CNN BUSINESS | The FTC vows to ‘root out’ illegal repair restrictions on phones, fridges, tractors and more

(CNN) – US regulators are vowing to make it easier for consumers and independent service shops to repair commercial products like smartphones without having to rely on those products’ manufacturers, effectively backing a principle known as “right to repair.”

On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission led by Chair Lina Khan voted unanimously to condemn restrictions imposed by manufacturers on products that make them more difficult to repair independently. The decision commits the FTC to investigating restrictions that may be illegal under both the nation’s antitrust laws as well as a key consumer protection law governing product warranties, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

In a statement, FTC Chair Lina Khan vowed to use the agency’s full range of tools to “root out” illegal repair restrictions.  —read more—

CNN style Architecture | WAF Awards 2021: World’s best new architecture revealed

Serving as a community center and observation deck, Nordic Office of Architecture’s Nanchang Waves, in the Chinese city of Nanchang, features a double helix-inspired design. Courtesy Nordic Office of Architecture

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has unveiled its prestigious shortlist of the best new buildings and landscape designs from around the globe.

The 200-strong list spans commercial, residential and cultural projects, including the sweeping open-air Chinese Culture Exhibition Center in Lanzhou and a plan to preserve Abu Dhabi’s oldest building, the Qasr Al Hosn Fort. In the Chinese seaside city of Sanya, meanwhile, a verdant mangrove park has been restored after three decades of pollution and development.

But smaller, farther-flung endeavors were also recognized. In the remote Swiss Jura Mountains, a whimsical green-topped spiral rises out of the landscape, housing a new museum by luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet. And off the coast of Iran, on Hormuz Island, a crop of colorful domed tourist residences aims to connect visitors to the local community.  –read more—

CNN INVESTIGATES | ‘There’s no way I can pay for this:’ One of America’s largest hospital chains has been suing thousands of patients during the pandemic

(CNN) – As the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall, a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state’s rural heartland. Robin Bull, a part-time nurse, remembered an ambulance “coming and going constantly” on one especially scary morning, rushing residents to Moberly Regional Medical Center, the local hospital.

But even as Bull was helping send patients to Moberly Regional, the hospital was in the process of suing her and at least one other former employee at the nursing home. They were two of more than 600 former patients that the hospital has sued over medical bills during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of court records.

Moberly Regional sued Bull last May for $9,281, costs that Bull said came from an emergency room visit for food poisoning several years ago. After a judge ruled in the hospital’s favor late last year, the company filed a motion to start garnishing part of her roughly $850-per-month salary.  —read more—

CNN style Arts | Rarely-seen photos tell the story of America’s Black Civil War soldiers

A carte de visite of Lieutenant Peter Vogelsang, who served with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

The emancipation of slaves is central to the story of the American Civil War. But as curator and photographic historian Deborah Willis discovered growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, the Black people who served in the conflict are often ignored by the history books.

As she would later learn, almost 180,000 Black soldiers fought for the North in the name of ending slavery. By the end of the war, a tenth of the Union Army was made up of free African American men.

“When Black soldiers were fighting for their emancipation, they were fighting for not only their own (freedom), but that of their families and other Black people,” Willis said in a video interview. “They felt the cause was necessary to fight.”  —read more—

CNN HEROES | A team of high schoolers built a device that allows people in wheelchairs to walk their babies

Chelsie and Jeremy King use the WheeStroll Wheelchair Stroller Attachment to take their baby Phoenix on a walk.

(CNN) – For many parents, taking their babies on a walk or cradling them to sleep is a blessing that’s easy to take for granted. But for Jeremy King, it’s something he feared he would never be able to do.

That was until a group of high school students in Maryland designed and built a wheelchair stroller attachment so that people with disabilities could walk their babies.

The idea was born when students at Bullis School, a private K-12 school in Potomac, discovered that one of their teachers was expecting a baby, and her husband, who had impaired mobility, may never be able to walk his own child.

In 2017, Chelsie King, a 32-year-old middle-school theater teacher at Bullis, had been engaged to her now-husband Jeremy King, 37, for only three months before they discovered he had a brain tumor. That October, he underwent an eight-hour surgery to remove it, and was left with a number of challenges, including an inability to balance. He was a nurse anesthetist who had traveled to Africa for medical missions before the surgery.  —read more—

CNN style Arts | ‘Donation of the century’: South Korea unveils late Samsung boss’ 23,000-strong art collection

“Clearing after Rain on Mount Inwang,” created by court painter Jeong Seon in 1751. Credit: Courtesy National Museum of Korea

Museum visitors have been given a first look at some of the 23,000 artworks donated to South Korea from the collection of Samsung’s late chairman, Lee Kun-hee.

Two exhibitions of the items opened in Seoul on Wednesday, just months after the businessman’s family announced the donation as it seeks to settle an inheritance tax bill of over 12 trillion won ($10.4 billion).

The works are showing at the National Museum of Korea and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), the recipients of Lee’s vast collection. Items on display include centuries-old antiques and contemporary Korean artworks, while paintings by Western names like Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet are set to be unveiled next year.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Software vendor caught up in ransomware attack obtains decryptor key

(CNN Business) – Kaseya, the software firm whose remote access tool was used to deliver REvil ransomware to hundreds of businesses around the world this month in a devastating supply-chain attack, has obtained a decryptor key allowing it to unlock networks seized by the malware, the company confirmed to CNN Business.

Kaseya is currently helping to restore the systems of customers whose networks were still locked down by REvil’s software, it said.

“I can confirm we have received a decryptor and are currently working to assist the customers impacted by the attack,” said Kaseya spokesperson Dana Liedholm. “We can’t share the source but can say it’s from a trusted third party.”  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Millions of jobs and a shortage of applicants. Welcome to the new economy

There’s a problem at James Hook’s chicken farms, and it has nothing to do with poultry.

P.D. Hook, a hatchery that supplies one third of the chickens sold in the United Kingdom, should be humming along as the economy roars back to life. But the company is short about 40 farm workers, double the usual number of vacancies.

At the same time, there’s a severe deficit of truck drivers, making it difficult for P.D. Hook to transport its birds to the factories where they are cut, portioned and packed. And when the chickens do arrive, there’s a shortage of staff at the processing plants, too.

“It’s all come together at a time when everybody wants more of everything,” said Hook, the company’s managing director. “It’s a perfect storm.”  —read more—

CNN entertainment | Prince’s ‘Hot Summer’ will turn your pandemic blues around

(CNN) – Prince may have left us five years ago, but his music lives on and remains always right on time.

His estate and Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, have debuted a previously unreleased song by the late legend, titled “Hot Summer.”

The single is from “Welcome 2 America,” an album that Prince recorded in 2010 that will be released from his legendary Paisley Park vault in standard and deluxe editions on July 30.  —read more—