doubling its size. The University of California at Berkeley last fall became the first 102

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college to offer an investigative reporting class that focuses specifically on these techniques. Two video reports from open-source teams — The Times’“Day of Rage” reconstruction of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the Post’s look at how a 2020 racial protest in Washington’s Lafayette Square was cleared out — won duPont-Columbia awards for excellence in digital and broadcast journalism. The Ukraine radio transmissions, where soldiers complained about a lack of supplies and faulty equipment, were verified and brought to life with video and eyewitness reports from the town where they were operating. At one point, what appears to be a Ukrainian interloper breaks in. “Go home,” he advised in Russian. “It’s better to be a deserter than fertilizer.” The Times’ visual investigations unit, founded in 2017 and now numbering 17 staff members, “is absolutely one of the most exciting areas of growth that we have,” said Joe Kahn, incoming executive editor. The work is meticulous. “Day of Rage” is composed mostly of video shot by protesters themselves, in the heady days before they realized posting them online could get them into trouble, along with material from law enforcement and journalists. It outlines specifically how the attack began, who the ringleaders were and how people were killed. Video sleuthing also contradicted an initial Pentagon story about an American drone strike that killed civilians in Afghanistan last year. “Looking to us for protection, they instead 105

became some of the last victims in America’s longest war,” the report said. “There’s just this overwhelming amount of evidence out there on the open web that if you know how to turn over the rocks and uncover that information, you can connect the dots between all these factoids to arrive at the indisputable truth around an event,” said Malachy Browne, senior story producer on the Times’ team. “Day of Rage” has been viewed nearly 7.3 million times on YouTube. A Post probe into the deaths at a 2021 Travis Scott concert in Houston has been seen more than 2 million times, and its story on George Floyd’s last moments logged nearly 6.5 million views. The Post team is an outgrowth of efforts begun in 2019 to verify the authenticity of potentially newsworthy video. There are many ways to smoke out fakes, including examining shadows to determine if the apparent time of day in the video corresponds to when the activity supposedly captured actually took place. “The Post has seen the kind of impact that this kind of storytelling can have,” said Nadine Ajaka, leader of its visual forensics team. “It’s another tool in our reporting mechanisms. It’s really nice because it’s transparent. It allows readers to understand what we know and what we don’t know, by plainly showing it.” Still new, the open-source storytelling isn’t bound by rules that govern story length or form. A video can last a few minutes or, in the case of “Day of Rage,” 40 minutes. Work can stand alone or be embedded in text stories. They can be investigations or experiences; The 106

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Times used security and cellphone video, along with interviews, to tell the story of one Ukraine apartment house as Russians invaded. Leaders in the field cite the work of the website Storyful, which calls itself a social media intelligence agency, and Bellingcat as pioneers. Bellingcat, an investigative news website, and its leader, Eliot Higgins, are best known for covering the Syrian civil war and investigating alleged Russian involvement in shooting down a Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine in 2014. The Arab Spring in the early 2010s was another key moment. Many of the protests were coordinated in a digital space and journalists who could navigate this had access to a world of information, said Alexa Koenig, executive director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley’s law school. The commercial availability of satellite images was a landmark, too. The Times used satellite images to quickly disprove Russian claims that atrocities committed in Ukraine had been staged. Other technology, including artificial intelligence, is helping journalists who seek information about how something happened when they couldn’t be on the scene. The Times, in 2018, worked with a London company to artificially reconstruct a building in Syria that helped contradict official denials about the use of chemical weapons. Similarly, The Associated Press constructed a 3D model of a theater in Mariupol bombed by the Russians and, combining it with video and interviews with survivors, produced an investigative report that concluded more people died there than was previously believed. 109

AP has also worked with Koenig’s team on an investigation into terror tactics by Myanmar’s military rulership, and used modeling for an examination on the toll of war in a neighborhood in Gaza. It is collaborating with PBS’ Frontline to gather evidence of war crimes in Ukraine and is further looking to expand its digital efforts. Experts cite BBC’s “Africa Eye” as another notable effort in the field. As efforts expand, Koenig said journalists need to make sure their stories drive the tools that are used, instead of the other way around. She hears regularly now from news organizations looking to build their own investigate units and need her advice — or students. Berkeley grad Haley Willis is on the team at The Times. It feels, Koenig said, like a major shift has happened in the past year. Browne said the goal of his unit’s reporting is to create stories with impact that touch upon broader truths. A probe about a Palestinian medic shot by an Israeli soldier on the Gaza strip was as much about the conflict in general than her death, for example. “We have similar mandates,” the Post’s Ajaka said, “which is to help make sense of some of the most urgent news of the day.” 110

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THOUSANDS OF SMARTPHONES PURCHASED BY VA WENT UNUSED The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wasted nearly $2 million when most of the smartphones bought during the pandemic for homeless veterans went unused, according to an inspector general’s report. The report found that the Veterans Health Administration spent nearly $7 million to purchase 10,000 phones with unlimited prepaid calling plans but that 85% of the phones gathered dust. As a result, it lost $1.8 million in wasted data plan costs. The inspector general also found that $571,000 was wasted on data plans due to poor oversight of its purchase of nearly 81,000 iPads. 113

The smartphones and iPads were purchased as part of the efforts to increase homeless veterans’ access to telehealth, a program that saw video visits increase from about 2,500 in February 2020 to 38,000 in September 2020. The veterans were enrolled in a Department of Housing and Urban Development VA Supportive housing program. The inspector general concluded that Veterans Health Administration officials, who were part of the Connected Care program, made a good faith effort to help veterans get smartphones. But they found there was a “lack of information for officials to be able to determine the quantity needed for the targeted veteran population.” The inspector general recommended improvements in the storage of smartphones and tablets. It called for the VA to “establish a realistic goal for days in storage along with a process for closely monitoring days in storage for each data plan provider and taking corrective actions when the goal is not being met.” It also called for a cost-benefit analysis, in coordination with contractors, to create a process that starts the data plan charges only after the device has been issued to a veteran. In the case of the iPads, Connected Care officials purchased 80,930 with prepaid data plans for around $63 million. But these iPads remained in storage on average for 17 days, the inspector general found, which ended up costing the VA more than $571,000 in wasted data plans. “Officials could reduce wasted data plan costs by establishing a realistic goal for days in storage, closely monitoring days in storage for devices with each type of data plan, and then 114

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taking corrective actions when necessary,” the report said. The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in the report, the VA’s undersecretary for health concurred with the recommendations. The agency said it plans to work with its Denver Logistics Center to analyze inventory, tablet use and shipments over the past year. It then will propose guidelines for how long a device should be in storage, a system to monitor that and corrective actions when storage goals are not met. It also plans to consider a new process that either will launch data plans when devices are issued or consider other ways that data plan costs can be reduced. The VA said the Connected Care program was also transferring excess loaner iPhones to the Veterans Health Administration Homeless Program Office, so that coordinators could provide an iPhone to any veteran lacking stable housing and needing a device. 117

THE HEART OF THE HOME GETS NEW COLOR, CUBBIES, CONNECTIVITY 118

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As French chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud puts it, “Kitchens should be designed around what’s truly important — fun, food, and life.” Kitchens now might not play the center-of- everything roles that they did during the early days of the pandemic. But even if you’re spending more time away, you’ll likely have become a little more attached and invested in the kitchen than you were in 2019. Some of what’s new in kitchen design and outfitting: COOKING WITH COLOR For a few years now, the monotone, all-white kitchen has been popular, with Instagram feeds full of white-and-cream cabinetry and pale woods. It looked clean, and like it meant business – a culinary clinic, if you will, and a far cry from the mid-2000s combo of cherry cabinets and granite counters. But there’s a shift. The standard, nickel-plated hardware in a white kitchen might now be replaced with matte black and brass, or knobs and faucets in bright hues. Whites are getting creamier, less cool. You’ll see woods, vegan leather and rattan as textural elements to warm things up. “The classic all-white kitchen is as relevant as it ever was, but there’s a new need and demand for color,” says Bob Bakes, co-founder and head of design for Bakes & Kropp, a kitchen design and custom cabinetry firm in New York City. He’s recently used sky blue, stone gray and a red called geranium on kitchen projects, and a glossy black in a butler’s pantry. 121

Betty Brandolino, founder and creative director of Fresh Twist Studio in Elmhurst, Illinois, sees a similar move toward color. “White isn’t out, but we are implementing painted or natural wood islands as opposed to an all-white kitchen,” she says. Some clients are asking for entire kitchens with painted cabinets, she says: “Green has been the color of choice, ranging from sage to olive and even a brighter green.” KITCHENS WITH PERSONALITY “I’m excited to see that people are becoming more experimental in their design choices, from mixing metals to integrating a variety of textures,” Bakes says. Lighting is one way to bring personality and modernity to kitchens. Recessed can lights are still with us, but there’s now a lot of statement lighting, too: a row of pendants or a supersize fixture over an island, for example. While subway tile still dominates backsplashes, some are tweaking how it’s used. “For example, applying them in unexpected patterns such as vertically instead of horizontally, and stacked instead of staggered,” Erin Davis, a designer in Portland, Oregon, noted on the real estate platform Homelight, Big sections of ceramic tile are also popular. New tech has allowed makers to make large but thinner, lighter slabs that are easier to work with. And fewer grout lines mean they’re easier to clean. Bring personality to the backsplash with patterned and textured tile; there are florals, 122

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geometrics, metallics and mural tiles that make an artsy background. And you don’t need to buy a lot – create a feature wall on the back of an island, around an office nook, or intersperse custom art tiles with regular ones. Some designers are carrying the tile from the wall down across the floor, for an eye-catching look. OPEN PLAN, CLOSED PANS The pandemic made us choose sides when it comes to kitchen layouts. You either embraced an open plan, where everyone could easily interact, or you were grateful for your closed- room kitchen, where some could cook without disturbing others who were studying or on Zoom calls. “We’re still seeing a desire for open floor plans,” Bakes says. “I don’t think the need to separate the kitchen is making a return quite yet.” But there are tweaks to the open plan. One example is butler’s pantries – an adjunct space to the main kitchen where mess-making can take place and gear stowed. “We’re designing more hidden pantries for appliances like toaster ovens, mixers and extra dishes,” Brandolino notes. “This also allows us to incorporate more open shelving and less overhead cabinetry, which is a trend we’ll see more of in the coming year.” Mary Maydan, principal at Maydan Architects in Palo Alto, California, says minimalist islands are a hot look. “They aren’t a new trend, but they are becoming even more sleek. New technologies and hardware enable us to design islands that look 125

exceptionally clean and sleek. And with this new hardware, we can have large doors that conceal parts of the kitchen like counters, appliances and even kitchen island seats. The look is continuous and homogeneous.” MATERIAL MIX Houzz’s 2022 kitchen trends report noted that homeowners were willing to splurge on countertops, with quartz and porcelain expected to be favorite materials. Engineered quartz combines natural stone and resins to make a strong, impact-resistant material. And porcelain can’t be scratched, burned or stained. Both can be made to mimic marble, granite, onyx and other stones. We’re seeing lighter woods like oak and maple, dark walnut, and even plywood, used as full cabinetry and as accents. What’s especially new are the finishes (most are matte) and the mix of materials: wood with painted glass, buffed metal, ceramic. New York designer Leyden Lewis paired sleek, back-painted glass walls with a floor of rustic, reclaimed wood in a Manhattan galley kitchen. INC Design studio installed an all- steel kitchen cabinet suite from Poliform in a Tribeca apartment, then softened the look with marble countertops. CONNECTIVITY Tech continues to move into the kitchen. Samsung’s Family Hub, for instance, puts a five- screen smart display on the fridge. There’s a cooking screen for shopping lists and recipes, an entertainment screen, a smart home screen, 126

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a digital calendar/pinboard and one screen you can customize. LG’s Instaview feature lets you tap in the fridge door to see what’s inside. App-enabled smaller appliances include slow cookers, blenders and countertop ovens. Motion-sensitive touchless faucets have been on the market for a few years. If you want to take it up a notch, there are “smart” faucets too. With Delta’s voice-activated faucet, for example, you can turn it on and fill to a specific quantity. Kohler’s voice-activated faucets link to an app that also monitors water usage and lets you know if you left the taps on. “You have to look at it with a little humor,” says Maydan. “You consult with the faucet about the water temperature and you discuss the food ingredients with the fridge. You definitely have company when cooking in today’s kitchen!” 129

AIRBNB OVERHAULS SITE SEARCHES WITH CATEGORIES OF RENTALS Airbnb said it is overhauling the way that consumers search for rental listings, adding dozens of categories including “chef’s kitchens” and “historical homes” to its current listings, which are mostly searched by location. The company will also let people book split stays between homes and it promised new protections for renters when listings fall short of advertised promises. Airbnb said the changes will help people find listings that they didn’t know existed before and 130

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in locations that they had not considered, taking pressure off overtourism in popular destinations. CEO Brian Chesky called it the biggest change to the company’s site in a decade. The changes are being rolled out this week, in time for what Airbnb predicts will be a strong summer season for rentals. Last week, the company forecast that second-quarter revenue would exceed $2 billion, above analysts’ previous expectations. Nights and experiences booked in the first quarter topped 100 million for the first time in the company’s history. Visitors to Airbnb’s site will see listings organized by 56 categories including proximity to attractions such as a beach, to an activity like skiing or surfing, or by the style of home. The split-stay feature will let people book two different homes in the same area on one trip or rent two different places in one category, such as two separate national parks on the same trip. The San Francisco-based company also said all bookings will include a promise of finding a similar or better home or a refund if the host cancels a booking within 30 days of check-in or the listing falls short of promises, such as having fewer bedrooms than advertised. 133

AMAZON FIRES 2 UNION ORGANIZERS TIED TO FIRST U.S. LABOR WIN 134

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Amazon has fired two employees with ties to the grassroots union that led the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history. The company confirmed Tuesday that it fired Michal, or‘Mat,’Cusick and Tristan Dutchin of the Amazon Labor Union on Staten Island, New York. But it claims the“cases are unrelated to each other and unrelated to whether these individuals support any particular cause or group.” Cusick, who worked at a nearby Amazon warehouse from the one that voted to unionize last month, said he was fired due to COVID- related leave. He said he was informed by an agent from the company’s employee resource center that he was allowed to go on leave until April 29 but was later fired because leave period extended only until April 26. “They now say after the fact, after they terminated me, that the COVID-leave actually only extended to the 26th,” said Cusick, an organizer who works as the union’s communications lead. “That discrepancy is how they fired me.” Cusick said he was locked out of Amazon’s internal employee system on May 2 without any notice. The following day, he said he called the employee resource center and was told about his termination. In a letter sent on May 4, the company told Cusick he was fired for “voluntary resignation due to job abandonment.” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement Tuesday that Cusick had “failed to show up for work since an approved leave ended in late April, despite our team reaching out to him and even extending his leave.” 137

“While we normally wouldn’t discuss personnel issues, we think it’s important to clear up some misinformation here,” Nantel said. Cusick had told his firing may have been an arbitrary decision by Amazon’s automated human resources system, which has been a subject of scrutiny in the past. “If they do not reverse what is a fairly obvious miscarriage of justice here, my presumption is that they are not doing it because they know that I am an Amazon organizer,” he said. Nantel said Dutchin, another organizer who worked at the facility that voted to unionize, was fired because he failed to meet productivity goals. She said Dutchin “had been given five warnings since last summer for performance issues and was consistently performing in the bottom 3% compared to his peers, despite being offered additional training.” “We work hard to accommodate our team’s needs, but like any employer, we ask our employees to meet certain minimum expectations and take appropriate action when they’re unable to do that,” Nantel said. Dutchin did not respond to a request for comment. 138

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SAVE ON FAMILY TRAVEL WITHOUT STRESSING My family didn’t travel much when I was a kid, but when we did, my parents jumped through hoops to cut costs. On a trip to Disney World, for example, our family of six switched hotels. Every. Night. My mom worked for a hotel chain and could get one free night per property. Did my parents save money? Yes. Did it add to the mental burden of traveling with four kids? Absolutely. As an adult now, planning a trip with my own child, I fully understand how expensive — and hard — it is to travel with kids. Planning and packing requires accounting for naps, snacks, tantrums and blowouts. And you’re budgeting for extra airfare, a bigger rental car and additional lodging. 141

You can save money on family travel and still have peace of mind. To find out how, I consulted two experts. Here’s what they had to say. PAY WITH POINTS The secret of savvy travelers? They don’t actually pay for airfare and lodging. Instead, they use rewards credit cards to turn everyday purchases into free flights and hotel rooms. “Make your money work for you,” says Preethi Harbuck, a San Francisco Bay Area-based travel writer behind the blog Local Passport Family. Harbuck’s family of seven (soon to be eight) travels almost exclusively on credit card points. “There are more expenditures when you have kids but you can leverage those into greater benefits.” Card hopping can net you major points thanks to signup bonuses but can be hard to manage, says Jamie Harper, mother of four and author of the travel blog Fly by the Seat of Our Pants. To keep things manageable, stick to one or two primary cards. Harper and her husband rotate between Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton cards, which offer perks like free breakfast, Wi-Fi and anniversary nights. PACK LIGHT — AND SMART Overpacking can be a disaster on multiple fronts. First, you have to lug all that stuff with you and keep track of it along the way. The odds of a lost blankie are high. Second, checked bags are expensive — around $30 to $35 per bag, each way. Harbuck and her family stick to either one checked bag or a few smaller carry-ons. Rather 142

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than a fresh outfit for each person, each day, they rewear outfits and typically do laundry on each trip. “Pack clothing that’s lightweight, packs up well and dries quickly,” she says, noting that wool items are great for colder weather. Having layers is crucial, too. Skimp on this and you may wind up spending $50 per kid on souvenir sweatshirts to keep them warm, Harper says. CHOOSE ACTIVITIES MINDFULLY Pack your itinerary with free things to do, like local parks, hikes, beaches or free museums. You can also tap into perks included with memberships you already have — to your local zoo or children’s museum — or invest in passes that you can use again and again. When you do pay for experiences and excursions, consider your family’s life stage. Rather than taking your toddler to an art museum, for example, opt for an outdoor sculpture garden where they can run around or a museum tailored toward children with plenty of interactive features at their level. Your family’s travel priorities should also guide you, Harbuck says. Learning about a place’s culture and history is important for her family, so they spend money on activities that achieve that goal and skip more popular tourist attractions. “We’ve been to London several times but have never ridden the London Eye,” she says. “It doesn’t help me feel connected to the culture, and it’s super expensive.” 145

PACK SNACKS, GROCERY SHOP There’s no rule that says you have to dine out for every meal when you’re on vacation. Instead, pick one meal a day to eat out. Lunch is a good option, as it’s typically cheaper than dinner (which in some countries starts later than most kids’ bedtimes). By packing your supper or eating at home, you avoid an overpriced meal where children are either melting down or asleep at the table. Harbuck’s family hits up local markets to stock up on food when they land in a new city. Taking a road trip? Keep a cooler with food for rest- stop picnics. “If we don’t eat out twice, we’re saving $100 a day — and that’s the cheapest possible meal,”Harper says, noting her kids are picky eaters.“We spent $7 per kid on buttered pasta once. It was the worst experience ever. They didn’t even eat it.” 146

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Genre: Alternative WE Number of Songs: 10 Price: $9.99 Arcade Fire “It was already sort of all in the world,”Arcade Fire’s Win Butler said to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the especially pandemic-relevant themes of isolation, desperation and fatalism permeating the Canadian indie rock group’s sixth studio album, WE. FIVE FACTS: 1. Butler added: “In order to write music, you have to have this antenna up that kind of picks up little signals from the future and signals from the past.” 2. WE is Arcade Fire’s first studio album since 2017’s Everything Now. 3. Butler’s younger brother Will also features on WE, despite having recently – and amicably – left the band. 4. Meanwhile, rock legend Peter Gabriel contributed guest vocals to the album. 5. In a Pitchfork review of WE, critic Sam Sodomsky said that it “pivots back to a more melodic, sincere, and effortful style”. Arcade Fire - The Lightning I, II (Official Video) 149

Arcade Fire - Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) (Official Audio) 150