China fines Alibaba $2.8 billion after antitrust investigation

Photo by Fang Dongxu/VCG via Getty Images China has hit Alibaba, one of the country’s biggest online retailers, with a record $2.8 billion (18.2 billion yuan) fine, after an investigation found the ecommerce giant violated China’s anti-monopoly law, The New York Times reported. The fine, which represents 4 percent of Alibaba’s 2019 domestic...

4h

Lawsuit against Amazon alleging it failed to protect workers from COVID-19 moved back to NY state court

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images A federal judge has granted the New York attorney general’s request to move a lawsuit against Amazon back to New York state court, Reuters reported. AG Letitia James’ lawsuit alleges that the ecommerce giant failed to protect workers at its Brooklyn and Staten Island warehouses from COVID-19 during the...

6h

First flight test for NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter pushed to Wednesday

NASA engineers have decided to delay the Ingenuity helicopter’s debut flight on Mars to at least Wednesday, April 14th, after running into a minor computer glitch during a rotor spin test late Friday night, the agency said on Saturday. The tiny craft is healthy, but engineers need some more time to review telemetry data from the unexpected hiccup before...

8h

Facebook spent $23 million for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s security in 2020

Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images A new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Facebook spent more than $23 million last year on security for CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook’s annual reviews of company security “identified specific threats to Mr. Zuckerberg,” according to a proxy statement filed Friday....

8h

The team behind Age of Empires IV wants you to learn history while playing the game

Image: Microsoft Age of Empires games have always taken place against a historical backdrop, but Microsoft and Relic Entertainment want to take things even further with Age of Empires IV. The game will feature narrated documentaries throughout the campaigns, time period-accurate language and music, as well as art and game design that looks...

8h

Everything we learned about Age of Empires IV’s new civilizations, campaigns, and wololos

We haven’t heard much about Age of Empires IV since it was announced in 2017, but we’ve finally been given a look at the game, which includes the Mongols and Delhi Sultanate as playable civilizations. Microsoft and developer Relic Entertainment showed off a healthy amount of gameplay footage as well as new features and civilizations coming to the series...

9h

Unionizing Amazon warehouses was never going to be easy

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images For more than a year, a group of workers in Bessemer, Alabama have campaigned to unionize their warehouse under the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), hoping to force the retail giant to collectively bargain with its warehouse workers for the first time. On Friday, those hopes...

10h

The week in NFTs, ranked

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s another day in 2021, and so of course it’s another day where someone, somewhere is launching an NFT in hopes of making a ton of easy money. This week’s NFT launches were headlined by some big names — M.I.A., Tfue, Spike Jonze — and collectively posed the question: can you still, nearly a month...

10h

For many, COVID-19 vaccines come with a side of side effects

Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Getting a COVID-19 vaccine comes with a lot of benefits. There’s the protection against a world-altering virus, the ability to travel more safely, and hanging out in people’s houses again. There are also doughnuts. But there’s also a pretty good chance that a vaccine will be accompanied by...

11h

Check, Please is the feel-good queer hockey / baking comic you didn’t know you needed

Image: Ngozi Ukazu 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. Comics can be pretty depressing these days. Existential...

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