Ars Technica

Federal authorities are offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of a Russian state cyber group that has compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to investigative reporters and US government employees. The operation has been active since at least March, when the FBI published an advisory warning of ongoing phishing campaigns targeting high-value targets by attackers associated with Russian intelligence services. Messa

South Korea’s government and top tech companies are committing $1 trillion to several flagship megaprojects that could bolster global memory chip supply, build new AI data centers and spur commercial deployment of humanoid robots by 2028. The announcement comes as South Korean companies such as Samsung and SK Hynix have enjoyed record profits and stock valuations due to the AI industry’s demand for memory chips—with the subsequent supply strain leading to memory chip shortages and higher prices

When last we looked at the state of the US grid, the ongoing explosion in solar energy had turned it into a major contributor, but one that still lagged well behind fossil-fuel-powered generation. So it was a bit of a surprise when preliminary data suggested that May 2026 saw solar power pass coal-fired generation for the first time in the US. Now, with the official release of April grid data by the Energy Information Administration, we can see that production of solar electricity had passed coa

The Fourth Amendment protects a user’s “location history,” the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The same logic already applied to a cellphone’s tracking, and the high court found “no good reason exists to reach a different result for Location History” collected by third parties like Google. Split 6-3, the majority agreed that the government needs a warrant and must show reasonable cause to turn a phone's location-tracking services into a government surveillance tool.Read full article Comments

Sony recently informed its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that they will no longer be able to watch previously purchased movies and shows from production and distribution company StudioCanal. As of September 1, affected customers will no longer be able to stream 551 titles from the PlayStation Store. In a legal notice first spotted by gaming news outlet PlayStation LifeStyle, Sony said that affected customers will lose the ability to stream titles including Outrage: Way of the Yakuz

The ban on ozone-depleting substances that successfully reversed the growth of the hole in the ozone layer isn’t seen as a missed opportunity. On the contrary, the quick global response is one of the best cases of common-sense environmental action. But what if it could have been done even earlier? The fact that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—chemicals once common in aerosol cans and refrigerant loops—could destroy ozone in the atmosphere was discovered in 1974. Within just a few years, bans on CFCs

Europe's push to rein in Big Tech is ramping up, with the European Commission planning to announce new regulations for Google next month. The rules could see Google forced to play nicer with its EU competitors, but the company has some concerns. Google is framing this not as a manifestation of its anticompetitive bent, but as genuine concern for user privacy. Heather Adkins, Google’s VP of security engineering, told Wired that the EU's proposals could lead to serious security and privacy issues.

A short time back, we covered an announcement by Amazon that it would be hosting a useful quantum computer from its partner QuEra as soon as sometime in 2028. The system promised some eye-popping numbers compared to anything on the market today: over 10,000 individual qubits, each with an error rate low enough that the system could support hundreds of error-corrected logical qubits. But QuEra has to get there from its current hardware, which sits at 260 qubits that are relatively error-prone. Th

A fight between states and the federal government over who should regulate sports betting is heating up, as states accuse prediction markets like Kalshi of taking the exact same sports bets as gambling platforms without paying taxes or adhering to stricter controls. Last Tuesday, Kalshi sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Governor J.B. Pritzker, and other officials after the state classified Kalshi and other prediction markets as unlicensed sports wagering operators. It’s not the first l

Formula 1 raced at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this past weekend while the region sweltered under a heat dome. It was a weekend of unmet expectations: After such a strong performance in Barcelona, pundits were ready to declare Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton a proper title contender. The red cars flattered to deceive at times, but the real challenge to Mercedes' ongoing dominance came from a newly resurgent Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who reminded us why so many of the packed grandstands were all wea

Color us officially intrigued by Wildwood, director Travis Knight's forthcoming stop-motion animated fantasy film. Laika Studios released an extended teaser back in May, which has racked up nearly 90 million views. A full trailer is likely coming, but in the meantime, the studio has released a fascinating behind-the-scenes featurette showcasing how the animation team built out the elaborate fantasy world piece by piece. (Some spoilers for the 2011 novel below.) The film is an adaptation of the 2

Rocket Lab announced on Monday that it is acquiring the satellite communications company Iridium. The deal, made for cash and shares of Rocket Lab stock, values Iridium at about $8 billion. The deal pairs the launch company, founded and led by Peter Beck, with a decades-old profitable satellite company whose network of 80 satellites in low-Earth orbit provides telecommunications services. "We believe this will be one of the most transformative deals in the space industry," Beck said in a short p

Imagine this: The US military begins tracking a mysterious spacecraft maneuvering near one of the Space Force's missile-warning satellites more than 22,000 miles over the equator. This US satellite cost several billion dollars to build and launch. It's one of a handful of sentinels keeping constant watch for ballistic missile launches that might threaten the US homeland or US military bases overseas. Suddenly, this missile warning satellite goes dark. Ground controllers at a military base just o

Comcast said it plans to separate its media businesses from its mobile and broadband networks in the latest reshaping of the US industry, sending shares in the group up more than 20 percent on Monday. The US media group said it expected to complete the break-up within a year through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky —handing existing shareholders stock in both Comcast and the new standalone media company. The move comes as the traditional American media industry races to keep pace as a

More than two decades since the Concorde supersonic airliner last took to the skies, NASA has been flying an experimental aircraft designed to replace loud sonic booms with a quieter thump equivalent to a car door slamming shut 20 feet away. A successful NASA flight test program could influence the design of future supersonic airliners capable of flying overland routes without rattling buildings—and people’s nerves. The Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst—an acronym for Quiet SuperSonic Technology—first

German physicist Max Planck 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. 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 Natur

It seems to be the week for cheap EVs. Right after the production model of the Slate electric truck was revealed, complete with a bump in range, a new European entrant in electric mobility is launching out of stealth mode today and plans to bring its own affordable yet stylish rides to market. Amble's founders worked at Audi and Ford, started Cowboy ebikes, and cofounded Forpeople, the creative agency that works for, among others, Nio EVs, Arc’teryx, and Herman Miller. Indeed, Amble's design lea

South Korea plans to train every single member of its nearly half-million-strong military to operate drones as easily as they handle personal firearms. That ambitious goal was announced as the South Korean military seeks to maintain a technological edge in its 70-year border standoff with the larger military of a hostile North Korea. The goal is to make drones a “universal combat tool” for all troops by training them to use drones like a “second personal weapon,” said Ahn Gyu-back, South Korea’s

A  60-year-old man in Spain went to the doctor complaining of a headache that he couldn't shake. It had started two weeks prior and was only getting worse. He also said he had noticed subtle changes in his behavior. In a neurological exam, doctors found he had a mild delay in his movements, but no other deficits. His blood work was generally normal except for elevated IgE, a signal of immune responses linked to allergies, autoimmune disease, and parasitic infections. The doctors did a computed t

On July 1, it will be illegal in California for streaming platforms to play ads louder than the content being watched. As The Hollywood Reporter highlighted this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill (SB 576) in October 2025 that prohibits any video streaming service in the state from transmitting the “audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany.” The law brings some parity between streaming services and broadcast, cable, and satel