Benjamin and Chance give their thoughts on Apples attempts to placate the BBCs complaints about notification summaries with iOS 18.3. Also, the rumored iPhone 17 Air design has a divisive camera bar on the back, and this week also saw an intriguing leak showing apparent design changes for the iOS 19 Camera app.And in Happy Hour Plus, Chance struggles to find new things to watch and much to Benjamins delight brings his own Apple TV app complaints to the table. Subscribe at9to5mac.com/join.Sponsored by Shopify: Grow your business no matter what stage youre in. Sign up for a $1 per month trial atshopify.com/happyhour.HostsChance Miller Benjamin MayoSubscribe, Rate, and Review9to5Mac Happy Hour PlusSubscribe to 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus! Support Benjamin and Chance directly with Happy Hour Plus! 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus includes:Ad-free versions of every episodePre- and post-show contentBonus episodesJoin for $5 per month or $50 a year at9to5mac.com/join.Feedback Submit #Ask9to5Mac questions on Twitter, Mastodon, or ThreadsEmail us feedback and questions to happyhour@9to5mac.com LinksAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Over the last year, weve seen multiple long-term holdouts finally cave to the pressure and adopt Apple Pay. At this point, the largest holdout in the United States is Walmart, and the company today indicated that it has absolutely zero plans to change its stance.Walmarts stance on Apple Pay isnt changingFor years, Walmart has insisted that its own payment technologies are superior to Apple Pay. For example, it launched Walmart Pay across the United States in 2016. Walmart Pay works by having shoppers scan a QR code at checkout, then complete their payment on their phone. The company also offers a Scan & Go platform that lets users skip checkout lines altogether, but there are a number of limitations on when you can actually use that offering.At one point, Walmart even tried to justify its decisionby making the bizarre claimthat Walmart Pay is more popular than Apple Pay.In a statement to MacRumors, a Walmart spokesperson said that it believes these convenient solutions negate the need for the retail chain to support Apple Pay:We do not accept NFC and instead have implemented convenient solutions, such as Walmart Pay, that provide our customers easy, touchless payments on any smartphone. We have also invested in innovative technologies that go beyond payments, such as Scan & Go, which allow Sams Club and Walmart+ members to bypass the checkout altogether, providing a truly touchless shopping experience.Id wager that the vast majority of Walmart shoppers strongly disagree with the sentiment. A quick search on social media reveals that Walmart shoppers are incredibly frustrated by the companys lack of Apple Pay support.Whats the real reason Walmart doesnt support Apple Pay? My belief is that it all boils down to data collection. Apple Pay comes with a number of privacy protections in place that prevent a merchant from learning about your transaction history. This makes it harder, if not impossible, for merchants like Walmart to track your purchase patterns. Tracking your purchase history is something Walmart relies on for building customer profiles for targeted ads, marketing, and more.While Walmart continues to neglect Apple Pay, other long-term holdouts have started to cave. Kroger rolled out Apple Pay support in 2023, followed by grocery chain H-E-B and Home Depot.Has Walmarts lack of Apple Pay support affected your shopping habits? Do you think the company will ever launch support for the platform? Let us know down in the comments.My favorite iPhone 16 accessories:Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

The reactor contained plasma for almost 18 minutes.Sun IntendedScientists claim that China's "Artificial Sun" nuclear reactor has more than doubled its own previous world record, confining extremely high-energy plasma for a whopping 1,066 seconds this week (that's in comparison to its previous record of 403 seconds, set in 2023.)Using the experimental reactor known as the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST),scientists heated plasma to temperatures over 100 million degrees Celsius, and managed to contain the swirling soup of atoms for over 17 minutes.The goal is to essentially recreate the processes that power stars like the Sun inside nuclear fusion reactors here on Earth as a way to produce a renewable source of green energy without running the risk of a nuclear meltdown, which still lingers at fission reactors like the Fukushima Daiichi plant that melted down in 2011."A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is critical for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants," said Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) director Song Yuntao in an official statement.Holy GrailIt's a step in the right direction, but a future in which fusion reactors can take up the mantle for grid-scale power generation remains a holy grail.Despite decades of research and countless "breakthroughs," scientists have only recently started producing tiny amounts of net positive energy, or harvesting more energy out of the reaction than they had to put in and doing so at a meaningful scale will likely prove enormously difficult.The EAST is a donut-shaped reactor that's designed to confine highly energized plasma spinning in a loop. But to achieve ignition, or reach the point where the reaction can self-sustain itself, still requires copious amounts of energy, far surpassing the amount being generated.Scientists are nonetheless hopeful that future reactors could flip that equation on its head. The super-expensive International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, for instance, could set the stage for future fusion reactor designs that could turn the idea of fusion energy into a reality.But we'll have to remain patient until we can find out whether that's even a possibility. Operations at ITER aren't expected to start until at least 2039, despite the reactor finishing construction over half a year ago.Share This Article

Thousands of Capital One customers recently experienced the fallout of a multi-day outage. Customers could not access online banking services and faced delays in receiving direct-deposited paychecks, The New York Times reported.Capital One attributed the outage to a technical issue with a third-party vendor, according to a Jan. 16 post on X.The third-party vendor in question? Fidelity Information Services (FIS), a financial technology company. On Jan. 19, Capital One posted that all customer account functionality was restored.Capital One was one of several banks impacted by the FIS system outage.Whether via malicious actors executing ransomware attacks or unintentional mistakes, third-party outages can have widespread ripple effects. We can see that here with the FIS outage and thousands of banking customers. Last year, we saw impact on a global scale with the CrowdStrike and Microsoft outage.In a time when most companies rely on third parties to operate, this kind of risk isnt going anywhere. What can enterprise leaders learn from the Capital One outage as they assess the ongoing third-party risk their organizations face?The OutageFIS attributed the outage to a local area power loss and a hardware failure, according to a company statement.Related:The company did not share more details regarding the nature of the outage, but it does raise questions about the testing and backups it has in place.There should be testing done. There should be the right tools in place with backups, Randolph Barr, CISO at Cequence Security, an API security company, tells InformationWeek. Surprising that there was a power outage that caused a disruption in their customers environments.When an outage like this happens, who gets the blame depends on who you ask. FIS attributes the outage to power loss and hardware failure. Its customers are likely to place blame on FIS. For consumers, their relationship is with their bank.A Capital One consumer they don't know who FIS is and they don't care, says Jason Rebholz, vice president, cyber risk officer at insurance company Travelers. At the end of the day, your customers are going to hold you accountable. They don't care about the details.Regardless of the ultimate cause of the outage, the impacted companies -- FIS, Capital One, and other impacted banks -- must manage the fallout.Evaluating Third-Party Relationships and Managing RiskThe interconnected nature of business and the supply chain is unlikely to change anytime soon. If anything, it will continue to grow more complex as companies look for partners in AI and machine learning. That means the possibility of outages and breaches, related to third parties isnt going anywhere either. Most organizations (98%) have a third party that has been breached in their supply chains, according to SecurityScorecard.Related:How can enterprise leaders evaluate their relationships with third-party vendors to better understand and manage that risk?Review contracts. A major outage is always a reminder for enterprise leaders to consider their third-party contracts. What kind of service level agreements (SLAs) are in place? What uptime guarantee does a vendor offer?The larger the company, typically, the more power it possesses to negotiate on these terms. If I were to look at small-, medium-sized companies, they don't have that much flexibility working with larger organizations. But when you're a large fintech company or banking company -- Capital One being a large one -- they have a lot more influence over the contracts and working closely with their vendors, says Barr.Conduct regular assessments. A businesss security is only as good as its vendors security and business continuity plans. What steps does a third party take to protect its operations, and by extension its customers operations?Related:Start off with classifying your vendors based on the criticality [to] your business, says Rebholz. The bigger impact a vendor outage would have on your business, the more critical it is.Regularly conduct assessments of that vendors security and business continuity practices.Evaluate vendor scale. As companies grow, leaders need to consider their third-party vendors ability to keep up. As [businesses] grow , they have to reevaluate every single one of [their third parties] to make sure that they can scale right along with them, says Barr.Businesses can manage those third-party relationships and diversify their supply chains to create more fail-safes, but that doesnt mean that outages or breaches wont happen.There are always these edge cases that pop up no reasonable person [who] would assume that all of these things are going to happen together, says Rebholz.When the perfect storm hits, whether its a power outage and hardware failure or something else, enterprise leaders need to be ready.You still have a lot of work that you should be doing on your side to make sure you plan for the inevitable failure or security incident at your critical vendors, Rebholz points out.Insurance can play an important role in that business continuity planning process. What kind of coverage does an enterprise have, and is it enough?The cyber insurance business is going strong; annual premiums are expected to hit approximately $23 billion by the end of 2026, according to S&P Global. But enterprise leaders need to examine the details of any policy they have or are thinking about buying.A lot of cyber insurance policies are very much geared towards malicious events, cyberattacks that type of stuff, and don't cover the accidental, Scott Kannry, CEO and cofounder of cybersecurity company Axio, points out.Risk quantification can help enterprise leaders determine the type of insurance coverage they need and the amount. What is the risk of a third-party vendor outage? How big is the potential financial loss? Does my policy cover third-party outages, accidental and caused by cyberattack?The FIS outage and its impact on Capital One and other customers is not the last incident of this nature the market willsee.We need to learn from a lot of these incidents, and we need to remind ourselves on a regular basis that this can happen to anybody, says Barr. Therefore, we need to make sure we step up our game in assessing these vendors.

Robert Eggers is adding another cult classic to his resume.After turning the Germain silent horror filmNosferatuinto a modern hit, Eggers will soon begin work writing and directing a newLabyrinth, based on the 1986 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson.According toDeadline, the film is a sequel to, rather than a remake of, Jim Hensons 1986 classic. Eggers is writing the script with Sjn, his collaborator on 2022 Viking actionerThe Northman.Eggers andSjn are already working onanother new project as well, this one titledWerwulfabout a farmboy from an alien world who receives a call to adventure from an old wizard and journeys into deep space and discovers a massive battle station whoops no sorry, wrong movie, no okay itsactually about a werewolf, that makes more sense.TriStar PicturesTriStar Picturesloading...READ MORE: The 10 Worst Cult Movies EverThe originalLabyrinth starred Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie; the former as a teenager who must save her baby brother from the latter, the Goblin King who rules over the labyrinth where the kid has been stashed. Although the movie (Hensons finalfeature as a director) was not a massive success with critics or with audiences in 1986, its reputation has grown steadily through the years.There have been other works set in theLabyrinth universe, mostly comics, but this will be the first full-fledged sequel if it comes off.It joins other 80s Henson favorites in getting legacyquels in recent years. Netflixreleased aDark Crystal television series and Apple TV+ has made several new seasons of the popular childrens showFraggle Rock.EggersNosferatu has become the directors biggest hit to date, grossing over $156 million worldwide. Earlier today, it receivedfour Academy Award nominations, for Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costumes, and Best Production Design.Get our free mobile app12 Hit Movies That People Mistakenly Call Cult FilmsDespite what people write about them, these movies were hits they were not cult films.

The reputation of theStar WarsSequel Trilogy The Force Awakens,The Last Jedi, andThe Rise of Skywalker is not so great these days. And here at ScreenCrush and on our YouTube channel weveleveledour fair share of criticism against these three films (especially the last one).But this trilogy is now five years old. That gives us something we never had before: The benefit of hindsight. And with the benefit of hindsight we can see that for all their flaws (and they do have some!) theStar Wars sequels have a lot going for them, and a lot to say about the world as we live in it today.In our latestStar Wars video, we break down all three films and talk about why these films arenotas bad as you think evenThe Rise of Skywalker and why a lot of the bad stuff in that movie, and all three sequels, actually makes a lot of sense. Watch our full defense of the Sequel Trilogy below:If you liked that video on why the Star Wars sequel trilogy is way better than you remember, check out more of our videos below, including one on the one line of dialogue that ruined Star Wars, one on Daisy RidleysStar Wars movie and the state ofStar Warscinema in 2024, and one onDarth Plagueis cameo in Star Wars: The Acolyte and why it is maybe the single most important event in the entire season. Plus, theres tons more over at ScreenCrushs YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes.The new Star Wars TV show, Skeleton Crew, is now streaming on Disney+.Sign up for Disney+ here.10 TV Show Flops That Turned Out to Be Huge HitsUniversally beloved TV shows aren't always universally beloved from episode one.Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

After weeks of buzz, OpenAI has released Operator, its first AI agent. Operator is a web app that can carry out simple online tasks in a browser, such as booking concert tickets or filling an online grocery order. The app is powered by a new model called Computer-Using AgentCUA (coo-ah), for shortbuilt on top of OpenAIs multimodal large language model GPT-4o. Operator is available today at operator.chatgpt.com to people in the US signed up with ChatGPT Pro, OpenAIs premium $200-a-month service. The company says it plans to roll the tool out to other users in the future. OpenAI claims that Operator outperforms similar rival tools, including Anthropics Computer Use (a version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet that can carry out simple tasks on a computer) and Google DeepMinds Mariner (a web-browsing agent built on top of Gemini 2.0). The fact that three of the worlds top AI firms have converged on the same vision of what agent-based models could be makes one thing clear. The battle for AI supremacy has a new frontierand its our computer screens. Moving from generating text and images to doing things is the right direction, says Ali Farhadi, CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). It unlocks business, solves new problems. Farhadi thinks that doing things on a computer screen is a natural first step for agents: It is constrained enough that the current state of the technology can actually work, he says. At the same time, its impactful enough that people might use it. (AI2 is working on its own computer-using agent, says Farhadi.) Dont believe the hype OpenAIs announcement also confirms one of two rumors that circled the internet this week. One predicted that OpenAI was about to reveal an agent-based app, after details about Operator were leaked on social media ahead of its release. The other predicted that OpenAI was about to reveal a new superintelligenceand that officials for newly inaugurated President Trump would be briefed on it. Could the two rumors be linked? OpenAI superfans wanted to know. Nope. OpenAI gave MIT Technology Review a preview of Operator in action yesterday. The tool is an exciting glimpse of large language models potential to do a lot more than answer questions. But Operator is an experimental work in progress. Its still early, it still makes mistakes, says Yash Kumar, a researcher at OpenAI. (As for the wild superintelligence rumors, lets leave that to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to address: twitter hype is out of control again, he posted on January 20. pls chill and cut your expectations 100x!) Like Anthropics Computer Use and Google DeepMinds Mariner, Operator takes screenshots of a computer screen and scans the pixels to figure out what actions it can take. CUA, the model behind it, is trained to interact with the same graphical user interfacesbuttons, text boxes, menusthat people use when they do things online. It scans the screen, takes an action, scans the screen again, takes another action, and so on. That lets the model carry out tasks on most websites that a person can use. Traditionally the way models have used software is through specialized APIs, says Reiichiro Nakano, a scientist at OpenAI. (An API, or application programming interface, is a piece of code that acts as a kind of connector, allowing different bits of software to be hooked up to one another.) That puts a lot of apps and most websites off limits, he says: But if you create a model that can use the same interface that humans use on a daily basis, it opens up a whole new range of software that was previously inaccessible. CUA also breaks tasks down into smaller steps and tries to work through them one by one, backtracking when it gets stuck. OpenAI says CUA was trained with techniques similar to those used for its so-called reasoning models, o1 and o3. Operator can be instructed to search for campsites in Yosemite with good picnic tables.OPENAI OpenAI has tested CUA against a number of industry benchmarks designed to assess the ability of an agent to carry out tasks on a computer. The company claims that its model beats Computer Use and Mariner in all of them. For example, on OSWorld, which tests how well an agent performs tasks such as merging PDF files or manipulating an image, CUA scores 38.1% to Computer Uses 22.0% In comparison, humans score 72.4%. On a benchmark called WebVoyager, which tests how well an agent performs tasks in a browser, CUA scores 87%, Mariner 83.5%, and Computer Use 56%. (Mariner can only carry out tasks in a browser and therefore does not score on OSWorld.) For now, Operator can also only carry out tasks in a browser. OpenAI plans to make CUAs wider abilities available in the future via an API that other developers can use to build their own apps. This is how Anthropic released Computer Use in December. OpenAI says it has tested CUAs safety, using red teams to explore what happens when users ask it to do unacceptable tasks (such as research how to make a bioweapon), when websites contain hidden instructions designed to derail it, and when the model itself breaks down. Weve trained the model to stop and ask the user for information before doing anything with external side effects, says Casey Chu, another researcher on the team. Look! No hands To use Operator, you simply type instructions into a text box. But instead of calling up the browser on your computer, Operator sends your instructions to a remote browser running on an OpenAI server. OpenAI claims that this makes the system more efficient. Its another key difference between Operator, Computer Use and Mariner (which runs inside Googles Chrome browser on your own computer). Because its running in the cloud, Operator can carry out multiple tasks at once, says Kumar. In the live demo, he asked Operator to use OpenTable to book him a table for two at 6.30 p.m. at a restaurant called Octavia in San Francisco. Straight away, Operator opened up OpenTable and started clicking through options. As you can see, my hands are off the keyboard, he said. OpenAI is collaborating with a number of businesses, including OpenTable, StubHub, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber. The nature of those collaborations is not exactly clear, but Operator appears to suggest preset websites to use for certain tasks. While the tool navigated dropdowns on OpenTable, Kumar sent Operator off to find four tickets for a Kendrick Lamar show on StubHub. While it did that, he pasted a photo of a handwritten shopping list and asked Operator to add the items to his Instacart. He waited, flicking between Operators tabs. If it needs help or if it needs confirmations, it'll come back to you with questions and you can answer it, he said. Kumar says he has been using Operator at home. It helps him stay on top of grocery shopping: I can just quickly click a photo of a list and send it to work, he says. Its also become a sidekick in his personal life. I have a date night every Thursday, says Kumar. So every Thursday morning, he instructs Operator to send him a list of five restaurants that have a table for two that evening. Of course, I could do that, but it takes me 10 minutes, he says. And I often forget to do it. With Operator, I can run the task with one click. Theres no burden of booking.

Omaha isn't exactly bursting with options, but there are ISPs for those who know where to look.

If the old-school PlayStation and its iconic gray color are dear to your heart, you probably already know that Sony has been releasing a series of products for the PlayStation's 30th anniversary, including a limited-edition PlayStation 5 Pro bundle and a PS5 Slim bundle. The products, which include consoles, controllers, a disc-drive cover and accessories, are color-themed to the original PlayStation game console, which was released in Japan in 1994 and in the US in 1995.Gamers could jump on the products back in October, but a limited restock of the 30th anniversary products is out on Thursday, Jan. 23. According to a post on X from wario64, a respected account that has broken news in the past, this restock doesn't include PS5 Pros, but does include the PS5 digital bundle for $500, the PS Portal Remote Player for $220, the DualSense Edge wireless controller for $220, and the standard DualSense wireless controller for $80.Quantities are very limited, and the October items sold quickly, so jump on it if this deal speaks to your totally sweet '90s memories. Wario64 tweeted a followup noting that it "sounds like there were not many units judging from the replies. Official word I got was 'small quantities of selected 30th anniversary SKUs.'"CNET's Scott Stein got an exclusive early hands-on with the PS5 Pro, which he says "is all about making big-TV gaming a happier experience." The new console, he says, is "a big, graphically boosted piece of hardware that can keep up with ever-changing PCs and, in some ways, maybe exceed them." Watch this: My Exclusive PlayStation 5 Pro Demo: What $700 Gets You, and Why It Matters 06:16 The company showed off the products in a YouTube video and blog post last month. Preorders first went live on Sept. 26. The new bundle will officially go on sale on Nov. 21, and the PS5 Pro becomes available Nov. 7. Here's what you need to know about how to preorder them.Where to order the PS5 Slim anniversary bundle Sony/Screenshot by CNET PlayStation 5 (Slim) Digital Edition 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle The bundle comes with the disc-less PS5 Slim console anniversary version with "throwback design elements" in the old gray color scheme of the first ever PlayStation console. It comes with a limited-edition DualSense wireless controller, a console cover for the disc drive (sold separately), a vertical stand, 1TB SSD, two horizontal stand feet, an HDMI cable, a USB cable, an AC power cord, an original PlayStation controller-style cable connector housing, four PlayStation cable ties, a PlayStation sticker, a poster with one of 30 designs and a PlayStation paperclip.It is listed at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Walmart (requires Walmart Plus subscription). $499 at Walmart Where to order the PS5 Pro anniversary bundle Sony/Screenshot by CNET PlayStation 5 Pro Console 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle The bundle comes with the disc-less PS5 Pro console anniversary version with "throwback design elements" in the old gray color scheme of the first ever PlayStation console. It comes with a limited-edition DualSense Edge wireless controller, DualSense wireless controller, DualSense Charging Station, a console cover for the disc drive, a vertical stand, 2TB SSD, two horizontal stand feet, an HDMI cable, a USB cable, an AC power cord, an original PlayStation controller-style cable connector housing, four PlayStation cable ties, a PlayStation sticker and poster, a PlayStation paperclip and Astro's Playroom preinstalled game.It's currently unavailable so check back. $1,000 at PlayStation Direct Where to order the PS5 Pro console Sony/Screenshot by CNET PS5 Pro console If you want less bundled in, you can buy just the PS5 Pro console by itself. It comes in white with 2TB of storage, and also includes a DualSense wireless controller, two horizontal stand feet, and HDMI cable, an AC power cord and the Astro's Playroom game preinstalled.It's listed at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Walmart (requires Walmart Plus subscription) and PlayStation Direct. $699 at Walmart Where to order the PlayStation Portal Remote Player 30th Anniversary edition Sony/Screenshot by CNET PlayStation Portal Remote Player - 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Another product that's part of the 30th Anniversary Collection is a stand-alone PlayStation Portal Remote Player.It's currently unavailable so check back. $299 at Walmart Where to order the DualSense Edge Wireless Controller 30th Anniversary edition Sony/Screenshot by CNET DualSense Edge Wireless Controller - 30th Anniversary Limited Edition This bundle includes the limited edition 30th anniversary DualSense Edge wireless controller, a USB braided cable, two standard caps, two high dome caps, two low dome caps, two half dome back buttons, two lever back buttons, a connector housing and a limited edition carrying case.It's currently unavailable on PlayStation Direct, so check back. $199 at Walmart Where to order the DualSense Wireless Controller 30th anniversary edition Walmart/Screenshot by CNET PlayStation 5 DualSense Wireless Controller 30th Anniversary Limited Edition The PS5 limited edition 30th anniversary DualSense wireless controller comes in legacy PlayStation gray. $79 at Walmart

January 23, 20253 min readThe Latest on Bird Flu in Humans, Cats and ChickensH5N1 avian influenza continues to spread amid commercial and backyard poultry, and additional cases have been reported in domestic catsBy Meghan Bartels edited by Tanya Lewis wikoski/Getty ImagesAs the bird flu outbreak affecting poultry, dairy cows and humans in the U.S. continues to make headlines, heres what to know about the situation as of January 23.Human CasesThe U.S. reported its first human case of H5N1 avian influenza in two years in April 2024. Since then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a total of 67 confirmed human cases. The first U.S. death from bird flu was announced earlier this month in Louisiana, but most human cases in the country have remained quite mild.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The CDC maintains that there is no evidence of spread between humans. Most people with avian influenza have been infected through exposure to sick dairy cows or poultry. Cows with bird flu shed large amounts of the H5N1 virus in their milk, although pasteurization has been confirmed to kill the virus, leaving the commercial milk supply safe to drink. (Raw milk is not safe.) Poultry workers have been infected mainly through culling operations. The source of a few human infections remains difficult to pin down.Poultry CasesBird flu continues to spread among commercial and backyard poultry. As of January 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that there were 98 infected flocks within the past 30 days, with more than 15 million birds affected. Avian influenza is so contagious and deadly in poultry that the entire flock is culled as soon as the presence of the virus is confirmed. Since the bird flu outbreak began in February 2022, more than 140 million birds have been infected or proactively culled.Recent infections among poultry include two large commercial chicken farms in Georgia, which is a key source of so-called broilers raised for meat. Maryland and Virginia have also reported recent cases at broiler facilities, while Missouri has confirmed bird flu infections at an egg farm. And health officials in New York State announced a massive outbreak at a duck farm on Long Island. With bird flu cases increasing, egg prices are rising fast. Fortunately, although eggs can carry a host of infections and should never be eaten raw, people are unlikely to catch bird flu from commercial chicken eggs.Cat CasesThere has also been a spate of recent bird flu detections in domestic cats. Positive samples were gathered in January in California, Kansas, Louisiana and Iowa, and several more cases from last December were also confirmed this month. Less information is typically available in these cases, and there are several ways cats can catch bird flu: Those on dairy farms have been particularly vulnerable; such cats likely become infected by drinking milk from sick cows. But outdoor cats can also catch avian influenza from wild birds. And indoor cats can be exposed to the virus through raw milk and raw food. Recognizing this last threat, on January 17 the Food and Drug Administration ordered manufacturers of raw pet food to update their food safety plans to include H5N1.Federal CommunicationsMonitoring bird flu has been a challenge since it first arrived in North America, likely through wild birds that arent in the purview of any particular health agency. And while poultry farmers have extensive experience with avian influenza and strict biosecurity protocols, experts didnt expect the virus to jump into dairy cows, which, like poultry, fall under the jurisdiction of the USDA and its state equivalents. Human cases, meanwhile, are the responsibility of local and state public health departments, with federal coordination from the CDC.The inauguration of President Donald Trump has further clouded the picture: the administration ordered the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, to cease all public communications through at least the end of the month.