Will Russia's answer to the Falcon 9 rocket ever take flight?

Will Russia's answer to the Falcon 9 rocket ever take flight?

fivenewscrypto    juillet 19, 2026   

Everyone seems to be launching and landing rockets these days.

Last week, China joined the club of countries that have launched an orbital mission and brought its booster safely back to Earth, which is just the beginning of public and private ventures in that country aggressively pushing into rocket reuse. Also in Asia, Japan's space agency has been conducting hop tests, and Honda recently performed vertical reuse tests.

In the United States, of course, SpaceX launches and lands reusable rockets every few days. Blue Origin, although its New Glenn booster is temporarily grounded, has also demonstrated the ability to both land and re-launch a large orbital booster. Other US companies, including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab, and Relativity Space, are all making credible progress toward partially or fully reusable rockets.

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Fubo hikes prices by $15 after restoring some NBCU channels lost in November

Fubo hikes prices by $15 after restoring some NBCU channels lost in November

fivenewscrypto    juillet 19, 2026   

Fubo prices are going up by $15 per month because it will have some NBCUniversal channels again.

For years, Fubo, a sports-centric vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor, which lets subscribers watch traditional TV channels live over the Internet), offered NBCUniversal channels. That stopped in November 2025 due to a contract dispute.

With the loss of local NBC affiliates, Telemundo, nine regional sports channels, and 32 national channels, Fubo made the sensible but rare decision to lower subscription prices in December. The Essential plan went from $85 per month to $74 per month. The Pro plan dropped from $85 to $75 per month, and the Elite plan dropped from $95 to $84 per month.

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San Francisco orders Apple, Google to remove nudify apps from app stores

San Francisco orders Apple, Google to remove nudify apps from app stores

fivenewscrypto    juillet 19, 2026   

This week, San Francisco’s attorney general, David Chiu, sent cease-and-desist letters, demanding that Apple and Google remove 13 so-called nudification apps from their app stores, Wired reported.

Nudification apps can make it trivially easy to transform ordinary photos of real people into explicit images. The harmful AI tools allow bad actors to remove clothing, change a person’s features, place them in sexualized positions, and swap victims’ faces onto other people’s naked bodies.

Chiu's letter warned that app stores were violating "California’s laws that prohibit supporting services that create deepfake pornography," Wired reported.

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Ars is looking for a senior technology reporter, and you might be it!

Ars is looking for a senior technology reporter, and you might be it!

fivenewscrypto    juillet 18, 2026   

If you're a skilled writer with outsize technology chops who gets excited by the idea of taking the Ars audience with you as you go hands-on with hardware—all kinds of hardware!—then this position has your name all over it. Plus, you get to have me as your boss, and how could that be anything other than awesome?!

The job

The formal job description and application is right here and has all the specifics and HR stuff, including salary range. The short summary is that we're looking for an experienced writer (where "experience" means "several years of professional work"), who is a technologist first and foremost. We want people who tinker around with tech because they can't not tinker around with tech; that kind of joy tends to leak out into the work, and it's impossible to fake.

Some specifics on the subject matter the job will cover, copied from the job description:

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The report oil companies are worried about: Climate attribution science

The report oil companies are worried about: Climate attribution science

fivenewscrypto    juillet 18, 2026   

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 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, 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.

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FCC took pricey gifts from Paramount as the company needed approval for deals

FCC took pricey gifts from Paramount as the company needed approval for deals

fivenewscrypto    juillet 18, 2026   

The rich and famous who filed into the Kennedy Center’s opera house in December were there to enjoy one of the nation’s most exclusive celebrations of the performing arts: the center’s annual honors gala.

The black-tie event, hosted by President Donald Trump, prioritized tickets to people who donated more than $75,000 to the center. This year, it feted Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone, the legendary glam rock band Kiss and the Grammy Award-winning disco pioneer Gloria Gaynor.

Among the attendees that evening were two lower-profile government officials whose regulatory decisions had been crucial to the future of the gala’s broadcast sponsor, CBS, and its parent company, Paramount.

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2026 Lucid Gravity Touring review: A strong act 2

2026 Lucid Gravity Touring review: A strong act 2

fivenewscrypto    juillet 18, 2026   

When Lucid introduced the Air electric sedan in late 2021, the first Air Dream Edition I tested packed over 1,100 hp (820 kW) and carried a $180,000-plus window sticker. It's easily the most powerful street car I've tested; the only vehicle I've driven with more power was a purebred race car with a third the mass, and it was on a proper track. Its combustion engine was also about 1,000 times louder than the Air, helping to remind us that "combustion" really does mean explosion after explosion.

For Lucid's second act, the company debuted the Gravity electric SUV last year, and I've just tested the 2026 Gravity Touring, which starts at about $82,000 in the US, including the required destination charge.

My test model carried a bevy of options, including a 22-speaker audio system, the Comfort and Convenience package, third-row seating, a Dynamic Handling package (combining rear-wheel steering and three-chamber air suspension), a luxury seating package (bundling Nappa leather and massaging and ventilated front seats), and special metallic paint.

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