Technology

The 100-foot-tall, 22-metric-ton Chinese Long March 5B rocket that launched the first chunk of Beijing’s new space station last month has reentered Earth’s atmosphere near the Maldives, China’s Manned Space Engineering Office reported. Scientists, amateur satellite trackers and the Pentagon had been monitoring the dead rocket stage’s location for over a week amid fears it would reenter over a populated area. US Space Command, which helps locate space junk and man-made satellites in Earth orbit, said the rocket “re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula at approximately 10:15 p.m. EDT,” adding it was unknown if the debris impacted land or water. “Everyone else following the #LongMarch5B re-entry can relax. The rocket is down,” tweeted Space Track, a website that had been using Space Command dat...

At least five of Tesla’s competitors bought ad time during Saturday Night Live hosted by Elon Musk, using the billionaire’s appearance to sell their own. non-Tesla EVs. Commercials for the Audi E-tron, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID 4, and Lucid Air all aired within the first 30 minutes of SNL. Lucid Motors, a company founded by Peter Rawlinson, the former head engineer of the Tesla Model S who frequently clashes with Musk, teased its commercial earlier in the week. It was its debut commercial for the Lucid Air, a claimed 500-mile EV due later this year. In his opening monologue, Musk noted he’s the guy who made electric vehicles popular. The commercials were intended to remind the audience that Tesla isn’t the only name in the game anymore. It wasn’t just EV companies either. Accordin...

Elon Musk opened his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live by acknowledging his public comments get him in trouble. “Sometimes after I say something I have to say ‘I mean that,’” he said. He pointed to his “69 days after 4/20 again haha” tweet, but didn’t mention the 2018 tweet that got him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said he was the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL — something he hasn’t said publicly before. It did not appear he was joking, but it was a bit difficult to be sure how sincere Musk was being, given his history as both an internet troll and someone who doesn’t always know how to deliver a joke. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO joked that people sometimes don’t know what to expect from him. “I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Ma...

While Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live, Dogecoin investors sold. When SNL first went live, the cryptocurrency hovered around 69 cents (nice). But as the show wore on, the price dropped. As of this writing, it is worth 56 cents, a 12 percent plunge. There was a slight recovery when Musk — on “Weekend Update,” SNL’s parody news program — explained to a bewildered Michael Che and Colin Jost what Dogecoin was. (“A hustle,” Che finally said, knowingly.) He also called himself the “Dogefather.” As if to celebrate, trading platform Robinhood promptly crashed for cryptocurrency users. Earlier this week, Robinhood tweeted, “We’re all paws on deck, all weekend. [rocket emoji]” (I need the S-1.) A month ago, the trading platform crashed during a Dogecoin rally. Update: We’re currently experiencin...

One of the largest pipelines in the US has been taken offline by its operator following a cyberattack. First reported by the New York Times, Colonial Pipeline, which carries 45 percent of the fuel supplies for the eastern US, said in a statement late Friday that it took “certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our IT systems.” The pipeline is 5,500 miles long and carries jet fuel and refined gasoline from the Gulf Coast to New York, according to the Times, transporting some 2.5 million barrels daily. It’s not yet clear whether the attack targeted Colonial’s industrial control systems, or if the attack was carried out by foreign government hackers. The Washington Post, citing a US official familiar with the mat...

This pandemic has taken millions of lives around the world — and researchers are realizing that the true death toll may be much higher than the official numbers we see every day. As of May 3rd, the death toll in the US officially stood at 574,043, but a new analysis published this week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that the actual toll is 905,289. IHME is a health research center based at the University of Washington that specializes in measuring global health on a population level. Its new analysis estimates that the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 6.93 million, not 3.24 million. The key word here is “estimate.” The researchers looked at countries around the world that reported deaths on a weekly or monthly basis. They compared that with C...

I’m here with the latest collection of the best tech deals that appeared on The Verge this week. Similar to the last weekend’s post, deals have been ramping up lately. Hopefully it has helped you save a little money either shopping for yourself or a mom in your life for Mother’s Day. If you happen to be searching for a belated gift to ship over (orders placed today probably won’t arrive by Sunday, May 9th, which is Mother’s Day), check out our gift guide that’s full of fun gift ideas. Here are this week’s best deals. Save 15 percent on useful tech accessories from Satechi Satechi makes several accessories, like USB-C hubs, adapters, Apple Watch chargers, and much more. If you find something you want from its catalog of gadgets, it’s offering a sitewide 15 percent discount when you use the ...

Now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has wrapped and we’re still a few weeks away from the debut of Loki, Marvel has released a behind-the-scenes video on its YouTube channel detailing the CGI effects that made it look like Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was flying through the air as Falcon [minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the show yet]. Eric Leven, VFX Supervisor for Falcon, breaks down a couple of the show’s key scenes. including the mid-air chase scene from the series’ first episode. “What I really wanted to do for the big action sequences was, as much as possible, make things feel like they’re grounded in reality,” Leven explains. “Obviously, we don’t have Anthony Mackie flying around in a real jet pack with real wings, but we wanted to make it feel like if he was,...

Saturday Night Live will be live from New York— and streaming to 100 countries around the world for the first time ever, NBC announced. Elon Musk is hosting the show for the first time (in case you have not read anything else on The Verge today), and Miley Cyrus will be the musical guest. “‘SNL’ is a global phenomenon and this livestream marks the first time audiences around the world will experience the show simultaneously along with the US,” Frances Berwick of NBCU said in a statement. “It’s incredibly exciting to create this worldwide event with host Elon Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus. We thank our international partners and YouTube for helping us make it happen.” Musk tweeted a link to the international feed: The show gets underway at the usual 11:30PM ET. Musk’s girlfriend, the s...

Tesla has agreed to pay a $750,000 fine and install a solar roof project to settle air quality violations at its Fremont, California plant, officials announced Friday. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which regulates air pollution in nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, said the settlement covers 33 notices of violations dating back to 2015, including “installing or modifying equipment without proper permits, failure to conduct required emissions testing, failure to maintain records and failure to report information to the Air District in a timely manner.” The violations have since been corrected and Tesla is back in compliance, according to the air district’s statement. Both sides had agreed that the fine should be $1 million, but a spokesperson told the Mercury News that Te...

Who is Elon Musk? Oh, come on. Seriously! Fine. He’s the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, the founder of The Boring Company and Neuralink, a certified member of the PayPal Mafia, and a well-known internet troll. He sounds rich. He is. Depending on where the market closes on Friday, he’s either the first or the second richest person in the world. The other contender is Jeff Bezos. A substantial part of both men’s net worth is tied up in their company stock. Okay. What is Saturday Night Live? Saturday Night Live is an American television show that has been on the air since 1975. It is in a sketch comedy format. There is usually at least one good sketch in each 90-minute episode, and it is often the digital short. SNL features a guest host, usually an actor with a movie to promote, and a musical gues...

Comics have never been bigger: with Marvel TV shows, DC movies, and indie adaptations growing by the day, comic books have never been more prominent in pop culture. This biweekly Verge column recommends comic series new and old, whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer. With most mainstream comics today tending to skew more toward sci-fi superheroes, Boom Studio’s Coda is a perfect gateway for those who prefer swords and sorcery — set in a magical post-apocalypse with some of the best comic art around. What is it? Coda is a 12-issue fantasy comic set in a desolate apocalypse after a gigantic, magical war between the forces of good and evil that cost the world most of its magic. Think Mad Max: Fury Road if it happened after the final battle in Lord of the Rings, with magical power instea...