In 2025, United Airlines will fly an air taxi service between the downtown Vertiport Chicago and O'Hare International Airport, using electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft it is purchasing from Archer Aviation. The Archer Midnight eVTOL aircraft will complete the route in about 10 minutes; according to local resident and Ars Managing Editor Eric Bangeman, that journey by car can take over an hour due to road construction.
"Both Archer and United are committed to decarbonizing air travel and leveraging innovative technologies to deliver on the promise of the electrification of the aviation industry," said Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures. "Once operational, we're excited to offer our customers a more sustainable, convenient, and cost-effective mode of transportation during their commutes to the airport."
United placed an order for 200 eVTOL aircraft from Archer back in 2021 at a cost of $1 billion. The startup has also raised money from the automaker Stellantis, which has been helping the company with making carbon fiber composites.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued a health alert for doctors and health officials to be on the lookout for measles cases after a person with a confirmed, contagious case attended a massive religious event in Kentucky last month, potentially exposing an estimated 20,000 people to one of the most infectious viruses on the planet.
The event was a spontaneous "outpouring" at Asbury University, which drew tens of thousands of worshippers to the small, private Christian institution in Wilmore from February 8 to 23. Attendees came from around Kentucky, other US states, and other countries.
A case of measles was confirmed in an unvaccinated person who had recently traveled out of the country before attending Asbury University's outpouring. The person was at the event from February 17 to 18, the CDC reported. The university added that the person attended before developing symptoms, suggesting the person did not know they were infected. But the CDC notes that people with measles are contagious four days before measles' telltale rash develops, and state health officials said the person was contagious while they were in attendance.
Last fall, it looked like trouble for Microsoft when the European Union launched an in-depth investigation into its acquisition of Activision, but it now seems that Microsoft will emerge victorious. Three people familiar with the European Commissionโs opinion on the matter told Reuters that, by agreeing to make a few more concessions, Microsoft will likely win EU antitrust approval on April 25.
According to Reuters, the European Commission is not expected to ask Microsoft to divest large parts of Activisionโlike separating out its Call of Duty businessโto win approval. Instead, long-term licensing deals of lucrative games that Microsoft has offered to rivals could suffice, in addition to agreeing to โother behavioral remedies to allay concerns of other parties than Sony,โ one insider told Reuters.
Microsoft declined Ars' request to comment, but the company told Reuters that it is "committed to offering effectiveโฏandโฏeasily enforceable solutions that address the European Commission's concerns." Microsoft has previously opposed any proposed remedies forcing the merged companies to sell the Call of Duty franchise.
Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments to decide whether Section 230 immunity shields online platforms from liabilities when relying on algorithms to make targeted recommendations. Many Section 230 defenders feared that the court might be eager to chip away at the statuteโs protections, terrified that in the worst-case scenario, the Supreme Court could doom the Internet as we know it. However, it became clear that justices had grown increasingly concerned about the potential large-scale economic impact of making any decision that could lead to a crash of the digital economy or an avalanche of lawsuits over targeted recommendations.
The case before the court, Gonzalez v. Google, asks specifically whether Google should be held liable for allegedly violating federal law that prohibits aiding and abetting a terrorist organization by making targeted recommendations that promoted ISIS videos to YouTube users. If the court decides that Section 230 immunity does not apply, that single decision could impact how all online platforms recommend and organize content, Google and many others have argued.
โCongress was clear that Section 230 protects the ability of online services to organize content,โ Halimah DeLaine Prado, Google's general counsel, told Ars in a statement. โEroding these protections would fundamentally change how the Internet works, making it less open, less safe, and less helpful.โ
Today, the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules to implement the Safe Connections Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last December. Advocates consider the law a landmark move to stop tech abuse. Under the law, mobile service providers are required to help survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence access resources and maintain critical lines of communication with friends, family, and support organizations.
Under the proposed rules, mobile service providers are required to separate a survivorโs line from a shared or family plan within two business days. Service providers must also โomit records of calls or text messages to certain hotlines from consumer-facing call and text message logs,โ so that abusers cannot see when survivors are seeking help. Additionally, the FCC plans to launch a โLifelineโ program, providing emergency communications support for up to six months for survivors who canโt afford to pay for mobile services.
โThese proposed rules would help survivors obtain separate service lines from shared accounts that include their abusers, protect the privacy of calls made by survivors to domestic abuse hotlines, and provide support for survivors who suffer from financial hardship through our affordability programs,โ the FCCโs announcement said.
Nintendo is often referred to as "the Disney of video games." But while Nintendo has long matched Disney's reputation for family-friendly home entertainment, it had nothing that could compare to Disney's domination in the physical world of theme parks.
That started to change in 2021, when Super Nintendo World finally opened in Osaka's Universal Studios Japan. Now, a very similar experience is coming to America with the opening of the Super Nintendo World section of Universal Studios Hollywood.
Ars got a sneak peek at the new section of the park just ahead of its Friday opening and came away utterly enchanted by the charming interactivity and Disney-esque attention to detail apparent throughout the park's newest themed area.
This time it's personal: Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto must protect his family from old enemies inย Fast X.
Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto finds his peaceful family man existence violently interrupted yet again in the trailer forย Fast X, the 10th main installment (and 11th full-length film) in the wildly successful Fast and Furious franchise.
(Some spoilers for prior films in the franchise below.)
This has been in the works since 2014, later divided into two films that will wrap up the main installments. Justin Lin was originally tapped to direct Fast X, but he exited the project due to "creative differences" one week after filming began in April last year, though Lin co-wrote the film and stayed on as a producer. The Hollywood gossip mill soon kicked into high gear, with reports of on-set clashes between Lin and Diesel, alleging the star was out of shape, struggled with his lines, and was often late to set. Lin also objected to some of the rewrites to his screenplay, and there were reports that after one intense disagreement with Diesel, he exclaimed that the film "is not worth my mental health."
The European Commission, which is tasked with tackling disinformation online, this week expressed disappointment that Twitter has failed to provide required data that all other major platforms submitted. Now Twitter has been hit with a "yellow card," Reuters reported, and could be subjected to fines if the platform doesnโt fully comply with European Union commitments by this June.
โWe must have more transparency and cannot rely on the online platforms alone for the quality of information,โ the commissionโs vice president of values and transparency, Vฤra Jourovรก, said in a press release. โThey need to be independently verifiable. I am disappointed to see that Twitter['s] report lags behind others, and I expect a more serious commitment to their obligations.โ
Earlier this month, the EUโs commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, met with Twitter CEO Elon Musk to ensure that Musk understood what was expected of Twitter under the EUโs new Digital Services Act (DSA). After their meeting, Musk tweeted that the EUโs โgoals of transparency, accountability & accuracy of information are alignedโ with Twitterโs goals. But he also indicated that Twitter would be relying on Community Notes, which let users add context to potentially misleading tweets to satisfy DSA requirements on stopping misinformation and disinformation spread. That process seems to be the issue the commission has with Twitterโs unsatisfactory report.
Americans spend an exorbitant amount of money on health care and have for years. As a country, the US spends more on health care than any other high-income country in the worldโon the basis of both per-person costs and a share of gross domestic product. Yet, you wouldn't know it from looking at major health metrics in years past; the US has relatively abysmal health. And, if anything, the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the US health care system's failures relative to its peers, according to a new analysis by the Commonwealth Fund.
Compared with other high-income peers, the US has the shortest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of avoidable deaths, the highest rate of newborn deaths, the highest rate of maternal deaths, the highest rate of adults with multiple chronic conditions, and the highest rate of obesity, the new analysis found.
"Americans are living shorter, less healthy lives because our health system is not working as well as it could be," Munira Gunja, lead author of the analysis and a senior researcher for The Commonwealth Fundโs International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovation, said in a press statement. "To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to health care, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population."
Last month, workers at Spellbreak studio Proletariat became the third group within Activision Blizzard to form a union. Today, though, the Communication Workers of America is pulling back on its push for a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election that could have forced parent company Activision Blizzard to recognize that union. In doing so, the CWA cites actions by Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak that have made "a free and fair election impossible."
In a statement provided to Ars Technica, a CWA spokesperson said Sivak "chose to follow Activision Blizzard's lead and responded to the workers' desire to form a union with confrontational tactics." Those tactics include "a series of meetings that demoralized and disempowered the group," according to the CWA.
Proletariat Software Engineer Dustin Yost said in an accompanying statement that those management meetings "took their toll" on the group by "fram[ing] the conversation as a personal betrayal, instead [of] respecting our right to join together to protect ourselves and have a seat at the table..."