Enlarge / Want new issues of your favorite comic book series? Switching to digital this week won't change their lack of availability. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty / Marvel)
Comic book fans received a huge blow last week when they learned that a ton of their favorite series wouldn't receive printed runs in the near future due to coronavirus concerns . That might be fine for those fans who
2020-03-31 17:03 | Gaming & Culture, comic books, dc | ArsTechnica
Andrea Germanos, staff writer "We need billions of public dollars invested directly in vulnerable communities dying from COVID-19, not spent propping up massive oil companies and unneeded projects that would trample Indigenous rights and exacerbate the climate crisis."
2020-03-31 16:03 | News | CommonDreams
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)
If proof were needed that the Trump administration never met an environmental regulation it didn't want to eviscerate, on Tuesday morning the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published final fuel efficiency rules for new passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2021 through 2026. As has been widely anticipated, the EPA and NHTSA have gutted plans established in
2020-03-31 16:03 | Cars, Policy, Science | ArsTechnica
News Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s shockingly irresponsible and inflammatory verbal attacks on the media as he continues to deny the importance of the coronavirus epidemic, although it has affected Brazil more than any other country in Latin America. After accusing the media of creating “hysteria” and causing panic ever since the start of the coronavirus crisis, Bolsonaro
2020-03-31 15:03 | News | ReportersWithoutBorders
News Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns last week’s decree in Thailand under which the government, on the pretext of regulating coronavirus information, gave itself the right to decide what is true and what is false. The freedom to inform must be respected at this crucial time, RSF says. Thai journalists and media outlets thinking of publishing an article about Covid-19 will think twice because any information about the virus that the government deems to
2020-03-31 15:03 | News | ReportersWithoutBorders
Jake Johnson, staff writer "These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years."
2020-03-31 15:03 | News | CommonDreams
Enlarge / Workers protest outside a massive Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island on Monday, March 30. (credit: New York Communities for Change)
Amazon has fired an employee after he helped organize a walkout of Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. The worker, Chris Smalls, says Amazon was retaliating against him for his workplace activism.
“Taking action cost me my job,” Smalls said in
2020-03-31 15:03 | Policy, Amazon, Chris Smalls | ArsTechnica
The Fitbit Charge 4. [credit: Fitbit ] Fitbit is still out there living its life and launching products despite a looming acquisition by Google that could upend the entire company any month now. Today Fitbit announced the Charge 4 , the latest in its line of Charge devices that kind of sit at the halfway point between a smartwatch and a basic fitness tracker. The Charge 4 has the same body as
2020-03-31 15:03 | Tech | ArsTechnica
Enlarge / Apollo 11 crew members (L-R) Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins are amused by a question posed shortly before launch. (credit: NASA)
Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin soon followed him onto the lunar surface. And Michael Collins? Well, he remained behind, in lunar orbit. Alone.
For 50 years, he was portrayed by the media as the lonely astronaut.
2020-03-31 14:03 | Science | ArsTechnica
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Coronavirus. Climate change. Worldwide unrest. Mass extinctions. Killer robots . There's a lot of stuff to worry about, and more things get added to the list daily. (Seriously, the robots—why do the scientists keep making them ?!)
So let's get this out of the way right now: I'm not here to give you anything else to worry about. But I am going to ask you
2020-03-31 14:03 | Staff, Ars Pro, staff | ArsTechnica
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday released a statement on the occasion of the Land Day of Palestine, honoring Palestinian people’s liberation movement from Israeli occupation.
According to Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department, the statement said that in the culture and history of the Palestinian people’s campaign, March 30 marks Land Day of Palestine which is reminiscent of Palestinians’ protest and resistance to the Zionist occupiers.
It said that after the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Israeli
2020-03-31 13:03 | News | AbrarOnline
From a ban on shops selling Easter eggs to flying drones to spot people defying self-isolation guidelines, police measures to control the spread of the coronavirus have upset some Britons living in a nationwide lockdown.
Some feel the police actions are heavy-handed and applied inconsistently. One retired judge suggested Britain was turning into a police state, although other countries from Spain to Vietnam have applied more draconian measures.
New regulations brought in last Thursday give police the power
2020-03-31 13:03 | News | AbrarOnline
The United States has allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue their work at Iranian nuclear sites to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.
Reuters earlier reported that the decision to renew waivers to sanctions that bar non-U.S. firms from dealing with Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization was expected on Monday, citing four sources familiar with the matter including a U.S. official.
Jewish News Syndicate, a news outlet
2020-03-31 13:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Pakistan political parties and religious leaders expressing solidarity with the oppressed nation of Palestine on Tuesday demanded an end to Gaza Siege and illegal occupation of Palestinian land by the Zionist regime.
They made the remarks during a video conference to mark the Land Day of Palestine organized by Palestinian Foundation of Pakistan in southern city of Karachi.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak the conference was held through a video link and was attended by prominent Pakistani political
2020-03-31 13:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Enlarge / MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA - MARCH 30: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attends a news conference in the Hard Rock Stadium parking lot on March 30, 2020 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (credit: Getty | Joe Raedle )
As more and more states issue stay-at-home orders, Florida is taking a different—some say dangerous—approach to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though the state’s confirmed case counts have rapidly risen
2020-03-31 13:03 | Science | ArsTechnica
The Federal Foreign Office of Germany in a tweet confirmed the first transaction with Iran through the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) on Tuesday.
The Federal Foreign Office of Germany wrote in its Twitter page, “France, Germany and the United Kingdom confirm that INSTEX has successfully concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods from Europe to Iran.”
The message added, “INSTEX and its Iranian counterpart STFI will work on more transactions and enhancing
2020-03-31 13:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Enlarge / Starship comes in two flavors, crewed (top) and cargo (bottom). (credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX has released the first edition of a Payload User's Guide for its Starship launch system, which consists of a Super Heavy first stage and the Starship upper stage. The six-page guide provides some basic information for potential customers to judge whether a launch vehicle meets their needs for getting payloads into space.
2020-03-31 12:03 | Science | ArsTechnica
March 31, 2020 (JUBA) - Lam Akol, the National Democratic Movement (NDM) leader said the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) is no longer a viable alternative to lead the country as they back the government's stand systematically.
Akol made his statement in a recent interview with the Juba based AlMaugif Newspaper he extended to Sudan Tribune in its English version.
The alliance which was formed in March 2018 gathers nine political groups to ensure a "radical political, economic
2020-03-31 11:03 | News | SudanTribune
Jake Johnson, staff writer "It would be shocking to me that... anyone who has had access to any newspaper, radio, social networks, or any other communication would not be knowledgeable about the need for test kits."
2020-03-31 10:03 | News | CommonDreams
Volvo HQ in Gothenburg, Sweden. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ] Electric cars are becoming much more important to automakers, and that means those companies are having to learn how to get good with batteries. That was baked into Tesla from day one, but for existing automakers, batteries have to become a new core competency. Recently, Volvo opened its doors in Gothenburg, Sweden, to show us how that's happening, ahead of the launch later
2020-03-31 10:03 | Cars, battery electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries | ArsTechnica
The coronavirus epidemic continues to disrupt life across the world. The disruption is all but gathering steam in affected even virus-free African countries. The rate of infection is lower on the continent as compared to Europe, Asia and parts of the Americas, where lockdowns are in place. The impact on gatherings is an area that most African governments have moved to control. A number of business conferences were cancelled on account of the pandemic. A number of governments have also
2020-03-31 09:03 | News | AfricaNews
March 31, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The IGAD leaders on Monday agreed to establish a strategy to fight pandemic diseases and an emergency fund for its implementation.
The heads of states and governments of the IGAD held a meeting on Monday chaired by the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok who is also the Chair of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government.
The extraordinary meeting was dedicated to deliberate on an IGAD strategy to combat the spread
2020-03-31 08:03 | News | SudanTribune
March 31, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The holdout Sudan Liberation Movement/Army of Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLM/A-AW) accepted the UN's calls for a ceasefire in Darfur but reiterated its rejection to join the peace process in Juba.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier on 22 March issued an appeal for a global ceasefire in the conflict-hit areas across the world to allow efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus and deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians.
Three days
2020-03-31 07:03 | News | SudanTribune
News Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is launching Tracker-19 to monitor and evaluate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on journalism and to offer recommendations on how to defend the right to information. See the #Tracker_19
2020-03-31 07:03 | News | ReportersWithoutBorders
Benny Gantz, the former Israeli general turned party leader, agreed late last week to join his rival Benjamin Netanyahu in an “emergency government” to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. Two weeks ago he had won a wafer-thin majority vote in the parliament that gave him first shot at trying to put together a coalition government. … Continue reading "Netanyahu Uses Coronavirus To Lure Rival Gantz Into ‘Emergency’ Government"
The post Netanyahu Uses Coronavirus To Lure
2020-03-31 04:03 | Uncategorized | AntiWar
Some wars are fought with bombs and bullets. These are the wars in Syria and Iraq, in Afghanistan and Yemen. Then there are quieter wars executed by drone. These cowardly wars also kill people, but not our people. These quieter wars accomplish what the more cacophonous wars accomplish without the public outcry and condemnation. Medical … Continue reading "The Quiet and Lethal Wars Against Iran"
The post The Quiet and Lethal Wars Against Iran
2020-03-31 04:03 | Uncategorized | AntiWar
As each and every one of us grapple with the various changes that have been imposed by the global Coronavirus pandemic, families with school-aged children have their own set of new challenges. A top priority after working hard to keep everyone safe is to keep up with each child’s education needs while also trying to work from home yourself. You may find your suddenly-at-home-schoolers status unproductive and taking you to new levels of frustration and exhaustion. As a
2020-03-31 01:03 | #Life, Coronavirus, featured | MuslimMatters
Enlarge / Several generations of neural implants from Neuralink. (credit: Neuralink )
For people with limited use of their limbs, speech recognition can be critical for their ability to operate a computer. But for many, the same problems that limit limb motion affect the muscles that allow speech. That had made any form of communication a challenge, as physicist Stephen Hawking famously demonstrated. Ideally, we'd like to find a
2020-03-30 22:03 | Science, brain implants, brain-computer interface | ArsTechnica
The full teardown of the 2020 iPad Pro. [credit: iFixit ] As expected, iFixit has published a teardown of the 12.9-inch 2020 iPad Pro, assessing both what's new in the device compared to 2018 and how straightforward the device is to open up and repair. It turns out, not too much has changed (which we already knew), and the Pro remains quite difficult to service.
In the video
2020-03-30 22:03 | Tech, 2020 iPad Pro, apple | ArsTechnica
March 30, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok would visit Egypt and Ethiopia in the upcoming days to urge the resumption of negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), his office said on Monday.
Hamdok's office announced a call with the U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday to discuss the stalled talks despite a series of meetings Washington hosted to break the deadlock.
"Hamdok informed (Mnuchin) of his intention to visit Cairo and Addis
2020-03-30 21:03 | News | SudanTribune
Enlarge (credit: Gary Lerude / Flickr )
The Guardian says it has evidence that Saudi Arabia is exploiting a decades-old weakness in the global telecoms network to track the kingdom’s citizens as they travel in the United States.
The publication cited data provided by a whistleblower that suggests Saudi Arabia is engaged in systematic spying by abusing Signalling System No. 7 . Better known as SS7, it’s a routing
2020-03-30 21:03 | Biz & IT, Policy, location | ArsTechnica
Julia Conley, staff writer Workers at a jet engine factory in Lynn, Massachusetts stood six feet apart at a protest outside the facility, following social distancing guidelines while calling on General Electric (GE) to put the employees to work building badly-needed ventilators for coronavirus patients.
2020-03-30 21:03 | News | CommonDreams
Enlarge / Remember when Pokemon were allowed to get within 6 feet of each other? (credit: Niantic )
While most game makers are seeing booming usage statistics in the era of coronavirus-induced social distancing , Niantic is in the opposite position. The company's games—including Pokémon Go , Harry Potter: Wizards Unite , and Ingress —are all built
2020-03-30 21:03 | Gaming & Culture, coronavirus, niantic | ArsTechnica
Jon Queally, staff writer "This morning on live television, the president of the United States admitted he is opposed to laws that would make it easier for Americans to vote because that would hurt Republicans."
2020-03-30 20:03 | News | CommonDreams
Enlarge / It's just you and your devices now, in this socially distanced world we all live in for the time being. Too bad the misinformation campaigns aren't also all on hold. (credit: Luis Alvarez | Getty Images )
The presidential race has fallen off the top of every front page nationwide in favor of coronavirus coverage, but 2020 is still very much a high-stakes election year. Twitter
2020-03-30 20:03 | Policy, coronavirus, COVID-19 | ArsTechnica
Enlarge / The excavation site where the bones were found. (credit: Georgiou et al. 2020 )
We already know that, at various points in our species' past, several hominin species were wandering around Africa. But now it turns out they may have been living very different lives. A team of anthropologists took a closer look at the internal structure of leg bones from two South African hominins. It turns
2020-03-30 20:03 | Science, ancient hominins, Archaeology | ArsTechnica
News Amid growing concerns over the spread of Covid-19 in prisons, the Turkish government is accelerating the preparation of a draft law that will reportedly release up to 100,000 prisoners. This is a welcome step. Overcrowding and unsanitary facilities already pose a serious health threat to Turkey’s prison population of nearly 300,000 prisoners and about tens of thousands of prison staff. That will only be exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. However, we remain concerned that journalists, human rights defenders and
2020-03-30 19:03 | News | ReportersWithoutBorders
News As the Covid-19 epidemic continues to spread across the globe, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on governments that are restricting Internet access and blocking websites to restore the public’s access to information on this vital subject and to allow journalists to use the Internet freely to work and publish their reporting.
2020-03-30 18:03 | News | ReportersWithoutBorders
Enlarge / Our own approximation of Super Mario Galaxy on a Switch. Nintendo has yet to confirm a slew of rumors that emerged on Monday morning. (credit: Nintendo / Sam Machkovech)
According to a flurry of Monday morning reports, Super Mario is coming back in 2020 in a huge way. And it's mostly about reliving the Nintendo mascot's 3D era on Nintendo Switch.
The first rumor domino
2020-03-30 18:03 | Gaming & Culture, Nintendo, nintendo switch | ArsTechnica
Julia Conley, staff writer Labor rights advocates on Monday urged support and solidarity with Amazon employees who walked off the job in the company's warehouse on Staten Island following what the workers said was an unacceptable response by Amazon to at least one case of coronavirus at the facility.
2020-03-30 17:03 | News | CommonDreams
A European anti-racism commission has detected “high levels of Islamophobia” and said that public discourse in Germany is increasingly xenophobic. “Blatant” racism from certain quarters has impacted mainstream politics.
Germany must step up efforts to prevent and counter-extremism and neo-Nazism, the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said in a report published recently.
The report also stated there is strong evidence for extensive racial profiling by German police. The ECRI recommended Germany should take
2020-03-30 16:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Enlarge / Illustration of a OneWeb satellite. (credit: OneWeb )
OneWeb has filed for bankruptcy and intends to sell its business, bringing an abrupt end to the company's plan to offer high-speed satellite Internet service around the world.
OneWeb announced Friday that it "voluntarily filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the [US] Bankruptcy Code," and "intends to use these proceedings to pursue a
2020-03-30 16:03 | Biz & IT, low-earth orbit satellites, OneWeb | ArsTechnica
Yemen has zero cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) to date, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.
“The only numbers given were cholera-related and not COVID-19. Do not confuse the numbers,” WHO Representative in Yemen Dr. Altaf Musani, said in his update on cholera and COVID-19 situation in Yemen during the regular Facebook live session.
Until Sunday morning, Yemen is the only Middle Eastern country where no COVID-19 case has been recorded, he added.
Central laboratories in
2020-03-30 16:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images )
I don't often get to write for the Ars Technica front page anymore—I'm usually off pulling levers behind the scenes—but I count it a privilege every day to work with the team we've assembled here at Ars for the express purposes of serving you, the reader! As such, I hope that you will consider supporting Ars Technica by buying a subscription .
2020-03-30 16:03 | Staff | ArsTechnica
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen carried out several air strikes on Monday on the capital Sanaa, witnesses said.
A number of sensitive sites including the presidential palace compound, a military school and an air base close to Sanaa airport were hit, and loud explosions were heard across the city, residents said.
The coalition said the operation was aimed at destroying “legitimate military targets including Houthi ballistic batteries which threaten civilian lives.”
Bombings in
2020-03-30 16:03 | News | AbrarOnline
Enlarge / Artist's concept of initial configuration of the Lunar Gateway. (credit: NASA)
The concept of NASA's Lunar Gateway—a small outpost to be built in a halo orbit around the Moon—is about five years old.
Although a lunar space station might serve many useful purposes, the concept came about for one basic reason. Due to limitations in the upper stage of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and an under-powered
2020-03-30 15:03 | Science | ArsTechnica
Enlarge (credit: Jamie Grill / Getty)
A federal court in Washington, DC, has ruled that violating a website's terms of service isn't a crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, America's primary anti-hacking law. The lawsuit was initiated by a group of academics and journalists with the support of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The plaintiffs wanted to investigate possible racial discrimination in online job markets by creating
2020-03-30 15:03 | Policy, CFAA, First Amendment | ArsTechnica
Enlarge / WireGuard will be in tree for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (pictured), as well as the upcoming 5.6 kernel. (credit: WireGuard)
We've been anticipating WireGuard's inclusion into the mainline Linux kernel for quite some time—but as of Sunday afternoon, it's official. Linus Torvalds released the Linux 5.6 kernel, which includes (among other things) an in-tree WireGuard. Phoronix has a great short list of the most
2020-03-30 15:03 | Biz & IT, Tech, focal fossa | ArsTechnica