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Early-onset hypertension may increase dementia risk

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A new study looks at links between age of hypertension diagnosis and dementia risk. Laurent Hamels/Getty Images
  • Researchers recently investigated how age at hypertension diagnosis affects brain volume and dementia risk.
  • Their results suggest people with a high blood pressure (HBP) diagnosis between ages 35 and 44 are 61{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} more likely to develop dementia than those without HBP.
  • The team says doctors should help young adults manage HBP, given lower treatment rates in this age group.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.28 billion people aged 30–79 worldwide have HBP, or hypertension.

HBP is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease and premature death worldwide. It is also a risk factor for diabetes, depression, and dementia.

Previous research has found that HBP before the age of 35 has associations with cognitive impairment in mid-life. Some studies also suggest hypertension in mid-life is a risk factor for dementia. However, the link between later-life hypertension and dementia is inconsistent.

While the link between hypertension, brain volume, and dementia is well-established, researchers are still not sure how the age of hypertension onset affects dementia risk.

In a recent study, researchers from China and Australia used public health data to investigate how the age of hypertension onset affects brain health and the risk of developing dementia.

“Many previous studies have demonstrated that midlife hypertension is associated with an increased risk of dementia, but whether the association of hypertension with brain volume and dementia is affected by age at diagnosis of hypertension is unclear, “ Dr. Xianwen Shang, lead author of the study, told Medical News Today.

“We found hypertension diagnosed in young adulthood or mid-life, but not late life, was associated with smaller brain volumes and an increased risk of dementia. The younger age at diagnosis of hypertension, the larger brain volume reduction was observed,” explained Dr. Shang, a research fellow at the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital in Guangzhou, China.

“Our findings indicate both early- and mid-life are critical periods for the prevention of dementia or brain damage via prevention and treatment of hypertension,” he added.

The authors published their study in the journal Hypertension.

The researchers used publicly available data from UK Biobank, a database that contains anonymous health records from around half a million people in the United Kingdom.

They included 11,399 individuals diagnosed with hypertension before receiving a brain MRI scan between 2014 and 2019. All participants entered the biobank between 2006 and 2010. The researchers split the participants into five groups according to the age they received a hypertension diagnosis:

  • under 35 years
  • 35–44
  • 45–54
  • 55–64
  • over 65

The researchers then matched each individual with hypertension with a control individual who had also undergone an MRI but did not have hypertension. The team matched controls for factors including age, sex, ethnicity, income, education, cholesterol, and body mass index.

By comparing MRIs of individuals with and without dementia, the researchers found that those diagnosed with hypertension between the ages of 35 and 54 had smaller brain volumes compared with those without hypertension.

They also discovered that those diagnosed with hypertension before the age of 35 had the largest reductions in brain volume, and this difference remained significant even if these individuals later normalized their blood pressure.

Next, to investigate dementia, the researchers analyzed health records of 124,053 individuals with HBP at baseline alongside matched individuals who did not have HBP. Over an average follow-up of 11.9 years, 4,626 people developed dementia of some type.

The researchers showed that individuals diagnosed with hypertension between ages 35 and 44 had a 61{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} higher risk of developing dementia than those without hypertension.

In particular, the risk of vascular dementia — a common form of dementia due to impaired blood flow to the brain — was generally higher the earlier individuals received an HBP diagnosis.

Those diagnosed before age 35 were at an 80{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} higher risk, while those diagnosed between 45 and 54 were at a 45{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} higher risk. And those aged 65 years or older were at only a 2{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} higher risk.

However, the researchers found there was no relationship between hypertension diagnosed at any age and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

“There are several mechanisms for the effects of hypertension on the risk of dementia,” said Dr. Shang. “Firstly, hypertension is a well-known primary cause of stroke resulting in an increased risk of dementia, especially vascular dementia.”

“Secondly, a continuous supply of oxygen and glucose from blood to the brain is fundamental for brain and cognitive health. Increased motor stiffness and reduced compliance caused by long-term exposure to hypertension may reduce cerebral blood flow and increase cerebrovascular reactivity, thus resulting in brain damage or cognitive decline,” he added.

“The exact mechanism underlying the link between HBP and dementia risk is unknown and was not the focus of this study,” Dr. Simin Mahinrad, Ph.D., told MNT. Dr. Mahinrad is a research assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, and was not involved in the study.

“However, it is generally believed that interactions between several pathologic factors are most likely responsible. Importantly, hypertension may result in structural and functional alterations in cerebral vessels, such as atherosclerosis, vascular stiffness, vascular remodeling, and impaired cerebral blood flow circulation and regulation.”

– Dr. Mahinrad

“Such alterations in cerebral vessels predispose the brain to several pathologies, such as white matter damage, brain volume loss, deposition of pathologic proteins, and stroke. All of these pathologies have been shown to affect cognitive function negatively and increase the risk for dementia,” Dr. Mahinrad continued.

MNT also spoke with Keenan Walker, Ph.D., from the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, who was not involved in the study. He said:

“Chronic hypertension, especially if untreated, may cause damage to the small vessels, which deliver blood to the brain, making them less efficient and reactive to systemic changes in blood pressure.”

“In this way, hypertension may lead to changes in cerebral blood flow, limiting the brain’s ability to deliver the necessary oxygen and nutrients. [The] age at which hypertension begins and the duration of hypertension seem to matter. Those who have hypertension begin earlier in life will likely have much more exposure to the adverse effects of HBP on end organs, such as the brain.” he added.

The researchers conclude that their findings highlight the importance of age during a hypertension diagnosis in the link between hypertension, brain volume, and dementia.

They say scientists should focus more on managing blood pressure among young adults given high levels of unawareness and lower treatment rates in this age group.

The researchers explain that their study cannot prove a causal relationship because of its observational design.

They also say that early dementia can begin decades before diagnosis and, therefore, before a hypertension diagnosis. With this in mind, scientists need to conduct more research to confirm the relationship between dementia and the age of hypertension diagnosis.

“Whether hypertension diagnosed at a younger age is associated with a larger decrease in brain volumes remains to be explored in studies with brain structure measured at multiple time points.”

– Dr. Shang

Another issue is that determining when healthcare professionals diagnosed hypertension relies on participant memory. As Dr. Walker explained:

“This is subject to inaccuracies, and a proportion of participants may have gone with undiagnosed hypertension for some time. Another limitation is the inability [to] differentiate Alzheimer’s dementia from vascular dementia with a high degree of accuracy. Biomarkers would have been helpful for this purpose,” he added.

Dr. Mahinrad explained another limitation: “The effect of antihypertensive treatment on the results has not been reported. This is important because antihypertensive drugs are known to affect neurocognitive measures, and their impact on brain volume within the context of [the] study is unknown.”

Dr. Mahinrad also explained that “the generalizability of these results to other populations with different ethnic backgrounds remains unknown.”

“This study has several strengths: a population-based study of a large number of individuals — around 20,000 participants — in the U.K., [the] inclusion of both males and females, rigorous statistical analyses to minimize sources of bias, and use of fully automated quantitative MRI data,” said Dr. Mahinrad.

Dr. Shang added, “Future longitudinal studies with longer follow-up duration are needed to examine whether hypertension diagnosed at a younger age was associated with a larger excessive relative risk of dementia over two or more decades.”

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140,000 kids lost a caregiver to Covid

Tens of countless numbers of kids in the U.S. have misplaced a father or mother or a caregiver to Covid-19, according to analysis revealed Thursday in Pediatrics — a devastating consequence of the coronavirus pandemic that specialists say will have ramifications for years to occur.

The exploration, which pulls from a large vary of data about births, fatalities and home compositions, approximated that 129,630 youngsters misplaced a most important caregiver to Covid-19.

Yet another 22,007, according to the new exploration, misplaced a secondary caregiver, this kind of as a grandparent who was residing in the house. 

Even that might be an undervalue, mentioned the study’s direct author, Susan Hillis, a member of the Facilities for Disorder Handle and Prevention’s Covid-19 Response Group. The research included data only from April 2020 by means of the conclusion of June 2021 — just as the supercontagious delta variant was commencing to take maintain.

“At the time a child loses a mother or father or caregiver, they are likely to want assistance right until they’re at minimum 18 to 24,” Hillis mentioned. “It will be a issue that lasts for several many years.”

The president of the Robert Wooden Johnson Foundation, Dr. Richard Besser, a former acting director of the CDC, agreed.

“When we communicate about Covid, so a great deal of the discussion is all-around how quite a few conditions of Covid and how quite a few men and women have died and how numerous folks have been hospitalized,” said Besser, who was not concerned with the research.

“What this review details to is that the impacts of Covid go way outside of that,” he claimed.

Besser, a pediatrician, explained youngsters who eliminate a most important caregiver are at possibility of other difficulties, these kinds of as the possibility of eviction and owning to swap educational institutions.

Almost a quarter of U.S. young children reside with just 1 mum or dad, according to Pew Exploration unveiled in 2019, the newest year for which knowledge are accessible.

The exact same 12 months, an approximated 4.5 million kids lived with a grandparent who presented housing, according to the Pediatrics study. Black, Hispanic and Asian young children have been 2 times as very likely as white kids to live with a grandparent. 

The new estimate of youngsters left without a parent is significantly better than prior assessments have been. 

Rachel Kidman, a social epidemiologist at Stony Brook Drugs in New York, reported in April in JAMA Pediatrics that up to 43,000 U.S. children were being impacted by a mum or dad who died of Covid.

Kidman said she was saddened to see the rise in the quantities of influenced young children.

“We have experienced additional deaths in 2021 considering the fact that the vaccine turned accessible than we experienced in all of 2020,” she mentioned. “These deaths are skewing youthful, which signifies additional moms and dads are dying.”

Losing their mom and dad will have very long-expression impacts on the lives of children, Kidman claimed. They are “the most significant adults in their lifetime — the human being who nurtures them, who shields them, who supplies for them.”

The new CDC research also located great racial and ethnic disparities. While 1 out of 753 white children missing a caregiver to Covid-19, 1 out of 412 Hispanic youngsters were in the same way affected, and 1 in 310 Black young children experienced a parent or a caregiver die.

The study found that 1 in 168 American Indian and Native Alaskan little ones dropped a parent.

Down load the NBC News app for full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

The ratios deviate substantially from the real racial and ethnic breakdown of the U.S.

“It is obvious that this pandemic has strike each and every neighborhood in America,” Besser claimed, “but it has not strike every group with the identical ferocity.”

Census knowledge exhibit that about 60 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the U.S. inhabitants is white and that about 40 percent establish with racial or ethnic minority groups.

In contrast, 65 p.c of young children who shed moms and dads to Covid-19 are in racial and ethnic minority groups, compared to 35 p.c who are white, Hillis said.

“It is seriously a single of the most serious disparities I have ever noticed,” she said.

CORRECTION (Oct. 7 2021, 9:51 a.m. ET): Headlines on a previous edition of this report misstated who has been shed to Covid. 140,000 kids misplaced a guardian or caregiver to Covid, not just a mum or dad. 

Follow NBC Wellness on Twitter & Facebook. 

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A Climate Activist Walked in the Louis Vuitton Fashion Show

PARIS — A weather activist, bearing a white banner with the terms “Overconsumption = Extinction” in daring block lettering, joined the models on the runway for the Louis Vuitton demonstrate at the Louvre museum, the final celebration of Paris Manner 7 days.

Marie Cohuet, 26, walked the entire length of the catwalk and even posed for a few seconds in entrance of cameras prior to security guards hustled her away. Outside the house, about 30 activists from three environmental businesses, including Extinction Rebel, staged an alternate display, wearing fuel masks, when enthusiasts and passers-by viewed the arrivals of attendees which include Venus Williams and Regina King.

“We marched to desire that vogue recognize that the environment is burning,” Ms. Cohuet wrote on Twitter later on that night.

It was not Extinction Rebellion’s first flip on the catwalk. For the duration of the Dior spring 2020 display, one particular of its supporters experienced popped up with a yellow banner that examine: “We Are All Vogue Victims.” For various moments showgoers, which includes Dior’s main government, weren’t confident whether she was portion of the finale.

And it’s possible not to be the last. “For the future vogue months,” said Franck Deyris, who is in cost of community relations for Extinction Insurrection France, “we would like the big groups to believe that we can disrupt some thing that they arrange a prolonged time in progress and in which they spend a whole lot of funds.”

Ms. Cohuet mentioned she and 4 other protesters had taken edge of Catherine Deneuve’s arrival to sneak into the demonstrate, pretending to be element of the staff members, but she was the only 1 who managed to get onto the catwalk.

“We selected LVMH symbolically due to the fact it is 1 of the most influential homes,” she reported, referring to Louis Vuitton’s mum or dad group, the world’s most significant luxury products company by income. “LVMH would make frantic declarations about being the most state-of-the-art in the sector in conditions of limiting their impacts, but we see that in fact it is not accurate.”

A spokesman for Louis Vuitton claimed the brand name had no comment.

Ms. Cohuet mentioned the guards took her banner and ejected her by way of a door opening onto the Rue de Rivoli. Two of the activists accompanying her, she explained, have been arrested and spent the evening in law enforcement custody before they had been launched this morning, their situations dismissed.

A joint assertion issued right after the display by the French offices of Extinction Rise up and Youth for Local weather and by Les Amis de la Terre, or Buddies of the Earth, denounced the environmental and social impacts of the style business and requested the French government to impose an speedy reduction in manufacturing ranges.

Ms. Cohuet — who is a spokeswoman for two weather organizations, the French business of Alternatiba and ANV-COP21 — claimed she grew to become involved in activism 5 decades back, soon after finding out at Sciences Po, 1 of France’s most prestigious universities, and doing the job on weather transform concerns in Kyrgyzstan. “I understood that we ended up in a critical scenario, and it appeared crucial to me to set all my strength into collective mobilization,” she reported.

As for her runway appearance, Ms. Cohuet mentioned she considers it a good results. “Our claims are out there,” she mentioned. “We hope that this will be a spark.”

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Daily Business Briefing

Oct. 7, 2021, 10:44 a.m. ET

Oct. 7, 2021, 10:44 a.m. ET

ImageElon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk last year. Some investors are trying to vote Kimbal Musk off Tesla’s board.
Credit…Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Shareholders of Tesla will vote on Thursday on proposals aimed at forcing the electric-car maker to be more transparent and accountable in its employee dealings, just days after a jury ordered the company to pay $137 million to a former worker who said he was subjected to racism.

The votes will take place virtually at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, where some investors are also hoping to oust two directors picked by management — James Murdoch, the former 21st Century Fox executive, and Kimbal Musk, the brother of Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

If any of these efforts are successful, it would represent a big rebuke to Tesla, the dominant maker of electric cars and a Wall Street phenomenon, and to Mr. Musk’s control over the company. Tesla is the world’s most valuable automaker by far and its shares have a devoted following among professional and individual investors.

The company is on track to sell about a million cars this year and is planning a major expansion, including by building a factory near Austin, Texas, where the meeting is being hosted, and one near Berlin. Mr. Musk said last year that he had moved to Texas, where his other company SpaceX has a site for launching rockets.

Activist shareholders have submitted five proposals to compel Tesla to disclose more information about its efforts to diversify its work force, how it handles employee disputes and its human rights record. The proposals also include calls for greater oversight over how Tesla manages employees and for requiring directors to seek re-election every year, instead of every three years.

Tesla’s board opposes all those measures and has encouraged investors to re-elect Mr. Murdoch and Kimbal Musk.

A federal jury on Monday dealt Tesla a blow by siding with Owen Diaz, a former contractor who said he faced repeated racist harassment while working at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, Calif., in 2015 and 2016. The jury ordered Tesla to pay Mr. Diaz $137 million. Tesla faces similar accusations from dozens of others in a class-action lawsuit.

Under a proposal from Calvert Research and Management, a firm that focuses on responsible investment and is owned by Morgan Stanley, Tesla would have to publish annual reports about its diversity and inclusion efforts.

Another proposal, by Nia Impact Capital, which owns fewer than 1,000 Tesla shares, would require the carmaker to publish a report on its practice of using mandatory arbitration to resolve employee disputes. That practice, Nia argued in its proposal, presents “a long-tail risk” to Tesla and can make it harder for companies to identify and address widespread discrimination.

Separately, ISS, a firm that advises investors on shareholder votes and corporate governance issues, has opposed the election of Mr. Murdoch and Kimbal Musk because it says the board hasn’t justified the compensation it pays to some of its members, including nearly $6 million last year to Robyn Denholm, who chairs the board, and more than $9 million to Hiromichi Mizuno, mainly in stock option grants.

While Mr. Murdoch received only $32,500 for serving on the board last year and Mr. Musk received $20,000, the amounts paid to the other members are much higher than is typical at similar large corporations, according to ISS. Because Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Musk are the only members up for election, they should be denied a chance to continue serving on the board, ISS said.

“Accordingly, support is not warranted for directors responsible for approving director pay,” the firm said in a note to clients last month.

Mr. Musk and Mr. Murdoch hold shares and options in the company that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the current share price, according to Tesla’s most recent proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tesla’s board said the pair should remain. Mr. Murdoch provides the company with deep executive experience, knowledge of international markets and experience with adopting new technologies, it said in a securities filing. Mr. Musk brings experience in retail and consumer markets and technology companies. Mr. Murdoch has been on Tesla’s board since 2017 and Kimbal Musk has been a board member since 2004.

Peter Eavis contributed reporting.

U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday, adding to Wednesday’s gains, as investors reacted with relief to the news of an agreement in the Senate to raise the federal borrowing limit and pull the country from the brink of a debt default.

The S&P 500 gained about 1.5 percent in early trading, while the Nasdaq composite was up 1.6 percent. European stock indexes also rallied on Thursday, rebounding from a sharp decline the day before. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 1.5 percent.

The rally picked up steam after top Senate Democrats and Republicans in the Senate on Thursday said they had struck an agreement that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised through early December.

“It’s our hope that we can get this done as soon as today,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor. He did not offer details about the agreement.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, had said on Wednesday that Republicans would allow Democrats to vote on a short-term extension after weeks of disagreement over raising the debt ceiling. News of Mr. McConnell’s offer helped Wall Street rebound in late trading on Wednesday and end the day with a small gain.

Initial jobless claims for regular benefits declined last week, falling 38,000 to 326,000 after three consecutive weekly increases. For the week ending Sept. 18, about 4.2 million people were receiving some form of unemployment assistance, down 854,638 from the previous week.

“The combination of easing labor supply constraints, strong labor demand and an improving Covid outlook should spur further labor market progress in coming months,” Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a note.

Investors will also be keeping an eye on the monthly jobs report for September, set to be released on Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are forecasting that the U.S. economy added 500,000 jobs during the month, a sharp gain from the 235,000 added in August.

Credit…Brian Snyder/Reuters

Lael Brainard, a Federal Reserve governor, offered the clearest signal yet that America’s central bank is going to begin seriously assessing big banks’ exposure to climate-related financial risks.

Ms. Brainard said the Fed is in the process of developing climate-related scenarios for use in bank’s safety checkups, which are often called stress tests. She also endorsed the use of supervisory guidance — the Fed’s recommendations to banks — to encourage financial institutions to curb their exposures.

“I anticipate it will be helpful to provide supervisory guidance for large banking institutions in their efforts to appropriately measure, monitor, and manage material climate-related risks, following the lead of a number of other countries,” Ms. Brainard said, speaking from remarks prepared for a Fed research conference.

Ms. Brainard said that the Fed is also assessing climate-related risks from a broader perspective — trying to game out what melting ice caps and rampant wildfires could mean for the financial system as a whole.

“We are developing scenario analysis to model the possible financial risks associated with climate change and assess the resilience of individual financial institutions and the financial system to these risks,” she said.

The fact that it is developing climate scenarios puts the Fed more in line with its global counterparts, including the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, that have been examining what climate-related risks could mean for the banking sector. It also comes at a time when the Fed — and Jerome H. Powell, its leader — have faced backlash for moving slowly toward a more concerted climate push.

Mr. Powell had also suggested that the Fed would test banks’ exposure to climate problems, though his remarks, to lawmakers during testimony last week, were not as definitive or as detailed as Ms. Brainard’s. He explained that the Fed’s goal was to make sure regulated banks could manage any of the risks that threats like climate change pose.

“Scenario analysis is almost certainly going to be one of the principal tools for doing exactly that,” Mr. Powell said.

The central bank oversees the nation’s largest banks, including institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

Credit…Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times

Anticipating strong holiday travel, United Airlines said on Thursday that it will offer 3,500 daily flights within the United States in December, the most in any month since the pandemic began.

United said it plans to offer 91 percent as many domestic flights in December as it did in the same month in 2019, though the company’s final schedule could still change. That month, United will debut new direct routes — and restart a handful of others.

The airline plans to place an emphasis on flights connecting the Midwest to warm-weather destinations like Las Vegas and Orlando or ferrying travelers to ski slopes. Flight searches for holiday travel are up 16 percent compared with the same time in 2019, the airline said.

“We’re seeing a lot of pent-up demand in our data and are offering a December schedule that centers on the two things people want most for the holidays: warm sunshine and fresh snow,” said Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning and scheduling at United.

United and other airlines enjoyed strong demand this summer because of widespread vaccinations, though the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus slowed that momentum going into the fall. The industry had hoped that corporate travel would restart in a big way after Labor Day, but many professionals have not returned to offices full time and business travel remains down.

Overall, air travel appears to have settled at about 75 percent of 2019 levels in September, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration. The Biden administration’s plan to relax travel restrictions on vaccinated foreigners starting next month is expected to provide another boost, especially around the holidays.

United said it expects the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after the holiday to be particularly busy. It also expects Thursday, Dec. 23, and Sunday, Jan. 2, to be popular travel days.

Credit…Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

NBCUniversal has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Ron Meyer, a former executive vice chairman of Universal Pictures, according to two people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agreement was confidential.

Mr. Meyer, who began running the film studio in 1995 and segued into a chairman role in 2013, admitted last year that he had made secret payments to a woman in an effort to cover up a decade-old affair. When he left NBCUniversal in August 2020, he still had a year and a half left on his contract.

The settlement was reported earlier by the industry trade publication Deadline. One person briefed on the negotiations said on Wednesday that NBCUniversal had agreed to pay Mr. Meyer roughly $15 million. A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal declined to comment.

At the time of Mr. Meyer’s ousting, he released a statement claiming to be the victim of an extortion plot. “I recently disclosed to my family and the company that I made a settlement, under threat, with a woman outside the company who had made false accusations against me,” he said in the statement.

That woman turned out to be Charlotte Kirk, a young British actress who was also involved with the former Warner Bros. chairman Kevin Tsujihara in a similar scandal that cost Mr. Tsujihara his job in 2019.

Mr. Meyer had a storied Hollywood career. After dropping out of high school at 15, he joined the Marine Corps at 17 and started his movie career at 19 as a messenger for a Hollywood talent agency. After working at William Morris as a television agent, he went on to found the Creative Artists Agency with Michael S. Ovitz and Bill Haber. At CAA, Mr. Meyer represented stars like Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.

During his 18-years in charge of Universal, Mr. Meyer led the studio through four disruptive ownership changes. The company became the property of its current owner, Comcast, in 2011.

Brian X. Chen, our Tech Fix columnist, is done with paying for a virtual private network, a service that claims to protect your privacy when you’re connected to a public Wi-Fi network at the local coffee shop, the airport or a hotel.

Here’s why:

  • Many of the most popular VPN services are now also less trustworthy than in the past because they have been bought by larger companies with shady track records. That’s a deal-breaker when it comes to using a VPN service, which intercepts our internet traffic.

  • Many casual users may not even need a VPN anymore. Most sites now support HTTPS, a security protocol that encrypts traffic and solves most of the aforementioned problems. This means that VPNs are no longer an essential tool when most people browse the web on a public Wi-Fi network, said Dan Guido, the chief executive of Trail of Bits, a cybersecurity firm.

  • For those who would still prefer not to browse the web on a public Wi-Fi network, there’s an easy solution included on most smartphones: the personal hot spot, a feature for wirelessly sharing a smartphone’s cellular data connection with other devices, like your computer.

Some people still benefit from using a VPN. Here’s how to create your own →

Credit…Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The fifth week of the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing start-up Theranos, offered only brief moments of drama amid long stretches of technical tedium.

Ms. Holmes is fighting 12 counts of fraud for her role in building Theranos into a $9 billion company that collapsed when it was revealed that its blood tests did not work. She has pleaded not guilty; if convicted, she faces up to 20 years in jail.

Ms. Holmes’s reputation as a tech and business prodigy — and the intense interest in her downfall — has turned the trial into a media spectacle. But a month in, the minutiae of the case, which hinges on whether Ms. Holmes intended to mislead investors, has begun to drag.

While the trial usually takes place three days a week, Friday’s session was canceled for Columbus Day. Here are takeaways from the week.

Adam Rosendorff, who was Theranos’s lab director in 2013 and 2014, testified for six days about highly technical elements of the company’s inner workings. Jurors’ eyes glazed over at detailed discussions of Immulite reagents, Advia machines, immunoassays, Vacutainers, and an array of acronyms like Q.C. (quality control) and H.C.G. (a hormone test).

Even Judge Edward Davila, typically reserved and patrician, hinted at exasperation as lawyers from both sides sparred over whether Dr. Rosendorff could be questioned about investigations that happened at companies he worked for after Theranos. The defense had already had four days to poke holes in Dr. Rosendorff’s testimony, Judge Davila said.

Despite the tedium, Dr. Rosendorff’s testimony was critical to the prosecution’s case. He described repeated instances of irregular and inaccurate results in Theranos’s blood tests, which he said made him uncomfortable and ultimately led him to leave. He said he left because he “wanted to join a reputable company whose mission I believed in.”

Lance Wade, a lawyer for Ms. Holmes, attacked Dr. Rosendorff’s testimony by muddying that narrative. When Mr. Wade noted Theranos’s initial offerings were merely a “soft launch” for friends and family, downplaying any issues with the blood tests, Dr. Rosendorff did not flinch. “Those are patients,” he said.

“It was a soft launch for friends and family,” Mr. Wade repeated.

“It was a patient launch,” Dr. Rosendorff said.


Who’s Who in the Elizabeth Holmes Trial

Erin Woo

Erin Woo📍Reporting from San Jose, Calif.

Who’s Who in the Elizabeth Holmes Trial

Erin Woo

Erin Woo📍Reporting from San Jose, Calif.

Carlos Chavarria for The New York Times

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the blood testing start-up Theranos, stands trial for two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud.

Here are some of the key figures in the case →

Item 1 of 9

On Wednesday morning, before the proceedings, Judge Davila called a juror into the courtroom to discuss Buddhism. The juror, an older Asian woman, said she had become increasingly distressed about the trial. Her Buddhist practice is centered on love and forgiveness, she said, and it would be difficult for her to vote to convict Ms. Holmes. The juror said she could not follow the judge’s instructions to avoid thinking about punishment.

“What if she had to be in there for a long, long time,” she said, her voice breaking. The juror said she would blame herself.

Lawyers from both sides agreed to dismiss her.

The replacement juror, a young woman, had her own concerns. English was not her first language, she said. “It’s her future,” she said of Ms. Holmes. “I could make a mistake.”

The juror said she had understood all of the proceedings thus far. Judge Davila did not allow her to leave.

Keeping the jury together looms large over the four-month trial. In the first week, a juror was dismissed after learning her job would not compensate her for the time away. Each day, Judge Davila has asked the jurors whether they have been exposed to any media coverage that could sway their views.

The pandemic is also a risk. Even though all jurors are vaccinated and wear masks, one day of trial was already canceled because of a juror’s potential exposure to the coronavirus.

Three alternate jurors remain.

Steve Burd, the former chief executive of Safeway, on Wednesday began telling the story of Safeway’s partnership with Theranos, which ultimately unraveled.

Mr. Burd met Ms. Holmes in 2011 and was immediately impressed. He described the promises she had made about Theranos’s technology, testifying that he was excited to bring fast and cheap blood testing to Safeway’s grocery stores. People could shop for groceries while they waited for their results and picked up their prescriptions at Safeway’s pharmacies, he said.

The companies struck a deal for Safeway to pour as much as $85 million into Theranos by investing, buying its equipment and more. The negotiations were all done directly with Ms. Holmes with no lawyer present, a move Mr. Burd said he found “unusual.”

His testimony continues next week.

  • A digital-age magazine giant was born on Wednesday with the announcement that Dotdash, a publishing unit of Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp, had reached an agreement to acquire Meredith, the publisher of People, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly and about 40 other titles and digital brands. The purchase price is roughly $2.7 billion, or $42.18 per share, the companies said in a joint announcement. READ MORE →

  • Twitter said on Wednesday that it would sell MoPub, a platform for selling mobile advertising, to the marketing company AppLovin for $1.05 billion in cash. The sale will allow Twitter to focus on expanding other products, including performance-based advertising and commerce opportunities for small and medium-size businesses, its executives said. Twitter acquired MoPub in 2013 and reportedly paid around $350 million in stock. MoPub generated about $188 million in revenue during 2020, Twitter said in a statement about the sale. READ MORE →

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Dodgers vs Cardinals: Live NL wild-card game updates, highlights as Chris Taylor’s walk-off HR sends Dodgers to NLCS

Tommy Edman prospects off the recreation with a bloop one to appropriate area off Max Scherzer, which he follows up by thieving next on a 2-1 depend to Paul Goldschmidt, who would then be walked by Scherzer on a skipped entire-depend changeup. Following Edman advanced to 3rd on a Tyler O’Neill fly ball, he arrived home on a Will Smith passed ball to give the Cardinals an early 1- direct.

Rob Biertempfel, Pirates defeat writer: I’m often stunned when I listen to that Dodgers Stadium is 3rd-oldest park in the majors. It so timeless, so pure. Guaranteed, there are not the bells and whistles you obtain at Oracle Park or PNC Park or Camden Yards, but Dodger Stadium stays of the ideal places to see a ball activity.

Eno Sarris, baseball author: There’s a ton of heritage involving these two teams. Incredibly, they’ve played 2091 game titles and the Cardinals direct the collection 1047-1044! Can the Dodgers close the gap?

Fabian Ardaya, Dodgers beat writer: Cardinals have plenty of pace. Something to enjoy tonight with how opponents have attacked the Dodgers when they get on the bases this year.

Nick Groke, Rockies conquer author: Currently being a few of aged-timey golf equipment, the Dodgers and Cardinals are, of study course, widespread postseason opponents. They have confronted each individual in six postseasons, which is third-most in baseball’s historical past. And the Cardinals gained four of the past 5 matchups. The Yankees and Giants have noticed each other 7 instances in the postseason. The Reds vs. Pirates and Yankees vs. Twins have confronted off most typically, in 11 postseasons every single.

Biertempfel: You’re exhibiting your age, Nick, with that Pirates-Reds reference They fulfilled in the 2013 wild-card game, of course, but most notably in the ’70s when it was the Lumber Enterprise vs the Major Red Machine. As the Pirates beat author, I have seen Adam Wainwright toss far more good games than I can try to remember. Then most modern was back in August, when he threw a two-strike shutout at PNC Park — on 88 pitches! He struck out 7 and walked none. Loads of smooth make contact with. He ran the two-seamer to both equally sides of the plate and suckered the Pirates with untouchable curveballs at 70-78 mph. A masterpiece. It occurred a few of weeks in advance of Waino’s 40th birthday and manufactured him the oldest pitcher to blank the Pirates considering the fact that Phil Niekro (42) in 1981.

Katie Woo, Cardinals defeat writer: Really standard Cardinals compact ball led to their very first operate of the match. Tommy Edman timed up Max Scherzer’s curveball properly and blooped it into right industry for a leadoff solitary. He highly developed to 2nd when Paul Goldschmidt walked and took 3rd very easily on Tyler O’Neill’s foul out to deep suitable. When Scherzer’s wild pitch scampered absent from Will Smith, Edman raced house and scored effortlessly.

St. Louis has ran the bases aggressively and competently all 12 months extended. In a winner-take-all recreation like this, gaining an more 90 toes is essential. Their pace and clever baserunning could definitely clearly show up as an gain below.

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VW is planning to lease used EVs in strategy to keep control of batteries

MUNICH — Volkswagen options to crack an field barrier and supply made use of-car leases on its ID household of electric powered vehicles, which include people in North The united states, as a strategy to maintain command over their beneficial batteries, VW executives explained to Automotive Information Europe sister publication Automotive Information.

Speaking on Monday with journalists right here at the Munich automobile display, Volkswagen Team CEO Herbert Diess stated the secondary leases would make it possible for VW to recycle the useful battery packs into new uses, which includes house electric power facilities and fast chargers.

“In Europe, we are attempting to get a second lease and even a 3rd lease, and hold the motor vehicle in our palms,” Diess informed a group of American automotive journalists, adding later on that the exact same system would be rolled out in North The usa. “Battery lifestyle, we consider today is about 1,000 charging cycles and all-around 350,000 kilometers [about 215,000 miles], something like that. So, the battery would probably dwell lengthier than the automobile, and we want to get keep of the battery. We never want to give the battery away.”

Diess stated the battery’s value survives even as the value of the vehicle encompassing it depreciates more than time, and he said that worth could aid hold residual values large, making secondary leases much more cost-effective.

“There currently is an indication that residuals for electric powered automobiles could possibly be greater than for [internal combustion] cars and trucks for the reason that, even if the automobile is entirely worthless, even now there is a battery,” that may perhaps even now have 70 or 80 per cent of its first electrical power storage ability, Diess reported.

Due to the fact it started arriving in the U.S. in March, about 80 p.c of the 6,230 VW ID4s the brand name has marketed in the U.S. have been leased, explained Scott Keogh, CEO of VW Group of America.

“We will have the second lease merchandise we have preplanned it now,” Keogh explained, adding that the preset residual values would retain EVs in customers’ hands for up to eight yrs, at which time they would be returned, their batteries stripped out, and the car recycled back into uncooked components.

“The process for our organization is to genuinely try out to continue to keep maintain of the batteries, and likely get into a second or 3rd lease cycle for the car or truck and then reuse the batteries,” Diess described. “In the locations, it has to be labored out, it has to be agreed with the dealers, but we would like to maintain each one particular of the batteries endlessly.”

In other remarks Monday:

* VW brand name CEO Ralf Brandstaetter exposed that the U.S. is expected to sooner or later receive a 3rd EV design, a fastback-encouraged sedan identified as the ID Aero. The vehicle will be created on the automaker’s modular electric system, known as MEB, and need to have greater assortment than the ID4 compact crossover and the ID Excitement microbus, envisioned to get there in the U.S. late upcoming year.

* Keogh and Brandstaetter stated that the U.S. market place would also finally see an Atlas-sized a few-row EV crossover, however its timing and specific dimension stay beneath discussion.

* Keogh mentioned that in 2020, VW had recorded its very first yearly revenue in North The usa in approximately a decade, and its most lucrative 12 months in decades. He did not disclose the dimension of the financial gain in the area, but stated it was a “$700 million turnaround” from its functionality in 2019, when it dropped funds in the location. He credited powerful revenue of the superior-revenue Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport crossovers as driving the profitability.