Moderna’s mRNA-based combination vaccine against both flu and COVID-19 has gotten the green light in Europe—but it continues to be shelved in the US, where it was developed.

This week, the European Commission authorized Moderna to market the vaccine, mRNA-1083 or mCOMBRIAX, making it the world’s first authorized combination shot for the two respiratory viruses. The decision follows a positive review in February from a key European Medicines Agency’s committee, which paved the way for the approval.

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel welcomed the news. “By combining protection against two significant respiratory viruses in a single dose, our vaccine aims to simplify immunization for adults, particularly those at high risk,” Bancel said in a press release. “mCOMBRIAX offers an important new option for Europeans, while also aiming to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems across Europe.”

mCOMBRIAX combines Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine with an investigational influenza vaccine called mRNA-1010, which is still under review in Europe. The combination shot was authorized based on findings from a Phase III clinical trial of around 4,000 adults. The trial contained two groups, one with participants aged 50 to 64 that included a comparison of a standard flu vaccine, and another aged 65 and up that included a comparison of a high-dose flu vaccine. In both groups, mCOMBRIAX spurred statistically-significant higher immune responses against common flu strains (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B/Victoria) and against SARS-CoV-2 than the comparator vaccines. There were no concerns over safety or adverse events.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/europe-not-us-first-to-authorize-modernas-combo-mrna-flu-covid-vaccine/

The Federal Communications Commission clarified this week that its sweeping ban on foreign-made consumer routers also affects portable hotspot devices.

The FCC added a new section to an FAQ titled, “Is my device a consumer-grade router under the National Security Determination?” The new FAQ section says this category includes “consumer-grade portable or mobile MiFi Wi-Fi or hotspot devices for residential use.” The ban does not cover “mobile phones with hotspot features,” the FAQ says.

This means that companies making consumer hotspots need an exemption from the government to import and sell any future hotspots that haven’t previously been approved by the FCC. As with routers, devices previously approved for sale in the US can continue to be imported and sold without obtaining a special exemption.

The FCC defines routers broadly, giving the agency plenty of flexibility to include various types of consumer networking devices in the ban. When the FCC announced the ban last month, it defined routers as “consumer-grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer,” and which “forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems.”

But while an earlier version of the FAQ stated that cellphones with mobile hotspot features were exempt, it did not specifically say that portable hotspot devices were covered by the ban. In addition to hotspot devices, the new FAQ section says the router ban applies to “consumer or small and medium-sized business routers sold or rented through retail and self-installable by end users”; “LTE/5G CPE [customer premises equipment] devices for residential use”; “residential routers installed by a professional or ISP”; and “residential gateways that combine modem and router functions.”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/fcc-says-ban-on-foreign-made-routers-includes-portable-wi-fi-hotspots/

Websites for some of the world’s most prestigious universities are serving explicit porn and malicious content after scammers exploited the shoddy record-keeping of the site administrators, a researcher found recently.

The sites included berkeley.edu, columbia.edu, and washu.edu, the official domains for the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and Washington University in St. Louis. Subdomains such as hXXps://causal.stat.berkeley.edu/ymy/video/xxx-porn-girl-and-boy-ej5210.html, hXXps://conversion-dev.svc.cul.columbia[.]edu/brazzers-gym-porn, and hXXps://provost.washu.edu/app/uploads/formidable/6/dmkcsex-10.pdf. All deliver explicit pornography and, in at least one case, a scam site falsely claiming a visitor’s computer is infected and advising the visitor to pay a fee for the non-existent malware to be removed. In all, researcher Alex Shakhov said, hundreds of subdomains for at least 34 universities are being abused. Search results returned by Google list thousands of hijacked pages.

A handful of hijacked columbia.edu subdomains listed by Google

One of the sites redirected by a UC Berkeley subdomain.

Hijacking a university’s good name

Shakhov, founder of SH Consulting, said that the scammers—which a separate researcher has linked to a known group tracked as Hazy Hawk—are seizing on what amounts to a clerical error by site administrators of the affected universities. When they commission a subdomain such as provost.washu.edu, they create a CNAME record, which assignes a subdomain to a “cononical” domain. When the subdomain is eventually decommissioned—something that happens frequently for various reasons—the record is never removed. Scammers like Hazy Hawk then swoop in by hijacking the old record.

With that, they have now hijacked that university’s subdomain. Given the reputations universities have, search queries then flow to the top of Google’s results.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/04/why-are-top-university-websites-serving-porn-it-comes-down-to-shoddy-housekeeping/

Unwieldy wounds

Healing from wounds has three main phases. The first is an inflammatory phase that prevents or limits further damage. There’s a proliferative phase during which new tissue is formed. Among the many things that occur in this phase, specialized cells called fibroblasts produce collagen that helps create structural suppors for new tissue. This proliferative phase isn’t discreet; it can go on in the background throughout the healing process. Last, there’s a maturation phase when the new tissue settles into its final form and gains maximum strength.

When keloids form, it means something went wrong in the proliferative phase of healing. Specifically, the fibroblasts of keloids are thought to be more active, survive longer, and produce more collagen and more signaling molecules that promote growth. Collagen production in keloids can be 20 times larger than in typical skin.

It’s unclear what triggers this uncontrolled tissue growth, but genetics and environmental factors are thought to play a role. Keloids are seen more often in people with darker skin. In the teen’s case, her doctors note that varicella infections are known to trigger certain pro-inflammatory cellular signals and speculate that they could potentially induce a hyperproliferative state. But, for now, it’s just a hypothesis.

Treatment for keloids is, unfortunately, difficult. When the problem is faulty wound healing, any treatment that creates new wounds risks failing or worsening the problem. Surgical removal, for instance, has recurrence rates between 45 percent to 100 percent. Cryotherapy can sometimes be used to kill off scar tissue, but it can also leave undesirable skin alterations. Laser and radiotherapy have been used, but with clear risks and sometimes limited results. Successful treatment often requires a combination of methods. The mainstay treatment, however, is injections with corticosteroids, which help with the itching and burning.

In the teen’s case, doctors monitored her keloids for three months and found they were relatively stable, with no rapid growth—though they could potentially continue to grow over time. Given preferences and financial limitations, she decided to forgo aggressive treatment and live with the growths, managing symptoms with antihistamines and over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen.

While keloids remain a menace, chickenpox has an effective prevention. The varicella vaccine was released in the US in 1995, and two doses offer 97 percent protection. Since its debut, chickenpox cases—and complications—have declined dramatically.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/04/in-rare-chickenpox-case-itchy-blisters-mushroom-into-large-rubbery-nodules/

A US Army soldier was arrested for insider trading after being accused of making prediction-market wagers on the timing of the military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke made a profit of nearly $410,000 by making bets on Polymarket, and he was indicted on charges of unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction, the Department of Justice announced yesterday.

“As alleged in the indictment, Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution of the US military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, called ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ and Van Dyke used his access to classified information about that operation to personally profit,” the DOJ said.

Van Dyke, a 38-year-old North Carolina resident stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, has been an active-duty soldier since 2008 and a master sergeant with US Army Special Forces since 2023, according to the indictment. He was bound by nondisclosure agreements forbidding him from revealing classified or sensitive military information.

Van Dyke allegedly started making bets about a week before the January 3 capture of Maduro. He was charged in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Van Dyke won his wagers on those contracts,” and “profited approximately $409,881,” the DOJ said. He later “sent most of his proceeds to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before depositing them into a newly created online brokerage account,” and “took steps to conceal his identity as the trader in the Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets,” the DOJ said.

Trump: It’s like “Pete Rose betting on his own team”

The DOJ described the bets as follows:

As alleged, on or about Dec. 26, 2025, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account, funded it, and began trading on Maduro- and Venezuela-related markets. In total, Van Dyke made approximately 13 bets from Dec. 27, 2025, through the evening of Jan. 26. Those bets all took the “YES” position on “US Forces in Venezuela… by January 31, 2026”; “Maduro out by… January 31, 2026”; “Will the US invade Venezuela by… January 31,”; or “Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by… January 31.” Van Dyke bet a total of approximately $33,034 on those outcomes while in possession of classified nonpublic information about Operation Absolute Resolve.

President Trump was asked about Van Dyke at the White House on Thursday, and responded by comparing the wagers to “Pete Rose betting on his own team,” according to CNBC. “Pete Rose, they kept him out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on his own team,” Trump was quoted as saying. “Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I’ll look into it.”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/soldier-won-410k-in-polymarket-bets-on-timing-of-maduro-capture-us-alleges/

On top of that, when analyzing the beaks, the team noticed a distinct pattern. The wear wasn’t uniform. The right edge of the jaw was consistently more worn down, chipped, and scratched than the left. The team concluded this asymmetry wasn’t an accident but a proof of lateralized behavior. It’s a tendency we observe in modern octopuses, which often favor a specific side of their body or a particular eye when performing complex tasks.

In biology, lateralized behavior is usually linked to a highly sophisticated, specialized nervous system. “Of course, we cannot directly measure intelligence from a fossil,” Iba said. “But the asymmetric wear suggests that these animals may also have had advanced and individualized hunting behavior, similar in some ways to modern octopuses.”

They were not just huge and powerful. They were probably smart.

The evolutionary arms race

A highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey suggests that the Cretaceous evolutionary arms race wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates. By shedding heavy shells like those seen in early nautiloids and ammonites, the ancestors of modern octopuses traded passive defense for active offense. They gained explosive swimming speed, vast improvements in eyesight, and the neurological capacity required for advanced cognition.

“Our study highlights convergent evolution. Vertebrates and cephalopods have very different evolutionary origins, but both evolved toward becoming large, intelligent marine predators with powerful jaws, flexible bodies, high mobility, and advanced behavior,” Iba said. He notes that Cretaceous marine ecosystems were most likely way more complex than we thought.

Iba also hopes the Digital Fossil Mining technique can be used to learn more about this complexity. “One major direction is to apply Digital Fossil Mining to many more fossil-bearing rocks,” he told Ars. “This approach allows us to uncover organisms and structures that were previously almost invisible in the fossil record.” The technique, he thinks, is especially important for animals like octopuses and squids, which rarely fossilize.

The team ultimately wants to reconstruct a more complete history of cephalopods. “More broadly, our goal is to reveal the hidden components of ancient ecosystems and build a much more complete picture of how past ecosystems really worked,” Iba said.

Science, 2026. DOI: 10.1126/science.aea6285

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/04/meet-the-19-meter-cretaceous-kraken-that-swam-with-mosasaurs/

Manufacturing smartphones is getting much more expensive.

Credit: Counterpoint Research

The good news for Samsung is that while the MX division struggles, its semiconductor division is raking it in. Samsung Semiconductor has smashed records in the first quarter of 2026, earning an estimated $38 billion (KRW 57.2 trillion) in profit. That’s more than seven times its net from Q1 2025.

Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix are all accelerating plans to expand memory and storage production lines—Samsung specifically has started spinning down LPDDR4 production to boost the supply of LPDDR5—but Nekkei Asia projects that won’t be enough. Even with best-case improvements in output, DRAM production in 2027 could fall 40 percent short of expected demand. The only thing that could challenge that prediction is a substantial change in demand for AI applications. With most of the world’s tech giants firmly committed to expanding AI compute through next year, it’s unlikely that supply constraints will ease soon.

Higher demand, higher prices

There are already signs that RAM and storage costs are making phones more expensive. Motorola recently raised the price of its Moto G budget phones by up to 50 percent. Low-cost devices like the Moto G will feel the rising cost of components the most, making the very idea of a budget phone in the coming years suspect.

With the prospect of sinking profitability in 2026, Samsung is also making changes. The recently released Galaxy A37 and A57 mid-range devices come with a $50 price hike over the last generation. The company has also increased prices on some more expensive devices, adding $80 to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 (512 GB) and Z Fold 7 (512 GB and 1 TB). Some of its tablets are also more spendy, including a $100 increase for the Galaxy Tab S11.

With profitability in doubt, Samsung is on the verge of releasing new, ultra-expensive phones. This summer, the company will debut a new generation of Galaxy Z foldables, which are always priced even higher than the Galaxy S series. These devices come with ample storage and RAM to help justify the exorbitant price tags. That makes them prime candidates for price hikes that leave foldables even more unrealistically expensive.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/samsung-may-be-bracing-for-first-ever-annual-loss-in-smartphone-business/

Il 2026 verrà ricordato non solo come l’anno della maturità per l’Intelligenza Artificiale, ma anche come quello in cui il capitale ha deciso di sferrare un attacco frontale all’ossatura del mercato del lavoro e, di riflesso, alla tenuta degli Stati nazionali. Meta Platforms si appresta a tagliare circa 8.000 posti di lavoro, sfoltiendo il 10% della propria forza lavoro e congelando migliaia di posizioni aperte.

Non si tratta di un calo di fatturato, ma di una brutale e deliberata riallocazione delle risorse. In una nota interna, l’azienda ha giustificato la manovra con il vertiginoso aumento della spesa per l’IA, che quest’anno toccherà l’astronomica cifra di 135 miliardi di dollari.

L’obiettivo dichiarato da Mark Zuckerberg è chiaro: gli strumenti algoritmici renderanno i dipendenti talmente produttivi che un singolo individuo potrà svolgere le mansioni di interi team. Il risultato pratico? Il team viene esonerato, spesso dopo aver involontariamente addestrato l’IA che lo sostituirà, sempre che la mossa abbia successo.

Ma le ripercussioni di questo trend vanno ben oltre le mura di Menlo Park e investono direttamente il nostro contratto sociale.

Il buco nero fiscale del Welfare State

Dal punto di vista economico, l’entusiasmo della Silicon Valley si scontra con una realtà contabile ineludibile. Il sistema di welfare occidentale (sanità, istruzione, pensioni, infrastrutture) si regge quasi interamente sul prelievo fiscale derivante dai redditi da lavoro dipendente e dalle attività professionali. È il ceto medio – la classe impiegatizia, i quadri, i creativi, gli sviluppatori e i professionisti del terziario – a sorreggere il peso fiscale maggiore.

Se l’IA riduce in modo strutturale e potente questo bacino di contribuenti, si genera un cortocircuito. Sostituire il lavoro con il capitale aumenta i margini operativi delle Big Tech, ma genera una voragine nelle casse pubbliche:

• Mancato gettito IRPEF/Imposte sul reddito: Un algoritmo non paga le tasse sullo stipendio.

• Crollo dei contributi previdenziali: I server non versano quote per il sistema pensionistico.

• Elusione del capitale: Il capitale automatizzato produce enormi profitti, che le multinazionali ottimizzano sapientemente a livello fiscale, spostando la ricchezza in giurisdizioni a bassa tassazione e lasciando a bocca asciutta gli Stati dove i servizi vengono effettivamente consumati. Alla fine un computer può essere ovunque.

Il rischio di una tassa sui poveri

A questo punto, la domanda diventa pressante: chi pagherà le tasse nell’era dell’Intelligenza Artificiale? Se l’attuale paradigma non viene riformato, il rischio è che lo Stato, nel disperato tentativo di mantenere attivi i servizi pubblici, scarichi il peso fiscale su chi non può essere automatizzato o eludere le tasse.

Questo si traduce in due scenari altrettanto recessivi:

1. L’accanimento sui redditi bassi: La pressione fiscale si concentrerebbe sulle fasce di reddito più basse, legate a quei lavori fisici o di cura della persona (logistica, ristorazione, assistenza) che l’IA non può ancora sostituire.

2. L’esplosione delle imposte indirette: I governi potrebbero compensare il calo delle imposte sul reddito aumentando l’IVA e le accise. Essendo tasse sui consumi, colpiscono in modo regressivo i ceti meno abbienti, che spendono in consumi l’intera totalità del loro stipendio.

L’efficienza informatica è un prodigio contabile per i bilanci aziendali, ma un potenziale disastro per l’economia reale. Senza un ceto medio in grado di percepire un reddito, pagare le tasse e consumare beni, l’intero sistema rischia di implodere su se stesso.

Rimani aggiornato seguendoci su Google News!

SEGUICI

https://scenarieconomici.it/meta-lia-e-il-cortocircuito-fiscale-se-gli-algoritmi-azzerano-il-ceto-medio-chi-paghera-il-welfare/

Fans used AI to celebrate safe return

After nine days of searching, Neukgu was finally returned to the zoo, where he is now recovering outside the social media spotlight.

But his Internet fame lives on as a memecoin launched shortly after his escape. On the memecoin website, Neukgu is described as a “brave wolf” in search of “freedom,” becoming a “symbol of independence” that the token supposedly represents. He’s “the wolf that wouldn’t stay caged,” the website says, while encouraging fans to buy tokens.

Early on, the wolf was nearly captured after drone footage detected him on a mountain, but he escaped the perimeter rescue workers set up, The Guardian reported. Cops also felt hot on the trail after a driver shared footage showing Neukgu trotting alongside a mountain road. Eventually, the wolf was “found and tranquilized on a hill near an expressway,” The Guardian reported. The only sign he’d left the zoo was a small fishing hook that veterinarians removed from his stomach.

You can still review Neukgu’s entire journey, however, thanks to an adorable fan-created map that tracked reported sightings. The fake AI sighting seemingly isn’t included on the map, which, translated, is titled “where you going wolf.”

Fans mapped the runaway wolf’s movements.

An opinion piece in ChoSun.com, a local South Korean outlet, suggested that although an elementary school was briefly shut down, communities never considered Neukgu to be a threat. Rather, the wolf seemed like “a lost puppy.” One X post with 2.4 million views showed the wolf as a young pup and urged, “Look at this wolf’s face… What the hell is this guy gonna do with a face like that…”

And although police have arrested one man for making an AI image that allegedly hindered their search, many other Neukgu fans have turned to AI to make celebratory posts like the “where you going wolf” map, ChoSun.com reported. AI-generated images of “Neukgu’s Daejeon Marathon,” “Neukgu City Tour,” and “Neukgu Escape Route Tracking” have reportedly been widely shared.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/after-wolf-escaped-zoo-man-arrested-for-creating-fake-ai-sighting-for-fun/

“Through these contracts, Thales Alenia Space will call on the full sum of our expertise to expand our knowledge base and push back the frontiers of the cislunar exploration,” Massimo Claudio Comparini, a senior official, said in 2020 when the contracts were announced.

Ars reached out to Thales on Wednesday evening for a comment about the corrosion issues. We received no reply until Friday morning, when a spokesperson said, “We are working on a statement. We will come back to you early next week.”

Northrop Grumman provided a comment within several hours of a request on Wednesday.

The European Space Agency, which was overseeing European contributions to the Gateway, finally offered a comment on Friday. The agency attributed the issue to a “combination of factors,” including materials.

“Following the identification of corrosion on HALO, a comprehensive investigation was promptly initiated,” a European Space Agency spokesperson said. “Preliminary findings indicate that the issue likely results from a combination of factors, including aspects of the forging process, surface treatment, and material properties.”

After the issue was discovered, the European Space Agency established a “tiger team” to investigate. “Based on the investigation and available data, the corrosion issue was understood to be technically manageable and did not constitute a showstopper for I‑HAB, which was, in any case, in better conditions than HALO from [a] corrosion point of view,” the spokesperson said.

The I-HAB module remains under construction and has not yet been delivered to NASA. Its fate remains unclear as European space officials contemplate their participation in the Moon base initiative.

After publication of this story on Friday, Axiom Space confirmed that it has also experienced corrosion issues. In a statement, the company said: “Axiom Space has experienced a similar phenomenon with the first module; we are leveraging the expertise of NASA and Thales Alenia Space to address the issue. Module 1 is on track to launch in 2028.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/well-this-is-embarrassing-the-lunar-gateways-primary-modules-are-corroded/