The Trump administration will ban entry into the U.S. for foreigners on certain temporary work visas -- including high-skilled H-1B visas -- through the end of the year, senior administration officials told reporters Monday afternoon. From a report: The highly-anticipated immigration restrictions expand on President Trump's earlier coronavirus-related immigration ban introduced in late April -- which was also extended through the end of the year. Trump has leveraged emergency powers and economic concern from the coronavirus to slowly shut down large parts of the immigration system -- even as he urges states to reopen. The administration also announced Monday that it is working toward permanent regulatory reforms that would crack down on H-1B visas and work permits for asylum seekers. The official said these steps could open up 525,000 U.S. jobs. In addition to H-1B visas often relied on by big U.S. tech companies, the restrictions on entry will also affect visas for H-1B spouses, non-agriculture worker H-2Bs visas, short-term workers on J-1 exchange visas, and L visas, which allow companies to transfer employees working overseas to U.S. offices. Further reading: Trump plan to ban H1-B will hurt Indian techies.

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Someone in control of an email address long associated with Encrochat, a company that sells custom encrypted phones often used by organized criminals, tells Motherboard the company is shutting down after a law enforcement hacking operation against its customers. From a report: The news comes as law enforcement agencies have arrested multiple criminal users of Encrochat across Europe in what appears to be a large scale, coordinated operation against the phone network and its users. "We have been forced to make the difficult decision to shut down our service and our business permanently," the person wrote in an email to Motherboard. "This [sic] following several attacks carried out by a foreign organization that seems to originate in the UK." The email address has been linked to Encrochat for years, but Motherboard could not confirm the identity of the person currently using the account. Motherboard also separately obtained screenshots of text messages sent over the past week of alleged Encrochat users discussing a wave of arrests associated with the Encrochat takeover. Encrochat is part of the encrypted phone industry, which sells devices pre-loaded with private messaging apps, sometimes have the GPS or camera functionality physically removed, and can be remotely wiped by the user.

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Apple has unveiled the next version of macOS: Big Sur. From a report: The new operating system brings the biggest redesign since the introduction of macOS 10, according to Apple. Big Sur borrows a number of elements from Apple's iOS, including a customizable Control Center, where you can change brightness and toggle Do Not Disturb, and a new notification center, which groups related notifications together. Both interfaces are translucent, like their iOS counterparts. A number of apps have received streamlined new redesigns, including Mail, Photos, Notes, and iWork. Apple has introduced a new search feature to Messages (which organizes results into links, photos, and matching terms), as well as inline replies for group chats, a new photo-selection interface, and Memoji stickers. There's a new version of Maps for Mac that borrows features from the iOS app, including custom Guides, 360-degree location views, cycling and electric vehicle directions (which you can send directly to an iPhone), and indoor maps. Apple introduced a number of new Catalyst apps as well. Dock buttons have also been redesigned to look more similar to their iOS counterparts, in an effort to "be more consistent with icons across Appleâ(TM)s ecosystem while retaining their Mac personality," according to the company. Apple also announced the biggest update to Safari since the browser was first introduced. The company claims its browser is 50 percent faster than Chrome and can show more tabs on-screen. Hovering over a tab now gives users a preview of its page, and right-clicking on the tab will give you the option to close all the tabs to its right. The new Safari also has a customizable start page and a built-in automatic translation feature that can interpret entire webpages in seven languages, Apple says. Safari is also getting support for extensions made for other browsers, and a dedicated extension store. (Unlike many other browsers, Safari will allow you to customize which sites your extensions run on). And there are new privacy features, including a Privacy Report that details actions the browser has taken to prevent tracking on the websites you visit.

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After 15 years, Apple will again transition the Mac to a new architecture. The company announced at its developer conference today that it will introduce Macs featuring Apple-designed, ARM-based processors similar to those already used in the iPhone and iPad. From a report: Tim Cook pegged this switch as one of the four biggest transitions the mac has ever had. Alongside the more to PowerPC, the move to Intel, and the transition to Mac OS X, ARM will be one of the biggest mac changes ever. Apple is promising "a whole new level of performance" with a "Family of Mac SoCs." The transition to ARM from x86 means that some apps will be native and some won't. For mac OS 10.16, Apple says that all of the Apple 10.16 apps are native ARM apps. Xcode developers can "just open their apps and recompile" to get an ARM binary. "Universal 2" is a new type of binary that will run on Intel and ARM macs. Microsoft Office and Adobe's creative suite (Photoshop) were demoed as native ARM apps. Final Cut Pro has an ARM version too, along with a features that run on the "Neural Engine" in the Apple SoC. Apple says it wants to make sure users can run all their apps on their ARM mac, even if they aren't native. So, just like with the PowerPC-to-Intel transition, Apple is dusting off the Rosetta brand with Rosetta 2, which is now an x86-to-ARM emulator. This move has been predicted for years, as the upsides for Apple are clear. Cupertino has always valued tight integration of hardware, software, and services, but Macs have been outliers among Apple's products in their reliance on an outside party for the CPU. (iPhones and other Apple products do contain display panels, modems, and camera components made by other companies, though.) So far, Apple's chip division has excelled in every market it has entered. In the world of smartphones, the company's SoCs are easily a generation ahead of the best Qualcomm, Samsung, and Mediatek have to offer. Apple's most dominant smartphone showing is probably the iPhone SE, a $400 iPhone that will out-perform $1200 Android phones thanks to the A13 Bionic SoC. These computers will also be able to run iOS apps natively on the Mac, said Apple.

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Joel Schumacher, the writer-director who came from a world of window dressing and costume design to bring a singular style to films including St. Elmo's Fire, Flatliners and a pair of Batman movies, died Monday. He was 80. From a report: Schumacher died after a yearlong battle with cancer, a representative announced. Schumacher's directorial body of work also included the horror comedy The Lost Boys (1987), which he was handed after Richard Donner passed on it to helm Lethal Weapon; the John Grisham thrillers The Client (1994) and A Time to Kill (1996); and 8MM (1999), the noirish drama starring Nicolas Cage. The Warner Bros. regular dealt with dark themes with the medical thrillers Flatliners (1990) and Dying Young (1991), both starring Julia Roberts, and Falling Down (1993), with Michael Douglas playing an unhinged man who embarks on a violent rampage all around Los Angeles. Schumacher had an uncanny ability to recognize young talent, and he cast members of "The Brat Pack" -- including Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy -- in St. Elmo's Fire (1985). He also boosted the careers of other young actors like Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Matthew McConaughey and Colin Farrell by giving them prominent parts in his films.

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Apple's WWDC keynote was virtual this year, but that didn't stop it from announcing the next version of its mobile software, iOS 14. From a report: Fourteen versions since its debut changed the world, Apple is refocusing its improvement efforts on strengthening iOS's tent poles. That means more little changes and improvements across iOS and less of an aesthetic change. For users frustrated by the bugginess of iOS 13 and its many subsequent updates, the under-the-hood prioritization is appreciated. Any iOS users will tell you that the implementation of widgets has been underwhelming. They were bolted onto the Notification Center at first and then later given its own space to the left of the main home screen. In iOS 14, widgets are now prominently accessible on the home screen. Widgets on the home screen come in different sizes. For example, the weather widget takes up approximately apps. This is a developing story...

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Braintrust query: I'm trying to catch the error in a Forever-managed app that it restarts. The error shows up when the app is run on its own. I want the same info when Forever is running it.

In an effort to curb the spread of misinformation on its platform, Google said Monday it would begin to fact-check Google Images search results. From a report: The danger of text-based misinformation could be dwarfed by that posed by misleading, manipulated and outright fake photos and videos, including convincing "deepfakes" generated with the aid of artificial intelligence. The move, a first among major search engines, comes as tech firms continue to wrestle with how to address the misinformation that continue to run rampant on their platforms. Beginning Monday, Google will surface fact-check information in Google Images around the world, a similar effort to what is does in its regular search and news results.

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Andrew Yang wants people to get paid for the data they create on big tech platforms like Facebook and Google, and with a new project launching on Monday, he believes he can make it happen. From a report: Yang's Data Dividend Project is a new program tasked with establishing data-as-property rights under privacy laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) all across the country. The program hopes to mobilize over 1 million people by the end of the year, focusing primarily on Californians, and "pave the way for a future in which all Americans can claim their data as a property right and receive payment" if they choose to share their data with platforms. At the beginning of the year, the CCPA went into effect, granting consumers new control over their data online like the right to delete and opt out of the sale of their personal information. There's nothing in the law about tech companies paying for data (or, more specifically, paying them not to opt out), but Yang's new project is looking to show that the idea is popular with voters. The Data Dividend Project is betting on collective action as a means of changing the law and extending data property rights to users across the country. If this idea becomes law, Yang's team says it will work on behalf of users to help them get paid.

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Nintendo is retreating from the $77 billion mobile gaming arena after disappointing results deflated once-lofty ambitions, ending a multiyear effort just as the market goes through an unprecedented Covid-era boom. From a report: President Shuntaro Furukawa proclaimed two years ago that smartphone games would be a $1 billion business with growth potential, building on his predecessor's promise that Nintendo would release two to three mobile titles each year. That spurred hopes among investors that the gaming powerhouse could carve out a substantial slice of the market. In May, however, the president adopted a markedly different tune, saying "We are not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market." Nintendo's shares slid 4% the day after that remark. Close observers might have sensed Nintendo was growing disillusioned with the mobile realm even earlier. Its smartphone games project was born out of necessity to shore up the bottom line amid the Wii U's failure. Now, riding a surge in Switch popularity and investor confidence, the Kyoto-based company appears to have reassessed the mobile business and narrowed its focus to its own console ecosystem.

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After rejecting an update last week, Apple has approved a new version of the subscription email app Hey. From a report: The approval, which came last week, ahead of today's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, is meant to lower the temperature after Apple's initial app rejection drew widespread condemnation from lawmakers and other developers. But the approval is also only temporary in spirit, meant to give Hey developer Basecamp time to develop a version of the app more in line with Apple's policies -- and Basecamp's approach to that challenge is very aggressive, as a letter posted to its website today details.

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Temperatures are believed to have hit 38C (100F) in one Siberian town after a persistent heatwave.

Large-scale tree planting to fight climate change may backfire, two new studies have found.

Wirecard said on Monday that 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) missing from its accounts was likely never there and it was looking at the sale or closure of parts of its business as it sought to avert a looming cash crunch. From a report: The former German stock market darling, which processes payments for companies including Visa and Mastercard, has seen billions of euros wiped off its value in recent days and began trading in Frankfurt down 40%. Wirecard is scrambling to shore up its finances and has appointed investment bank Houlihan Lokey as it seeks a deal with creditors, after seeing its credit rating slashed to junk by rating agency Moody's on Friday. In a statement on Monday, Wirecard also withdrew financial statements for 2019 and said it was examining cost cuts to address the crisis which has engulfed what was once hailed as a relatively rare success story for the German technology sector. "The Management Board of Wirecard assesses ... that there is a prevailing likelihood that the bank trust account balances in the amount of 1.9 billion EUR do not exist," it said.

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I watched a Dave Chappelle concert last night on Netflix. Great stuff. But. He says the N-word over and over. Even to talk about white people. It gets imprinted in your mind, that's just a fact.

Another example, after watching The Wire, my brain starts using the N-word all the time as my mind drifts. God forbid the word should ever come out of my actual mouth. Someday it will and I will get excoriated.

So maybe our black bros (another word DC uses a lot) could take this into account and maybe not use it so much, at least when the audience has a lot of white people in it. Just sayin.