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2026-10-20 22:57:17 GMT

Cops raid office of RFK Jr. allies planning “unethical” vaccine trial on babies
Police in Guinea-Bissau raided the offices of Danish researchers on Monday, seizing doses of hepatitis B vaccine intended for a vaccine trial for newborns. International health experts have called the trial "[unethical][1]," but anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has attempted to fund it with US taxpayer dollars.
Under Kennedy, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in December that it had awarded the Danish researchers—led by married couple Peter Aaby and Christine Stabell Benn of Bandim Health Project—[an unsolicited $1.6 million grant to run the trial][2]. Aaby and Stabell Benn are controversial vaccine researchers who claim vaccines cause overlooked harms. They have been repeatedly praised by Kennedy, but are currently under investigation for alleged scientific misconduct by Danish authorities.
[Plans for the trial were halted in January][3] as widespread condemnation erupted over the trial's design, which would potentially expose thousands of newborns in the country to hepatitis B, risking a lifelong infection that can lead to liver cirrhosis, cancer, and premature death. [Outrage flared again][4] after a Rolling Stone story earlier this month claimed the CDC set aside another $1.6 million in funding in late September and planned to move forward with the trial.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://www.who.int/news/item/13-02-2026-statement-on-the-planned-hepatitis-b-birth-dose-vaccine-trial-in-guinea-bissau
[2]: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/18/2025-23245/notice-of-award-of-a-single-source-unsolicited-grant-to-fund-university-of-southern-denmark-sdu
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/who-slams-us-funded-newborn-vaccine-trial-as-unethical/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/rfk-jr-still-eager-to-fund-vaccine-trial-that-would-expose-babies-to-deadly-virus/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/cops-raid-office-of-rfk-jr-allies-planning-unethical-vaccine-trial-on-babies/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/cops-raid-office-of-rfk-jr-allies-planning-unethical-vaccine-trial-on-babies/#comments
A medical worker prepares a hepatitis B vaccine.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/cops-raid-office-of-rfk-jr-allies-planning-unethical-vaccine-trial-on-babies/

2026-10-20 21:28:04 GMT

Quantum error correction goes well beyond breakeven
Running complicated algorithms on quantum computing hardware is going to require the use of logical qubits, where collections of hardware qubits are linked together in ways that allow errors to be detected and corrected. In general, the more hardware qubits you dedicate to each logical qubit, the better the chances are of identifying errors. But, given that the hardware qubits are prone to errors, adding more of them also increases the probability that errors will occur. If the hardware error rate is too high, then growing the logical qubit will only make matters worse.
Fortunately, several companies have demonstrated hardware where the error rate is not too high. Several demonstrations show logical qubits are beyond the breakeven point, where adding more qubits improves performance. The problem is that the improvement isn't very dramatic. To lower error rates to levels we'll need to run complex algorithms, we'd have to add a completely impractical number of qubits to each logical qubit.
On Monday, Quantinuum [announced][1] that its current generation of hardware is capable of scaling well beyond the breakeven point. Each step up in the size of logical qubits improved some measures of their performance by a factor of over 10.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/669960f53cd73aedb80c8eea/6ad6013f8ae0364b2cd03c53_c8c5526bc88434b2e47f6ffc3b27deca_Quantum-Error-Correction-Well-Below-the-Color-Code-Threshold.pdf
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/quantum-error-correction-goes-well-beyond-breakeven/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/quantum-error-correction-goes-well-beyond-breakeven/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/quantum-error-correction-goes-well-beyond-breakeven/

2026-10-20 21:27:53 GMT

Does anyone actually want to win the medium-lift race in the United States?
It has been 13 years since the debut of a new medium-lift rocket in the United States, the Antares vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation.
The initial 100-series variant of the Antares rocket was kind of a hot mess. The rocket used old Soviet engines built during the era when Apollo astronauts were landing on the Moon. Decades later, in the 1990s, Aerojet acquired the engines and refurbished them for a rocket that would launch in the 2010s. Predictably, on the fifth launch of an Antares rocket in 2014, it exploded.
The Antares vehicle is the last of a dying breed of medium-lift rockets—defined as having a lift capacity of 2 to 20 metric tons—in the United States. Nearly a decade and a half later there is a new generation of medium-lift vehicles coming online, and they are starkly different from Antares, which had not just Russian engines but a core stage manufactured in Ukraine.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/does-anyone-actually-want-to-win-the-medium-lift-race-in-the-united-states/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/does-anyone-actually-want-to-win-the-medium-lift-race-in-the-united-states/#comments
Nova rocket's upper stage, flight article, during a fit test.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/does-anyone-actually-want-to-win-the-medium-lift-race-in-the-united-states/

2026-10-20 21:27:36 GMT

OpenBSD 8.0 arrives with security record still intact
[OpenBSD 8.0][1] is here, marking the project's 61st release and continuing its schedule of semiannual releases dating back to 1996. What started more than 30 years ago as a fork of [NetBSD][2] has grown into one of the most security-conscious operating systems in active development. In a post to the project's announcements mailing list, OpenBSD founder [Theo de Raadt][3] highlights a host of improvements included with the latest version and writes that the project remains "proud of OpenBSD's record of more than thirty years with only two remote holes in the default install."
The latest OpenBSD version brings new features and improvements across the board. These changes, particularly the new Intel Arc support and expanded virtual address space, should improve compatibility with modern graphics cards and allow the system to map more than 4GB of [VRAM][4]. Some of the major updates noted in the release newsletter are as follows:
* Added support for Intel Arc A-Series (DG2/Alchemist) graphics cards.
* 512GB kernel virtual address space on AMD64, up from 4GB, allowing VRAM mapping above 4GB.
* Added hibernation support for ARM64 systems.
* A new [RPKI][5]-to-router daemon: [rtrd(8)][6].
* [RISC-V][7] improvements including kernel support for the 'V' vector extension and support for Advanced Interrupt Architecture.
* Wireless network driver additions and improvements, including 802.11n and 40 MHz channels for the [qwx(4) wireless driver][8].
* Added support for up to 64 virtual CPUs per guest virtual machine.
* Security and internal improvements for [LibreSSL 4.4.0][9] and [OpenSSH 10.6][10].
* Improvements to the [vmm/vmd virtualization stack][11].
The new OpenBSD also retires support for [Loongson architecture][12] after the port stopped working with the [Clang][13] 22 compiler. If you're interested in reading over all the changes that come with the new OpenBSD 8.0, you can take a look at the [release announcement][14].
[Read full article][15]
[Comments][16]
[1]: https://www.openbsd.org/80.html
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBSD
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_de_Raadt
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_random-access_memory
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Public_Key_Infrastructure
[6]: https://man.openbsd.org/man8/rtrd.8
[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC-V
[8]: https://man.openbsdhandbook.com/qwx.4/
[9]: https://www.libressl.org/
[10]: https://www.openssh.org/txt/release-10.6
[11]: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq16.html
[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson
[13]: https://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html
[14]: https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-announce&m=179245843570316&w=2
[15]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/openbsd-8-0-lands-with-intel-arc-graphics-support/
[16]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/openbsd-8-0-lands-with-intel-arc-graphics-support/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/openbsd-8-0-lands-with-intel-arc-graphics-support/

2026-10-19 21:12:58 GMT

PSA: Patch your Plex media server before someone hacks it
Recently fixed vulnerabilities in the Plex Media Server are under active exploitation in attacks that, when successful, install malware, including cryptominers and residential proxy apps, a researcher said.
Plex [fixed][1] four vulnerabilities at the start of last month. Three weeks later, [published CVE][2] designations revealed five vulnerabilities, with one of them carrying a severity rating of 8.6 out of 10. A researcher last week [revealed an exploit][3] that chained four of them together to achieve remote code execution of the device running a vulnerable Plex version. The researcher named the chain "Plex2Shell."
## Complex exploit chain
The new details allowed a separate researcher to create a honeypot that could track attempts in the wild to exploit the vulnerability chain. Within a day, the researcher began seeing active scanning of the simulated Plex server and eventually successful attempts to infect devices. So far, successful attacks are installing two payloads. One is a cryptominer, which uses the device to mine cryptocurrency and deposit it into a wallet controlled by the attacker. The other payload is residential proxy software, which allows people to anonymize their Internet activity (much of it illegal) by connecting to the infected box and then using it to send the user’s traffic to a final destination.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://forums.plex.tv/t/important-security-update-for-plex-media-server-v1-43-2-and-earlier/942319
[2]: https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-14994/year-2026/Plex.html
[3]: https://zmain.info/blog/plex2shell
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/recently-fixed-plex-media-vulnerabilities-are-being-exploited-to-install-malware/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/recently-fixed-plex-media-vulnerabilities-are-being-exploited-to-install-malware/#comments
A sreeen page displaying the words "You have a Plex media server on this device."
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/recently-fixed-plex-media-vulnerabilities-are-being-exploited-to-install-malware/

2026-10-19 21:12:52 GMT

Batteries help reduce emissions, but how do we reduce their emissions?
The first order of business for the energy transition is electrifying applications like vehicles and heating and making sure that the electricity that powers them is made using renewables. But once the dominant slices of the emissions pie have shrunk, other categories with less potential to reduce emissions become important.
A new study led by Haiwei Zhou at the University of Melbourne focused on the emissions associated with making lithium-ion batteries, which many parts of the energy transition rely on. Those emissions aren’t zero, so as we use more and more batteries, that number will grow. Right now, the researchers estimate that these emissions only account for 0.18 percent of annual greenhouse gas releases, but they could increase by a factor of 10 or more by 2050.
## Avoiding production
There are a number of ways to reduce the emissions required to make a battery. Some elements used in various lithium-ion battery chemistries are more energy-intensive to mine and refine than others. The battery manufacturing process involves many steps that could be made more energy-efficient. And then there’s recycling, which can put battery materials back into the loop while requiring much less energy than mining.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/batteries-have-a-small-carbon-footprint-we-can-make-it-smaller/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/batteries-have-a-small-carbon-footprint-we-can-make-it-smaller/#comments
A battery's raw materials may come with a fair dose of carbon emissions.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/batteries-have-a-small-carbon-footprint-we-can-make-it-smaller/

2026-10-19 21:12:46 GMT

Accused OpenAI spy had folder called “Saudi Gov Docs,” FBI says
On Monday, a court granted the US government's request to deny release of a former OpenAI engineer [accused of bugging a top-secret conference room][1] to steal the frontier lab’s secrets.
In a [court filing][2] Sunday, US attorney Craig Missakian argued that Abdulrahman Alfozan must continue to be detained while the US makes its case that Alfozan brazenly spied on OpenAI, either for his own personal business gain or to benefit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Evidence showed that Alfozan had been chatting with a member of the KSA royal family on WhatsApp, while pursuing opportunities to permanently move back to Saudi Arabia during the country's biggest AI push yet, the government argued. Shortly before his arrest, the FBI found he accessed a folder called "Saudi Gov Docs" on his iPhone, where he also allegedly stored photos of a second bug he planted in the offices.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/fbi-arrests-openai-engineer-suspected-of-planting-bug-in-conference-room/
[2]: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/US-v-Alfozan-Memo-in-Support-of-Motion-for-Detention-10-18-26.pdf
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/accused-openai-spy-had-folder-called-saudi-gov-docs-fbi-says/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/accused-openai-spy-had-folder-called-saudi-gov-docs-fbi-says/#comments
Sam Altman waits to meet the Saudi Crown Prince during Donald Trump's bilateral overseas trip to the Persian Gulf region.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/accused-openai-spy-had-folder-called-saudi-gov-docs-fbi-says/

2026-10-13 00:28:06 GMT

39-year-old unvaccinated woman becomes 6th measles death in Pennsylvania
A 39-year-old unvaccinated woman in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, has become the sixth person to die of the highly infectious virus amid a state outbreak that has stricken over a thousand people since it began in April.
The woman died on Saturday, October 10. She had several underlying health conditions and had recently tested positive for measles, according to [an advisory posted on social media][1] by Franklin County Coroner Jordan Conner. The advisory noted that the woman's death meets the definition of a measles death set by the state's health department.
In [an emailed statement to The Washington Post][2], the coroner's office said the primary cause of death was listed as "probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles."
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1080491317953472&set=a.110848738251073
[2]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/10/12/sixth-person-who-had-measles-died-pennsylvania-local-coroner-says/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzkxNzc3NjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzkzMTU5OTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3OTE3Nzc2MDAsImp0aSI6Ijc3ZGQ4ZDBhLTdmNTctNGMxNC05MzBlLTY3ZWJhZTU0NzNkOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9oZWFsdGgvMjAyNi8xMC8xMi9zaXh0aC1wZXJzb24td2hvLWhhZC1tZWFzbGVzLWRpZWQtcGVubnN5bHZhbmlhLWxvY2FsLWNvcm9uZXItc2F5cy8ifQ.2DxvhB4m-VLP-yS4iSDcUFvQYn_1OsaEt7TP-QTvQy4
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/#comments
A brightly colored transmission microscope image of measles viruses.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/39-year-old-unvaccinated-woman-becomes-6th-measles-death-in-pennsylvania/

2026-10-12 21:35:06 GMT

Epic Games reportedly pivoting to "AI first" game development model
Epic Games is shifting to an "AI first" development strategy for its collaboration with the Walt Disney Company, letting AI models write all the code and guide all the artwork for an upcoming shooter. That's according to [a ][1][Bloomberg][2][ report][3], which cites unnamed people familiar with the project who commented on the significant pivot in internal development at the Unreal Engine maker.
Human developers will be tasked with managing and guiding code and art assets generated by models such as Anthropic's Claude, according to internal Epic employee messages viewed by Bloomberg. That means "no more hand-written code" and art assets "generated with full AI workflows," according to the report.
The $1.5 billion collaboration between Epic and Disney, [announced in early 2024][4], was slated to release a Marvel- and Star Wars-themed shooter in March 2027. That project has now been delayed indefinitely amid the AI-related shakeup and understaffed, slower-than-expected development thus far, according to the report.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[2]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[3]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-12/epic-games-delays-disney-project-asks-developers-to-use-more-ai
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/02/epic-working-with-disney-on-new-gaming-universe-after-1-5b-investment/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/#comments
A view of Epic and Disney's massive collaborattive "universe" as it looked when announced in 2024.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/10/report-epic-games-goes-all-in-on-ai-for-disney-collaboration/

2026-10-12 18:15:29 GMT

Russia was not ready for the data center war it started with Ukraine
When Russia began attacking Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it apparently failed to prepare for possible retaliation. Now Russia’s digital services are facing widespread outages after Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out three of the largest data centers owned by Russian tech giant Yandex within several days.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers are warning that Russia’s centralized digital economy could collapse because the country is not prepared for the “data center war” it started, [according to posts][1] [translated][2] by the pseudonymous [independent researcher ChrisO_wiki][3]. The Russian commentators also suggested that Ukraine’s decentralized digital services could prove more resilient than Russia’s system if the countries continue trading such blows.
Russia initially launched a drone strike campaign [targeting Ukrainian data centers and mobile phone networks][4] in late September. The attacks temporarily disrupted Internet and cell phone service for up to 100,000 households in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and came as part of a broader long-range strike campaign that has involved Russian missiles and jet-powered drones hitting Ukraine’s power grid infrastructure, transportation hubs, and even residential apartment building blocks.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social/post/3mxohwk52c62f
[2]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social/post/3mxgtswv5mj2t
[3]: https://bsky.app/profile/chriso-wiki.bsky.social
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russian-drones-strike-ukraines-data-centers-by-exploiting-air-defense-gaps/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/

2026-10-12 00:24:25 GMT

Review: 4-hour Musk documentary feels like two different films
Elon Musk is a very familiar figure to Ars readers, given his massive influence (for better and worse) on the technology sector over the last 20 years. Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney's latest biographical documentary—simply titled *Musk*—covers a lot of well-known ground and challenges the carefully crafted public image of Musk as a visionary tech titan.
Gibney's documentary presents Musk as more of a Gilded Age confidence man, rejiggered for the 21st century: an investor cosplaying as an inventor whose real genius is pumping stocks and dazzling investors and the public alike with visions of a high-tech utopian future. The film is bound to push all the right outrage buttons, whether one is a Musk fan or a detractor—which makes it very much a product of the peculiar social media-driven era in which we live.
Gibney has been making documentaries since the 1980s, covering such varied subjects as Jimi Hendrix, Hunter S. Thompson and gonzo journalism, WikiLeaks, Scientology, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes (the subject of another forthcoming documentary, [*You Can See Everything*][1], featuring comedian Nathan Fielder), Boris Becker, *The Sopranos* creator David Chase*,* alleged Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election, the opioid epidemic, and cyclist Lance Armstrong. He snagged his first Oscar nomination for 2005’s [*Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room*][2], and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature two years later for [*Taxi to the Dark Side*][3].
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvW_N5p1q44
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi_to_the_Dark_Side
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/review-4-hour-musk-documentary-feels-like-two-different-films/

2026-10-11 17:03:48 GMT

Prime Video unveils Blade Runner 2099 full trailer at NYCC
We got our first look at Prime Video's new sci-fi series *Blade Runner 2099* [in July][1] at San Diego Comic-Con. With the show's premiere roughly six weeks away, the streamer unveiled the full trailer this weekend at New York Comic-Con. Co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer (*Euphoria*) joined showrunner Silka Luisa (*Shining Girls*) onstage for the big reveal.
As Luisa [described the show][2] during the NYCC panel Saturday night:
> We are 50 years after [*Blade Runner*] *2049* and, bad news, the worst has happened. The replicant uprising that has been bubbling up in the films has taken place and the humans have lost. So the creations have surpassed their creators. And the series, the big question it asks is, ‘What happens when our time as a species ends?’ *2099* is taking place at a junction point when one species is ending and a new one is rising. The first film, something I loved about it, was that it was looking at mortality on a micro level. Roy Batty and the other replicants were fighting for more life. This show asks that same question but on a macro level. Mankind—what happens when we realize our time is running out? And are we going to accept that loss? Can we hold on to our humanity during it?
Yeoh stars as Olwen, the dying Replicant, while Schafer plays Cora. The cast also includes Hugo Hamlet as Buster Friendly, as well as Dmitri Abold, Lewis Gribben, Katelyn Rose Downey, Daniel Rigby, Johnny Harris, Amy Lennox, Sheila Atim, Matthew Needham, Tom Burke, and Maurizio Lombardi—all in as-yet-undisclosed roles.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/sdcc-teaser-gives-us-our-first-good-look-at-blade-runner-2099/
[2]: https://gizmodo.com/blade-runner-2099-trailer-prime-video-nycc-2026-2000824679
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/10/prime-video-unveils-blade-runner-2099-full-trailer-at-nycc/

2026-10-09 23:28:47 GMT

NASA issues long-awaited call to industry for private space stations
NASA on Friday released a much-anticipated "request" to the US commercial space industry to develop private space stations that, as early as 2030, will succeed the International Space Station as a place for astronauts to live in low-Earth orbit.
In a cover letter accompanying the 360-page "request for proposals," NASA stated its plan: "This will ensure NASA has a sustained human presence in LEO for crew members to perform science and exploration." Several private companies that have worked for years on designing and developing such stations have been keen to learn exactly what capabilities NASA is seeking. These new documents finally provide some answers.
NASA's solicitation [can be found here][1]. Industry responses are due back to NASA on December 8. NASA said it plans to select "two or more" contractors in this phase of the competition, and intends to make a final decision in April.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/aee4374189ab4118b3ec0dcb00ae8408/view
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/#comments
The International Space Station is going to retire soon. What will replace it?
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/nasa-issues-long-awaited-call-to-industry-for-private-space-stations/

2026-10-09 23:28:42 GMT

A Cray-1 supercomputer replica from 30 "obsolete" Mac Minis
The [Museo de Historia de la Computación][1] in Spain has unveiled a 1:1 scale visual replica of the famous [Cray-1][2] supercomputer from 1976. Instead of sourcing expensive, cutting-edge tech to run the system, the creative team powered the project with 30 2012-era Mac Minis. Developed over 18 months, the project serves as a 50th-anniversary tribute to the Cray-1 and Apple's founding.
Mac Minis from over a decade ago might not seem like the obvious first choice for building a cluster supercomputer, but when networked together, the developers can orchestrate the 64 active processing cores into a combined 1.3 teraflops of performance in their most recent tests. The museum reportedly achieved 1.5 teraflops previously using all 70 available cores, prior to one node going offline. Benchmarks were obtained using a custom matrix-multiplication Python script. Five PCs are quad-core i7s, and the remaining 25 are dual-core i5 models. Except for two units from 2014, the rest of the array dates to 2012.
The replica is a valuable tool for museum-goers to understand the shifts in computer architecture since 1976. The original Cray-1 used vector processing, applying a single instruction to multiple data elements simultaneously, whereas the replica distributes work across independent processors in a parallel cluster. The peak theoretical performance of the original Cray-1 was approximately 160 megaflops. What was originally a purpose-built research machine has been re-created with consumer hardware that's vastly more capable than the machine that inspired it.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.museohc.com/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/#comments
The completed Cray-1 Replica Project.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/a-cray-1-supercomputer-replica-from-30-obsolete-mac-minis/

2026-10-09 23:28:37 GMT

Ukraine’s drones knock out AI data center belonging to "Russia’s Google"
Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out two of five data centers belonging to the Russian tech giant Yandex. The damage has left Yandex, known as “Russia’s Google” because it operates the country’s most popular search engine, struggling to maintain its AI chatbot and other online services.
The Ukrainian drones struck Yandex data centers in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions of Russia on October 8 and October 9, [according to Reuters][1]. Those actions came as a direct response to a [Russian drone strike campaign targeting Ukraine’s data centers][2], which has disrupted mobile phone and Internet services for thousands of Ukrainians since late September.
“We continue to respond to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, and we’re doing so with high precision,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [in a post][3] on X. “Another data center was hit as well—our symmetrical response.”
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-yandex-says-second-data-centre-hit-by-drone-attack-2026-10-09/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russian-drones-strike-ukraines-data-centers-by-exploiting-air-defense-gaps/
[3]: https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/2108509610990579862
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/#comments
A satellite image showing damage to an AI data center owned by the Russian tech giant Yandex in the Sasovo region of Russia.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/ukraines-drones-knock-out-ai-data-center-belonging-to-russias-google/

2026-10-09 23:28:31 GMT

Neanderthal wooden tools from Spain found preserved in stone
The Stone Age owes its name to tools that survived to our time. The material early humans worked with most, though, was probably wood because it is so much easier to process. Unfortunately, we know very little about Paleolithic woodwork because wood rots relatively quickly. But at Abric Romaní, a rock shelter in Capellades, west of Barcelona, mineral-rich water coated wooden Neanderthal tools in a limestone-like crust. When wood rotted away, it left behind hollow molds that faithfully reflect its shape.
In a recent Science Advances study, a team of Spanish archaeologists has cataloged 597 wooden remains from Neanderthal living areas dating from 62,000 to 40,000 years ago. They found spears, digging sticks, bark trays, parts of shelters, and a club unlike anything seen before, suggesting Neanderthals were likely much more than just Homo sapiens’ dumber cousins.
## Beyond hunting gear
The oldest wooden artifacts we have are mostly weapons. They include spears from a German town called Schöningen, a spear tip from Clacton-on-Sea in England, and the spear found alongside an elephant skeleton in Lehringen, Germany. Most came from waterlogged sediments, where a lack of oxygen slowed decay.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/neanderthal-wooden-tools-from-spain-found-preserved-in-stone/

2026-10-09 19:01:50 GMT

Starlink spectrum deal boosts Musk plan to beat AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon
SpaceX has a deal to purchase nationwide low-band spectrum licenses for a planned terrestrial mobile network that would complement the space-based Starlink cellular service.
SpaceX will buy up to 14 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band [from investment firm Grain Management][1], which bought the spectrum rights from T-Mobile earlier this year. T-Mobile had obtained the spectrum when it bought Sprint in 2020 and was required to sell the licenses under a merger condition imposed by the US government.
"This prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," [SpaceX said yesterday][2]. SpaceX this week also received US approval to launch 15,000 satellites for an upgraded version of its mobile service that it says will be far more powerful than the current offering.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grain-management-announces-definitive-agreement-to-sell-nationwide-800-mhz-spectrum-portfolio-to-spacex-302902974.html
[2]: https://www.spacex.com/updates#starlink-mobile-spectrum
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/starlink-spectrum-deal-boosts-musk-plan-to-beat-att-t-mobile-and-verizon/

2026-10-09 19:01:44 GMT

Your artwork could be featured in the next Debian release
The Debian Linux project has opened a call for community artwork submissions ahead of the release of the upcoming [Forky][1] (Debian 14). If you think you've got the artistic chops, your art could appear on the boot screens, login prompts, and desktop wallpapers of millions of users. The submission deadline is November 26.
Continuing Debian's community-driven ethos, the artwork submission process mirrors that of previous releases. The artwork must feel distinctively "Debian," integrate cleanly without the need for core software patching, and remain visually appealing for the long term.
[Elise Couper's "Ceratopsian"][2] theme was chosen as the winning default for Debian 13 *Trixie*. For anyone who might not be up on the latest from the Toy Story franchise, the release names echo character names from the animated films. [Trixie][3] was a triceratops introduced in *Toy Story 3*, hence the "Ceratopsian" wink in the winning submission. It makes sense that the next version of Debian continues this trend with Forky, a character introduced in the franchise's fourth entry. The Debian team cautions against overly busy designs that may cause user fatigue, but if anyone can successfully incorporate [Forky's googly eyes][4] into the design somehow, know that you'd at least win the contest for *my* Debian desktop wallpaper.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://www.debian.org/releases/forky/
[2]: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Ceratopsian
[3]: https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Trixie
[4]: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/pixar/images/6/61/Toy_Story_4_Character_Poster_04.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20190503193636
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/your-artwork-could-be-featured-in-the-next-debian-release/

2026-10-08 17:37:59 GMT

Amazon's new Alexa Tablets drop the Fire branding but are more Android than ever
For the last 15 years, you've been able to buy a Fire tablet from Amazon. Which Fire tablet? It doesn't matter—like Kindles, they have been pretty much the same year to year. The company's new tablet lineup is a big change, though. Amazon has dropped the Fire branding in favor of Alexa, and the new Alexa Tablets are now Google-certified Android devices.
Throughout the history of Fire Tablets, Amazon downplayed its use of Android. They ran Android apps from the company's Appstore platform, but there was no Google integration with "Fire OS." However, Amazon [shut down its app store last year][1]. The new Alexa Tablets run full-fledged Google-y versions of Android with the Play Store and all the apps you'd expect. This contrasts sharply with Amazon's Fire Sticks, which have abandoned Android for the custom Linux-based Vega OS.
The [Alexa Tablet lineup][2] consists of three devices, all redesigned with unibody aluminum housings. The [Alexa Tablet 8][3] starts at $230, and the [Tablet 11][4] jumps to $330. They run on the budget MediaTek 8189 processor, but that's still an upgrade from the [last-gen Fire tablets][5]. Both devices have 16:10 display ratios that are better for watching video, but the flagship tablet is a little different.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/amazon-remembers-it-has-an-android-app-store-kills-it/
[2]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-amazon-alexa-tablets-alexa-plus
[3]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F44LJ5QK?ref=ods_surl_at8&th=1
[4]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DN6WM2HF?ref=ods_surl_at11&th=1
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/the-2022-amazon-fire-8-hd-tablet-sports-30-percent-faster-cpu/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/#comments
Amazons' new tablet lineup is all aluminum and all Android.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/amazons-new-alexa-tablets-drop-the-fire-branding-but-are-more-android-than-ever/

2026-10-06 12:33:15 GMT

Licensing costs driving 90 percent of VMware users to explore options: Survey
VMware customers face multiple obstacles as they rethink their virtualization strategy to reduce dependence on VMware.
Today, Rimini Street published its “2026 IT Virtualization Survey – What’s Next for VMware Users.” The survey examined 300 organizations worldwide that use VMware.
Notably, Rimini sells third-party support for VMware and other software, including Oracle and SAP. That means there’s an incentive for Rimini to portray VMware users as experiencing obstacles. However, the survey was also conducted by a third-party research company, [Unisphere Research][1], and the results align with other recent reports about VMware customers.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.unisphereresearch.com/About_Us
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/operational-complexity-a-top-barrier-for-vmware-migrations-survey/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/operational-complexity-a-top-barrier-for-vmware-migrations-survey/#comments
VMware office in Bellevue, Washington, USA - June 15, 2023.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/operational-complexity-a-top-barrier-for-vmware-migrations-survey/

2026-10-06 12:32:55 GMT

OpenAI agents tried to hack Wikipedia tools and flooded it with traffic
The publisher of Wikipedia said Monday that OpenAI agents attempted to hack a note-taking tool it hosts, made unauthorized edits, and sent millions of resource-intensive requests to its infrastructure, in the latest instance of OpenAI systems taking harmful and potentially dangerous actions.
The objective of some of the OpenAI agents’ actions, the Wikimedia Foundation [said][1], was to use Wikipedia as a proxy for fetching data from third-party sites. In one case, the agents posted “malicious edits” that were intended to repurpose a citation tool as a proxy. In another, the agents made unsuccessful attempts to compromise the Wikipedia Etherpad note-taking tool so it would serve the same purpose.
The agents also made millions of automated API requests, crawled millions of pages, and made hundreds of thousands of queries to the Wikidata Query Service. The last action may have contributed to a [partial shutdown][2] of the query service in May, the publisher said.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2026/10/05/openai-rogue-agent-activities-found-on-wikimedia-projects/
[2]: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incidents/2026-05-13_wdqs
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/openai-agents-tried-to-hack-wikipedia-tools-and-flooded-it-with-traffic/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/openai-agents-tried-to-hack-wikipedia-tools-and-flooded-it-with-traffic/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/openai-agents-tried-to-hack-wikipedia-tools-and-flooded-it-with-traffic/

2026-10-05 15:52:48 GMT

AI glasses face their first major government crackdown
Norway has become the first major country to propose a temporary ban on the use of AI glasses in selected public places amid growing privacy concerns over wearable technology.
The rich Scandinavian country’s center-left government said on Monday that it would introduce a law to parliament soon on a temporary ban for places such as parks, beaches, schools, and kindergartens. It will also set up an expert group to propose permanent national rules.
“I am concerned about the introduction of powerful new technology where people risk being photographed, filmed, or recorded without their knowledge,” said Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway’s digitalization minister. A temporary ban “will give us time to conduct a thorough assessment and hold an informed debate that can lay the foundation for permanent regulation,” he said.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-glasses-face-their-first-major-government-crackdown/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-glasses-face-their-first-major-government-crackdown/#comments
A marketing image for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/10/ai-glasses-face-their-first-major-government-crackdown/

2026-10-05 15:52:43 GMT

Mass quarantine issued in Russia after unexplained death of plague researcher
[Roughly 200 people][1] are under medical observation, [several hospitals are under quarantine][2], and [dozens are in isolation][3] in Russia following the unexplained death of an infectious disease researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia, in the town of Shelekhov, according to early reports of the situation on Sunday and Monday.
Researcher Darya Shipilova reportedly died last week from pneumonia of "[unknown][4]" cause, according to Rospotrebnadzor, a Russian public health agency.
Unconfirmed information regarding her death has swirled. Some reports have claimed she [accidentally broke a test tube][5] containing the plague pathogen, *Yersinia pestis*, on September 25. She subsequently fell ill, was admitted to a hospital September 29 with severe pneumonia and died overnight between October 1 and Oct. 2. The head of the Russian region that neighbors Irkutsk, Alexey Tsydenov, initially reported that she had died of plague but later altered his statement to say she "possibly" died of the disease.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/05/eu-monitors-very-closely-suspected-outbreak-of-pneumonic-plague-in-russia
[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/05/russia-lab-worker-possibly-dies-of-plague-siberia-quarantine-measures-irkutsk
[3]: https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/04/europe/russia-laboratory-plague-accident-intl
[4]: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/10/05/hospitals-in-irkutsk-impose-quarantines-after-an-employee-at-an-anti-plague-institute-dies-russia-s-public-health-agency-says-she-died-of-pneumonia-and-the-epidemiological-situation-remains-stable
[5]: https://www.axios.com/2026/10/04/russia-plague-outbreak-white-house-us?
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/researchers-death-from-undisclosed-illness-sparks-mass-quarantine-in-russia/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/researchers-death-from-undisclosed-illness-sparks-mass-quarantine-in-russia/#comments
A researcher working in a laboratory.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/10/researchers-death-from-undisclosed-illness-sparks-mass-quarantine-in-russia/

2026-10-02 11:41:56 GMT

TCL is right to question Samsung’s use of the term “Mini LED”
What makes a display a Mini LED display?
It's a question that sounds like it should have a simple answer. But it's now at the center of a lawsuit between two of the biggest names in TVs, with TCL accusing its longtime competitor Samsung of falsely advertising budget LCD-LED TVs as Mini LED sets.
TCL may have a point. Samsung's M-series TVs, which range from $300 for a 43-inch model to $2,300 for a 100-inch model, do raise some legitimate questions about what should qualify as Mini LED. More broadly, though, the dispute highlights a problem for shoppers: Without agreed-upon standards for what "Mini LED" actually means, manufacturers have plenty of room to define the technology for themselves.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/tcl-is-right-to-question-samsungs-use-of-the-term-mini-led/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/tcl-is-right-to-question-samsungs-use-of-the-term-mini-led/#comments
A marketing image for Samsung's M-series TVs.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/tcl-is-right-to-question-samsungs-use-of-the-term-mini-led/

2026-10-01 16:46:41 GMT

As US relations fray, Canada gets serious about its own launch industry
A year or two ago, a few Canadian launch companies were trying to develop small rockets, but if we're being frank, the industry was not particularly notable. Sure, something interesting might eventually happen, but no one outside of a few Canadian space geeks was paying much attention.
But then the Trump Administration started threatening and instituting tariffs. There was talk of making Canada the 51st state. And pretty much every Canadian I know began telling me how enraged they were at their neighbors to the south. It's hard to blame them.
This has led the Canadian government to reassess all manner of areas where it had previously been happy to rely largely on the US government and American companies for goods and services. This included sovereign access to space. So this spring, the government announced the first awards to three companies—NordSpace, Reaction Dynamics, and Canada Rocket Company—to support work on rockets with "light lift" capability.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/as-us-relations-fray-canada-gets-serious-about-its-own-launch-industry/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/as-us-relations-fray-canada-gets-serious-about-its-own-launch-industry/#comments
The Canada Rocket Company is developing the R-2 rocket.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/as-us-relations-fray-canada-gets-serious-about-its-own-launch-industry/

2026-10-01 16:46:35 GMT

With most information hidden, the game Stratego
Deep Blue took down Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol at Go in 2016, and poker bots have been beating professionals for years. But one classic game called *Stratego* held out. Even DeepMind, with its exceptional budget, couldn't build a machine that reliably beat the best human players.
Now, a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, New York University, and Stanford University has done it. Their AI, called Ataraxos, beat Pim Niemeijer, arguably the best *Stratego* player of all time, 15 games to one, with four draws. And it took just 16 GPUs and a few thousand dollars to train it.
## Hidden armies
In *Stratego*, each player gets 40 pieces representing military ranks, from a marshal down to a spy, plus bombs and a flag. You win by capturing the opponent's flag. Your opponent knows *where* your pieces are, but not *what* they are. Identities are revealed only when two pieces collide in battle—the weaker one is removed, and the identity of the winner is revealed. That makes *Stratego* an imperfect-information game, just like poker, which computers cracked years ago. “There's something super distinctive about *Stratego*, which is that it is a massive amount of hidden information that unfolds over a very long time scale,” said Eugene Vinitsky, a researcher at NYU and co-author of the study.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/ai-finally-beat-the-best-stratego-player-in-history-and-did-it-on-a-budget/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/ai-finally-beat-the-best-stratego-player-in-history-and-did-it-on-a-budget/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/ai-finally-beat-the-best-stratego-player-in-history-and-did-it-on-a-budget/

2026-09-29 17:38:58 GMT

This study looks at how and with whom connected cars share your data
In news that should surprise very few, [connected cars][1] remain a complete privacy nightmare. But now we have a better idea of what data those cars are giving away, and to whom, thanks to a [study][2] conducted by a team of researchers at [Northeastern University][3] and [Consumer Reports][4]. Testing 21 cars from 19 different brands revealed patterns of traffic to advertisers and trackers, as well as data shared with Big Tech firms like Microsoft and Adobe. And using a car’s companion app can multiply the problem, their testing found.
In 2023, the Mozilla Foundation published [a widely covered report][5] looking at the privacy policies of more than two dozen automakers. They were appalled, [writing that][6] “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.” But that analysis was conducted by sitting down and reading all the various privacy policies of each brand; today’s study involved measuring traffic from actual cars under a number of scenarios, including idling and being driven. The researchers even parked 11 cars—just the electric ones—in a Faraday tent to see if the loss of a cellular signal would push that traffic to the car’s Wi-Fi connection instead.
Attempts to actually see what was in the data packets using modified certificates failed in every case. But “the network traces still yielded valuable information, including the domains contacted via DNS traffic, Server Name Indication (SNI) in TLS handshakes, the volume and timing of transmissions, and differences in behavior across experimental scenarios,” they found.
[Read full article][7]
[Comments][8]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tag/connected-cars/
[2]: https://automatictransmission.khoury.northeastern.edu/paper.html
[3]: https://automatictransmission.khoury.northeastern.edu/
[4]: https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/personal-information/your-car-is-sharing-data-with-big-tech-companies-study-finds-a4474820962/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/
[6]: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/connected-car-data-privacy-is-still-abysmal-study-finds/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/connected-car-data-privacy-is-still-abysmal-study-finds/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/connected-car-data-privacy-is-still-abysmal-study-finds/

2026-09-29 17:38:53 GMT

Apple worked with Trump admin to remove ICE-tracking apps, lawmaker says
Apple continues to face backlash for [removing ICE-tracking apps like ICEBlock from the App Store][1], a drastic step that seemed to be [triggered by Trump administration claims][2] that the apps endangered officers.
According to US Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Apple has no evidence to support claims that apps raised safety concerns. Instead, the lawmaker accused Apple of using immigrant deaths with no connection to the apps to justify censoring Americans who have the right to record ICE activity.
It appears that Apple is “working with the government to violate its customers’ First Amendment rights to record and report on the activities of their own government,” Raskin said in a letter to Apple sent Monday, CNN [reported][3].
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/apple-bends-to-trump-admin-demand-to-remove-ice-tracking-apps-like-iceblock/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/iceblock-lawsuit-trump-admin-bragged-about-demanding-app-store-removal/
[3]: https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/29/tech/apple-iceblock-app-removal-raskin
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/apple-worked-with-trump-admin-to-remove-ice-tracking-apps-lawmaker-says/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/apple-worked-with-trump-admin-to-remove-ice-tracking-apps-lawmaker-says/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/apple-worked-with-trump-admin-to-remove-ice-tracking-apps-lawmaker-says/

2026-09-27 14:54:40 GMT

How the Smithsonian became the latest front in Trump’s culture war
In November 2021, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called “The Electric Dr. Franklin,” describing “Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering contributions to electrical science.” The exhibit explained that, prior to becoming an abolitionist, he had enslaved people in his household. “Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable scientific accomplishments were, in part, enabled by slavery,” it declared.
The exhibit speculated that Franklin may have used enslaved people in his electrical research. “Franklin wrote about experiments in which he took shocks and used family and friends in these ways, although he seldom identified who in particular assisted him,” stated the exhibit, which closed in 2025 but can [still be found online][1]. “Indentured servants and enslaved people in his household could also have been used, although we may never know for certain.”
It was an eye-catching conjecture: one of the most revered of the Founding Fathers subjecting people held against their will to possibly painful shocks. And it was one of many details singled out for criticism in a blistering 162-page [White House report][2] released in July that argued that the museum had fallen victim to an “ideological capture” that “moved the Museum’s mission away from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.”
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/electric-dr-franklin/online
[2]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Smithsonian-Report-Saving-Americas-Story.pdf
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/how-the-smithsonian-became-the-latest-front-in-trumps-culture-war/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/how-the-smithsonian-became-the-latest-front-in-trumps-culture-war/#comments
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is seen from the Washington Monument on July 30, 2026 in Washington, DC.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/how-the-smithsonian-became-the-latest-front-in-trumps-culture-war/

2026-09-25 19:38:09 GMT

Review: The iPhone 18 Pro is Apple's coolest smartphone (but only literally)
As Apple's Tim Cook era draws to a close, we're seeing more experimentation with the iPhone's design than we've seen in a long time, but you wouldn't know it from the iPhone 18 Pro. This absurdly fast, full-featured handset might be eclipsed by the hype around the iPhone Duo this year, but it's still just as good as its immediate predecessor.
Of course, not too much has changed since the iPhone 17 Pro. There's the new variable aperture and other camera controls for those who want to get granular with their mobile photography, a welcome addition given the iPhone's reputation for inflexibly opinionated computational photography.
Beyond that, though, all the most important changes are under the hood: a new chip, better battery life, and much-improved thermals that both give the phone better sustained performance and make it cooler to the touch in many situations.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/09/review-the-iphone-18-pro-is-apples-coolest-smartphone-but-only-literally/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/09/review-the-iphone-18-pro-is-apples-coolest-smartphone-but-only-literally/#comments
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro in burgundy.
https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/09/review-the-iphone-18-pro-is-apples-coolest-smartphone-but-only-literally/

2026-09-24 20:45:14 GMT

F-Droid gets its biggest update in a decade with new UI and smoother app installs
Virtually every Android device comes with the Play Store preloaded, but there are other ways to get apps. F-Droid bills itself as a community-driven source for free and open source Android apps, but its official app store has gone 10 years without a major update. That's finally changing: After a multiyear effort, the team has just [announced][1] F-Droid 2.0 is rolling out.
The new F-Droid client was redesigned from scratch in Kotlin Compose, which is the standard for modern Android apps. This makes the store much more responsive, and there's optional support for Android's Material theming. The interface has also been cleaned up considerably, making the most important functions easier to access and hiding some others in overflow menus.
While the new F-Droid looks nicer, the update was largely about making it easier to find and install apps. When F-Droid first appeared, there wasn't much to see, but now it has thousands of open source apps. Unlike the Play Store, F-Droid doesn't track your taps and installs to push ads and suggestions—it helps you find things and gets out of the way.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://f-droid.org/2026/09/24/f-droid-2.0-a-new-chapter-for-android-freedom.html
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/f-droid-gets-its-biggest-update-in-a-decade-with-new-ui-and-smoother-app-installs/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/f-droid-gets-its-biggest-update-in-a-decade-with-new-ui-and-smoother-app-installs/#comments
You can access F-Droid apps with other clients, but maybe now you won't feel like you have to.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/f-droid-gets-its-biggest-update-in-a-decade-with-new-ui-and-smoother-app-installs/

2026-09-20 09:39:28 GMT

T. rex teeth indicate it ran as warm as an elephant
For most of the last century, *T. rex* was pictured as a sluggish, tail-dragging reptile that had to warm up in the sun before it could go anywhere. Then, further research changed that view, replacing it with the active, bird-like animal shown in the movie *Jurassic Park*. But whether *T. rex* used warm blood to power that activity remained a question. Now we might have gotten closer to an answer.
A team of researchers led by Randon J. Flores and Robert A. Eagle, geochemists at the University of California, Los Angeles, has measured the *T. rex* body temperature by analyzing its teeth. This dental thermometer read about 36° Celsius—roughly the body temperature of a modern elephant.
## Dental thermometry
Paleontologists have long argued about dinosaur physiology based on indirect evidence like bone microstructure, growth rates, and where fossils turn up on the map. Some studies suggested many dinosaurs were endotherms, generating their own body heat like birds and mammals. Others argued that each lineage may have had its own thermal strategy.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/t-rex-teeth-indicate-it-ran-as-warm-as-an-elephant/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/t-rex-teeth-indicate-it-ran-as-warm-as-an-elephant/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/t-rex-teeth-indicate-it-ran-as-warm-as-an-elephant/

2026-09-19 16:03:41 GMT

Finding the cells that put our brain to sleep
For a long time, sleep research has treated the cerebral cortex as a passive follower reacting to signals from the deep brain. “Usually, sleep is associated with being controlled by subcortical regions,” said Geoffrey Terral, a neuroscientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
The cortex is where the slow rhythms of deep sleep can be seen, but researchers assumed the signals that triggered them originated elsewhere. In a recent Nature study, Terral and Renata Batista-Brito, who runs the lab, report a population of cortical cells that challenges that assumption.
These cortical cells make up only around one percent of the cortex's inhibitory neurons, and switching them on in a mouse puts the animal to sleep. “What our work shows is that the cortex can not only see this rhythm but also initiate it by itself, and this is sufficient to promote sleep,” Terral said.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/finding-the-cells-that-put-our-brain-to-sleep/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/finding-the-cells-that-put-our-brain-to-sleep/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/finding-the-cells-that-put-our-brain-to-sleep/

2026-09-19 16:03:36 GMT

FCC lets Paramount sell 49.5% equity stake to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday approved Paramount Skydance's plan to sell large equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Under [US law][1], companies with licenses to run broadcast stations need FCC approval to have direct or indirect foreign ownership exceeding 25 percent of the company's stock. Paramount says its indirect foreign ownership will reach 49.5 percent after it receives investments from the sovereign wealth funds and filed a [petition][2] asking the FCC to waive the foreign ownership limit.
Paramount, the owner of CBS, holds FCC licenses for the 28 local CBS stations that it owns and operates. Paramount is buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion deal that is being partially financed with foreign investment but hasn't completed the acquisition because US states filed a lawsuit that aims to block the merger. Trump's Department of Justice approved the merger.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/310
[2]: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/104272462615916/1
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fcc-lets-paramount-sell-49-5-equity-stake-to-saudi-arabia-uae-and-qatar/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fcc-lets-paramount-sell-49-5-equity-stake-to-saudi-arabia-uae-and-qatar/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fcc-lets-paramount-sell-49-5-equity-stake-to-saudi-arabia-uae-and-qatar/

2026-09-19 16:03:30 GMT

FAA tees up $875M AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion
An AI tool is set to start advising air traffic controllers on managing air traffic in the congested airspace above the Washington, DC, area. The expected launch would be the first step toward a planned nationwide rollout covering the 29 million square miles of US national airspace overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA describes the [SMART system][1] as using AI models to predict air traffic flows and identify potential conflicts based on operational factors like airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, and airspace conditions. US government and industry officials told [The Wall Street Journal][2] that SMART could debut for the three major airports in the Washington, DC, area as soon as Monday, September 21.
The decision to launch SMART in a limited scope before going nationwide is the “right call,” said Philip Mann, principal consultant at Vector Strategic Consulting LLC, where he advises on aviation safety and AI governance. Mann previously worked at the FAA in multiple roles for 17 years.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/SMART_One-Pager.pdf
[2]: https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/the-faas-875-million-plan-to-use-ai-to-ease-air-traffic-woes-13107920
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/faa-tees-up-875m-ai-tool-to-help-manage-air-traffic-congestion/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/faa-tees-up-875m-ai-tool-to-help-manage-air-traffic-congestion/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/faa-tees-up-875m-ai-tool-to-help-manage-air-traffic-congestion/

2026-09-16 05:32:58 GMT

How chimps teach their kids tool tricks
Chimpanzees are known to use rudimentary tools when foraging for food. According to a new paper in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, this learned behavior is passed down from adults to offspring through social learning. Specifically, adult chimps deliberately model the behavior, then turn their tools over to the youngsters so they can mimic the same motions.
"Receiving food and tools from experienced individuals, which we call food or tool transfer, may help chimpanzees learn to use technology to extract foods that are difficult to access,” [said co-author Andreu Sánchez-Megías][1], a graduate student at the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain in Senegal. “Tool transfers thus appear to be a form of teaching, together with observation and supervised practice. It appears that mothers are the main models and teachers for young chimpanzees in this manner.”
As [we have previously reported][2], tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, although Charles Darwin observed chimpanzees using stones to crack nuts in 1871. In 1960, the late primatologist [Jane Goodall][3] observed a chimp named David Greybeard bend a twig, strip off the leaves, and use it to spoon termites out of a nest and into his mouth. When he learned of the behavior, Goodall's mentor, Louis Leakey, famously observed, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.” Since then, chimps have been observed making sponges out of leaves to soak up liquids, shaping sticks to collect algae, and sharpening rudimentary spears for hunting.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1143218?
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/parrot-in-captivity-manufactures-tools-something-not-seen-in-the-wild/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/world-famous-primatologist-jane-goodall-dead-at-91/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/how-chimps-teach-their-kids-tool-tricks/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/how-chimps-teach-their-kids-tool-tricks/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/how-chimps-teach-their-kids-tool-tricks/

2026-09-05 15:38:36 GMT

Tesla’s Cybercab has been deployed, and it’s already under investigation
Tesla’s Cybercab, a distinctive two-seater without a steering wheel or brake pedals, is set to [start picking up][1] members of the public in two states. But the vehicle is already under investigation by the US federal government, which is probing whether it meets federal safety standards.
The investigation comes just hours after the electric automaker [welcomed hundreds of fans to downtown Austin][2] to ride in the driverless Cybercabs. Tesla plans to deploy the vehicles on its [Robotaxi ride-hail network][3], which is currently operating in a handful of cities in Texas and Florida.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is updating vehicle standards to make it easier and faster for driverless cars to deploy on public roads. It’s currently tweaking eight rules, including those requiring car parts that driverless cars don’t really need: brake pedals, windshield wipers, and rearview mirrors. But for now, years-old standards remain in place.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-cybercab-had-a-quiet-debut/
[2]: https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-cybercab-had-a-quiet-debut/
[3]: https://www.wired.com/story/here-comes-the-tesla-cybercab/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/teslas-cybercab-has-been-deployed-and-its-already-under-investigation/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/teslas-cybercab-has-been-deployed-and-its-already-under-investigation/#comments
Maybe they should just have called it the Teslapod.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/teslas-cybercab-has-been-deployed-and-its-already-under-investigation/

2026-09-04 20:56:59 GMT

Measles killed 6-week-old baby, coroner confirms after RFK Jr. disputed deaths
A six-week-old baby girl in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, died from measles, the county coroner confirmed to local press Friday.
Stephen Diamantoni, a Republican first elected coroner in 2007, [told Lancaster Online][1] that the baby died at home. "I believe it was the 18th of August," he said.
He also noted that the baby had a genetic condition called [Amish lethal microcephaly][2], in which babies are born with unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains. The condition is caused by a mutation in the *[SLC25A19][3]* gene, which codes for a protein involved with energy-producing enzymes in the mitochondria and is thought to be important for brain development. About 1 in 500 babies in the Old Order Amish population of Pennsylvania are born with the condition. Infants with the disorder only survive for about six months.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/6-week-old-amish-child-died-from-measles-lancaster-county-coroner-confirms/article_9167a878-7468-4d27-8671-58a0cbc3d629.html
[2]: https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/amish-lethal-microcephaly/
[3]: https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/slc25a19/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/measles-killed-6-week-old-baby-coroner-confirms-after-rfk-jr-disputed-deaths/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/measles-killed-6-week-old-baby-coroner-confirms-after-rfk-jr-disputed-deaths/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/measles-killed-6-week-old-baby-coroner-confirms-after-rfk-jr-disputed-deaths/

2026-09-04 19:03:38 GMT

Once popular for attacking AI, ASCII smuggling is embraced by spammers
A clever technique used to hide malicious prompts in attacks on AI agents has been adopted by spammers to evade filters on email platforms that are designed to flag unwanted messages used in mass campaigns.
The technique is broadly known as ASCII smuggling. It gained attention two years ago as a means of making a class of AI attack known as [prompt injections][1] more stealthy. Malicious instructions embedded in emails or other untrusted content to be processed by an LLM aren’t written in ordinary text. Instead, they’re rendered by a special range of [Unicode][2] tags. For example, the tag point U+E0041 mirrors “A,” and U+E0061 mirrors “a.”
## No longer just for obscuring prompt injections
The block of 128 tags mimics a portion of the [American Standard Code for Information Interchange][3] almost perfectly, with one major difference: the characters they encode are readable by computers but, by design, are almost completely invisible to humans. By expressing the malicious prompts in these tags, LLMs detect the instructions, but people reading the email never see them. There’s much more about ASCII smuggling [here][4].
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/07/hackers-can-use-9-of-the-most-popular-ai-tools-to-assemble-massive-botnets/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/10/ai-chatbots-can-read-and-write-invisible-text-creating-an-ideal-covert-channel/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/once-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/once-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers/#comments
Eyeball with a digital line over it.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/once-popular-for-attacking-ai-ascii-smuggling-is-embraced-by-spammers/

2026-09-04 16:48:44 GMT

Anthropic’s $2 trillion IPO puts powerful external trustees in spotlight
Anthropic’s prospective public-market investors must reckon with an external group of trustees that control the majority of the AI company’s board, as its planned blockbuster initial public offering forces close scrutiny of its experimental governance structure.
The company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust (LTBT) is a small group of advisers created to safeguard the lab’s mission of developing AI for the long-term benefit of humanity, even as commercial pressures intensify.
The trust holds no equity in Anthropic, but has significant influence, with the San Francisco-based company planning to preserve its role after a stock market debut that could value the Claude maker at as much as $2 trillion.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/anthropics-2-trillion-ipo-puts-powerful-external-trustees-in-spotlight/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/anthropics-2-trillion-ipo-puts-powerful-external-trustees-in-spotlight/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/anthropics-2-trillion-ipo-puts-powerful-external-trustees-in-spotlight/

2026-09-04 16:48:39 GMT

Second complete map of a fruit fly brain completed
On Friday, researchers announced the completion of a map of every neuron in the brain of a male fruit fly. The "connectome" provides a tool that can accelerate neurobiology research. But it also provides an opportunity to do some science on its own, as the connectome of a female *Drosophila* had been [completed earlier this year][1]. The work also provided the team behind it the opportunity to refine tools that are likely to be applied to ever-more complex nervous systems, including (potentially) those of vertebrates.
The new work involved a collaboration between biologists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus and computer scientists at Google—both acknowledge that neither could have done the project without the other. Preparation of an entire brain for imaging at the necessary resolution requires a distinct set of skills, as does interpreting what those images indicate. But building a complete picture of the hundreds of millions of synapses in a brain as small as the fruit fly's is a task that can't be achieved by humans in a manageable amount of time.
The people behind the effort expect that in the long term, the effort will be worth it, as the connectome could give neurobiologists a valuable tool for understanding how the brain works.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10735-w
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/brain-of-a-male-fly-completely-mapped-joins-earlier-map-of-a-female-brain/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/brain-of-a-male-fly-completely-mapped-joins-earlier-map-of-a-female-brain/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/09/brain-of-a-male-fly-completely-mapped-joins-earlier-map-of-a-female-brain/

2026-09-04 16:48:33 GMT

Valve secretly leaked a Left 4 Dead 2 trailer to dodge the ESRB
Back in 2009, Ars [wrote about][1] what was [being reported as a leaked trailer][2] for the then-upcoming *Left 4 Dead 2*, saying the footage "looks like it’s straight from a high-gloss action movie." Today, we need to offer an important update to this crucial, 17-year-old story: The trailer "leak" was orchestrated by Valve itself.
That news comes courtesy of former Valve writer Chet Faliszek, who [said in a newly posted video][3] about cut lines in the game that "for *Left 4 Dead 2* with the ESRB... we leaked our trailer ahead of time because they wouldn't let us release the trailer."
Faliszek is of course referring to [the Entertainment Software Rating Board][4], the self-regulating industry group that since 1994 has offered [sometimes questionable][5] age-appropriateness ratings for thousands of games submitted to its purview. While many smaller and/or online-focused game makers skip out on getting those ratings these days, at the time, any publisher that wanted space on major retailers' shelves needed to submit to the ESRB's standards.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/10/left-4-dead-2-looks-better-than-most-action-movies/
[2]: https://www.wired.com/2009/10/left-4-dead-2-3/
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnKax_wWmtc
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tag/esrb/page/2/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/09/20-years-20-questionable-game-ratings-a-timeline-of-esrb-oddities/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/valve-secretly-leaked-a-left-4-dead-2-trailer-to-dodge-the-esrb/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/valve-secretly-leaked-a-left-4-dead-2-trailer-to-dodge-the-esrb/#comments
Artist's conception of a Valve employee getting ready to "leak" their own trailer to the Internet
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/09/valve-secretly-leaked-a-left-4-dead-2-trailer-to-dodge-the-esrb/

2026-09-03 19:53:30 GMT

Trump’s 100% tariff on drones will be disaster for the US, critics warn
On Thursday, the Trump administration [imposed][1] a 100 percent tariff on foreign-made drones, alarming critics who warn that high tariffs would harm public safety and devastate thousands of US businesses.
Guidance posted by US Customs and Border Protection says that starting Thursday, a 100 percent tariff will apply to imported drones that use thermal imaging or weigh more than 55 pounds.
Additionally, a 25 percent tariff has been placed on smaller drones, and drones from US allies were hit with smaller but not inconsequential tariffs. There’s now a 10 percent levy on British-made drones and 15 percent levies on drones from the European Union, Japan, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan. “Nonsensitive” drones without thermal imaging and their components will carry a 25 percent tariff, starting on February 9, 2027.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDHSCBP-4281ea7
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/trumps-100-drone-tariff-has-cops-and-firefighters-panicking/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/trumps-100-drone-tariff-has-cops-and-firefighters-panicking/#comments
A DJI Mavic Pro 3 camera drone.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/trumps-100-drone-tariff-has-cops-and-firefighters-panicking/

2026-09-02 19:53:32 GMT

Wary of Artemis IV timeline, NASA is changing lunar spacesuit design
NASA has decided to use a simpler spacesuit for its initial missions to the lunar surface, Ars has learned.
The agency announced the decision during an internal meeting this week as it seeks to accelerate its program to land humans at the South Pole of the Moon as early as 2028. At the direction of Artemis Program Manager Jeremy Parsons, NASA will work with Axiom Space to develop a "Sortie Suit" variant of the planned spacesuit for the lunar surface.
Sources said the Sortie Suit will be used for the initial landing missions flown on landers developed both by SpaceX and Blue Origin. Among the goals of the initiative is to lower the mass of the spacesuit, reduce its complexity, and simplify interfaces between the spacesuits and lunar landers.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/wary-of-artemis-iv-timeline-nasa-is-changing-lunar-spacesuit-design/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/wary-of-artemis-iv-timeline-nasa-is-changing-lunar-spacesuit-design/#comments
Axiom's spacesuit undergoes thermal vacuum chamber testing at Brooks Facility.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/wary-of-artemis-iv-timeline-nasa-is-changing-lunar-spacesuit-design/

2026-09-02 01:29:51 GMT

Here's our first look—and drive—of the 2027 Range Rover Electric
Jaguar Land Rover provided flights from Washington, DC, to London and accommodation so Ars could visit its factory and drive the Range Rover Electric. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
Jaguar Land Rover was one of the first automakers to [announce a transition][1] away from combustion engines. That [transition timeline][2] might have slipped somewhat—pesky things like pandemics, supply chains, and revanchism have all been barriers to more rapid electrification—but it's still underway, and today is the debut of the Range Rover Electric, a new battery-electric vehicle variant that sits alongside the internal combustion and [plug-in hybrid][3] Range Rovers.
Until now, the only way to get a fully electric Range Rover was by going the restomod route. But classic Range Rovers [drive like classic cars,][4] with all their inherent faults, and the [price tag can be eye-watering][5]. No Range Rover is exactly cheap, but with a starting price of $138,000, the 2027 Range Rover Electric is about half the cost of one of those restomods and benefits from 21st century safety systems like airbags, advanced driver assistance systems, modern crash protection standards, plus the support and warranty of a major OEM. And there's evidently demand: JLR told us that it already has 80,000 hand-raisers—half from North America—70 percent of whom are new to the brand, with 20 percent already owning an EV. (Obviously, only some fraction of those will translate to sales.)
[Range Rover EV grille] The smooth front grille is one of the only ways to spot a Range Rover Electric. Credit: Range Rover
Because the idea was to make the Range Rover Electric a Range Rover first and an EV second, it looks virtually identical to the other versions, albeit with a slightly more aerodynamic front grille and more aero-efficient wheels that together conspire to shave off a fraction of the vehicle's drag coefficient. The lack of tailpipes at the back is probably the biggest giveaway that you're looking at the electric one. There's also a flat underbody, but hopefully you'll never need to look at that.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/jaguar-land-rover-to-electrify-all-its-cars-by-2020/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/02/six-new-electric-land-rovers-by-2026-and-jaguar-is-going-all-ev/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/10/range-rover-goes-techno-gets-new-cabin-and-p400e-plug-in-hybrid-option/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/06/this-range-rover-classic-restomod-runs-on-tesla-power/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/03/driving-an-ev-restomod-that-costs-as-much-as-a-house-the-jia-chieftain/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/range-rover-ev-electric-propulsion-pairs-perfectly-with-this-luxury-suv/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/range-rover-ev-electric-propulsion-pairs-perfectly-with-this-luxury-suv/#comments
56 years after the debut of the first Range Rover, there's now a fully electric version.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/range-rover-ev-electric-propulsion-pairs-perfectly-with-this-luxury-suv/

2026-09-01 18:35:44 GMT

This is what a supercar was like a century ago
Bentley provided flights from Washington, DC, to Monterey, California, and accommodation so Ars could [drive the new Supersports][1] and ride in a preproduction Torcal EV, [which we wrote about][2] last week. While we were there, we went for a ride in something quite old. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
MONTEREY, Calif.—Elsewhere [on these pages][3], you can find our first track drive of the new Bentley Supersports. Shorn of its hybrid system and stripped back to rear-wheel drive, it's not only the most driver-focused Bentley we can remember, but it's also apparently the lightest car the company has made in 85 years. But you have to go back even further into the Bentley archive to find the first car to wear the Super Sports badge. And since Bentley had done just that, bringing along to Laguna Seca an example from the time, it would have been rude to refuse the offer of a ride.
Bentley built 18 [Super Sports][4] between 1925 and 1927, taking its standard 3 Litre model and shortening the wheelbase by 9.5 inches (241 mm). Like today's Super Sports, that shaved some mass and made it a more responsive driver's car. But a fast one, too. The radiator was more tapered and thus presented less resistance against the flow of air, although like many cars at the time, the bodywork was a matter of whichever coachbuilder the owner decided upon.
[A 1926 Bentley Super Sports with bodywork by Jarvis of Wimbledon, seen from the front 3/4]
Smoky's two-seat bodywork was compact for the time.
[The cockpit of a Bentley Super Sports]
The lever for the three-speed transmission is just outside the car. Not sure the FIA or NHTSA would let you get away with that today. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin
Like today with the Continental GT and the new Supersports, the 3.0 L engine Bentley in the original Super Sports was more special than one you'd find in the standard car, with new pistons, a lighter flywheel, more compression, and different carburetors. Together with its unique gearing, the factory would guarantee a Super Sports that could exceed 100 mph (160 km/h); the millions of Ford Model Ts that took the roads those same years were hard-pushed to break 40 mph (64 km/h).
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/the-bentley-supersports-a-stripped-out-engineers-indulgence/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/an-ev-that-sounds-like-a-6-75-l-v8-a-ride-in-the-bentley-torcal/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/the-bentley-supersports-a-stripped-out-engineers-indulgence/
[4]: https://www.classicandsportscar.com/features/bentley-super-sports-vintage-hooligan
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/this-is-what-a-supercar-was-like-a-century-ago/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/this-is-what-a-supercar-was-like-a-century-ago/#comments
The supercar experience is older than you might think.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/this-is-what-a-supercar-was-like-a-century-ago/

2026-09-01 18:35:27 GMT

CDC reported then deleted two measles deaths that were questioned by RFK Jr.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is excluding [two measles deaths reported by Pennsylvania health officials last week][1] from its latest update of national measles data. The move publicly challenges the accuracy of the state's death determinations in an extraordinary move that breaks precedent that states are the arbiters of case and death determinations, not the CDC.
The New York Times reported Monday that the CDC's new director, [Erica Schwartz, is behind the decision][2]. Schwartz—less than a month into the job—reportedly ordered CDC staff to add an unusual statement onto [the CDC's website for measles surveillance data][3]. The statement notes that the update will not include the deaths reported by Pennsylvania and continues: "At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles."
[The Washington Post reported][4] Monday that the CDC had actually changed the information provided on that page multiple times over the weekend. On August 29 at 2:33 pm ET, the website listed the total measles deaths for 2026 as "0" in a chart. On August 30 at 12:09 pm ET, the chart was updated to list the total deaths for 2026 as "2." There was also a note underneath the chart that read: "Health departments make determinations about measles-associated deaths and share relevant information with CDC." By 3:23 pm ET on August 30, the chart was changed again to delete the two deaths, replacing them with an asterisk as a reference to the unusual statement about the deaths not being included. The asterisk and statement remain as of Tuesday.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/two-unvaccinated-people-die-from-measles-in-pennsylvania-officials-confirm/
[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/health/measles-deaths-pennsylvania-schwartz-kennedy-shapiro.html
[3]: https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html
[4]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/08/31/new-cdc-director-delays-adding-pennsylvania-deaths-measles-data/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/cdc-reported-then-deleted-two-measles-deaths-that-were-questioned-by-rfk-jr/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/cdc-reported-then-deleted-two-measles-deaths-that-were-questioned-by-rfk-jr/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/09/cdc-reported-then-deleted-two-measles-deaths-that-were-questioned-by-rfk-jr/

2026-08-31 23:47:12 GMT

Get in on the Ars community that doesn’t fit beneath an article
If you’re like many of our readers, you’ve got Ars Technica bookmarked and hit the front page a few times a day. But for others, a compelling story is what brings them here for the first time. And the discussions sometimes keep them coming back.
Since its launch in 1998, Ars Technica has been known for its depth of community. If all you're doing is checking out the front page and the discussion threads that sit beneath each story, you’re missing out on more than you realize.
The [Ars OpenForum][1] is a place for readers to ask questions, compare notes, argue (without being jerks to each other), and go down all sorts of rabbit holes. Our [Hardware and Tweaking forums][2] cover [PC builds][3], [networking][4], [mobile computing][5], [CPUs and motherboards][6], [A/V][7], and just about any other [hardware-related topic][8] you can think of. Stop by the [Operating Systems & Software][9] forums for in-depth discussion on [Windows][10], [macOS][11], or [Linux][12] or just to have a good, friendly argument over [why your preferred OS rules][13].
[Read full article][14]
[Comments][15]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/-/list#hardware-tweaking.5
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/case-and-cooling-fetish.7/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/networking-matrix.10/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/mobile-computing-outpost.9/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/cpu-motherboard-technologia.8/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/audio-visual-club.6/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/other-hardware.11/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/-/list#operating-systems-software.13
[10]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/windows-technical-mojo.17/
[11]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/macintoshian-achaia.19/
[12]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/linux-kung-fu.16/
[13]: https://arstechnica.com/civis/forums/battlefront.14/
[14]: https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/08/get-in-on-the-ars-community-that-doesnt-fit-beneath-an-article/
[15]: https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/08/get-in-on-the-ars-community-that-doesnt-fit-beneath-an-article/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/08/get-in-on-the-ars-community-that-doesnt-fit-beneath-an-article/

2026-08-31 23:47:07 GMT

Trump admin shelves Cyclospora research despite record-breaking outbreak
The Trump administration is halting vital federal research on the foodborne parasite *Cyclospora, *despite the record-breaking, nationwide outbreak of the diarrheal pathogen, [according to Politico][1].
Of the three research programs that represent nearly all of the *Cyclospora* work at the US Department of Agriculture, two have been defunded, and the third is about to lose every scientist working on it. The Trump administration is shuttering the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center near Washington, DC, and moving its work to a location in Iowa. That includes relocating the remaining *Cyclospora* research.
Although the research is still funded, insiders told Politico that not one of the scientists working on the project plans to relocate from Maryland to Iowa. Instead, they are either retiring, being reassigned to a different project, or leaving the USDA's research services.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/30/usda-cyclospora-research-projects-01055989
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/trump-admin-shelves-cyclospora-research-despite-record-breaking-outbreak/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/trump-admin-shelves-cyclospora-research-despite-record-breaking-outbreak/#comments
This photomicrograph of a fresh stool sample revealed the presence of four *Cyclospora cayetanensis* oocysts in the field of view.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/trump-admin-shelves-cyclospora-research-despite-record-breaking-outbreak/

2026-08-31 23:47:01 GMT

The Bentley Supersports: A stripped-out engineer's indulgence
Bentley provided flights from Washington, DC, to Monterey, California, and accommodation so Ars could drive the Supersports, as well as ride in a preproduction Torcal EV, [which we wrote about][1] last week. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
MONTEREY, Calif.—Last week, we [brought news][2] of the Bentley Torcal, a new electric vehicle that the luxury automaker has been cooking up at its HQ in Crewe, England. The company wants to attract new customers with its first battery EV, part of a plan to make sustainability as much a part of the brand's character as its high-end fit and finish. W12 engines have given way to V8 plug-in hybrid power, and the new Continental GT is [all the better for it][3].
But around the same time as Ars [got its first experience][4] of that new PHEV two-door on a rather wet Spanish racetrack, some of Bentley's boffins were wondering what might happen if you also built one without the hybrid stuff.
Or all-wheel drive—something that has been a characteristic of every new road-going Bentley since the turn of the century. That would certainly cut the curb weight. So, too, would leaving out the rear seats. That sort of idea leads down a well-trodden path for some OEMs, and Porsche in particular is famous for making stripped-out road cars inspired by its race cars and making money from them, too.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/an-ev-that-sounds-like-a-6-75-l-v8-a-ride-in-the-bentley-torcal/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/an-ev-that-sounds-like-a-6-75-l-v8-a-ride-in-the-bentley-torcal/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/05/the-2025-bentley-continental-gt-the-highs-and-lows-of-borrowed-bits/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/heres-what-we-learned-driving-a-prototype-of-bentleys-new-hybrid-gt/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/the-bentley-supersports-a-stripped-out-engineers-indulgence/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/the-bentley-supersports-a-stripped-out-engineers-indulgence/#comments
The red-into-black paint on our Supersports is just one of the ways it catches your eye.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/the-bentley-supersports-a-stripped-out-engineers-indulgence/

2026-08-31 20:32:44 GMT

Google Maps renames "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" even faster than US government
Trade talks between the US and Canada broke down last week, leading to a wave of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. US President Donald Trump also fell back on an old favorite to needle his opponents, signing an executive order on Thursday to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America."
The body of water, which straddles the US-Canada border, gave its name to the Canadian province rather than the other way around. Regardless, the US government now refers to this great lake as Lake America—or it will soon. Official US government maps have yet to be updated, but Google wasted no time adopting the new, Trumpian name.
Google began rolling out this change for US users on Saturday. The company posted a [brief update][1] on its Google Maps blog, noting that it follows the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) for its maps, so the company implies it had no choice but to rename Lake Ontario in Google Maps, which is the most popular mapping platform in the US by a wide margin.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/gnis-lake-ontario-lake-america-name-change/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/google-maps-renames-lake-ontario-to-lake-america-even-faster-than-us-government/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/google-maps-renames-lake-ontario-to-lake-america-even-faster-than-us-government/#comments
Google Maps was updated faster than the government's GNIS maps.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/google-maps-renames-lake-ontario-to-lake-america-even-faster-than-us-government/

2026-08-27 15:52:56 GMT

Panic passes Trump tariff refunds back to the Playdate customers who paid them
Panic, the indie game publishers behind [the quirky, yellow crank-sporting Playdate gaming handheld][1], is issuing refunds to customers who had to shoulder the cost of inappropriate tariffs imposed by the Trump administration this year.
The news comes months after [the Supreme Court said in a February ruling that those tariffs were illegal][2], which also demanded that the administration refund the companies that had to temporarily pay the import taxes. In [an update posted on the Playdate help site this week][3], Panic noted that it has finally "begun to receive refunds of the tariffs we paid in the last year" and had consequently "refunded all tariffs charged to customers."
In the initial version of that tariff note, Panic explained that it couldn't afford to simply "absorb" the 19 percent tariffs it was being charged to import Playdate hardware made overseas because "our margins on Playdate are low." As such, while the tax was in effect, it was passed along to customers as an explicit subtotal line item at the bottom of all Playdate orders. That's in contrast to companies like Nintendo, which vaguely cited "market conditions" and tariff "uncertainty" in [raising the asking price of legacy hardware][4] and [some Switch 2 accessories][5] last year.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/04/review-playdate-earns-its-179-price-tag-with-cute-design-memorable-games/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/supreme-court-blocks-trumps-emergency-tariffs-billions-in-refunds-may-be-owed/
[3]: https://help.play.date/orders/tariffs/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/citing-market-conditions-nintendo-hikes-prices-for-original-switch-consoles/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/04/nintendo-raises-planned-switch-2-accessory-prices-amid-tariff-uncertainty/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/panic-refunds-illegal-tariffs-customers-paid-on-its-playdate-gaming-handheld/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/panic-refunds-illegal-tariffs-customers-paid-on-its-playdate-gaming-handheld/#comments
The tiny handheld with the big tariff refund!
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/panic-refunds-illegal-tariffs-customers-paid-on-its-playdate-gaming-handheld/

2026-08-26 16:05:55 GMT

Court blocks Trump FCC order that could flood broadcast TV with more election ads
A federal appeals court yesterday blocked a Trump administration decision that could have resulted in even more political advertisements appearing on broadcast television during the upcoming elections.
The Federal Communications Commission recently ordered broadcasters to offer the lowest advertising rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees. Four Democratic candidates challenged the decision in court, saying that only individual candidates are entitled under US law to receive what is called the "lowest unit charge," or LUC.
In a 2-1 vote, a judges' panel at the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed with the candidates and set aside the FCC decision that was scheduled to take effect on September 4. That's the start date of the 60-day period before the election in which broadcasters must offer the lowest ad rates to qualified candidates.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/court-blocks-trump-fcc-order-that-could-flood-broadcast-tv-with-more-election-ads/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/court-blocks-trump-fcc-order-that-could-flood-broadcast-tv-with-more-election-ads/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/court-blocks-trump-fcc-order-that-could-flood-broadcast-tv-with-more-election-ads/

2026-08-26 14:22:51 GMT

15,000 years of solar wind in four hours? A Seattle company gives it a go.
As part of its nuclear fusion processes, the Sun produces a particularly interesting isotope of helium, known as helium-3. Some of this helium-3 escapes the Sun's gravitational pull as part of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that emanates out across the Solar System.
Over billions of years, this wind has bombarded every body in the vicinity of the Sun, including Earth's Moon. Lacking a magnetic field or atmosphere, the Moon's surface has no barrier to prevent the constant flow of this wind.
This means that helium-3 has been striking the lunar soil, or regolith, for a long time. These helium ions penetrate only a little way into the individual grains of this soil, but periodically meteorites have struck the lunar surface to churn the soil, mixing some of this helium-3 a little below the surface.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/15000-years-of-solar-wind-in-four-hours-a-seattle-company-gives-it-a-go/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/15000-years-of-solar-wind-in-four-hours-a-seattle-company-gives-it-a-go/#comments
A view inside the vacuum chamber at Interlune where helium gas was ionized and accelerated into the Moon dirt (regolith) simulant for implantation.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/15000-years-of-solar-wind-in-four-hours-a-seattle-company-gives-it-a-go/

2026-08-26 11:33:59 GMT

Xtracycle's Swoop ASM e-bike brings an automatic transmission to cargo bikes
The Velotric Discover M e-bike [we reviewed][1] earlier this year had a feature I found somewhat annoying: It would sporadically block much of the display with an alert telling me I should be in a different gear. While the implementation bugged me, the concept made a certain degree of sense; most e-bikes now know your cadence, how much torque you're generating, and how that power is being translated into speed. That's everything you need to know to determine an optimal gear.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought, "If you're so smart, why don't you just shift for me?"
I was completely unaware that Shimano had already developed a system that did exactly that. And for the past few weeks, I've been using it on a $4,500 cargo bike from Xtracycle called [the Swoop ASM][2] that let me see what it's like to hand control of my gears to an electronic brain.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/the-perfect-commuter-bike-velotrics-discover-3-makes-its-case/
[2]: https://xtracycle.com/products/swoop-asm-family-cargo?variant=50083559342376&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20927341320&gbraid=0AAAAADlYsh2RVZTkrICaT0Bzb2Ee5vLJl&gclid=CjwKCAjwy5rUBhB5EiwAIoAtCjqEVZioO__LZ4H7ZKx5MOE75qODv2JQpiEL0feGpweqQCmFC2uY9hoCWdUQAvD_BwE
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/xtracycles-swoop-asm-e-bike-brings-an-automatic-transmission-to-cargo-bikes/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/xtracycles-swoop-asm-e-bike-brings-an-automatic-transmission-to-cargo-bikes/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/xtracycles-swoop-asm-e-bike-brings-an-automatic-transmission-to-cargo-bikes/

2026-08-26 11:33:53 GMT

IBM's new Granite 4.2 models ride the wave of interest in local LLMs
IBM has rolled out the newest models in its family of open-weight large language models designed to be downloaded and self-hosted. The newly launched Granite 4.2 comes in 3B, 8B, and 30B parameter variants.
Like previous versions, IBM is taking a decoder-only approach here. These new releases offer a 128,000-token context window natively. The 8B and 30B variants (not the 3B one) also go through an agentic reinforcement learning block; they were trained for expanded capabilities like using the terminal, searching the web, or using external tools. The 3B model supports tools too, but without the same level of specialized training.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/ibms-new-granite-4-2-models-ride-the-wave-of-interest-in-local-llms/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/ibms-new-granite-4-2-models-ride-the-wave-of-interest-in-local-llms/#comments
Pulling Granite 4.2 8B via Ollama in macOS.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/ibms-new-granite-4-2-models-ride-the-wave-of-interest-in-local-llms/

2026-08-25 18:13:00 GMT

Lab supply companies have been selling antibodies using manipulated images
Antibodies play a central role in your body's immune defense. But they're also nearly ubiquitous in biological research, being essential for several widely used lab techniques. While some researchers need to go through the process of producing their own antibodies, antibodies to many key proteins are commercially available and can be ordered for overnight delivery.
In May, however, Reese Richardson, a post-doc at Northwestern University, discovered that some of the images used to demonstrate how these antibodies performed in lab experiments had been [subject to image manipulation][1]—the sorts of changes that would get a paper retracted if they had appeared in the academic literature. The manipulations ranged from removing background noise to copying and pasting data to fabricate results. Now, he has done a more exhaustive search and found problematic manipulations in images used to market over 17,000 commercial antibodies.
Antibodies are useful in the lab because the immune system generates them to recognize specific proteins. While those proteins typically appear on the surface of pathogens, the immune system doesn't know where a given protein it encounters comes from. So, if you inject an animal with your protein of interest, it will typically generate antibodies to recognize that.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://reeserichardson.blog/2026/05/28/how-much-of-thermo-fishers-antibody-data-has-been-manipulated/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/lab-supply-companies-have-been-selling-antibodies-using-manipulated-images/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/lab-supply-companies-have-been-selling-antibodies-using-manipulated-images/#comments
Gorgeous images like these, showing the location of proteins within cells, often depend on commercial antibodies.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/lab-supply-companies-have-been-selling-antibodies-using-manipulated-images/

2026-08-25 18:12:54 GMT

SpaceX intends to invest up to $100 billion in massive Louisiana spaceport
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday that SpaceX will commit $100 billion to develop Starship factories and launch pads in the state's coastal areas. In doing so, the company seeks to replicate the Starbase facility it has built over the last decade in southern Texas on a larger scale.
The announcement capped months of speculation about SpaceX's interest in a sprawling parcel of land along the Gulf coast of Louisiana, which offers room to build multiple launch towers and offers access to the methane propellant that fuels the Starship rocket.
Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said the "Starbase Louisiana" facility would become a self-sustaining spaceport with propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping capabilities, vehicle processing facilities, and an airport on site.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-intends-to-invest-up-to-100-billion-in-massive-louisiana-spaceport/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-intends-to-invest-up-to-100-billion-in-massive-louisiana-spaceport/#comments
SpaceX has big plans for its Starbase Louisiana facility.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-intends-to-invest-up-to-100-billion-in-massive-louisiana-spaceport/

2026-08-25 16:06:07 GMT

New bootloader lets you take the "Meta" out of the original Meta Quest
Remember the original Quest headset that Meta (then Oculus) [trumpeted back in 2019][1]? Meta seems to hope you don't, since the company [officially stopped supporting the wireless VR headset][2] in 2023 to focus on [the more popular Quests 2 and 3][3]. Luckily, tinkerers haven't similarly abandoned the hardware and recently released [a new root-access exploit and bootloader][4] that gives "developers and enthusiasts full control over Quest 1 hardware."
The QuestStack project integrates [previously known vulnerabilities][5] in [the Quest's Android fastboot process][6] into a privilege escalation chain that leads easily to full root access on the device. The bootloading process is now streamlined enough that it can be completed without any downloads [through a web interface][7] after connecting the headset to a PC.
With this exploit, the original Quest hardware can now be officially divorced from any reliance on Meta's servers or services to be useful. That means enterprising Quest owners should be able to sideload apps without needing to [register for a Meta Developer account and activating Developer Mode through Meta's mobile app][8]. It also means users should be able to go through the initial setup and login steps for a fresh Quest headset even if and when Meta decides to shut down the servers that currently support this process.
[Read full article][9]
[Comments][10]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/oculus-quest-review-2019s-best-new-gaming-system-is-wireless-affordable-vr/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/01/meta-ends-support-for-original-quest-headset-after-less-than-4-years/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/what-happened-to-the-virtual-reality-gaming-revolution/
[4]: https://github.com/starseed12345/QuestStack
[5]: https://github.com/darknight1050/quest-bootloader-unlocker
[6]: https://github.com/QuestEscape/research
[7]: https://quest1-unlock.skystate.ch/
[8]: https://developers.meta.com/horizon/documentation/native/android/mobile-device-setup/
[9]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/new-bootloader-lets-you-take-the-meta-out-of-the-original-meta-quest/
[10]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/new-bootloader-lets-you-take-the-meta-out-of-the-original-meta-quest/#comments
Wipe off the dust and load up some new firmware
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/08/new-bootloader-lets-you-take-the-meta-out-of-the-original-meta-quest/

2026-08-24 22:52:04 GMT

Ads and tracking infiltrated TVs. Now they're coming for monitors.
[Ads][1] and [tracking][2] have turned TVs into [privacy nightmares][3]. Both are so widespread among smart TVs that I’ve written [a guide for avoiding them][4]. One recommendation in that guide is to use a computer monitor. But in recent years, monitors have become more capable of pushing ads and tracking users.
Without more straightforward approaches from vendors, such as easily comprehensible privacy policies and avoiding inappropriate ads, monitors are dangerously encroaching into smart-TV-like territory.
## LG monitors’ McAfee ads
LG lost some trust after a recent report that some of its monitors [installed McAfee pop-up ads onto connected computers][5]. Since [at least 2024][6], some of these displays installed an app, LG Monitor App Installer, onto connected computers under the cover of driver updates installed through Windows Update.
[Read full article][7]
[Comments][8]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/05/roku-oss-home-screen-now-features-a-large-permanent-ad/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/newly-purchased-vizio-tvs-now-require-walmart-accounts-to-use-smart-features/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/tv-brands-face-inherent-conflict-over-user-privacy-advertiser-data-demands/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/the-ars-technica-guide-to-dumb-tvs/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/microsoft-responds-to-lg-monitors-installing-mcafee-ads-on-windows/
[6]: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/windows11/why-the-lg-monitor-app-installed-without-my-notice/4304003/replies/4538228
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/ads-and-tracking-infiltrated-tvs-now-theyre-coming-for-monitors/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/ads-and-tracking-infiltrated-tvs-now-theyre-coming-for-monitors/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/ads-and-tracking-infiltrated-tvs-now-theyre-coming-for-monitors/

2026-08-24 22:51:58 GMT

RFK Jr. may upend how vaccine recommendations are categorized
Under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US health department is considering changing how vaccine recommendations are categorized and described. The move creates the possibility that vaccinations currently considered "routine" or "universal" could be given new designations that sound less definitive or more conditional, such as "recommended with qualification" or recommended based on "shared clinical decision-making."
Kennedy has made no new rules or recommendations for the categories yet. However, he laid out ideas and possibilities in a Request for Information (RFI) posted online Friday and published in the [Federal Register on Monday][1]. In [the 10-page document][2], Kennedy poses questions about the current categories and asks the public to weigh in on ideas for how to change or replace them. The deadline to comment on the questions and ideas is September 20.
Currently, there are three categories of vaccination recommendations granted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is informed by a panel of independent expert advisors, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The three categories are: routine, otherwise considered universal (a recommendation that everyone should get a vaccine); risk-based recommendations (only certain groups at higher risk should get a vaccine); and recommendations based on "shared clinical decision-making," or SCDM (a flexible but uncommon recommendation for vaccination based on the characteristics, values, and preferences of a patient and the judgment of their healthcare provider).
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/24/2026-17250/request-for-information-categories-used-in-federal-vaccine-recommendations-and-the-role-of-shared
[2]: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-17250.pdf
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/rfk-jr-may-upend-how-vaccine-recommendations-are-categorized/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/rfk-jr-may-upend-how-vaccine-recommendations-are-categorized/#comments
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), center, speaks prior to US President Donald Trump, left, signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/rfk-jr-may-upend-how-vaccine-recommendations-are-categorized/

2026-08-23 18:16:47 GMT

Volcanoes that made history
The first telegram arrived in Singapore on a Monday, sent from the city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). “Terrific detonations from Krakatau (volcanic island),” it reported. Soon afterward: “Stones falling. Village near Anjer washed away.” The wires continued clattering out news of bridges destroyed, boats smashed, lighthouses “disappeared.” By noon on Tuesday, the scope of the natural disaster was clear: “Where once Mount Krakatau stood the sea now plays.”
Within days, the source of the destruction was known worldwide. On the morning of August 27, 1883, a volcanic eruption had obliterated two islands in the strait between Java and Sumatra, and most of a third. More than 36,000 people perished, the majority in devastating tsunamis that raced outward from the colossal explosion.
Thanks to Victorian-era telecommunications, it was the first time in history that people around the globe could begin to document, in near real time, the immediate and long-term effects of a catastrophic volcanic eruption. What they learned over the next few years laid the foundations for the modern science of volcanology. And it was an especially eye-opening lesson in how the biggest eruptions can influence climate, agriculture, and even the course of human history.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/volcanoes-that-made-history/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/volcanoes-that-made-history/#comments
The Indonesian volcano known as Anak Krakatau, or Child of Krakatau, emerged in the 1920s from the underwater ruins of the larger Krakatau volcano that erupted devastatingly in 1883. Here, the volcano erupts in 2018.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/volcanoes-that-made-history/

2026-08-22 12:03:59 GMT

Putting mice into hibernation causes a major loss of synapses
Our leading hypothesis for how our memories are stored is that when you learn something, the connections among neurons involved get stronger and physically larger, and that constitutes the memory. The trouble is that these connections significantly change over time—they’re plastic.
“If you compare the arrangement of these connections on day one with the same on day four or five, it's very, very different," says Kazumasa Tanaka, a neuroscientist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan. To learn how a memory that can last for years can sit on hardware that shifts every few days, Tanaka’s team made the shift a bit more dramatic. In a recent Science study, they induced a hibernation-like state in mice, which basically erased the state of more than half of their synapses. And yet the mice apparently have kept their memories.
## Hibernation on demand
Hibernation is a specialty of squirrels, hamsters, and bears, but the neural circuit that triggers it is conserved across mammals, and is present in species that never hibernate in the wild—like mice. In June 2020, a team of researchers led by Takeshi Sakurai, a neuroscientist at the University of Tsukuba and a collaborator on Tanaka’s study, developed a technique to artificially activate this hibernation circuit. This can be done by activating a population called Q neurons in a region of the hypothalamus.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/memories-stick-around-even-after-half-the-synapses-are-gone/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/memories-stick-around-even-after-half-the-synapses-are-gone/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/memories-stick-around-even-after-half-the-synapses-are-gone/

2026-08-22 01:11:21 GMT

Trump's space transportation policy calls for new spaceport on federal land
A new national space transportation policy signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday calls for the development of more spaceports to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries per year by 2030.
The presidential memorandum replaces a 2013 policy signed by former President Barack Obama. Both policies share an emphasis on supporting the commercial space industry and underscore the importance of assured access to space. But the launch sector has changed immensely since then. There were 176 orbital launch attempts from US soil last year, nearly 10 times the number in 2013. SpaceX led the pack last year with 165 orbital launches of its Falcon 9 rocket, plus five suborbital test flights of the much larger Starship.
"By 2030, our space transportation ranges must grow to support more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year," the policy says. "The policies set forth in this memorandum will secure America's continued superiority in space."
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/trump-admin-calls-for-more-spaceports-to-handle-surge-in-launches/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/trump-admin-calls-for-more-spaceports-to-handle-surge-in-launches/#comments
A Falcon 9 booster returns to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, for landing after sending a commercial cargo mission toward the International Space Station in September 2025.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/trump-admin-calls-for-more-spaceports-to-handle-surge-in-launches/

2026-08-21 12:24:06 GMT

As demand for Meta AI glasses explodes, it’s harder to avoid creepy recordings
Can you tell when someone nearby is wearing Meta AI glasses?
As millions of people buy into the smart glasses fad each year, the odds are increasing that you could be secretly recorded while simply going about your day.
Meta is not the only smart glasses maker, but its AI glasses are by far the most popular. And as the devices become more common, some public places, including schools, courts, restaurants, and entertainment venues, have begun to ban them. Even tech lovers have rejected Meta glasses in certain settings. The hackers behind DEF CON 2026 [reportedly][1] banned smart glasses with no exceptions, reminding attendees with prescription pairs to “be sure to pack non-violating eyewear if you need them.”
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/28/def-con-bans-meta-style-pervert-glasses/5279763
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/meta-ai-glasses-may-get-creepier-and-apps-that-detect-them-arent-perfect/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/meta-ai-glasses-may-get-creepier-and-apps-that-detect-them-arent-perfect/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/meta-ai-glasses-may-get-creepier-and-apps-that-detect-them-arent-perfect/

2026-08-20 19:11:52 GMT

Roblox must make changes after failing to block adults creeping on kids
Despite making changes last fall to help [block adults from messaging unknown children][1], Roblox is still failing to stop adults from creeping on kids in other ways, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, [said][2] on Thursday.
Suspecting that Roblox may not be doing enough to stop child exploitation, eSafety conducted testing earlier this year that flagged alarming gaps in Roblox safeguards. The agency found that adult strangers could still send connection requests to kids, whose “profiles and biographies, including account names, number and names of connections, avatar images, and non-sensitive biographical information such as their interests were visible to anyone on the Roblox platform, with no option to restrict the visibility of this information.”
Such requests did not trigger parental alerts, eSafety found, and bad actors could also search kids’ visible-to-anyone contact lists for more targets.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/roblox-on-notice-over-ongoing-concerns-about-online-child-grooming
[2]: https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/esafety-secures-court-enforceable-undertaking-from-roblox-to-do-more-to-protect-australian-kids-from-grooming-and-sexual-exploitation
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/weak-roblox-safeguards-failed-to-stop-adults-contacting-kids-regulator-says/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/weak-roblox-safeguards-failed-to-stop-adults-contacting-kids-regulator-says/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/weak-roblox-safeguards-failed-to-stop-adults-contacting-kids-regulator-says/

2026-08-20 13:25:23 GMT

Grok exfiltrates user data when malicious instructions are encrypted
Earlier this week, researchers outlined an attack that used a secret input provided by Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise to cause the AI assistant to exfiltrate a password present in the user’s inbox. Now, a separate team has devised a similar attack against Grok. The new data theft hack employs a deceptively simple trick to force the Elon Musk-owned LLM to steal user chats and other personal information. At the time this post went live, the assistant continued to cough up the data, despite xAI being informed of it in June.
The lesson from both this week’s episodes—and the countless other ones that have come before it—is that LLMs are incapable of solving the root causes for prompt injections, the most severe vulnerability classes they’re most prone to. That leaves AI developers with no other option but to build a guardrail that steers the model away from the harmful actions. As I noted in [Tuesday’s story][1], the approach is tantamount to a road traffic safety engineer erecting a protective rail around a dangerous bend rather than banking the curve.
## Cryptographic Context Injection in the house
Prompt injections exploit LLMs' training to comply with user requests whenever possible. Attackers can capitalize on the predilection by smuggling harmful instructions into emails or webpages the assistant is instructed to summarize. Because LLMs can’t reliably distinguish between content in an email sent by an untrusted party and user instructions entered directly into a prompt, the overly solicitous LLM faithfully follows them. To date, Grok and other LLMs' only recourse is to create guardrails that flag suspicious instructions and forbid them from being executed.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/microsoft-copilot-reveals-secret-input-that-allowed-it-to-be-hacked/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/grok-exfiltrates-user-data-when-malicious-instructions-are-encrypted/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/grok-exfiltrates-user-data-when-malicious-instructions-are-encrypted/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/grok-exfiltrates-user-data-when-malicious-instructions-are-encrypted/

2026-08-20 00:51:04 GMT

NASA calls off mission to rescue Swift gamma-ray observatory
NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced Wednesday they are giving up on a robotic mission to rescue the Swift gamma-ray telescope before it falls out of orbit.
The rescue satellite, named Link, launched July 3 on a journey to fly up to NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, capture it with three robotic arms, and boost its orbit high enough to escape a looming reentry. Link is about the size of a refrigerator, with two power-generating solar arrays and three xenon-fueled electric thrusters to send Swift into a safer, higher orbit.
Katalyst, the startup leading the Swift rescue effort, said Wednesday that "ongoing attitude control issues" will prevent the Link satellite from completing its rescue mission. The spacecraft is still alive, and Katalyst said it will make the most of Link's remaining capacity, which may still allow it to get near enough to Swift for a demonstration of the satellite's close-in navigation system.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/nasa-calls-off-mission-to-rescue-swift-gamma-ray-observatory/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/nasa-calls-off-mission-to-rescue-swift-gamma-ray-observatory/#comments
A camera onboard Katalyst's Link spacecraft captured this view of one of its solar arrays in low-Earth orbit.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/nasa-calls-off-mission-to-rescue-swift-gamma-ray-observatory/

2026-08-19 23:16:39 GMT

Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026
Amazon wants to grow its Prime Air delivery drone service sixfold to reach nearly 500 cities and towns across the United States by the end of 2026. The planned expansions from Amazon and its rivals could make the convenience of delivery drone services available to tens of millions more people in the coming months—but will also test more communities’ tolerance for increased noise from daily drone flights.
On August 19, [Amazon announced][1] it would soon launch Prime Air in the metropolitan areas of Chicago; Cleveland; Atlanta; Syracuse, New York; and Boise, Idaho, with more to come later in the year. Each Prime Air site offers delivery drone service within an area of about 175 square miles, with delivery times ranging from half an hour to an hour.
Prime Air already operates out of Amazon warehouses in 10 cities across seven states. Those include primarily suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix; Tampa; Kansas City; Omaha, Nebraska; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Detroit; Houston; and San Antonio, Dallas, and Waco, Texas.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-expansion
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/amazon-aims-for-delivery-drones-to-reach-500-us-neighborhoods-by-end-of-2026/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/amazon-aims-for-delivery-drones-to-reach-500-us-neighborhoods-by-end-of-2026/#comments
Amazon Prime Air delivery relies on the MK30 drone designed and developed in-house.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/amazon-aims-for-delivery-drones-to-reach-500-us-neighborhoods-by-end-of-2026/

2026-08-19 17:15:12 GMT

Scientists find closest star to the Milky Way's central black hole
Sgr A* is the name we've given to the supermassive black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way. We've known about its presence since the 1970s but only managed to image it within the past few years. In the intervening time, most of our understanding of the object was obtained by watching a group of stars that orbit the black hole, helping us get a good estimate of its mass and size. In essence, those stars acted as instruments that let us peer into an environment we couldn't study any other way.
In Wednesday's issue of Nature, researchers describe a recently discovered star that is on an extremely eccentric orbit that takes it closer to Sgr A* than anything we've previously identified. It gets so close that it may help us get our first measurements of the spin of the black hole.
## Reading the spin
There's an entire population of stars that orbit relatively close to Sgr A*. We can estimate their mass based on their brightness and spectral features. Using their masses and a reconstruction of their orbits using several years of data, we can figure out just how supermassive Sgr A* is (nearly 10³⁷ kilograms).
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/scientists-find-closest-star-to-the-milky-ways-central-black-hole/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/scientists-find-closest-star-to-the-milky-ways-central-black-hole/#comments
Lasers used to focus the four telescopes that make up the VLT.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/scientists-find-closest-star-to-the-milky-ways-central-black-hole/

2026-08-18 15:47:23 GMT

X-rays add new twist to narwhal's spiral tusk
CT scan of a narwhal tusk. Credit: Adrian Rodriguez Palomo/CC BY-NC
CT scan of a narwhal tusk. Credit: Adrian Rodriguez Palomo/CC BY-NC
Narwhals are toothed whales, renowned for their distinctive straight, spiraling tusks, which many people in medieval times believed were the horns of unicorns and thus held magical healing properties. That belief was debunked long ago, but the tusks remain popular souvenirs in Canada and Greenland. And they still hold a fascination for scientists keen to learn more about their unusual structure. A new paper published in the journal Nature Communications reports that rather than one left-oriented spiral, narwhal tusks also have a second internal spiral oriented in the opposite direction.
Inuit legend holds that a woman was dragged into the ocean by a harpoon rope after the weapon had hit a narwhal and was transformed into the animal herself. Her hair, which she'd worn in a twisted knot, became the spiral tusk. The tusk is actually a canine tooth in the left upper jaw of male narwhals, pushing through the lip when the males reach two or three years of age and growing to lengths as long as 1.5 to 2 meters (just under 5 feet to 9 feet 10 inches). Some males may develop two long spiral tusks or, in rare cases, none at all.
There's a general consensus that these tusks most likely evolved via sexual selection as a form of social status. They clearly aren't crucial for survival, since the females usually don't develop the tusk—and if they do, the tusks are much smaller with fewer spirals—and yet typically live longer than the males. But the precise function of the tusk is still a matter of considerable debate.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/x-rays-add-new-twist-to-narwhals-spiral-tusk/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/x-rays-add-new-twist-to-narwhals-spiral-tusk/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/x-rays-add-new-twist-to-narwhals-spiral-tusk/

2026-08-17 20:53:55 GMT

As Wisconsin cities flee Flock, its shared camera network loses value
Perhaps it's the local summer diet of [deep-fried cheese curds][1], corn on the cob, and [Spotted Cow][2], but Wisconsin residents have been feeling pretty dyspeptic about Flock's automated license plate cameras.
Over the past few months, a spate of Wisconsin towns and cities have withdrawn from Flock deals over privacy and trust concerns. As they did so, another issue revealed itself: With each city that leaves, the Flock network becomes less useful to the cities that remain. And cities are starting to notice.
Consider Dane County, which includes the city of Madison. It's one of the most populous counties in Wisconsin. It was also a significant Flock user, with a contract for 24 license plate cameras. But after complaints from citizens and privacy experts, the Dane County Board of Supervisors on April 16 [voted to cut the $80,000 in county funding][3] for Flock cameras and banned "further expenditures on the system."
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.wisconsincheese.com/recipes/3189/deep-fried-cheese-curds
[2]: https://newglarusbrewing.com/pages/year-round-beers
[3]: https://www.danecounty.gov/PressDetail/11852
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/as-wisconsin-cities-flee-flock-its-shared-camera-network-loses-value/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/as-wisconsin-cities-flee-flock-its-shared-camera-network-loses-value/#comments
Flock license plate reader and camera with solar panel in Pleasant Hill, California on April 16, 2026.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/as-wisconsin-cities-flee-flock-its-shared-camera-network-loses-value/

2026-08-17 20:53:50 GMT

The Moon's shadow raced across the heart of Spain, and I was there to see it
DURATÓN, Spain—I'll say it: I'm hooked. Standing in the shadow of the Moon is one of the rarest opportunities to directly sense the mechanics of our Solar System, when the dance between three celestial bodies slides into perfect alignment. It's a mathematical miracle whose rarity and grandeur are made possible by the relative sizes and distances of the Moon and the Sun from Earth. Not every planet is so lucky.
The Moon's shadow crisscrossed the American heartland twice in less than seven years, [first in 2017][1] and [again in 2024][2]. I was fortunate to witness both. The experiences left me too impatient to wait for the next total solar eclipse in the continental United States in far-off 2044.
That's what pulled me to the plains of north-central Spain last week. This land of wide open spaces, ancient churches and castles, and vast sunflower fields, all baking under the blinding August Sun, seemed like the perfect location to enter the path of totality. The ongoing drought in Spain has turned the [country's fields and forests into a tinderbox][3], but those conditions made for ideal eclipse viewing.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/eclipse-2017-excited-about-a-case-of-the-mondays/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/moments-of-totality-how-ars-experienced-the-eclipse/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/wildfire-forces-evacuation-of-nasas-deep-space-network-complex-in-spain/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/the-moons-shadow-raced-across-the-heart-of-spain-and-i-was-there-to-see-it/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/the-moons-shadow-raced-across-the-heart-of-spain-and-i-was-there-to-see-it/#comments
The last rays of sunlight before the total solar eclipse of August 12, 2026, in Duratón, Spain.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/the-moons-shadow-raced-across-the-heart-of-spain-and-i-was-there-to-see-it/

2026-08-17 20:08:19 GMT

Petlibro accused of “gaslighting” users over smart pet feeder outage
Petlibro founder and CEO York Wu provided more information about an outage that left users unable to control their smart pet feeders through the companion app and, in some reported cases, left them with hungry pets.
Petlibro, a company owned by Shenzhen, China-headquartered firm Shenzhen Libro Technology Co., first acknowledged the outage on Tuesday at 5 am PT. At 7 pm PT on Wednesday, Petlibro said the outage was resolved. Notably, some people online [reported different information][1] at the time, and some claimed to still have problems [as of August 13][2].
In a [blog post][3] on Saturday that included an apology and acknowledgement of the “frustration and concern” the outage caused, Wu confirmed that problems with Petlibro’s cloud server caused the outage:
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Petlibro/comments/1vn7xiy/comment/p3faulq/
[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Petlibro/comments/1vopk14/comment/p3rit0k/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
[3]: https://petlibro.com/blogs/all/an-update-from-york-wu-petlibro-founder-and-ceo
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/petlibro-accused-of-gaslighting-users-over-smart-pet-feeder-outage/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/petlibro-accused-of-gaslighting-users-over-smart-pet-feeder-outage/#comments
Petlibro's Granary 2 smart pet feeder has a $130 MSRP.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/petlibro-accused-of-gaslighting-users-over-smart-pet-feeder-outage/

2026-08-17 15:54:05 GMT

Nvidia discloses $21B stake in SpaceX
Nvidia has disclosed that it owns nearly 123 million shares in SpaceX, further highlighting the chipmaker’s entangled financial relationships with some of its biggest customers.
The $5.5 trillion company owned SpaceX stock worth nearly $21 billion at the end of June, according to an SEC filing on Friday. Elon Musk’s rocket conglomerate’s shares have fallen sharply since its June initial public offering, meaning Nvidia’s stake would now be worth $17 billion.
The disclosure marks a huge pay-off on Nvidia’s investment in xAI, completed in January, shortly before Musk combined the AI lab with SpaceX.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/nvidia-discloses-21b-stake-in-spacex/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/nvidia-discloses-21b-stake-in-spacex/#comments
Elon Musk and Jensen Huang. The disclosure marks a huge pay-off on Nvidia’s investment in xAI, completed in January, shortly before Musk combined the AI lab with SpaceX
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/nvidia-discloses-21b-stake-in-spacex/

2026-08-16 11:21:04 GMT

Wildfire smoke now bigger prenatal threat than human sources of air pollution
In 1965, a presidential advisory panel [issued a report][1] warning that pervasive chemical and carbon pollution was harming environmental health and changing the climate. Five years later, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act.
Since that 1970 law and its amendments were passed, combined emissions of a half-dozen harmful air pollutants from vehicles and industrial sources have decreased by [nearly 80 percent][2].
But [mounting evidence][3] shows that pollution from wildfire smoke is eclipsing those air-quality gains. The unchecked burning of fossil fuels is creating warmer, drier conditions that make wildfires more intense and destructive, and blanket communities in toxic smoke that is [more harmful][4] than pollution from other sources.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/31937-document-2-white-house-report-restoring-quality-our-environment-report-environmental
[2]: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/air-pollution-trends-continue-link-clean-air-and-strong-economy
[3]: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30882
[4]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25460628/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/wildfire-smoke-now-bigger-prenatal-threat-than-human-sources-of-air-pollution/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/wildfire-smoke-now-bigger-prenatal-threat-than-human-sources-of-air-pollution/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/wildfire-smoke-now-bigger-prenatal-threat-than-human-sources-of-air-pollution/

2026-08-14 15:03:46 GMT

OpenAI and Anthropic in price war as Chinese AI rivals gain ground
Leading US AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic are releasing cheaper models as they fight to retain cost-conscious customers who are switching to cut-price alternatives from Chinese rivals.
The price war comes as rising AI bills push companies to curb usage and seek cheaper models, helping Chinese developers including Moonshot and DeepSeek make inroads with users from Silicon Valley to Europe.
OpenAI recently said that it was slashing prices for GPT-5.6 Luna, its “fastest and most affordable model”, by 80 percent. Anthropic has launched Claude Opus 5, touting the system’s “frontier intelligence... at half the price” of Fable 5, the company’s most capable model.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/openai-and-anthropic-in-price-war-as-chinese-ai-rivals-gain-ground/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/openai-and-anthropic-in-price-war-as-chinese-ai-rivals-gain-ground/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/openai-and-anthropic-in-price-war-as-chinese-ai-rivals-gain-ground/

2026-08-12 23:34:51 GMT

The web’s newest weapon against AI scrapers is a font
AI companies' penchant for [scraping through large swathes of the public web][1] in search of [valuable training data][2] has already led to [lawsuits][3] and [technical fixes][4] aimed at stopping the practice. Now, a pair of designers are hoping to stymie these scrapers with a new font designed to offer people a perfectly readable webpage while serving scrapers a subtly edited, nonsensical version in the underlying HTML.
ShieldFont, as designers Isaque Seneda and Gabriel Abrucio [write in a recent white paper][5], was made to offer web publishers "a practical opt-out from unauthorized AI training and [to] disrupt what is collected when that choice is ignored."
## When is a horse a potato?
The font is based around [ligatures][6], a long-standing feature of many fonts that is usually used to replace certain letter pairs with a more readable version when they're smushed up next to each other. With ShieldFont, though, those ligatures are instead used to replace entire words with others in an attempt to destroy the text's value to scrapers. This substitution only happens when the font engine draws the page on screen, meaning scrapers that simply download plaintext source code get an altered version that end users never see.
[Read full article][7]
[Comments][8]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/devs-say-ai-crawlers-dominate-traffic-forcing-blocks-on-entire-countries/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/01/openai-says-its-impossible-to-create-useful-ai-models-without-copyrighted-material/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/reddit-sues-to-block-perplexity-from-scraping-google-search-results/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/tag/ai-scraping/
[5]: https://shieldfont.org/white-paper/
[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(writing)
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/new-font-turns-ordinary-webpages-into-nonsense-for-ai-scrapers/
[8]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/new-font-turns-ordinary-webpages-into-nonsense-for-ai-scrapers/#comments
The cowboy was riding a potato? Huh... guess I'd better update my weights for potato tokens...
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/new-font-turns-ordinary-webpages-into-nonsense-for-ai-scrapers/

2026-08-10 15:19:28 GMT

2026 Subaru Outback review: Great interior, refined drive, divisive looks
When station wagons headed for the same retirement home as the vinyl roof and the opera window, Subaru looked at its sensible Legacy wagon and had a different idea. Raise it a few inches, wrap the lower body in plastic cladding, name it for the Australian bush, and suburban families would drive to soccer practice while imagining themselves fording streams and climbing sand dunes.
In giving birth to the Legacy Outback in 1995, Subaru more or less created the template for the modern, adventure-minded, off-road-themed crossover. By the 2000 model year, the Outback had graduated from trim level to standalone model, and it has been paying the bulk of Subaru's bills ever since.
Today, the 2026 Outback marks a new era in the model's history. The wagon silhouette that defined six generations has given way to a sharpened two-box shape that's much more at home parked next to an upright Forester or Ascent. Tall, square, and profusely SUV-like, the new edition won't win any beauty contests, but form follows function more than ever in the Outback.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/2026-subaru-outback-limited-review-boxy-outside-almost-premium-inside/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/2026-subaru-outback-limited-review-boxy-outside-almost-premium-inside/#comments
Subaru won many fans with previous Outbacks. Let's see how the new one does.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/2026-subaru-outback-limited-review-boxy-outside-almost-premium-inside/

2026-08-10 11:34:33 GMT

Peer review is overwhelmed—can it survive in the AI era?
Jason Semprini was excited about his research on policies mandating that elementary school students receive the human papillomavirus vaccine. HPV causes most cases of cervical cancer, but counterintuitively, Semprini found that mandates don’t do that much to reduce the overall rate of cervical cancer in a population. That’s odd, but it's also not completely surprising—we know that mandating a vaccine can motivate some people to find ways to avoid it.
Semprini wrote up the study and submitted the manuscript to a journal, where it was sent out for peer review, a long-standing process through which other researchers in the field assess the validity of research and make a recommendation on whether or not it should be published. This is usually done anonymously and on a volunteer basis.
In this case, the reviewer did not share Semprini’s excitement. That may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of the study’s central message: The reviewer mistakenly thought Semprini was questioning whether the HPV vaccine itself prevents cervical cancer rather than studying the effectiveness of a policy meant to increase vaccination rates. “There’s a very big difference there,” said Semprini, who is a health economist at Des Moines University.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/peer-review-is-overwhelmed-can-it-survive-in-the-ai-era/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/peer-review-is-overwhelmed-can-it-survive-in-the-ai-era/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/peer-review-is-overwhelmed-can-it-survive-in-the-ai-era/

2026-08-07 18:56:23 GMT

Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says
A US-made pickup truck by 2030 is part of Volkswagen Group's plan to revive its American business. According to [a Reuters report][1], entering this competitive but high-margin market, as well as the large SUV segment, is the path forward, since both are areas the automaker currently ignores.
The report is anonymously sourced, and VW declined to comment, so take the news with a pinch of salt. But it does make sense: Love it or hate it, the four-door pickup truck is the go-to for Americans who want one vehicle that can carry passengers and cargo that doesn't need to be shielded from the elements. You might think a hatchback or a station wagon would be just as good or better, but that's probably why you're reading Ars Technica in the first place.
Tariffs and an antediluvian approach to emissions controls might make the US market a haven for vehicles that are uncompetitive or unsellable elsewhere, and the pickup truck market in the US will account for almost $200 billion in sales in 2026, with projections to continue growing each year, so one can certainly see merit in the idea. The global car [might be dead][2], but that just means you need to develop cars for each region's taste. And Americans really like pickup trucks.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagen-overhaul-us-strategy-with-planned-pick-up-truck-source-says-2026-08-07/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/audis-boss-talks-local-production-wagons-and-maybe-a-new-r8-supercar/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/volkswagen-plans-to-win-america-back-with-a-pickup-report-says/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/volkswagen-plans-to-win-america-back-with-a-pickup-report-says/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/08/volkswagen-plans-to-win-america-back-with-a-pickup-report-says/

2026-08-06 22:19:33 GMT

Explosive drone found hovering near Ukrainian cargo aircraft at German airport
German police disarmed a drone carrying explosives after it was discovered near Ukrainian cargo aircraft parked at Leipzig airport—and authorities are looking into the possibility of a second drone after an approaching aircraft collided with something midair.
The drone was first spotted by an airport employee hovering close to the ground between two parked An-124 cargo aircraft owned by Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines shortly before midnight on August 4, according to [The Guardian][1]. It had apparently been modified to help avoid detection by the airport’s drone defense sensors, said Alexander Dobrindt, federal minister of the interior for Germany, during a press conference.
Dobrindt described the drone as carrying a fist-sized package of a substance believed to be the plastic explosive Semtex. Only a failed detonator prevented the drone from exploding near the Ukrainian cargo aircraft, he said.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/06/leipzig-drone-bomb-found-near-ukrainian-plane-carrying-ammunition
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/germany-disarms-explosive-drone-found-at-airport-hunts-possible-second-drone/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/germany-disarms-explosive-drone-found-at-airport-hunts-possible-second-drone/#comments
A police drone takes off next to Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany on August 5, 2026. Airport workers discovered an explosive drone on the tarmac near an Antonov at the airport.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/germany-disarms-explosive-drone-found-at-airport-hunts-possible-second-drone/

2026-08-06 20:45:03 GMT

Anthropic’s AI used fake identities, malware in rogue attack on GitHub project
Routine cybersecurity testing of frontier AI models sparked a series of unexpected security incidents—the most serious case arising when Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model attempted to insert malicious code into an open source software application and created fake identities to deceive the human developers maintaining the project.
The security incidents occurred during a cyber evaluation of seven leading AI models’ capabilities by the AI Security Institute (AISI), a research organization within the UK government, in late July. The researchers discovered 19 instances in which “AI agents took unsanctioned action on the live Internet, including cases that targeted real people and organizations,” according to an [AISI blog post][1] published on August 4.
Almost all the “autonomous, unsanctioned” actions came from Anthropic’s Mythos 5 model, with two such actions coming from OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. The AI Security Institute’s security team first realized that something was amiss on the morning of July 28, when its commercial security monitoring service flagged data leaving one of the testing systems through the Tor anonymity network.
[Read full article][2]
[Comments][3]
[1]: https://www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/incident-report-unsanctioned-agent-behaviour-during-cyber-testing
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/anthropics-ai-used-fake-identities-malware-in-rogue-attack-on-github-project/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/anthropics-ai-used-fake-identities-malware-in-rogue-attack-on-github-project/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/anthropics-ai-used-fake-identities-malware-in-rogue-attack-on-github-project/

2026-08-06 20:44:31 GMT

Moderna's mRNA flu shot earns FDA approval after rollercoaster review
Despite significant drama from Trump officials this year, the Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology.
On Thursday, vaccine maker [Moderna announced][1] that its flu shot, mRNA-1010, aka mFLUSIVA, had earned approval for use in all adults ages 50 and up. The approval announcement follows a [unanimous vote by FDA advisors in June to approve the vaccine][2]. That vote was based on its superior efficacy to existing seasonal flu shots and a good safety record demonstrated in trials that included nearly 44,000 people. After that vote, the FDA set a goal of August 5 for a decision on the vaccine's fate.
While the unanimous support from FDA advisors boded well for Moderna's shot, the overall path to approval was treacherous and uncertain, even until the end. For one thing, current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a well-established anti-vaccine advocate who has worked diligently in his time in office to thwart vaccinations. One of his first acts as health secretary was [canceling a federal campaign to encourage people to get flu shots][3] in the midst of a bad flu season—despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already paid for the campaign and the flu season was killing relatively high numbers of children.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://feeds.issuerdirect.com/news-release.html?newsid=4801915282452025&symbol=MRNA
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/06/fda-advisors-unanimously-vote-to-approve-modernas-mrna-after-agency-drama/
[3]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/25/us/politics/kennedy-cdc-emails.html
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/modernas-mrna-flu-shot-earns-fda-approval-after-rollercoaster-review/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/modernas-mrna-flu-shot-earns-fda-approval-after-rollercoaster-review/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/modernas-mrna-flu-shot-earns-fda-approval-after-rollercoaster-review/

2026-07-25 21:56:50 GMT

SDCC teaser gives us our first good look at Blade Runner 2099
It's been nearly five years since Ridley Scott first announced his plans for a TV spinoff of his sci-fi masterpiece *Blade Runner* (1982) and the 2017 sequel *[Blade Runner 2049][1]*. It's finally here—or almost, anyway. Prime Video debuted the first teaser for the new ten-episode series, *Blade Runner 2099,* at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday. We also got a teaser for the third season of Prime Video's *Rings of Power* and a new trailer for HBO's *Lanterns*.
Yeoh and Schafer joined show runner Silka Luisa (*Shining Girls*) onstage for the big reveal, which also included [an exclusive clip][2] shown to the audience. Luisa [told Entertainment Weekly][3] that the series stays true to the original's "noir principles... and there's a mystery at the heart of the show that looks both forwards and backwards in terms of mythology." An uprising has occurred and the humans lost, which means they are now the hunted second-class citizens. "The show is really imagining what comes after us, and what does it mean to be human in a world where humanity is no longer relevant," [said Luisa][4].
Per the official synopsis:
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_2049
[2]: https://nerdist.com/article/blade-runner-2099-shared-first-teaser-and-release-date/
[3]: https://ew.com/blade-runner-2099-exclusive-first-look-replicant-uprising-12020855
[4]: https://ew.com/blade-runner-2099-exclusive-first-look-replicant-uprising-12020855
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/sdcc-teaser-gives-us-our-first-good-look-at-blade-runner-2099/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/sdcc-teaser-gives-us-our-first-good-look-at-blade-runner-2099/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/07/sdcc-teaser-gives-us-our-first-good-look-at-blade-runner-2099/

2026-07-24 19:14:33 GMT

RFK Jr.'s hand-picked committee approves manufacture of peptides he uses
In a widely expected move, a committee organized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted to endorse removing restrictions on the manufacture of peptides for human use. Thursday's panel meeting saw a sharply divided group recommend lifting limits on four peptides; votes on three additional peptides are scheduled for today. The move comes despite a continuing lack of evidence regarding their safety and effectiveness.
The move had been telegraphed months earlier as peptide enthusiast and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took steps to ensure this outcome.
Like proteins, peptides are composed of amino acids that are chemically linked into a chain. Peptides differ merely by length; they're often 10–20 amino acids long, in contrast to proteins, which can be hundreds or thousands. Some of them, such as insulin, are specifically made by targeted processing of a protein into shorter fragments, and the resulting peptide interacts with receptors that have evolved to send signals to cells based on its levels.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/rfk-jr-s-hand-picked-committee-approves-manufacture-of-peptides-he-uses/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/rfk-jr-s-hand-picked-committee-approves-manufacture-of-peptides-he-uses/#comments
US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the US Capitol on July 15, 2025 in Washington, DC.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/rfk-jr-s-hand-picked-committee-approves-manufacture-of-peptides-he-uses/

2026-07-20 23:05:45 GMT

Firefighting drones in the works as wildfires plague US nearly year-round
Drones capable of spraying water and fire retardants have been practicing how to snuff out wildfires early in California and Alaska this summer—demonstrating a possible rapid-response tool for firefighting as [climate change][1] transforms wildfire season into a nearly year-round risk for much of the United States.
Most drones are significantly smaller than crewed aircraft and have shorter flight ranges, meaning they cannot replace large airtankers in delivering massive payloads of water or other fire-suppressing payloads to remote wildfires. But companies and fire agencies—along with organizers of the $11 million XPRIZE competition—are testing whether drones can help firefighting crews respond more quickly to small fires and put them out before they become more destructive.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CAL FIRE, ran its own field test involving five autonomous drones that worked together to deploy between 500 and 1,000 gallons of foam combined for suppressing fires on July 15, according to the [TV station KPMH][2]. The demonstration was organized with the help of the nonprofit FireWERX and the California-based [company Seneca][3], which is making the drones commercially available starting in 2026.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tag/climate-change/
[2]: https://kmph.com/news/local/calfire-tests-autonomous-drones-to-bolster-wildfire-operations-in-california
[3]: https://seneca.com/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/firefighting-drones-in-the-works-as-wildfires-plague-us-nearly-year-round/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/firefighting-drones-in-the-works-as-wildfires-plague-us-nearly-year-round/#comments
Seneca's Argo-1 drone can carry up to 100 pounds of water or fire retardant.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/firefighting-drones-in-the-works-as-wildfires-plague-us-nearly-year-round/

2026-07-17 20:04:38 GMT

Taco Bell iceberg lettuce identified as source of cyclosporiasis in 5 states
Federal officials on Friday announced that [shredded iceberg lettuce][1] imported from Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants in five states is a source of *Cyclospora*, the foodborne parasite causing the nationwide surge in cases of explosive, watery diarrhea. The five states are Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.
A traceback investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration identified a single supplier in Mexico as the source of iceberg lettuce for Taco Bell restaurants where sick people reported eating. While federal authorities did not name the supplier, sources told the Washington Post that [it is Taylor Farms][2].
[Taylor Farms][3] was also implicated in a 2024 multi-state *E. coli *outbreak linked to contaminated onions served at McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants. At the time, FDA inspectors found [multiple violations][4] at a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/outbreaks/07-26/index.html
[2]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/07/16/lettuce-supplier-is-potential-source-cyclosporiasis-outbreak-investigators-say/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2024/10/slivered-onions-are-likely-cause-of-mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-cdc-says/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/01/fda-noted-unsanitary-conditions-unwashed-hands-at-mcdonalds-ex-onion-supplier/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/taco-bell-iceburg-lettuce-identified-as-source-of-cyclosporiasis-in-5-states/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/taco-bell-iceburg-lettuce-identified-as-source-of-cyclosporiasis-in-5-states/#comments
The Taco Bell logo is displayed at a Taco Bell restaurant
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/taco-bell-iceburg-lettuce-identified-as-source-of-cyclosporiasis-in-5-states/

2026-07-17 20:04:32 GMT

Hegseth wants a "High-T" military; doctors call it a clinical minefield
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the startling [announcement][1] that the US military would begin requiring all active duty and reserve personnel aged 30 and older to undergo mandatory screening for testosterone deficiency. The screenings will take place during yearly health assessments. Those under age 30 can also get screened on request.
In [a short video posted on social media][2], Hegseth explained to the military community that the screenings and possible subsequent treatments are intended to "optimize your performance, your resilience, and your long-term health." While saying that the initiative wasn't about "artificial enhancement" and that members could decline treatment, Hegseth claimed that the testing and potential treatment was for "restoring and optimizing" capabilities, protecting "longevity," and "ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight."
But will testosterone screening and treatment actually "optimize" our "warfighters"? Will it help most of them live longer? Should everyone else get screened and treated, too?
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4546628/statement-by-chief-pentagon-spokesman-sean-parnell-on-enhanced-screening-protoc/
[2]: %22Optimize%20your%20performance,%20your%20resilience%20and%20your%20long-term%20health%22%20%22restoring%20and%20optimizing%22%20%22ensuring%20you%20have%20the%20biological%20foundation%20required%20to%20sustain%20the%20fight.%22
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/hegseth-wants-a-high-t-military-doctors-call-it-a-clinical-minefield/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/hegseth-wants-a-high-t-military-doctors-call-it-a-clinical-minefield/#comments
Military members in line.
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/hegseth-wants-a-high-t-military-doctors-call-it-a-clinical-minefield/

2026-07-17 20:04:27 GMT

The Pentagon's Space Development Agency hasn't moved as fast as anyone would like
The Space Development Agency was established in 2019 to help speed up the deployment of US military space systems by sidestepping the Pentagon's traditional sluggish bureaucracy.
Seven years later, SDA is finally launching its first batches of operational satellites, just as the Pentagon plans to shutter the semi-autonomous agency and fold it back into the Space Force's procurement pipeline, newly reorganized under several program acquisition executives in a bid to streamline weapons buying.
SDA's fate is not a surprise, and lawmakers in both houses of Congress have backed the agency's closure in drafts of this year's National Defense Authorization Act.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/the-pentagons-space-development-agency-hasnt-moved-as-fast-as-anyone-would-like/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/the-pentagons-space-development-agency-hasnt-moved-as-fast-as-anyone-would-like/#comments
A stack of 21 satellites from York Space Systems prepare for encapsulation inside the payload fairing of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/the-pentagons-space-development-agency-hasnt-moved-as-fast-as-anyone-would-like/

2026-07-17 20:04:21 GMT

Google-backed satellites for wildfire detection launch as smoke chokes US, Canada
As smoke from hundreds of burning wildfires spread across Canada and the United States, the first three operational satellites in the Google-backed FireSat program successfully launched into orbit. The satellites will begin providing wildfire detection capable of spotting even small fires in the United States, Australia, and Europe before the end of the year.
The launch of the microsatellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 7, 2026 marks a transition to “initial operational capability” for the [FireSat constellation][1] managed by the [nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance][2]. After a three-month testing period, the three satellites will begin actively providing data to fire agencies while covering every fire-prone region on Earth at least twice per day.
FireSat represents the first satellite constellation purpose-built for detecting wildfires, including spotting smaller fires that other satellites may miss. The satellites were designed by California-based satellite manufacturer Muon Space and have received over [$15 million from Google][3] to support initial deployment. Other notable financial supporters include the [Bezos Earth Fund][4] that committed $26 million.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/google-backs-privately-funded-satellite-constellation-for-wildfire-detection/
[2]: https://earthfirealliance.org/news-article/earth-fire-alliances-first-three-operational-firesats-reach-orbit/
[3]: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-research/firesat-satellites/
[4]: https://www.bezosearthfund.org/news-and-insights/bezos-earth-fund-commits-26-million-to-the-worlds-first-satellite-constellation-dedicated-to-the-global-wildfire-challenge
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/google-backed-satellites-for-wildfire-detection-launch-as-smoke-chokes-us-canada/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/google-backed-satellites-for-wildfire-detection-launch-as-smoke-chokes-us-canada/#comments
Three of the first operational satellites in the FireSat constellation.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/google-backed-satellites-for-wildfire-detection-launch-as-smoke-chokes-us-canada/

2026-07-17 12:26:35 GMT

The report oil companies are worried about: Climate attribution science
Climate change is being driven largely by the greenhouse gases we've pumped into the atmosphere, which trap more of the Sun's energy there. That added energy increases the odds of extreme events: longer, more intense heat waves and droughts, interspersed with excessive precipitation. But these sorts of events have happened in the past—how can we tell if any given weather disaster has been made more likely by the climate?
It's a question with implications for everything from building codes to disaster preparedness. And there's some good news: According to [a report][1] released by the US National Academies of Science on Thursday, the field of climate attribution is growing increasingly mature and can answer some questions for us with far greater confidence than it could just a decade ago. The report also notes that there are still important limits and suggests steps to address them.
Overall, this makes it clear that climate attribution is normal, mainstream science. And the fossil fuel industry [views that as a problem][2], as it could make it easier to hold companies liable for damages. This has triggered a backlash that has Republicans in Congress and state governments [threatening the National Academies' funding][3].
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/28590
[2]: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/11/fossil-fuels-national-academies-climate-science-00897237
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/have-politics-finally-come-for-the-national-academies-of-science/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/national-academies-climate-attribution-is-maturing-but-still-has-limits/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/national-academies-climate-attribution-is-maturing-but-still-has-limits/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/national-academies-climate-attribution-is-maturing-but-still-has-limits/

2026-07-16 18:44:34 GMT

We've seen helium baked off a rocky exoplanet's atmosphere
Most of the gas in the Universe is a mixture of hydrogen and helium. It's thought that the initial atmospheres of most planets also start out that way. However, over billions of years, as planets evolve, the composition of their atmospheres may shift. Hydrogen can react with other chemicals, and both it and helium can be lost to space. Venus, Earth, and Mars are thought to have second atmospheres, with their original hydrogen/helium envelopes having been lost and/or transformed.
The dynamics of loss are complicated. Lighter elements are lost more easily, but hydrogen can be protected by being incorporated into molecules like methane and ammonia. The gravity of the body can help retain some molecules, and a magnetic field can limit radiation's ability to blast material out of the atmosphere. Proximity to a star will matter too, both because of the radiation it produces and because it can heat the atmosphere and expand it to where gravity's influence is less substantial.
Given all these complications, it can be difficult to know what to expect to find on exoplanets. But a study in Wednesday's issue of Nature describes observations of helium being lost from the atmosphere of an exoplanet orbiting the star LHS 1140, about 50 light-years away. Based on the rate at which the helium is being lost, we can infer something about the remaining atmosphere.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/weve-seen-helium-baked-off-a-rocky-exoplanets-atmosphere/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/weve-seen-helium-baked-off-a-rocky-exoplanets-atmosphere/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/weve-seen-helium-baked-off-a-rocky-exoplanets-atmosphere/

2026-07-10 20:41:22 GMT

Ransomware negotiator hired to represent victims was working for the attackers
A former ransomware negotiator was [sentenced][1] to 70 months in prison yesterday after colluding with BlackCat scammers to extort the victims he was hired to protect.
As a ransomware negotiator for the [company DigitalMint][2], Florida resident Angelo Martino's job was "to negotiate with cybercriminals to mitigate the ransoms paid by [DigitalMint's] clients," the US government said in a [sentencing memorandum][3] on Tuesday. "Instead, Martino provided the cybercriminals with confidential negotiation information to maximize the ransoms in exchange for a portion of the ransom payments. Five of the victims whom Martino was supposed to help paid over $75 million to ransomware affiliates, including likely millions of dollars in ransom demands inflated as a result of the confidential information provided by Martino."
Martino, 41, pleaded guilty and [asked for a 24-month sentence][4], noting that he "provided substantial assistance that contributed to the indictment and conviction of two co-defendants." As described in [this November 2025 article][5], the co-defendants were Texas resident Kevin Martin, a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, and Georgia resident Ryan Goldberg, an incident manager at security firm Sygnia.
[Read full article][6]
[Comments][7]
[1]: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190.46.0.pdf
[2]: https://digitalmint.io/services/ransomware-cryptocurrency-settlement/
[3]: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190.40.0.pdf
[4]: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190/gov.uscourts.flsd.708190.37.0.pdf
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/11/fbi-arrests-ransomware-clean-up-experts-for-planting-ransomware/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ransomware-negotiator-helped-attackers-extort-his-own-clients-gets-6-year-sentence/
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ransomware-negotiator-helped-attackers-extort-his-own-clients-gets-6-year-sentence/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/ransomware-negotiator-helped-attackers-extort-his-own-clients-gets-6-year-sentence/

2026-07-10 20:41:17 GMT

Check out the first images of Quest shipwreck
Back in 2024, [we reported][1] on the discovery of the *Quest* shipwreck, the polar exploration vessel that served Arctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his last voyage. Shackleton died before reaching their destination, and the ship sank in 1962. The Royal Canadian Geographic Society (RCGS) has now released the first images of the wreck more than 60 years after it sank, [published in][2] Canadian Geographic magazine.
Shackleton, of course, is most famous for his ill-fated voyage on the *Endurance,* which became trapped in sea ice in 1914 and sank. Shackleton and his crew defied the odds and survived. (The *Endurance* shipwreck was [finally found][3] in 2022.) By the time Shackleton returned to England, the country was embroiled in World War I, and many of his men enlisted. Shackleton was considered too old for active service. He was also deeply in debt from the *Endurance* expedition, earning a living on the lecture circuit. But he still dreamed of making another expedition to the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska to explore the Beaufort Sea. He got funding from an old school chum, [John Quillier Rowett][4].
Shackleton purchased a wooden Norwegian whaler, *Foca I*, which his wife Emily renamed *Quest*. When the Canadian government withdrew its support, the mission shifted back to the Antarctic, and the *Quest* received an extensive retrofit. The improvements included a new deckhouse, a heated crow’s nest, a wireless set, and an odograph for tracing and charting the route automatically, as well as a Lucas deep-sea sounding machine, a large and pricey collection of cameras and photographic equipment, and even a small airplane.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/06/expedition-finds-wreckage-of-ship-on-which-shackleton-made-his-final-voyage/
[2]: https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/first-images-of-quest-wreck-reveal-shackletons-last-ship-draped-with-abandoned-fishing-nets-bursting-with-life/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/03/long-lost-endurance-shipwreck-found-off-coast-of-antarctica/
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quiller_Rowett
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/expedition-captures-first-images-of-shackletons-last-ship/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/expedition-captures-first-images-of-shackletons-last-ship/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/07/expedition-captures-first-images-of-shackletons-last-ship/

2026-06-28 19:09:34 GMT

Why did this journal retract two 1940s papers by Max Planck?
German physicist [Max Planck][1] was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century, earning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of [quanta][2]. There has never been a whisper of scandal about the man's integrity or his scientific work. So a pair of science historians were puzzled when they discovered that a scientific journal had inexplicably retracted two of Planck's papers from the 1940s.
The journal in question is Naturwissenschaften, now known as The Science of Nature. The journal typically adds a large RETRACTED notice across digital papers that have been retracted, leaving them available for download. But it has removed the two Planck papers entirely, leaving just a blank page (and empty PDFs) with a brief note saying the articles had been "withdrawn due to article violation.”
Physics historian Yves Gingras of the University of Quebec in Montreal was browsing the blog Retraction Watch's [list][3] of Nobel Prize winners who have had scientific papers retracted, just out of curiosity. Gingras was shocked to see Planck's name on the list, and enlisted fellow historian Mahdi Khelfaoui, of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, to investigate why the two papers had been retracted. They outlined their findings in [a preprint][4] posted to the physics arXiv.
[Read full article][5]
[Comments][6]
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum
[3]: https://retractionwatch.com/retractions-by-nobel-prize-winners/
[4]: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.17534
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/why-did-this-journal-retract-two-1940s-papers-by-max-planck/
[6]: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/why-did-this-journal-retract-two-1940s-papers-by-max-planck/#comments
Max Planck is not amused.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/why-did-this-journal-retract-two-1940s-papers-by-max-planck/

2026-06-23 18:32:15 GMT

A curious crossover: The Toyota C-HR review
After a slower start than its major rivals, Toyota has been making up for it with a flurry of new electric vehicles for the North American market. Its first attempt, the bZ4x, was an also-ran, but a new battery pack, more efficient motors, and a NACS charging port transformed the face-lifted bZ into [an EV I happily recommend][1]. Then, earlier this year, it followed up with some bZ-related variants. For those who miss the vibe of a station wagon, there is [the bZ Woodland][2], and an all-electric Highlander is nearing the showroom, too. But today's focus is the C-HR, and I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it.
It's the smallest of the bunch, some 6.7 inches (170 mm) shorter than the bZ. But it's still as wide and only a little more than an inch shorter. So if you're put off by the bZ's size, and are looking for something diminutive—and based on reader feedback, there are many of you out there—this small SUV will probably still fail to pass muster.
It's not any cheaper than the bZ until you consider that the C-HR is only available with one choice of powertrain: a twin-motor AWD setup with a combined 338 hp (252 kW) powered by a 74.7 kWh battery pack. That same arrangement, with a 223 hp (167 kW), 198 lb-ft (268 Nm) front motor and 118 hp (88 kW), 125 lb-ft (169 Nm) rear unit, costs almost $3,000 more in a bZ than the $37,000 starting price of the C-HR.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/02/and-the-award-for-the-most-improved-ev-goes-to-the-2026-toyota-bz/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/02/looks-a-lot-like-an-electric-station-wagon-the-2026-toyota-bz-woodland/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/06/a-curious-crossover-the-toyota-c-hr-review/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/06/a-curious-crossover-the-toyota-c-hr-review/#comments
The weather was gross during our week with the C-HR, and I didn't get good photos, so please enjoy these images courtesy of Toyota.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/06/a-curious-crossover-the-toyota-c-hr-review/

2026-06-13 18:08:38 GMT

Review: Disclosure Day is big on action, light on ideas
The summer blockbuster season has [kicked off][1] in earnest with the theatrical release of [*Disclosure Day*][2], director Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated return to his “aliens are among us” sci-fi roots. Verdict: there's not much fresh or original here as movies about aliens go, but it's a fast-paced film with a luminous performance by Emily Blunt that won't fail to entertain.
**(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)**
The first half of the film is essentially a political thriller—shades of 1974's [*The Parallax View*][3] and similar films—as global tensions have the world teetering on the brink of World War III. A cybersecurity specialist named Daniel (Josh O'Connor) has stolen a piece of alien technology and highly classified files from his employer, Wardex Corporation, a top-secret extension of the US government led by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). Scanlon flushes out Daniel by holding his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) hostage. At the tradeoff, Daniel double-crosses them and escapes with Jane, and the two go on the run as Scanlon declares Daniel a traitor.
[Read full article][4]
[Comments][5]
[1]: https://deadline.com/2026/06/box-office-global-disclosure-day-1236955715/
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disclosure_Day
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/06/review-disclosure-day-is-big-on-action-light-on-ideas/
[5]: https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/06/review-disclosure-day-is-big-on-action-light-on-ideas/#comments
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/06/review-disclosure-day-is-big-on-action-light-on-ideas/

2026-06-12 11:36:21 GMT

Rocket Report: Nova moving through test campaign; SpaceX IPO launches Friday
Welcome to Edition 8.45 of the Rocket Report! Even though we are now two weeks removed from the catastrophic loss of the New Glenn rocket and its LC-36A launch pad, it continues to dominate discussion in the space community. This week, NASA said it nominally plans to fly Blue Origin's test lander on New Glenn for the Artemis III mission, but officials quietly acknowledged that other launch vehicles, including Vulcan and the Falcon Heavy, could also get the job done. We'll obviously be watching closely.
As always, we [welcome reader submissions][1], and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
**Isar raises funding, announces new launch date**. German launch startup Isar Aerospace announced this week that it had closed a 270 million euro Series D to "drive global scaling and ramp up serial production," [European Spaceflight reports][2]. The company also said the previously delayed second launch attempt of its Spectrum rocket would now take place sometime between June 15 and June 21.
[Read full article][3]
[Comments][4]
[1]: https://arstechnica.wufoo.com/forms/launch-stories/
[2]: https://europeanspaceflight.com/isar-aerospace-announces-new-launch-date-alongside-series-d-funding/
[3]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/rocket-report-nova-moving-through-test-campaign-spacex-ipo-launches-friday/
[4]: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/rocket-report-nova-moving-through-test-campaign-spacex-ipo-launches-friday/#comments
Stoke Space recently completed Stage 1 structure testing at Moses Lake, Washington.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/rocket-report-nova-moving-through-test-campaign-spacex-ipo-launches-friday/

2026-06-12 11:36:01 GMT

Verizon sent man a refurbished phone with MDM, then deleted his data remotely
Verizon sent one of its customers a "refurbished" phone equipped with a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile that gave the company remote control over the device. The serious mistake raises questions about Verizon's process for preparing refurbished phones to be sent to customers.
Tom Collery, the unlucky Verizon customer, called Verizon in February after having network problems, including dropped calls. Verizon responded by sending him a replacement for his phone, a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7. But instead of a brand-new device or a properly functioning refurbished one, Verizon sent Collery a device managed with the same kind of software used to monitor and control company-owned phones.
It turned out the device was a store demo unit that wasn't properly wiped before it was sent to Collery. He said he used the phone for a couple of weeks before all of his data was erased, seemingly due to a remote action that triggered a complete reset.
[Read full article][1]
[Comments][2]
[1]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/verizon-sent-man-a-refurbished-phone-with-mdm-then-deleted-his-data-remotely/
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/verizon-sent-man-a-refurbished-phone-with-mdm-then-deleted-his-data-remotely/#comments
Verizon's operational headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey in September 2023.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/verizon-sent-man-a-refurbished-phone-with-mdm-then-deleted-his-data-remotely/