One America News gets dumped by Verizon, the only major carrier it had left

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon Fios is the latest provider to drop One American News (OAN) network, a move that leaves the right-wing news channel without a major carrier, as reported earlier by The Daily Beast. In a notice on its website, Verizon explains viewers will no longer have access to OAN starting July 31st.

“Our negotiation with OAN has been a typical, business-as-usual carriage negotiation like those that routinely happen between content distributors and content providers,” Verizon said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “These negotiations were focused on economics, as they always are, but OAN failed to agree to fair terms.” Verizon didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

OAN is left without a major broadcasting platform

OAN,...

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Feds’ case against Huawei in cell networks tracked ‘unprofitable’ deals near US military bases

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

An FBI investigation into Huawei reveals the Chinese telecom company had a pattern of installing equipment on cell towers near military bases in rural America — even if it wasn’t profitable to do so, according to a report from CNN. The unearthed investigation sheds some light on the US government’s motive behind the stalled “rip and replace” program that pushes for the removal of Huawei’s tech throughout the country.

According to CNN, the federal investigation centers around the potential for Huawei’s equipment to intercept military communications, including those transmitted by the US Strategic Command, the agency tasked with handling the US nuclear arsenal. It’s no secret that Huawei sold cheap equipment to smaller, regional telecom...

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As Dusk Falls’ couch co-op makes a middling thriller a lot more memorable

This character’s name is Jay. That’s my name! | Image: INTERIOR/NIGHT

As my wife and I played through As Dusk Falls, a tense new interactive thriller that recently launched on Xbox Game Pass, we would regularly turn to each other on the couch and say, “Coin flip.”

In As Dusk Falls, up to eight people playing together in local co-op can simultaneously vote on what the game’s characters should do next. Think Black Mirror: Bandersnatch mixed with Jackbox’s many-player multiplayer brand of trivia. Similar to Jackbox games, you don’t even need a controller — you can just use your phone (though you’ll have to download a companion app).

Think Bandersnatch mixed with Jackbox

Much of As Dusk Falls’ story revolves around a hostage situation at a motel, and as you might expect, decisions can be pretty tough. In one...

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Marvel outlines Phase 6 with Fantastic Four and two new Avengers movies

Marvel is looking far into its future at San Diego Comic-Con. The company confirmed that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (which just got its first trailer) will end phase four of its cinematic universe on November 11th, and outlined what to expect for phase five. But Marvel also took things one step farther and detailed phase six of the MCU with a trio of movie announcements.

Things will kick off with Fantastic Four on November 28th, 2024; followed by Avengers: The Kang Dynasty on May 2nd, 2025; before wrapping up with Avengers: Secret Wars on November 7th, 2025. Marvel is calling this period of the MCU — phases four through six — the “Multiverse saga,” which will come to a close with Secret Wars.

The...

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Marvel’s Phase 5 will kick off with Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and end with Thunderbolts

Concept art for Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. | Marvel Studios

Though the titles for a number of Marvel Studios’ upcoming films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania are a little cumbersome, fairly soon, we’re all going to know them as the projects that marked the ending the the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4 and the beginning of Phase 5 — two chapters in the Multiverse Saga.

Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel Studios’ braintrust took to Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con to discuss details about how Phase 4 is set to come to an end later this year with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Phase 5 will kick off with the third Ant-Man film. While we knew that movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the fourth Captain America, and Blade were on the...

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s first trailer pits Atlantis against the world

Winston Duke as M’Baku in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. | Marvel Studios

More so than any of Marvel’s other big reveals at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s first trailer’s something to legitimately get hyped about.

During Marvel’s big Hall H showcase today, actress Letitia Wright said that her and the rest of the cast and crew’s goal with Wakanda Forever was to honor the legacy that Chadwick Boseman left following his passing. Wakanda Forever’s trailer doesn’t directly acknowledge what’s become of T’Challa in the MCU, but his absence and the recent discovery of a new underwater nation once again have the world — Wakanda in particular — on edge. While Wakandans like Shuri (Wright), Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and Okoye (Danai Gurira) are seen mourning and seemingly trying...

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Marvel confirms new Daredevil series for Disney Plus

Now it’s official: a new live-action Daredevil series is coming to Disney Plus. The news was first reported earlier this year, but at Comic-Con this evening Marvel confirmed the series’ existence. It will be called Daredevil: Born Again, and will once again star Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio as Daredevil and the Kingpin. The show is expected to hit Disney Plus in the spring of 2024.

Cox and D’Onofrio will be reprising their roles from the original series which debuted as part of partnership with Netflix; earlier this year, however, all of Netflix’s Marvel series — including Jessica Jones and Luke Cage — left the streamer in order to move to Disney Plus. D’Onofrio’s Kingpin has already made an appearance on Disney’s streaming platform...

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She-Hulk’s new trailer shows the importance of spandex and yoga

The next big Marvel series on Disney Plus is She-Hulk — and at Comic-Con this evening, Marvel Studios provided a fresh look at the show. The new trailer has a decidedly more lighthearted tone than the first, with Bruce Banner explaining just how important both spandex and yoga are when you’re a gigantic superhero. But it also gets into some legal drama and, of course, includes some cameos from elsewhere in the Marvel cinematic universe.

The trailer was released during a SDCC panel that also detailed the future of the fifth phase of the MCU, which includes films like Blade, Captain America: New World Order, and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, alongside Disney Plus series like the second season of Loki. Elsewhere at SDCC, Marvel also...

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The Sandman’s Comic-Con trailer teases endless possibilities

Netflix

Though the first glimpses of Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman were already plenty promising, it was difficult to get a sense of how much the show would lean into the graphic novel’s focus on the macabre. Along with teasing out some of the more eye-popping moments that’ll shape The Sandman’s first season, a new trailer from San Diego Comic-Con also makes clear just how dark the series is going to get.

The Sandman’s latest trailer once again finds Morpheus / Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) newly-freed from his imprisonment by mortals, and in need of retrieving restoring himself to his former power. Some of The Sandman will seemingly follow as Dream tracks down a number of sacred magical items and returns to...

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Report: Exec running Texas Tesla factory is under investigation for misappropriated glass

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

Omead Afshar, the Tesla executive tasked with overseeing operations at the company’s Texas factory, is reportedly the subject of an internal investigation over a glass purchase deemed “suspicious,” according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that Afshar will likely go on a leave of absence before Tesla cuts him from the company completely.

Afshar reportedly placed an order for a “special” type of glass that isn’t all that easy to procure amid supply chain constraints, and told staff it was for a “secret project.” According to Bloomberg, Tesla’s finance department flagged the glass purchase earlier this year, sparking the internal probe led by David Searle, Tesla’s acting head of legal.

Afshar has...

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Star Trek teases Picard cast and Strange New Worlds crossover

Image: Paramount

The new Star Trek: Picard trailer gives us a first look at the stars set to reprise their roles in the series’ third and final season. Paramount Plus debuted the one-minute trailer at San Diego Comic-Con, which features most of the main cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, and Gates McFadden.

The teaser gives us brief glimpses at each character, along with short, but profound quotes. Notably absent from the trailer is Brent Spiner, although Paramount Plus hinted at his appearance in a trailer back in April. Season 3 reunites Jean-Luc Picard with his old crewmates, and is set to debut on Paramount Plus in 2023.

But...

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Game of Thrones in 4K is coming to HBO Max

Image: Helen Sloan / HBO

Game of Thrones in 4K HDR is set to arrive on HBO Max this August. You’ll get to stream all eight seasons with support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, making for a nice way to bide the time before the series premiere of House of the Dragon on August 21st.

Only those who subscribe to HBO Max’s ad-free plan, which costs $14.99 / month or $149.99 / year, will get access to the new formats. Luckily, you won’t have to wait to see House of the Dragon in 4K, either — HBO says it’s debuting the Game of Thrones spinoff in 4K with support for HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos.

While Game of Thrones is already available in 4K on Bluray, streaming on HBO Max saves you from paying $150 or more outright for the entire boxset. Watching on Bluray...

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Black Adam sure seems like the villain in his movie’s latest trailer

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam. | Warner Bros.

During the Black Adampanel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, star Dwayne Johnson emphasized that even though his character has no problem killing or maiming people who get in his way, he’s really more of an antihero than a proper villain. Watching Black Adam’s latest trailer, though, and the way the movie’s titular character bashes a number of DC’s classic superheroes, it’s hard not to see Teth-Adam as a clear and present danger.

Black Adam’s latest trailer once again gives you the briefest of glimpses of the tragedy in Teth-Adam’s (Johnson) past that ultimately leads to his becoming a magically empowered superhuman somewhat similar (at least in power set and costume) to Shazam. Though Adam’s unable to save his family from a cruel...

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Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ first trailer introduces a delightful villain

Shazam! brought a lighthearted tone to DC’s theatrical run when it debuted in 2019, and the sequel looks to do much the same later this year — at least if the debut trailer is anything to go by. It’s called Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, DC revealed a first look at the superhero adventure. It starts off with the titular star (Zachary Levi) having some confidence issues (seriously, who can compete with Aquaman?) and espousing his love for the Fast and the Furious, before revealing a new villain played by none other than Helen Mirren. Other new cast members include Rachel Zegler and Lucy Liu. Also, there’s a very big dragon creature.

Fury of the Gods has had a few different premiere dates, but — along...

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Monkeypox is now a global emergency, World Health Organization says

A dose of monkeypox vaccine is prepared on July 23, 2022 | Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Monkeypox is now a global public health emergency, the head of the World Health Organization decided on Saturday. The viral disease is officially a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, putting it in the same league as polio and COVID-19.

In May, clusters of monkeypox cases were detected in the UK and Europe. Since then, 16,836 cases of monkeypox have emerged in 74 countries, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Monkeypox outbreaks have historically been much smaller, and occurred in central and western Africa.

“The cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg,” Albert Ko told the Associated Press. Ko is a professor of public health and epidemiology at Yale University. “The window has...

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Quick question: would you buy a monitor from a company called Dough?

Photo by Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Dough is fantastic. You can make bread with it! Not to mention biscuits, cookies, pies, pizzas, pasta, and pastry. But — to the best of our knowledge — you cannot make a PC monitor with the stuff.

Perhaps that’s why I can’t stop giggling at this message (via Liliputing):

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The “Learn more!” has me in stitches every time.

Eve is the company that makes the remarkably well-reviewed but pricey Spectrum monitor — and before that, the disastrously crowdfunded Eve V tablet.

Now, the company’s name is Dough.

Which, grammatically speaking, means its flagship monitor is now the Dough Spectrum. It rolls right off the tongue.

Dough explains (lol) that it chose the name because it...

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Walk The Distance makes exercise fun for those who’d rather be hiking

There’s me, virtually hiking the AT.

Walk The Distance is the type of app that’ll motivate a very specific type of person to get off the couch and get some exercise. Instead of having you walk to escape zombies or catch Pokémon, it lets you virtually walk long-distance routes like the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) — perfect for those of us who don’t mind our local walking paths but wish for something a little more scenic.

For every mile you walk at home, you get to see a little icon with your picture move along a map, making its way between famous landmarks like Springer Mountain in Georgia or Kennedy Meadows at the base of the Sierra Nevada. And as you reach certain points, Walk The Distance will give you pictures and facts about them. It is, in a...

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Netflix reportedly starts linking iPhone and iPad users to an external sign-up page

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix has reportedly started directing users on iPhone and iPad to an external webpage where they can sign up for the service, according to a report from 9to5Mac. The change comes just months after Apple started letting “reader” apps that provide access to digital content, like Netflix and Spotify, link out to account sign-up pages on their own websites.

For as far back as 2018, Netflix didn’t provide an external signup link — or even tell users where they could sign up — in its iPhone and iPad apps. Users had to instead navigate to Netflix’s website from their web or mobile browser to sign up for the service before accessing the app. This was done to comply with Apple’s rules, which made it difficult for apps to get around its up to...

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John Wick 4’s first trailer questions when it all ends

After a trilogy’s worth of exhausting fights, John Wick is returning — but it’s not clear how much more fight he has left in him.

The first trailer for John Wick 4, which was a surprise reveal during San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, features all the highlights you’d expect from a Wick movie, including Keanu Reeves looking very cool while training and new villains like a menacing Donnie Yen and a cold-blooded Bill Skarsgård. There are car chases, sword fights, and Laurence Fishburne calling out “You ready, John?” while holding up his iconic black suit.

But it also raises an important question: where does all of this finally end? Mr. Wick clearly needs a break, but there’s no indication yet of how or when that might happen. I’m not...

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Streaming video apps all look the same now

Images: Prime Video/Netflix/Disney/HBO, GIF: Chris Welch / The Verge

Earlier this week, Amazon announced a major redesign of Prime Video, and the overwhelming response was “finally.” Prime Video had become a relic frozen in time, with an ugly, laggy interface that seemed stuck in 2010. Amazon’s streaming competitors, meanwhile, have routinely switched up and refined the user experience.

And it seems like Prime Video’s designers noticed. Because another thing that stuck out about the app’s makeover is just how closely Amazon’s video service now resembles Netflix. Column of navigation icons on the left side? Check. Top 10 list with big numbers? Yep, it’s there on the home screen. And Prime Video has even added “super carousels” of poster-style artwork that expand to landscape and start auto-playing a...

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The Pixel 6A comes with a better Magic Eraser

Camouflage debuts with the Pixel 6A when it goes on sale on July 28th. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google’s clever Magic Eraser tool debuted on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. It’s an editing feature that’s designed to remove people or objects you don’t want in the background of your photos. Considering that it’s dead simple to use, the results are okay, but it’s definitely not putting Adobe out of business anytime soon. But with the Pixel 6A — and coming soon to the 6 and 6 Pro — Google has added a new Magic Eraser function that I like a lot more than the standard erase tool: Camouflage. It’s just as easy to use, and the results are a lot more consistent.

Magic Eraser works a bit like Photoshop’s content-aware fill. You make a selection, then it uses information from the surrounding image to remove the unwanted subject and fill in the area....

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The ‘abortion pill’ could also be birth control — and activists are trying to prove it

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Mifepristone’s contraceptive possibilities have been known for decades

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Preorder Google’s Pixel 6A and get a free set of Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Welcome to the weekend. This week was a deal drought relative to last week’s Prime Day-filled coverage, but there are still some cool, limited-time offers that are worth highlighting. For one, Google flipped on preorders for the Pixel 6A phone and the Pixel Buds Pro after a long wait since their announcement at Google I/O 2022. And for people who want the Pixel 6A, placing a preorder at Amazon or Best Buy will get you a complementary set of Pixel Buds A-Series wireless earbuds that normally cost $100 alone.

Allison Johnson published a review of the Pixel 6A on Thursday, and it seems like it was worth the wait. While it has a 6.1-inch OLED screen that’s both smaller (some may prefer this) and slower in terms of refresh rate (60Hz vs....

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Corsair K70 Pro Mini Wireless review: a compact, feature-rich gaming keyboard

This diminuative gaming keyboard ticks a lot of boxes

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The engineer who claimed a Google AI is sentient has been fired

The company reportedly says he violated confidentiality policies. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who publicly claimed that the company’s LaMDA conversational artificial intelligence is sentient, has been fired, according to the Big Technology newsletter, which spoke to Lemoine. In June, Google placed Lemoine on paid administrative leave for breaching its confidentiality agreement after he contacted members of the government about his concerns and hired a lawyer to represent LaMDA.

A statement emailed to The Verge on Friday by Google spokesperson Brian Gabriel appeared to confirm the firing, saying, “we wish Blake well.” The company also says: “LaMDA has been through 11 distinct reviews, and we published a research paper earlier this year detailing the work that goes into its responsible...

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Now Microsoft Office is blocking macros by default

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge

There’s been a bit of back and forth since the change was originally announced, but this week Microsoft started rolling out an update to Microsoft Office that blocks the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros on downloaded documents.

Last month, Microsft was testing the new default setting when it suddenly rolled back the update, “temporarily while we make some additional changes to enhance usability.” Despite saying it was temporary, many experts worried that Microsoft might not go through with changing the default setting, leaving systems vulnerable to attacks. Google Threat Analysis Group leader Shane Huntley tweeted, “Blocking Office macros would do infinitely more to actually defend against real threats than all the...

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T-Mobile agrees to $350 million settlement over its massive 2021 data breach

The hack is costing the company big. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the 2021 hack that it says exposed around 76.6 million US residents’ data. According to the proposed agreement filled on Friday, which you can read in full below, T-Mobile will put $350 million into a settlement fund to go to lawyers, fees, and, of course, to people who file claims. It’ll also be obligated to spend $150 million on “data security and related technology” during 2022 and 2023, in addition to what it had already budgeted for.

In August, the company announced that its systems had been breached, following reports that Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver’s license information for over 100 million of its customers was for...

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Meta adds an 18 and up tag in Horizon Worlds, opening the door to mature VR content

An image of a Horizon Worlds location made to look like a club | Image: Meta

Meta is expanding what type of content is allowed in the virtual worlds that people make for Horizon Worlds, its platform that lets people create VR spaces for shared experiences. The company has added an 18 and up tag for user-created worlds and updated its policy to allow creators to include “mature” content that was previously banned altogether. According to UploadVR, creators who have published worlds received an email saying they have to manually mark whether their world is mature or safe for all audiences — if they don’t, it will be restricted to 18 and up by default.

Based on a Wayback Machine archive of Meta’s Horizon Mature Worlds Policy page from April, this means Meta is now allowing content that was previously banned. The...

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Marvel’s going all in on animation with Spider-Man: Freshman Year and even more X-Men ’97

Though Marvel’s live-action projects are a big part of what’s got people hyped for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the studio’s Hall H showcase today made clear that animation’s going to be a big part of the MCU’s future.

In addition to announcing its I Am Grootseries, Marvel Studios head of streaming, TV, and animation Brad Winderbaum and head of visual development Ryan Meinerding took the stage in Hall H to discuss new details about Spider-Man: Freshman Year, X-Men ’97, Marvel Zombies, and upcoming seasons of What If...?

Like its first season, _What If...?’_s second and newly announced third seasons will once again focus on the Watcher (Geoffrey Wright) as he gazes across the multiverse upon the many different realities that now make...

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The best deals on Nintendo Switch games right now

Right now, there are discounts on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a handful of other essential Switch titles.

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles ever released, one with an ever-expanding library of games to choose from. Odds are if a game is capable of working on the Switch’s hardware, it’s either already available or it will be soon.

Thankfully, a number of games are currently receiving price breaks if you’re looking to expand your collection, including first-gen offerings like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and remasters likeTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. However, if you want to add some less conventional titles to your collection, family-first dungeon crawler Children of Morta, and the shopkeeping hack-and-slash simulator, Moonlighter, are also discounted right now.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the deals on...

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