 A fire on the Felicity Ace cargo ship is being kept alive by the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles on the vessel, according to a port official. As of Monday, officials were still trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which started Wednesday, Feb. 16. More: - The vessel off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands is carrying ~4,000 Volkswagen AG luxury cars, including Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys.
- Many of the vehicles are electric and contain lithium-ion batteries, which are known to sometimes catch on fire.
- Officials say the batteries are sustaining the fire, which can't be extinguished with water alone.
- A consultant expects the fire will cost Volkswagen AG at least $155M.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, it's one of the first major fires involved in the transport of EVs. It raises concerns about the safety of such shipments as consumer demand for EVs continues to grow rapidly.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 
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 Apple is expected to release several new Macs with its next-generation M2 chip as early as March. The M2 will likely be available in a future 13-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, Mac Mini, and redesigned 13-inch MacBook Air, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. More: - The M2 chip will likely share the same eight-core architecture and be slightly faster than its predecessor, the in-house ARM-based M1.
- Gurman believes Apple will release the first Macs with the chip in March and then again in May/June.
- Like the M1 processor, the M2 could eventually get Pro and Max versions, according to Gurman.
- These would power higher-end Mac systems due out in early 2023.
- Apple's M3 chips could follow 18 months after the M2's debut.
- At its rumored March 8 event, Apple is expected to reveal the M2-based MacBook, 5G iPhone SE, and an A15-powered iPad Air.
- The iPhone 14, which will have a "significant redesign," is likely due out in September.
BLOOMBERG
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Twitter suspended more than 800 allegedly fake accounts that were sharing pro-China Olympic propaganda. A New York Times and ProPublica investigation uncovered the accounts, many of which portrayed positive views of China and the Winter Olympics and played down concerns about human-rights abuses. More: - The bots violated a Twitter policy that bars "coordinated activity" attempting to artificially influence conversation through fake and/or multiple accounts.
- Twitter is now investigating to determine if the operations were state-supported.
- The Times and ProPublica asked Twitter about 861 of the accounts. Now, all but one of those accounts have been suspended.
- In December, Twitter said it had removed more than 2,000 accounts that appeared to amplify "narratives" supported by the Chinese Communist Party. These included attempts to downplay the treatment of China's Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region.
- The hashtag #BoycottBeijing2022 has been trending as a way to protest the alleged abuses in Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million people are being held in mass detention and "re-education" centers and subjected to forced labor and other offenses.
BUSINESS INSIDER
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At least 400 Salesforce employees have signed a letter protesting the company's plans for an NFT cloud service. The letter, which is circulating on company messaging channels, asks Salesforce to halt the plans over concerns about the environmental impacts and unregulated nature of NFTs. More: - Salesforce reportedly wants to offer a service that will help artists create and release content on an outside NFT marketplace such as OpenSea.
- Salesforce may eventually integrate the tool into its own ecosystem, spawning an OpenSea competitor.
- In a December blog post, Salesforce director Mathew Sweezey wrote that "pioneering brands will search for utility" through the tokens in 2022.
- However, employees who object to the plans referred to NFTs as "unregulated, highly speculative financial assets" in the internal letter.
- Salesforce says it will host at least one session to hear their concerns.
ENGADGET
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The German auto regulator is investigating whether Tesla's driver-assistance technology is safe to use on roads. At issue is the carmaker's Auto Lane Change, which enables vehicles to overtake cars safely and positions them in optimal lanes for merging and exiting. More: - Germany's Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, or Federal Motor Transport Authority, is looking into the feature, which is included as a part of Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving suite.
- The agency is said to be in talks with the Netherlands’ vehicle regulator, which approves Tesla vehicles for use across Europe, to investigate the function further.
- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also opened a probe into Tesla's driver-assist system following complaints of “phantom braking" at high speeds.
Zoom-out: - Meanwhile, a drone flyover sighted more Model Y vehicles at the site of Tesla's Giga Berlin plant — its first European Gigafactory — which has yet to officially produce vehicles amid ongoing delays.
- Tesla has reportedly been receiving competing bids for a second Gigafactory location in China.
CNBC
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump has launched his social media network Truth Social, which was the top free app in Apple's App Store as of Monday morning. The venture marks Trump's return to social media after he was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. More: - People who pre-ordered Truth Social had the app automatically downloaded on their devices on Monday.
- Some users reported that they could not register for an account or they were added to a waitlist due to "massive demand."
- Described as a "Twitter clone," the app was developed by Trump's new media company, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).
- Following weeks of beta testing, the app's public launch appears to coincide with President's Day.
- Truth Social is expected to be fully operational in the U.S. by late March, according to TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, a former U.S. rep.
- Twitter and Facebook banned Trump from their platforms in January 2021, citing the former president's role in inciting the U.S. Capitol riot based on false claims of electoral fraud.
THE WASHINGTON POST
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- OpenSea is investigating a major phishing hack that stole 254 tokens estimated to be worth more than $1.7M from the NFT marketplace.
- A group of crypto enthusiasts is using a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, to raise $4B+ in an attempt to purchase the for-sale Denver Broncos.
- Tesla revealed it has surpassed the production of one million 4680 battery cells at its pilot factory in Fremont, California.
- "Fortnite" developer Epic Games will hire some quality assurance testers and other contract-based workers as full-time employees with benefits.
- White Castle said it is bringing Miso Robotics' automated frying robot to 100 more locations, or about 30% of the chain's total restaurants.
- Idaho lawmakers introduced a bill that would bar AI systems from receiving "personhood status."
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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