Shein, the massively popular bargain bin retailer selling clothes, accessories, and home goods, said it uncovered two cases of child labor between Q1 and Q3 of 2023.

In its most recent sustainability report released last week, Shein said the discoveries were made through the company’s audits of suppliers working with the brand. Shein says it defines children as anyone under the age of 15; in China, it’s illegal to employ children under 16. Shein didn’t specify which factories were employing children, or how many were discovered.

“Upon discovering these violations, SHEIN suspended orders from the contract manufacturers and undertook investigations,” the company writes. Under the policy at the time, manufacturers were given 30 days to resolve the violation by “terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents/legal guardians as needed.” As of October 2023, Shein says it’s enforced stricter rules around contractors who were discovered to be using child labor — now, those suppliers will immediately terminated by Shein.

The company says it did not find any cases of child labor in Q4 of 2023.

Shein’s dispersed supply chain means that the products for sale on its website aren’t all made under one roof or by one company: the brand works with a network of manufacturers, making it harder to keep track of working conditions and potential labor violations. The company also operates a marketplace, hawking products from third-party sellers.

The cheap and fast products sold by Shein (and competitors like Temu) exist alongside an ugly truth: workers making the items are taken advantage of. In 2022, Shein said it would spend $15 million to revamp factories and increase audits after an investigation found that some workers were subject to illegally-long working hours. But follow up reporting found little has changed: a report by human rights advocacy group Public Eye earlier this year found that some China-based workers said they worked 75 hours a week. One worker told the group that they work 8AM to 10:30PM and can only afford to take one day off a month.

Shein exists largely online, where influencers post haul videos to promote the brand, raving about its “affordability.” As the company has strengthened its foothold in the US, it has tried to shed some of its negative public image by recruiting influencers to tour factories in China and hosting in-person popup events open to the public. But the Amazon competitor has struggled to fend off sustained scrutiny on its business practices. Some experts say Shein’s plans to go public in the US this year are growing more and more unlikely. The company more recently has filed to go public in London, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company was valued at $66 billion last year.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced today that US astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will return next February with the SpaceX Crew-9 mission after spending more than 80 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

According to NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, “As we got more and more data over the summer and understood the uncertainty of that data, it became very clear to us that the best course of action was to return Starliner uncrewed.” He said NASA found “there was just just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters.”

“If we had a way to actually predict what the thrusters would do, for the undock, and all the way through the de-orbit burn, and through the separation sequence, I think we would have taken a different course of action. But when we looked at the data and looked at the potential for thruster failures with the crew on board … it was just too much risk for the crew, and so we decided to pursue the uncrewed testflight. 

Responding to a press question about how NASA can trust Boeing again, NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox said, “We’ve had a lot of tense discussions, right? Because the call was close, and so people have a lot of emotional investment in either option, and that gives you a healthy discourse. But after that, you have to do some work to keep your team together, right?”

“And I’ll acknowledge that we have some work to do there. It’s pretty natural when you’ve had a difficult decision to make.” Bowersox said that NASA remains “committed to working with Boeing.”

Stich weighed in, saying, “Boeing did a great job building a model. The question is, ‘Is that model good enough to predict performance for a crew?’” He added later, “There was just a little disagreement in terms of the level of risk. And that’s kind of where it got down to, and I would say it’s close. It’s very close; it just depends on how you evaluate the risk. We do it a little differently with our crew than Boeing did.”

With limited access to the spacecraft docked with the ISS, tests at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility indicated that deformed Teflon seals may have been one of the reasons the spacecraft’s thrusters failed. But without conclusive answers, NASA waited to decide between returning the astronauts to Earth aboard the Starliner or working with SpaceX to bring them home early next year aboard the Crew-9 mission, which is planned to launch to the ISS in late September.

Uber has signed up another robotaxi company to offer driverless rides inside its app. Starting sometime next year, for “qualifying” rides, Uber will give you the option to take the trip in one of Cruise’s autonomous vehicles. The two companies announced a “multiyear strategic partnership” on Thursday.

Cruise halted its robotaxi service in October following an incident where a Cruise car dragged a pedestrian. The company recently brought autonomous vehicles back to the road with safety drivers. Cruise spokesperson Tiffany Testo tells The Verge that the launch of its partnership with Uber will happen after Cruise brings back its driverless ridehailing service.

In their press release, Uber and Cruise didn’t say what cities the service might be available in, but Testo says that users can “expect” it to launch in one of the cities where it’s doing supervised testing: Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston.

I will be the first to admit that the Kindle deals we saw during Amazon Prime Day in July were lackluster at best. Only the note-taking Kindle Scribe saw a discount worth highlighting, though, thankfully, we’re starting to see prices drop across the entire lineup. Right now, for instance, the latest Kindle Kids is on sale for $94.99 ($15 off) — one of its best prices to date — at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.

So-called “kid” devices from Amazon are often misunderstood. The ad-free ebook reader is identical to the 11th-gen model rolled out in 2022, which remains the best budget option. It offers a sharp 300ppi display and USB-C support as well as up to six weeks of battery life with average use. The Kids version simply comes with optional parental controls, an extended two-year warranty, and one of several kid-friendly cases, none of which you are required to use. Amazon also includes a year of Amazon Kids Plus with each purchase, which provides access to ad-free games, videos, and books in the Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter series.

If you want a larger display or IPX8 waterproofing, the latest Kindle Paperwhite Kids is also on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $134.99 ($35 off), nearly matching its second-best price to date. Like the standard Kindle, the 6.8-inch Paperwhite Kids is identical to the base model, only with optional parental controls, a protective case, and all of the aforementioned perks. That makes it a great option for kids and adults alike, especially at the current deal price.