US and World News for July 12

AT&T Data Breach: The call and text message records of tens of millions of AT&T customers, almost every customer, were exposed in a massive data breach, the company revealed this morning. AT&T said the compromised data includes the telephone numbers of “nearly all” of its cellular customers and the customers of wireless providers that use its network between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022. The records also include logs of every message between AT&T customers and customers on other networks, data which includes the total number of interactions and duration of all calls. AT&T said that the contents of those communications were not breached.

SpaceX Grounded: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a load of Starlink satellites, experienced a major failure after taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday evening. The second stage of the rocket, which is responsible for taking the spacecraft into orbit abruptly cut out and did not reach its intended height before releasing a payload of Starlink internet satellites at a lower than intended orbit. Both SpaceX and Starlink are owned by Elon Musk, who shared on the social media platform he owns which was formerly known as Twitter that the upper phase apparently exploded. The FAA has grounded all Falcon 9 rockets, which have carried humans into space, pending a complete investigation.

Wholesale Prices Rise: Despite good news in recent days regarding inflation and a small drop in consumer prices, wholesale prices rose through June, with the Producer Price Index, a measurement of average price for goods and services for producers and manufacturers, rose to 2.6 percent for the year ending in June, a rise of 0.2 percent after staying flat at 2.4 percent through May. Economists however indicated that PPI rates can be erratic, with certain categories changing rapidly.

Milwaukee Man Killed by Hotel: Dvontaye Mitchell, a Black man, died after being pinned to the ground at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee on June 30. Two hotel security guards held Mitchell, who was staying at the Hyatt Regency, down outside the hotel, with recently circulated video drawing attention to the incident. Aimbridge Hospitality, the operator of the hotel, has fired the two guards. Local authorities told media that they have filed four felony murder charges in connection with the incident.

Niger Prison Break: The high-security Koutoukale prison in Niger saw a prison break on Thursday night. The facility holds many militants, including those associated with Islamist groups such as Boko Haram and al-Qaeda. Local authorities are searching for the inmates across the surrounding areas and imposed curfews in the neighboring community of Tillaberi but shared no details. Jihadist forces across the region have been a threat to local governments in the region since 2012.

Germany to ban Chinese Tech: Germany announced it will phase out components made by Huawei and ZTE used in its 5G wireless networks yesterday. Over the course of the next five years, Germany will purge components of the network produced by the Chinese companies, with some local telecoms agreeing to remove them from their “core networks” by the end of 2026. Germany cited cybersecurity concerns and a desire to develop domestic industry for the decision.