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      Ford raises prices on Mexican-made cars—but not the full tariff cost

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 7 May

    Price rises are coming to some Mexican-made Ford vehicles this summer as a result of President Trump's decision to launch an international trade war. According to Reuters , which saw a memo that Ford sent to dealers, the price increase will affect the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover, the Bronco Sport crossover, and the Maverick pickup truck, which cost as much as an extra $2,000.

    The Trump auto tariffs went into effect at the beginning of April, adding a 25 percent charge to any imported vehicle. When challenged on the fact that this would cause significant price rises for US consumers, Trump told NBC that he "couldn't care less if they raise prices." And now that's happening.

    Ford told Ars that the price increases are part of its "usual mid-year pricing actions combined with tariffs we are facing" and that the price bumps do not cover the full costs of the tariff. Additionally, the move only affects vehicles that have been imported since May 2, which should only appear in dealerships in late June—any cars already in inventory are not subject to the price rise.

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      Dangerous clear-air turbulence is worsening due to global warming

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 7 May

    VIENNA—Scientists at the European Geosciences Union conference last week said there is growing scientific evidence that global warming is driving a big increase in dangerous clear-air turbulence, which is invisible from the cockpit and can surprise pilots and damage aircraft.

    Along some busy flight routes, turbulence is projected to “double or treble or quadruple over the next few decades,” said Paul Williams , a professor of atmospheric science and head of the weather research division at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. “What we find … is that the jet stream regions in both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres are affected.”

    As its name implies, clear-air turbulence can happen when there are no visible signs of a weather disturbance, often at or near the boundary of contrasting air masses, moving in different directions and at varying speeds. It can unexpectedly toss large airplanes up and down by several hundred feet, potentially damaging the airframe and injuring passengers and crew.

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      Jury orders NSO to pay $167 million for hacking WhatsApp users

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 7 May

    A jury has awarded WhatsApp $167 million in punitive damages in a case the company brought against Israel-based NSO Group for exploiting a software vulnerability that hijacked the phones of thousands of users.

    The verdict, reached Tuesday, comes as a major victory not just for Meta-owned WhatsApp but also for privacy- and security-rights advocates who have long criticized the practices of NSO and other exploit sellers. The jury also awarded WhatsApp $444 million in compensatory damages.

    Clickless exploit

    WhatsApp sued NSO in 2019 for an attack that targeted roughly 1,400 mobile phones belonging to attorneys, journalists, human-rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats, and senior foreign government officials. NSO, which works on behalf of governments and law enforcement authorities in various countries, exploited a critical WhatsApp vulnerability that allowed it to install NSO’s proprietary spyware Pegasus on iOS and Android devices. The clickless exploit worked by placing a call to a target's app. A target did not have to answer the call to be infected.

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      The company with the world’s largest aircraft now has a hypersonic rocket plane

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May

    Stratolaunch has finally found a use for the world's largest airplane.

    Twice in the last five months, the company launched a hypersonic vehicle over the Pacific Ocean, accelerated it to more than five times the speed of sound, and autonomously landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Stratolaunch used the same vehicle for both flights.

    This is the first time anyone in the United States has flown a reusable hypersonic rocket plane since the last flight of the X-15, the iconic rocket-powered aircraft that pushed the envelope of high-altitude, high-speed flight 60 years ago.

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      Trump and DOJ try to spring former county clerk Tina Peters from prison

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May

    President Donald Trump is demanding the release of Tina Peters, a former election official who parroted Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories and is serving nine years in prison for compromising the security of election equipment.

    In a post on Truth Social last night, Trump wrote that "Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters, a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud. Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment."

    Trump said he is "directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this 'hostage' being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons."

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      Trump admin picks COVID critic to be top FDA vaccine regulator

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May

    Oncologist Vinay Prasad, a divisive critic of COVID-19 responses, will be the next top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, agency Commissioner Martin Makary announced on social media Tuesday .

    Prasad will head the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which is in charge of approving and regulating vaccines and other biologics products, such as gene therapies and blood products.

    "Dr. Prasad brings the kind of scientific rigor, independence, and transparency we need at CBER—a significant step forward," Makary wrote on social media.

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      FAA green-lights Starship launches every other week from Starbase

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May

    Although we are still waiting for SpaceX to signal when it will fly the Starship rocket again, the company got some good news from the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday.

    After a lengthy review, the federal agency agreed to allow SpaceX to substantially increase the number of annual launches from its Starbase launch site in South Texas. Previously, the company was limited to five launches, but now it will be able to conduct up to 25 Starship launches and landings during a calendar year.

    "The FAA has determined that modifying SpaceX’s vehicle operator license supporting the increased launch and landing cadence of the Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment," states the document, known as a Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact . This finding was signed by Daniel P. Murray, executive director of the FAA's Office of Operational Safety.

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      Apps like Kindle are already taking advantage of court-mandated iOS App Store changes

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May • 1 minute

    Last week, a federal judge ruled that Apple was in "willful violation" of a court injunction that required the company to refrain from "anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing" in its tightly controlled iOS App Store. Part of the ongoing litigation between Epic Games and Apple, the injunction specifically forbade Apple from "denying developers the ability to communicate with, and direct purchasers to, other purchasing mechanisms."

    Following the ruling, Apple said it would comply with the court's injunction while the company continued to appeal the decision. The day after the ruling was handed down, Apple altered several of its App Review Guidelines to grant developers permission to do things they hadn't been allowed to do before. As summarized in an email to developers, reported by MacRumors :

    3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.

    3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so.

    3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront.

    3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action.

    We're already beginning to see new versions of apps that take advantage of these changes. Case in point: Amazon's Kindle app for iPhones and iPads, which from its original launch in 2009 up until yesterday wouldn't actually let anyone buy books in the app. Users instead needed to navigate on their own to Amazon's store in Safari or on their PC and Mac and buy the books they wanted, at which point the books would be available in the Kindle app.

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      2025 Alfa Romeo Tonale Turbo review: Italian charm that cuts both ways

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 6 May • 1 minute

    They say that with age comes wisdom, so it should come as no surprise that on the eve of Alfa Romeo’s 115th anniversary, the company that originally made its name competing in endurance races like the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia with flame-spitting sportscars is currently looking to increase its market share with a sensible, high-riding crossover.

    Produced in Stellantis’ Pomigliano d'Arco assembly plant near Naples, Italy, alongside its mechanical twin, the Dodge Hornet , the Tonale plug-in hybrid introduced last year helped the Italian automaker find a foothold at a time when many of the auto conglomerate’s brands have been struggling. Now, a non-hybrid version of Alfa’s answer to models like the BMW X1 and Audi Q3 has joined the fray, sporting turbocharged power, standard all-wheel drive, and the same sharp styling at a significantly lower base price. But old habits die hard, and as I discovered over the course of a few days with the latest iteration of the Tonale, even Alfa Romeo’s most pragmatic offerings have their fair share of quirks.

    The new base model comes with a double overhead-cam 2.0 L inline four-cylinder engine producing 268 hp (200 kW) and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque. The turbocharged mill is paired with a nine-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel drive system that can send up to 50 percent of the available torque to the rear wheels. While those numbers are down a bit compared to the Tonale Hybrid, at 3,715 lbs (1,685 kg), the 2.0 L Turbo is more than 400 lbs (181 kg) lighter than the PHEV model.

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