The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is an international membership association that represents more than 200 schools of architecture and 7,000 faculty around the world. Last month, as reported by AN, it canceled the Fall 2025 issue of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) themed on Palestine and fired its interim executive editor. The action resulted in the resignation of all 20 members of the JAE editorial board on March 10, shortly before the annual ACSA meeting. Its theme was Repair. Initial Steps Toward SolidarityWhile ACSA Executive Director Michael Monti and ACSA board leadership have framed the cancellation as the result of a reappraisal of the legal risks that have intensified with the reactionary political climate that arrived with the Trump administration, the conflict actually has a history as old as the latest round of the Israel-Palestine war.After Hamass attack on Jewish settlements on October 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and Israels subsequent bombing campaign and ground invasion that has killed more than 50,000 people, the majority of whom were civilians, thenJAE executive editor Nora Wendl, a professor at the University of New Mexico, began coordinating a statement of support for Palestine among the JAE editorial board. To her, it seemed appropriate and very much precedented: The previous year, ACSA had published a statement of support for Ukraine that called Russias invasion a blatant violation of sovereignty. She sent a draft to Monti and then-ACSA president Mo Zell. Their response was, This is so inappropriate, this is so offensive. What are you doing? Wendl recalled recently. (AN reached out to Monti about his reactions to this draft statement, along with nearly two dozen other questions. Monti did not answer the majority of these questions, including this one, but he did supply a timeline of events in the ACSA/JAE conflict.)ACSA leadership continued to push back on JAEs statement. If the word genocide was to be used, there would have to be a footnote and citation. The JAE had to prove it was a genocide, said Wendl. They kept picking apart the language, saying Its not apartheid, look what the ADL is saying! she said, referring to the Anti-Defamation League.Wendl was willing to comply. But more obstacles appeared. According to her, the JAE board was told they could publish a statement only if each individual board member was listed by name, and ACSA requested that the JAE board make it clear that the ACSA was not involved in the statement.The combination of identifying themselves individually without the institutional backing of ACSA made Wendl uncomfortable. She said she and her colleagues decided not to publish a statement under the auspices of ACSA and JAE. The experience informed JAEs board to bring the issue of Palestines geopolitical context and related built-environment ramifications into JAEs core function: scholarly publication. Lets do what we always do, Wendl said. Lets take it back to scholarship. Lets make a Palestine issue. I dont know that we would have been this aligned to do [this] issue if we hadnt gone through everything we went through trying to write that statement.This decision would break open a much wider fissure between the JAE and ACSA that has resulted in the resignation of ACSA board leadership and the exit of dues-paying member schools. For some, the conflict raises the question of the value and efficacy of this century-old professional association for contemporary architectural educators.A Call for Papers Sets Off a CrisisIn advance of a meeting between the ACSA board, the JAE board, and the Palestine issue theme editors in early September 2024, Monti and ACSA president Cathi Ho Schar shared the Palestine call for papers with Michael Zaretsky and Adrian Parr Zaretsky of the University of Oregon and Sharon Haar at the University of Michigan, before it had been made public. JAE board members, according to their resignation letter, said sharing the call beyond the bounds of the ACSAs leadership before it was published is a breach of ACSA bylaws and a violation of the peer review process.Billy Fleming, a former member of the JAE editorial board and an assistant professor at Temple University, who is Jewish, thought that Monti assembled this group to tell him what he wanted to do, which is to cancel this issue.To be discussed at the meeting last September was a list of sharply critical questions drafted by the ACSA and read aloud by Ho Schar, according to Cruz Garcia, a former member of the JAE editorial board and architecture professor at Iowa State University, who attended the meeting. The questions probed at the one-sided framing of conflict in the call for papers. There was concern that the call was rooted in a specific political framing. ACSA wanted to know why the JAE was not discussing other examples of genocide or settler-colonialism and asked if the call implied that Israel does not have a legitimate claim to its existence. Garcia felt the ACSA was looking for a false neutrality; an adherence to a journalistic model of discourse that was not relevant in an academic setting and would make it impossible for scholars to offer moral or ethical condemnation on anything.As discussed in an online town hall meeting in March, the JAE board felt that the ACSAs questions inappropriately sowed doubt about the journals scholarly integrity. Regardless, they moved forward and published the call in mid-September 2024. Its text has since been removed from the JAE website.The JAE board would later encounter similar talking points in a letter dated October 14, 2024. (AN has reviewed a copy of the letter.) It was signed by the educators ACSA leadership shared the call for papers withParr Zaretsky, Zaretsky, and Haaralong with Bijan Youssefzadeh, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. The letter criticized the call as deeply ideological and said ACSA had become a platform for hate speech. It asked ACSA and JAE to issue an apology and for JAE to retract the call for papers. Around that time, an open letter titled Architects United Against Anti-Semitism circulated, eventually gathering over 700 signatures, though many of the signatories are not identified as architects. The letter broadly aligns with popular interpretations of the Israel-Palestine war that center Hamas as a terror organization. (The call for papers did not mention Hamas.) The letter described the call for papers as an act of academic malpractice that was clearly aimed to glorify Hamas violence and demonize Israel under the pretense of scholarship. The letters text stridently objected to calling Israels actions genocide, a label the signatories feel is inappropriate because it requires the deliberate and systematic destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in part or in whole. There is a clear distinction between that and what is happening in Gaza today. This is because the State of Israel is fighting a defensive war against Hamas. Despite Hamas embedding itself in civilian populations to maximize casualties, Israel has managed to maintain an unprecedentedly low ratio of civilian deaths relative to enemy soldiers/terrorists when compared to other conflicts, the letter continues. This could not be possible if Israel were intent on committing genocide.The letter interpreted the call for papers itself as a prologue to genocide because of its criticism of Israel, declaring that the ASCA is one of many academic institutions getting swept up in the same type of behavior that preceded the Holocaust for over a decade in German intellectual society. If you ever wondered what you would have done if you were alive back in 1930s Germany, it will be how you will respond to this moment.The language of the JAE call was sharply decolonial and anti-Zionist. The text explicitly labeled Israeli military actions as genocide, a controversial stance that aligns with the viewpoints of international human rights organizations like the United Nations and Human Rights Watch.The goal for the Palestine issue was to reflect on the global reverberations and social, political, economic, and environmental implications of this historical juncture for design, research, and education in architecture, said Nora Akawi, a Palestinian architect and an assistant professor at Cooper Union, who commented on behalf of the issues four theme editors. (The three others were Nick Estes of the University of Minnesota, Zo Samudzi of Clark University, and Omar Jabary Salamanca of the Universit Libre de Bruxelles.) For more than a century, Palestine has been at the receiving end of imperial and zionist formations of racial capitalism, settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide. She continued, Our call invited contributions to consider and document architectural and spatial tools that participate in or are complicit in such formations. A Possible Shift in ACSA ViewpointsDespite past tensions, some editorial board members, like Ersela Kripa, a founding partner of AGENCY, felt that the Palestine call was consistent with ACSAs generally progressive view of architecture pedagogy. A few days after the call was published, the ACSA issued a joint statement opposing the prohibition on diversity, equity, and inclusion in design education. ACSA and three other design education professional associations jointly communicate our opposition to any legislation that prevents educators from teaching and sharing complete and accurate knowledge about the built environment for the purpose of shielding students from divisive or disagreeable content related to the impact of race and racism in America and global society, as well as other pedagogy related to gender and LGBTQ+ identities.According to Monti, this truce was interrupted by the new presidential administration in Washington. Shortly after President Trumps inauguration, thousands of harassing emails were sent to ACSA and JAE board members, condemning the call for papers. One subject line read: Eff The PaliNazis!!! Strong Condemnation of the JAEs Alarming, Politically Charged Call for Papers. Angry letters from the faculty of member schools also made their way to the ACSA. Some voices described how Jewish faculty and students have felt unsafe on college campuses recently.In February, the ACSA initiated a legal review of the call for papers, and on February 21, the ACSA board voted to stop the Palestine issue in the middle of the peer-review process, before they had seen any of its contents.As reported in AN, which broke the news of the Palestine issues cancellation: The ACSA board decided the risks from publishing the issue have significantly increased as a result of new actions by the U.S. presidential administration as well as other actions at state levels. These substantial risks include personal threats to journal editors, authors, and reviewers, as well as to ACSA volunteers and staff. They also include legal and financial risks facing the organization overall. Monti and Ho Schar have noted that the definitions of antisemitism embraced by the Trump administration and developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) appear overly vague and restrictive of free speech. However, these laws exist, and are being applied widely. As such, ACSAs legal counsel advises that the JAE Call for Papers would not withstand a legal claim due to the calls language.Considering his other clients, it might be hard to imagine ACSAs legal counsel coming to any other conclusion. Previously, ACSA was advised by Jeffrey P. Altman of the law firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. Altman is also listed as general counsel for The Republican Jewish Coalition, which on March 2 issued a press release praising President Trump for expediting $4 billion of military aid to Israel. The ACSA board was not informed of Altmans relationship to this conservative pro-Israel organization, according to Marcelo Lpez-Dinardi, an associate professor at Texas A&M, and former ACSA board member. Asked for comment about this, Monti and Ho Schar did not respond to emails.Four days later, on February 25, Monti and Ho Schar informed the University of Michigans McLain Clutter (who became Interim Executive Editor of the JAE after Wendl stepped down in August 2024) of the ACSA boards decision. Clutter refused to work with the ACSA on a replacement issue and was fired on February 28. That same day, ACSA informed faculty conciliators and university administrators that they had stopped publication of the Palestine issue before reaching out to JAE board members, which Ho Schar would later apologize for in the annual ACSA business meeting, held on March 5.Further, Monti and Ho Schar, on behalf of the ACSA board, told AN that we regret that the decision to halt JAE 79.2 has caused members to question our values and intentions. We have started work to repair trust and relationships in the organization. Monti and Ho Schar also shared that ACSA learned that in two states, which include 12 colleges with architecture programs, presidents at member universities and governors were being urged to restrict the use of state funds for ACSA membership dues because of the Palestine JAE issue. They feared that, in states with IHRA antisemitism statutes, joining ACSA could be deemed illegal due to the call for papers. In their estimation, up to 87 of 132 U.S. member schools are potentially exposed and vulnerable.On March 3, the JAE editorial board sent a letter to ACSA demanding the reinstatement of Clutter and the reversal of the decision to terminate the Palestine issue. They criticized the decision as an attack on academic freedom, intellectual integrity, and ethical scholarship. The next day, they released an open letter that eventually garnered the signatures of 1,500 architectural educators, echoing their demands. The membership of our field is appalled by this, said Fleming.That was the last time the JAE editors attempted to work within the ACSA to resolve this rift. In a letter dated March 10, all members of the board announced their resignation. Three days later, the JAE board, now in exile, held a town hall meeting to lay out their timeline of events and discuss finding an alternative publisher for the Palestine issue.Resignations and a CancellationThe ACSAs own board has not been insulated from this wave of resignations. Due to the ACSAs handling of the Palestine issue, Lpez-Dinardi, the ACSA board member, resigned on March 16. Another board member, Vivian Lee, associate professor at the University of Toronto, also resigned, and Jos Ibarra, assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver, who was to begin an ACSA board term, withdrewhis acceptanceof this board position.Ive tried my part, [from] within, to develop a dialogue that I thought was needed, Lpez-Dinardi said. He did not vote to cancel the Palestine issue.At least one school, Portland State University (PSU), has declined to renew its ACSA membership, in part because of the canceled Palestine issue. The architecture schools director Juan Manuel Heredia put the issue to a faculty vote and the result was unanimous, he said. Heredia called the decision a pragmatic one made in the context of budget cut austerity. It seems like we can use the funds that we pay ACSA for other purposes that could benefit the school more directly, he said. While PSU faculty have benefitted from ACSA publications, Heredia said the abrupt cancellation of an issue of its flagship journal calls into question their commitment to academic freedom and scholarly publication. (ACSA also publishes a second journal, TAD, that focuses on technology, architecture, and design. Four members of its editorial board also recently resigned.) This issueand not any broader political alignment among facultyis what prompted their unified objection. I dont think everyone is on the same [page] politically speaking, but everyone is on the same [page] in terms of this type of attempt at curtailing academic freedom, Heredia said.Much of ACSAs public programming has been broadly progressive, and supportive of a wide range of social justice or DEI initiatives, leaving ACSA and JAE board members wondering why this critically framed analysis of Palestine became such a red line. I couldnt see how we could support these other initiatives but not that one in particular, said Lpez-Dinardi.For instance, the ACSA Faculty Fellowship to Advance Equity in Architecture was established to support academics from marginalized backgrounds working in non-tenure-tracked positions. Recent examples of the ACSA research series Where Are My People have highlighted the experiences of LGBTQ+ architects and educators. A previous issue of the JAE was focused on reparations. Clutter, the former interim executive editor, sees a clear double-standard, he said. Whether [theres] a line or no line, to me its equally damning for the decision-making of the ACSA. Either theyre making decisions based on a racist double standard, or theyve proven themselves completely flaccid in the face of encroaching fascism.It feels to me as a Muslim scholar that some of the last truly acceptable forms of racism these days are Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, said former JAE editorial board member Ozayr Saloojee, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.Clutter hopes the rupture with ACSA can be fixed, but he said its likely not possible with Monti as executive director, a role he has held for 21 years. I hope that this rift creates deep, structural reforms in ACSA, he said. Its really hard to remake these kinds of organizations with decades-long history, [] so it would be a terrible shame if this actually initiates the complete downfall of ACSA.For now, the former JAE editorial board members are focusing on a publishing and scholarship future beyond ACSA, according to Fleming. During ASCAs annual meeting in New Orleans, held on March 2022, JAE board members worked with Dark Matter U on counterprogramming aimed at establishing a new academic research and professional organization thats actually capable of serving architectural education in the 21st century, which I do not think the ACSA is capable of doing any longer, said Fleming. Coming out of the New Orleans conference, these critiques have pushed ACSA to respond to membership that is unhappy with their decision to cancel the Palestine issue. On March 27, ACSA leadership sent an update to members notifying them that the organization would ask an independent consultant or task force to review the decisions, processes, and structures that led up to the initial call for papers and the subsequent cancellation.Canceling the Palestine issue sends a clear signal, Fleming said, to members that when any kind of stated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, or justice has any challenge, [] the ACSA is willing to walk away from these commitments. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essentially slogans to them, not material commitments. I dont think its beyond the scope of reason to believe that in the not-so-distant future, that things like climate research might be censored or have restrictions put on [them], said Clutter. People are going to wonder whether or not venues like the ACSA will be a reliable platform and advocate for that kind of research. He wondered, When and will ACSA be the kind of member organization that stands up for the freedom of its members?In a moment when an Indian doctoral candidate in urban planning at Columbia GSAPP has fled to Canada to avoid ICE and the Trump administration is demanding that Columbia Universitys Middle Eastern Studies program be put under receivership, the fragility of First Amendment rights doesnt seem like abstract quandary. Wendl said that canceling the Palestine issue could prompt higher education administrators to say, This is a topic we dont touch. This professional association said its verboten, so you dont talk about this, you dont write about this, you dont protest about this. I think that is really, really dangerous.A too-complicit academy is profoundly terrifying, said Saloojee. We are absolutely at a moment of reckoning.Zach Mortice is a Chicago-based design journalist and critic focused on architecture and landscape architectures relationship to public policy.

The disorienting effects of technology are on full display in the chaotic, action-packed music video for Corridors Jump Cut. Cut-paper collage, archival footage, and rapid, glitched movements dominate the energetic track and visualize the unending frenzy of contemporary life. The brilliant direction and design is by Winston Hacking, with Philippe Tardif on animation.Watch the full video below, and find more from Hacking on Vimeo.Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article A Music Video for Corridor Is a Frenetic Collage of Our Disordered Attention appeared first on Colossal.

Marking the company's 50th anniversary, Microsoft's AI companion just got a lot smarter. Even free users can enjoy these.

The Tesla Model 3 Performance is the vehicle most likely to escape the brunt of President Trump's ... More tariffs, containing an estimated 87.5% domestic content.TeslaIf theres one thing thats for certain about President Trumps twisted labyrinth of international trade tariffs, its that U.S. consumers will pay more in the months ahead for a new car, truck or SUV.As it stands so far, a 25% tariff on all cars and light-duty trucks imported into the U.S., along with major components like engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components went into effect on April 2. While that was 24 hours too late to be considered an April Fools Day prank, its still going to feel like slipping on a banana peel for new vehicle buyers, though some will likely suffer more than others.At one time it used to be crystal clear that a vehicle coming from either of the Big Three Detroit automakers would be considered 100% American, while those being brought here from Europe or Japan (and later South Korea) would fall cleanly into the import category. However, the lines between the two distinctions have blurred considerably in recent decades.Import brands including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Subaru, Hyundai, Merecedes-Benz, and BMW now build hundreds of thousands of vehicles in America-based factories. Conversely, some models from the domestic brands are assembled in Canada and Mexico, or are imported directly from South Korea, Italy or China. Sources suggest around 46% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. last year were built elsewhere in the world.And thanks to globalization, even the most American cars and trucks contain some measure of imported content. Reports say that most cars built in the U.S contain 40% to 50% or more import-sourced parts and materials.Parsing out the math on each model coming off a U.S. assembly line to determine the exact tariff to be applied can be a daunting challenge. Its made head-achingly complicated in that major components and the vehicles themselves often crisscross borders multiple times on the way to their final assembly and ultimately dealers showrooms These would most likely pile on the tariff charges in the process, perhaps to ridiculously high amounts. Plus, the exact percentage of imported content on a given model might vary from one trim level to another, or may depend on which options are included.Also, its unsure how much of a given models tariffs will be passed on directly to consumers or will be absorbed by the automakers as part of the cost of doing business, either as per-model price increases or additional tariff charges noted on their Monroney stickers. Some analysts predict the average new-vehicles sticker price could well swell from around $5,000 to as much as $15,000 when all is said and done.As it stands, such price increases may take some weeks, and perhaps months to fully surface, depending on the breadth of vehicles and parts already in the supply chain (and theres always the possibility Trump will change course on imported cars and other goods in one direction or the other in the coming weeks and months). Astute car shoppers will want to know before setting foot on a showroom floor which models will inherently carry less of a tariff penalty than others. Already Ford has started a From America, For America ad campaign that highlights its most-American models.Since determining which vehicles for sale are more domestically contented than others can be a daunting challenge, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires automakers to provide consumers with data regarding the country of origin of every vehicle (and their components) sold in the U.S. The estimated percentage of North American parts used, where the vehicle is assembled and countries of origin for the engine and transmission is noted on each new vehicles so-called Monroney sticker.Rather than having to visit one showroom after another to gather this information, American Universitys Kogod School of Business compiles its annual Made in America Auto Index to determine which current new vehicles contribute the most to the U.S. economy.In addition to where a car or truck is assembled and the origin of the engine, transmission, body, interior, chassis, electrical and other components, the study accounts for where research and development was conducted and in which country the profits generated by each model ultimately wind up. Unfortunately, since the index is based in part on the aforementioned information compiled and issued by NHTSA, its not 100% accurate with regard to assembly and component content coming from Canada, as the agency treats both U.S. and Canadian (but not Mexican) assembly and content as being North American, and therefore domestic in origin.Trumps pal and DOGE advisor Elon Musk stands to come out the most ahead in the tariff wars, as Tesla leads the industry with an average 81% domestic content, placing five of its models atop the current index. While one tends to think of pickup trucks being all-American vehicles, the highest rated model in the genre is the Honda Ridgeline, being tied for ninth place and sitting way higher than the industrys top-selling F-150 truck (at number 22) in Kogods current index.The Most American Cars, Trucks And SUVsThese are the models the current Made in America Auto Index says are most likely to be slapped with the lowest tariffs moving forward, with their estimated percentages of domestic content noted:1. Tesla Model 3 Performance (87.5%)2. Tesla Model Y (85.0%)3. Tesla Cybertruck (82.5%)4. Tesla Model S (80.0%)4. Tesla Model X (80.0%)4. Ford Mustang GT (80.0%)5. Honda Passport (76.5%)6. Jeep Wrangler (76.0%)7. Volkswagen ID.4 AWD (75.5%)7. Chevrolet Colorado (75.5%)7. GMC Canyon (75.5%)8. Volkswagen ID.4 RWD (74.5%)9. Honda Odyssey (74.0%)9. Honda Ridgeline (74.0%)9. Honda Pilot (74.0%)10. Lincoln Corsair (73.5%)11. Lucid Air (73.0%)11. Mustang GT w/manual trans (73.0%)12. Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (72.5%)13. Lexus TX 350 (71.5%)13. Acura RDX (71.5%)13. Honda Accord (71.5%)13. Acura TLX (71.5%)13. Acura Integra A-Spec (71.5%)14. Tesla Model 3 RWD (70.0%)14. Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray (70%)15. Chevrolet Malibu (69.5%)15. Cadillac XT4 (69.5%)16. Kia K5 (69.0%)16. Kia Sorento (69.0%)16. Honda CR-V (69.0%)16. Honda Civic (69.0%)16. Acura Integra (69.0%)16. Cadillac CT5 (69.0%)16. Cadillac CT4 (69.0%)17. Chevrolet Tahoe 4WD Diesel (68.5%)17. Cadillac Escalade (68.5%)17. Chevrolet Suburban 4WD Premier (68.5%)17. GMC Yukon 4WD Denali (68.5%)17. Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab 4WD Diesel (68.5%)18. GMC Hummer EV (68.0%) 19. Tesla Model 3 Long Range (67.5%)20. Toyota Camry (67%)Source: American University's Kogod School of Business Made in America Auto Index.The full list of cars can be found here.

A Microsoft employee interrupted the company's 50th-anniversary celebration to protest its artificial intelligence initiatives, accusing the company of complicity in war crimes. The disruption occurred during an address by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman when software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad stood up and directly confronted him."Shame on you," Aboussad declared. "You are a war profiteer. Stop using AI for genocide in our region, Mustafa. You have blood on your hands."Suleyman maintained his composure, repeatedly saying, "Thank you. I hear your protest. Thank you."Aboussad continued her rant even as security escorted her from the venue. However, being ejected from the event did not end her rally. Sources within Microsoft told The Verge that she later sent a company-wide email to hundreds, possibly thousands, of employees, explaining her actions and condemning the company's involvement in Israel's military operations.View this post on InstagramA post shared by The Verge (@verge) // Related StoriesIn her email, Aboussad, a Microsoft engineer for over three years, said she could not stay silent after learning her work contributed to what she called the "genocide" of Palestinians. She accused Microsoft of suppressing internal dissent and fostering a hostile environment for Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim employees."For the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim community at Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed, with impunity," she wrote. "Speaking up at best fell on deaf ears, and at worst, led to the firing of two employees for simply holding a vigil."Aboussad cited reporting by the Associated Press regarding a $133 million contract with Israel's Ministry of Defense, which she said enables mass data collection and intelligence gathering. According to the report, Israeli military use of Microsoft AI services spiked in early 2024, with stored data doubling within months. She claims that Israel uses this data for mass surveillance, transcription of intercepted messages, and aiding in military strikes. Aboussad contends that Microsoft's AI technology makes attacks more lethal and destructive.Aboussad urged coworkers to sign the "No Azure for Apartheid" petition demanding leadership sever ties with the Israeli military. She referenced Microsoft's past decision to drop contracts with AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition company, after employee and community protests.Her demonstration comes amid broader unrest within the tech sector. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have all faced employee backlash over military and government contracts, especially surrounding Project Nimbus, which provides cloud services to the Israeli government.Microsoft has not commented publicly on the protest. It has previously stated it adheres to ethical guidelines in its AI work. Whether this incident will lead to internal policy changes remains uncertain.Image credit: Steve Jurvetson

We all know that Samsung makes some of the best TVs on the market in 2025, but the company also produces exceptional soundbars. Available in several shapes and sizes, one of Samsungs midrange models is actually on sale today:For a limited time, when you purchase the Samsung HW-S800D 3.1.2ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar at Amazon, Best Buy, Samsung, and a few other sites and stores, youll only pay $628. The full MSRP on this model is $898.The Samsung S800D is a great soundbar choice for those seeking an immersive audio experience when watching movies and shows and playing video games. The 3.1.2 configuration means the bar has up-firing drivers for firing sound up toward the ceiling, at which point the waves descend to your ears as height effects. This is exactly what the Dolby Atmos audio format is designed for. Just be sure to have the S800D connected via HDMI eARC for the best virtualization possible.RelatedBoasting Samsungs Ultra Slim moniker, the S800D is sleek enough to fit in unobtrusively with most TVs and home decor. It even looks great wall-mounted below a TV, especially any Samsung set released in the last five years or so. Once set up, youll also be able to use the Spacefit Sound Pro feature to calibrate the bar to deliver the best audio based on the unique acoustics of your listening space.Other awesome features include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, with the latter function allowing you to use Alexa or Google Assistant to stream music, search the web, and even control smart home devices.Save $270 when you purchase the Samsung HW-S800D 3.1.2ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar today, and be sure to take a look at our lists of the best soundbar deals, best Samsung TV deals, and best Samsung deals for even more discounts on top Samsung tech!Editors Recommendations

F. Scott Fitzgeralds classic novel is a slender epic of wealth and society, brilliantly depicting the ambitions and illusions of a mysterious self-made man.

HIGHLY RESILIENT C2S NSA warns fast flux threatens national security. What is fast flux anyway? Used by nation-states and crime groups, fast flux bypasses many common defenses. Dan Goodin Apr 4, 2025 4:17 pm | 3 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA technique that hostile nation-states and financially motivated ransomware groups are using to hide their operations poses a threat to critical infrastructure and national security, the National Security Agency has warned.The technique is known as fast flux. It allows decentralized networks operated by threat actors to hide their infrastructure and survive takedown attempts that would otherwise succeed. Fast flux works by cycling through a range of IP addresses and domain names that these botnets use to connect to the Internet. In some cases, IPs and domain names change every day or two; in other cases, they change almost hourly. The constant flux complicates the task of isolating the true origin of the infrastructure. It also provides redundancy. By the time defenders block one address or domain, new ones have already been assigned.A significant threatThis technique poses a significant threat to national security, enabling malicious cyber actors to consistently evade detection, the NSA, FBI, and their counterparts from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand warned Thursday. Malicious cyber actors, including cybercriminals and nation-state actors, use fast flux to obfuscate the locations of malicious servers by rapidly changing Domain Name System (DNS) records. Additionally, they can create resilient, highly available command and control (C2) infrastructure, concealing their subsequent malicious operations.A key means for achieving this is the use of Wildcard DNS records. These records define zones within the Domain Name System, which map domains to IP addresses. The wildcards cause DNS lookups for subdomains that do not exist, specifically by tying MX (mail exchange) records used to designate mail servers. The result is the assignment of an attacker IP to a subdomain such as malicious.example.com, even though it doesnt exist.Fast flux comes in two variations. Single flux creates DNS A records or AAAA records to map a single domain to many IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, respectively. Heres a diagram illustrating the structure.Double flux provides an additional layer of obfuscation and resiliency by, in addition to changing IP addresses, cycling through the DNS name servers used in domain lookups. Defenders have observed double flux using both Name Server (NS) and Canonical Name (CNAME) DNS records. Heres an illustration of the technique.Both techniques leverage a large number of compromised hosts, usually as a botnet from across the Internet that acts as proxies or relay points, making it difficult for network defenders to identify the malicious traffic and block or perform legal enforcement takedowns of the malicious infrastructure, Thursdays advisory explained. Examples of fast flux use in the wild include:So-called bulletproof hosting serviceswhich offer hardened Internet hosting services to crime-based groupsthat provide fast flux as a means of differentiating themselves from competitorsRansomware attacks from groups such as Hive and NefilimUse of the technique by a Kremlin-backed actor known as GamaredonThe advisory provides several defenses organizations of all sizes should employ to detect and block fast flux networks.Dan GoodinSenior Security EditorDan GoodinSenior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 3 Comments

The US anti-vaccine movement is now firmly embedded in the highest levels of government, where those overseeing public health agencies are making drastic cuts both wide and deep

An Amazon warehouse Luis Alvarez/Getty Images 2025-04-04T20:34:19Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Amazon faces uncertainty as tariffs disrupt forecasting and supply chain operations.Amazon's suppliers and sellers say there has been very little guidance.Amazon's stock was among the hardest hit on Thursday following Trump's tariff announcement.The tariff mayhem is throwing Amazon into uncertain territory.Forecasting, for example, has become nearly impossible for some teams. One of Amazon's largest supply chain units recently warned about the challenges of making its second-quarter projections due to tariffs, according to an internal email obtained by Business Insider.The "volatility and uncertainty" from the new round of tariffs were simply too high to derive any meaningful numbers, the email said.Amazon employees, alongside suppliers and sellers, are scrambling for answers as President Donald Trump's whipsaw trade policy roils the country's largest e-commerce retailer. On Thursday, Amazon was among the hardest-hit stocks when roughly $2.5 trillion was wiped out of the S&P500 Index over Trump's aggressive tariff plan.Amazon has given little guidance or financial flexibility so far, according to multiple employees, suppliers, and sellers, who mostly spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. Tension is intensifying as concerns of a prolonged trade war and potential recession loom.Amazon's spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.'Large risk'The same email from Amazon's supply chain team said that the near-term impact of tariffs will ultimately be captured and reflected in a later forecast. But the exposure to tariffs and a global trade war is "a large risk" that can set back Amazon's retail business going forward, it added.Some Amazon employees have been in direct contact with its suppliers, commonly known as first-party vendors. These companies sell their products wholesale to Amazon, which then resells them to shoppers.These vendors said Amazon isn't willing to pay more for their products, even if the tariffs would increase the suppliers' costs. According to a March email seen by BI, an Amazon employee encourages vendors to seek further cost savings from their own manufacturers or through government subsidies."We understand the challenges posed by the current economic and trade environment," the email said. "However, we believe there are alternatives to direct cost increases that haven't been fully explored." Amazon CEO Andy Jassy F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI Some vendors told BI that Amazon also seeks "margin agreements" that guarantee the same margin after a vendor increases its prices. That way, Amazon would maintain its profit margins from its suppliers, even if it buys the products at a higher price.In some cases, Amazon is pausing shipment orders from vendors to monitor the market. One shipping company recently told a vendor that "as per Amazon's request," it was holding the pick-up schedule of inventory to "mitigate the impact" of tariffs, according to an email seen by BI.Alan Adams, president of Navazon, a vendor software company, told BI that tariff discussions with Amazon employees have been ongoing for months. He said both Amazon and the suppliers are pursuing ways to adapt to the new market conditions, but the constant policy changes make finding a long-term solution difficult."We are all in a wait-and-see mode with a tremendous amount of uncertainty across different categories," Adams said.Raising pricesTrump imposed sweeping tariff increases on most countries this week. The changes are expected to increase prices across a variety of goods.Truist Securities' Youssef Squali said the tariffs will likely have an adverse effect on e-commerce companies, including Amazon. Import costs will likely eat into their margins, though it will still take time to fully measure their impact on each individual company, he wrote in a note Friday. Amazon's stock is down roughly 10% from Wednesday.Third-party merchants who sell on Amazon told BI they will likely have to raise their prices due to the tariffs.Charles Chakkalo, founder of JoeyzShopping, who sells home and kitchen items, said he anticipates over 50% tariffs on his products. To counter, he will have to raise prices, while leveraging his unit volume to lower manufacturing costs.Oscar Babarin, managing director of marketing agency Hawke Media, said a number of his clients are feeling the impact deeply. Some of them are scaling back their business, while others are more aggressively pursuing market share, he said.However, some sellers, are excited about the elimination of the de minimis exemption that allowed tax-free shipments of Chinese imports valued at less than $800, according to Oliver Scutt, board member of Merchant AI. Those sellers expect less competition from Temu and Shein following the change, he said.Still, most sellers and vendors said they feel helpless against the complexity of trade policies. On Thursday, as the market plunged, one supplier emailed an Amazon manager to ask for additional guidance, only to receive very little support."Rest assured, we are looking into it," the Amazon manager said.Do you work at Amazon? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; .Recommended video