The Supreme Court is about to decide a major climate court case

Activists including Climate Action Campaign (CAC) gather outside of the Supreme Court to show support for protecting the Clean Air Act. | Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for NRDC

This week, the Supreme Court is expected to decide a major climate case that could determine what tools the federal government can use to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, started out years ago as a battle over how much authority the EPA has to force power plants to cut down their pollution — but it’s turned into a bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have to enforce all kinds of regulations.

A bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have

With the Biden administration’s climate plansrelying on drastically slashing CO2 emissions from power plants, the case is being closely watched by environmentalists. The Supreme Court’s decision could come down as soon as...

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Google spam proposal sparks partisan backlash in Washington

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After months of pressure from Republicans, Google has a new plan to keep campaign emails from being marked as spam, according to new documents obtained by The Verge.

Google’s plan, first reported by Axios, would allow for candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees to apply for a special “pilot program” that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems. The idea was proposed to the Federal Elections Commission in a June 21st filing asking for the body’s approval.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda confirmed in a statement Tuesday that the company made the request to the FEC. He described the program as an opportunity to “help improve inboxing rates for political bulk senders...

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Axie Infinity NFT game reopens transactions months after $625 million theft

Image: Sky Mavis

Ronin Bridge, the link that enables users to transfer funds to and from accounts in the “play to earn” Axie Infinity game, has reopened following a $625 million theft that took place in March. Sky Mavis, the developer group behind Axie Infinity and the Ronin blockchain that powers the game, announced that players can now use the bridge to make deposits and withdrawals.

Since March, the Ronin Bridge has been closed off as Sky Mavis worked to bolster its security protocols and recover users’ funds. The attack went unnoticed for six days until a user tried to withdraw funds and couldn’t do it. In a postmortem, Sky Mavis blamed a spear-phishing attack that compromised an employee’s account, saying that person no longer works with the...

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Bored Apes creator sues conceptual artist for copying its NFTs

Image: Bored Ape Yacht Club

The company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club has sued conceptual artist Ryder Ripps for selling duplicates of its Bored Ape non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The lawsuit, filed in a California court this weekend, accuses Ripps of a “calculated, intentional, and willful” scheme to damage BAYC while promoting his own copycat work.

Ripps and Yuga Labs have been at odds for months, in part because of Ripps’ RR/BAYC NFT series. The series used BAYC images but connected them with a different crypto token and sold them for the equivalent of around $200 apiece, a bargain compared to the real thing, which currently sell for around $100,000 on the low end. “This is no mere monkey business. It is a deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of...

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Podcasters are organizing to support abortion rights after Roe is overturned

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

I hope you all had a good weekend. I certainly wasn’t huddled in a ball of anxiety about the very fabric of women’s rights in the US being stripped away, no sir.

On that note, there is a lot going on in the audio world in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Podcasters are organizing, Slate is doing a stunt campaign in areas where abortion is now restricted, and Howard Stern is running for president, maybe.

But first, a very special Hot Pod announcement (elegant transition, right?)

Hot Pod Summit goes Hollywood

Big news: we’re bringing Hot Pod Summit to Los Angeles. On November 3rd at KCRW, we’ll have a day of conversations about how the podcasting industry is being shaped by West Coast tech giants and becoming...

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Arm’s Immortalis GPU is its first with hardware ray tracing for Android gaming

Image: Arm

Arm is announcing its new flagship Immortalis GPU today, its first to include hardware-based ray tracing on mobile. As PCs and the latest Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles are all gradually moving toward impressive ray-traced visuals, Immortalis-G715 is designed to be the Arm’s first GPU to deliver the same on Android phones and tablets.

Built on top of Mali, a GPU that’s used by the likes of MediaTek and Samsung, Immortalis is designed with 10–16 cores in mind and promises a boost of 15 percent over the previous generation premium Mali GPUs. Arm sees Immortalis as the start of a transition to ray tracing on mobile following its success with the 8 billion Mali GPUs that have shipped to date.

Image: Arm

The new...

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VW sells minority stake in Electrify America to Siemens

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Volkswagen sold a minority stake in its electric vehicle charging division, Electrify America, to Siemens in a deal that values the company at $2.45 billion. The two companies are jointly investing $450 million to double the number of Electrify America charging stations in the US and Canada by 2026. (The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.)

The news comes amid a spike in EV sales in the US — although they still only represent a fraction of overall car sales. It also comes as the Biden administration, fueled with $5 billion in funding as part of the president’s infrastructure plan, embarks on a plan to build 500,000 EV chargers by 2030.

The news comes amid a spike in EV sales in the US

That plan will rely significantly on...

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Apex Legends’ latest update broke controller support on Xbox Series consoles

Apex Legends: Awakening Collection Event | Image: EA

Last week, EA’s battle royale shooter Apex Legends launched a “collection event,” which is shorthand for a limited-time setup that is mostly about players buying a bunch of cosmetic items from the in-game store. The only problem is that this time, the massive update has made the game nearly unplayable for many people on consoles.

Without warning, the battle royale shooter’s usually tight and responsive controls — a known quantity for Respawn Entertainment games since Titanfall and a reflection of its Call of Duty heritage — have become slow, laggy, and frequently unresponsive. Even worse, simply playing the game can make your control inputs feel altered even in the dashboard and while using other games; restarting the console seems to...

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Amazon’s waterproof last-gen Kindle Paperwhite is nearly half off

The waterproof Kindle Paperwhite from 2018 starts at just $69.99 instead of $129.99. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Planning on bringing books to the pool or beach this summer? Get an affordable and waterproof e-reader instead. The last-gen version of Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is available at nearly half off its usual price. Regularly $129.99, right now you can buy the ad-supported, 8GB model with a green or red backing for $69.99 instead of $129.99 from Amazon. If you want more storage, you can buy the 32GB ad-supported model for $89.99 instead of $159.99 in black or blue, both of which are new all-time low prices.

The 2018 e-reader is waterproof, so you won’t need to worry if it gets wet, nor will you need to be concerned about recharging since the battery life can last weeks. It boasts a high-resolution six-inch, 300ppi panel as well as support...

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How Creators Get Paid Online

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

The internet has made it easier than ever for artists to get their work in front of a large audience — the trick is making that a viable career. This collection of stories explores how creatives from various disciplines are utilizing platforms like Twitch, TikTok, Etsy, and others to turn their passions into something sustainable. That could mean resurrecting centuries-old blacksmithing techniques on YouTube or building a new kind of crowdfunding platform. Or it could involve becoming an expert at designing immersive Fortnite worlds. Whatever the project, these creatives are finding ways to get paid.

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Our favorite benchmarks for testing PCs and how to use them

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

There are a variety of different benchmarks to measure different aspects of your system

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Persona 5 and Nier: Automata are coming to the Switch

Persona 5.

The Nintendo Switch is getting some big-name roleplaying games. At a Nintendo Direct Mini today, Nintendo revealed that Persona 5 Royal (along with its predecessors Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden) will be coming to the Switch. Persona 5 is launching on October 21st and will be preceded by Nier: Automata on October 6th. Both are seminal RPGs that originally launched in 2017; you can check out our original reviews of P5 and Automata. (Nintendo says to expect more details on Persona 3 and 4 “soon.”)

The announcements were the highlights of today’s event, but there were a handful of other notable reveals and updates as well. Here’s what you may have missed:

Games and demos out today

As per usual, Nintendo didn’t just announce new...

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Niantic is making a real-world NBA game

Pokémon Go developer Niantic has announced yet another new game, this time with its first foray into the world of sports. It’s called NBA All World, and it’s — as you’d expect from Niantic — a location-based game that also has augmented reality elements. The developer describes it as “NBA lifestyle meets the real-world metaverse.”

You might be wondering how exactly that would work. NBA All World looks a lot like Niantic’s other releases, filling up the map around you with various points of interest. The difference here is that they’re all basketball-themed instead of Pokémon-related. “We’re enveloping the world around you into a basketball universe, or what I personally like to call turning the real world into a basketball theme park,”...

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Insta360’s One RS 1-inch 360 Edition is its most capable camera yet

Insta360’s new $800 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition captures 6K 360 video and 21-megapixel photos.

Insta360 has announced its most expensive and powerful consumer 360 camera to date, the $800 One RS 1-inch 360 Edition. The complicated name is due to the fact that the core of this camera is the same as the core in Insta360’s ONE RS, the second edition of the company’s modular action camera that launched in April of this year. But the 1-inch 360 edition adds a larger battery attachment and dual 1-inch CMOS sensors mod. All of this is held together by a mounting bracket to create a far more capable 6K 360 camera.

The One RS 1-inch 360 edition is made up of four parts: a mounting bracket, battery brick, brain, and dual 1-inch sensors mod.

Insta360 began betting big on modular camera design in early 2020 with the...

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Jeeyon Shim carved a new path in crowdfunding for her keepsake games

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

A more independent approach

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Comradery is developing a cooperative way to get paid online

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

It’s easy to compare Comradery to Patreon. Both allow creators to collect money from subscribers, and both allow them to offer content, bonuses, and updates in return. But where Patreon is beholden to venture capital, Comradery is controlled democratically by the people who use it.

“The one thing a venture capital tech company can never deliver is long-term stability,” says Ty Underwood, a developer at Comradery. When funded by investors, platforms often squeeze creators by taking increased cuts. Patreon raised its fees in 2019. In April, Etsy creators went on strike after they announced that transaction fees would be rising. According to recent Bloomberg reporting, Twitch is looking to lower its revenue share with top creators from 70...

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92 million US workers now have the opportunity to work remotely: survey

A remote office taken to the extreme. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

58 percent of US workers now have the option to work where they want at least one day a week, while 35 percent can work remotely up to five days a week, according to a new survey conducted by management consulting company McKinsey. The report concludes that flexible work arrangements implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are here to stay.

“After more than two years of observing remote work and predicting that flexible working would endure after the acute phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, we view these data as a confirmation that there has been a major shift in the working world and in society itself,” reads the report.

The survey found that when given the choice, 87 percent of workers embrace the opportunity to work remotely...

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Elon Musk now has over 100 million Twitter followers

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk just passed the 100 million follower mark on Twitter, becoming the sixth user on the platform to reach a nine-digit follower count. According to SocialBlade, Musk hit the milestone sometime between June 26th and June 27th, gaining over 150,000 followers between the two days. As of this writing, Musk now has 100,059,886 followers.

Hitting the milestone is interesting for a couple of reasons. First is the obvious fact that Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter for $44 billion, which could eventually put him in the unique position of being the only leader of a major social media network who’s actually good at using their social media network. In contrast, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page is broadly a feed of...

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A tiny NASA spacecraft launches to test out a new orbit around the Moon

An artistic rendering of CAPSTONE in orbit around the Moon | Image: NASA

Early this morning, a small NASA spacecraft about the size of a microwave embarked on the beginning of a four-month-long journey to the Moon, where it will eventually insert itself into a unique, elongated lunar orbit that no NASA mission has visited before. The spacecraft’s goal is simple: test out this particular orbit and see what it’s like. That’s because it’s the same orbit that lunar-bound astronauts could use in the coming decade.

This distinctive orbit is called “near rectilinear halo orbit,” or NRHO for short. It’s a special seven-day path that spacecraft can take around the Moon, bringing vehicles relatively close to the lunar surface for one day before they swing out far from the Moon for the other six.

NASA is considering...

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Airbnb’s party ban is now permanent

Image: Airbnb

In 2020, Airbnb introduced a temporary ban on house parties and events to better follow social distancing restrictions with the pandemic. Now, the company says it’s been so pleased by the outcome of the ban that it’s making it permanent and codifying its rules.

“Over time, the party ban became much more than a public health measure,” said the company in a blog post. “It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our Hosts and their neighbors.”

The ban prohibits “all disruptive parties and events,” with a particular focus on open-invite gatherings (those advertised on social media) and “party house” properties. Disruptive parties and events are essentially defined as those that attract complaints from neighbors. Airbnb says it...

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Uber drivers are liking the Teslas

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber’s plan to electrify its driver fleet by 2030 seems to be off to a good start. The ride-hailing company announced today that over 15,000 Uber drivers have signed on to rent Tesla vehicles through its partnership with car rental company Hertz. Uber claims the deal is its “largest-ever expansion” of EVs on a mobility platform in North America and that there have already been more than 5 million Tesla rides driving over 40 million miles since the program started last year.

The popularity and demand for electric vehicles are at an all-time high for consumers, especially with the increased cost of gas. The same is true for Uber drivers, who are responsible for the costs associated with refueling the vehicles no matter what it runs on....

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HTC’s smartphone division limps on with metaverse-focused Desire 22 Pro

The HTC Desire 22 Pro. | Image: HTC

It hasn’t released a competitive flagship device in years, but HTC’s smartphone division isn’t throwing in the towel just yet. Today it announced the HTC Desire 22 Pro, a follow-up to last year’s HTC Desire 21 Pro, and the company’s big attempt at capitalizing on the so-called metaverse. In the UK, it’s listed at £399 and will ship on August 1st.

There are a couple of different aspects to the phone’s metaverse functionality. To start with, it’s designed to be the “perfect companion” to HTC’s recently announced Vive Flow VR headset and used to access Viverse, HTC’s take on the metaverse. The headset is designed to work with any Android phone, though, so it’s not entirely clear what the Desire 22 Pro offers that isn’t available elsewhere.

...

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Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly looking into buying Robinhood

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is reportedly considering an acquisition of the trading platform Robinhood, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that FTX is still weighing the possibility and hasn’t yet made an offer.

When asked about the possible buyout, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that the company currently isn’t in the process of trying to acquire Robinhood. “We are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them,” Bankman-Fried said in a statement to Bloomberg. “That being said, there are no active M&A [mergers and acquisitions] conversations with Robinhood.” The Verge reached out to FTX with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear...

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Overwatch 2 will replace the original Overwatch

Blizzard Entertainment

The original Overwatch’s days are numbered. Last week, Blizzard revealed in a Reddit AMA that when Overwatch 2 launches on October 4th, it will overwrite Overwatch prime, effectively ending the six-year-old game.

“When OW2 launches on October 4th it will be a replacement for the current live service,” wrote game director Aaron Keller.

While the changeover will add a wealth of new content — new heroes, new maps, and more — classic Overwatch will cease to be, ending the 6v6 format and banishing the assault game type to the relative obscurity of the custom game corner. The news came as a bit of a surprise since, originally, Overwatch prime and Overwatch 2 were supposed to coexist. During the Overwatch 2 panel at BlizzCon 2019, Aaron Keller,...

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The biggest privacy risks in post-Roe America

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Our best advice for staying safe while you’re seeking abortion care

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Amazon is reportedly hosting a second major Prime-exclusive shopping event this year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon may have just revealed the July dates for its Prime Day shopping bonanza, but the company is already prepping a second shopping event for Amazon Prime subscribers for later this year, Business Insider and CNBC report. Information sent to sellers that has been seen by the publications calls it the “Prime Fall Deal Event,” though exactly when in the fall is unclear — CNBC quotes a notice saying it will happen in Q4, while Business Insider reports that “invited sellers say it appears to be scheduled for October.”

Last year, Amazon hosted a beauty products event in October, so another sales moment in that timeframe isn’t completely unprecedented. But this year’s fall event sounds like it could be more akin to a Prime Day 2.0, as both...

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You can join the queue to buy a PlayStation 5 right now

Sony has invite-only restocks more frequently but every once in a while has a public queue.

It’s that time again for another chance to buy a PlayStation 5 directly from Sony. While the console maker often sends out emails for invite-only restocks, this one’s for everyone, and it’s starting now. If you’re lucky, you’ll get through the queue and have the chance to buy a standard disc-equipped $499 PS5 or a $399 PS5 Digital Edition, and if Sony’s last console selling events are anything to go by, there should be bundles of both with Horizon Forbidden West included for a total savings of $20 off the cost of the game.

Remember that when buying a PS5 from Sony, you must log in to your PlayStation Network account, and each account can only buy one console. These queues can last up to an hour or more, and the estimated time remaining...

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OnePlus’ Nord N20 5G is now available unlocked

An excellent budget phone without the hassle of buying from a carrier | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

One of the year’s best budget phones is finally available unlocked in the US. The OnePlus Nord N20 5G launched as a T-Mobile exclusive in April, and that was the only way to get ahold of one — until now. The N20 5G is now up for sale from Amazon, Best Buy, or directly from OnePlus for $299 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

Take note that the unlocked N20 won’t work on Verizon — not on 5G or 4G. AT&T customers will be able to connect to 4G only, which isn’t too bad of a deal given that the carrier is taking a slower approach to expanding its more meaningful mid-band 5G coverage. T-Mobile subscribers will, of course, get 5G and 4G coverage.

This makes the unlocked N20 best suited to AT&T customers who don’t need 5G or someone on a...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Apple’s latest Apple Watch, the Series 7, boasts a larger display and faster charging than its last-gen predecessor. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It might be tempting to order one of the Series 7 models, but newer hardware always comes at a premium. And while Apple’s latest wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability, it is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.

Thankfully, each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen its fair share of discounts over the last year. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?

There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The highest-end is the Apple Watch Series 7 starting at $399 (less when it’s discounted, which happens...

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Supreme Court rejects Apple’s bid to continue fighting over two Qualcomm patents

The Supreme Court declined Apple’s bid (pdf) for a hearing over two Qualcomm patents (US Patent No. 7,844,037 and US Patent No. 8,683,362) that were part of lawsuits filed in 2017, claiming infringement by Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches.

Reuters points out that Apple and Qualcomm’s 2019 settlement of a worldwide legal battle over patents largely ended the squabbling in favor of a six-year licensing agreement but allowed a case in front of the Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board to continue. There, Apple argued the two patents should be invalid, but the board ruled in Qualcomm’s favor.

Last April, the Federal Circuit court rejected Apple’s request for an appeal based on the 2019 settlement covering...

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