The truth seekers conference, held at a hotel owned and frequented by President Donald Trump, is being organized by Charlie Ward, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist.

Air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 to switch runways when coming in to land. Black box recordings from the jet and the military helicopter it collided with will help reveal whether this contributed to the accident.

Three years after starting a club meant to fight social medias grip on young people, many original members are holding firm and gaining new converts.

MacworldMost tech buzzwords turn out to be short-lived fads. But cloud computing, an industry obsession long before AI and spatial computing grabbed the limelight, has quietly fulfilled its early promise to a degree that is becoming a problem for Apples bottom line.The idea of cloud computing is a simple one: Users offload data, apps, and processes from their devices and store them in the cloud, by which we simply mean a third partys servers. Provided you have access to a reliable internet connection, and trust the security and privacy credentials of your cloud provider, this makes life easier. Its easier to work across multiple devices, and the storage burden on each device becomes far lighter.The problem, as far as Apple is concerned, comes when customers become so accustomed to a lighter storage burden that they lower their hardware buying requirements.On Wednesday the analyst company Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) published a new report entitled Are iPhone Buyers Finally Ready to Rely on the Cloud? This found that premium iPhone customers are becoming less inclined to spend extra for additional storage.In the quarter ended December 2024, the proportion of top-end buyers (which means buyers of the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max) who paid for storage beyond the baseline allocation was 44 percent, down from 48 percent for the equivalent models in the equivalent quarter a year earlier. Likewise, storage upgrading among buyers of flagship models (the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, or 15 and 15 Plus the year before) fell from 48 percent to 42 percent.This might not sound like much, but those small percentages add up quickly, especially when charging extra for more storage has long been one of Apples most reliable revenue streams. A baseline (256GB, $1,199) iPhone 16 Pro Max has a big profit margin, but this pales in comparison with the 1TB, $1,599 model because storage components simply arent that expensivenot anywhere near. (Admittedly this is a huge simplification, but look for a 1TB SSD on Amazon and see if it costs you $400.) In hardware terms, storage upgrades are about as close to pure profit as it gets for Apple.The iPhone Pro Max has started at a hefty 256GB of storage for two years while the other models all have 128GB.Connor Jewiss / FoundryThis makes it a problem when customers offload more and more of their data to the cloudstreaming songs from Apple Music or Spotify, storing photos and videos in iCloudand there isnt the same need for a large storage allowance. The amount of storage Apple currently offers with its baseline iPhones is enough for most people, and thats costing the company money.Of course, an agile and forward-looking company can pivot to a certain extent and make money from this trend in other areas. Apple Music itself is a revenue driver, as is iCloud. Services is indeed a consistent growth area but then again, in Q4 2024 the entire Services department (which includes the App Store, AppleCare, and a lot of other things that arent related to cloud computing) brought in $25 billion in revenue, compared to the iPhones $46.2 billion. Its not really comparable.At the same time, the trend is not universal, and CIRP actually saw an increase in storage upgrades among buyers of the remaining legacy phones, which rose from 38 percent to 48 percent. Thats extra money coming in. Perhaps it can make up for the lost upgrades at the high end?Up to a point, and thats all. Its not surprising that legacy buyers are more inclined to pay for extra storage, partly because they start with less (the baseline is just 64GB for the iPhone SE) and partly because both the phones and the upgrades are cheaper. The baseline 64GB iPhone SE is currently $429, while the 256GB model is $579. Thats a maximum upsell of $150 on a device that starts with a far lower profit margin in the first place.Can we expect a 64GB iPhone 17 as Apple addresses this worrying trend? Probably not. I suspect that the cat is out of the bag as far as cloud computing is concerned, and costly storage upgrades may become a thing of the past, except for a smaller niche market that needs unusually large storage allocations for professional reasons. But this is bad news for Apple, and we shouldnt be surprised if prices start to creep up as the company looks to bolster its profit margins in other areas.

MacworldIf youve discovered that weird appointments and reminders are appearing in your iPhones Calendar app, you may be afraid that you have an iPhone Calendar virus, or that your iPhone Calendar has been hacked. Whats more likely is that you have been subscribed to a third-party calendar, which is generating annoying spam appointments.This kind of calendar is becoming prolific, with more and more cases, so you are most certainly not alone in seeing these annoying appointments appear on your iPhone in fact Macworld staff have also been affected by this irritating phenomenon.Thankfully, iPhone calendar spam is not dangerous and should be easy to get rid of. This isnt an iPhone Calendar Virus, but it certainly feels like one when a cluster of strange appointments appear on your iPhone. (If you are concerned that you have a virus read: How to remove a virus from an iPhone or iPad for advice.)Heres how to stop iPhone calendar spam on your iPhone and how to avoid falling foul of this sort of attack.Unfortunately, because Apples products are so interlinked, if you get spam in your iPhone calendar its inevitable that it will also turn up on all your other Apple devices. The tips here should help you deal with the Calendar spam on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and anywhere else.How the iPhone calendar virus got on your iPhoneThe usual route to your iPhone is through emails and text messages that include invites to events in the form of an .ics file. Even if you decline them, this can leave an opening for hackers to send more invites to your calendar, which can lead to disastrous consequences.Number-one rule: never click on any links or other active sections of the appointments. If you can, simply delete the event as normal, but the chances are youll need to unsubscribe from the calendar as well, which we cover in the next section.We received a message that came in via Messages via an iCloud address. Luckily we didnt open the message, but this is how it appeared and because the message went to the Messages app its on all our Apple products, which is a tad annoying!Others have received a DHL spam text asking them to track a parcel and providing a link. Of course, as soon as people click on the link they end up subscribing to a calendar that fills their iPhone with appointments for things like critical threats and other warnings.We have also heard from friends and family concerned about appointments alerting them to the need to protect their devices. For example, they might see a: Your iPhone might not be protected! Click to protect it! message. A link follows the message under no circumstances should you click on the link!What to do if you get iPhone Calendar spamThe best advice for any text or email like that is to treat it as you would phishing emails, which try to trick you into giving away personal data. Dont interact with the appointments in any way, other than to delete them.If the appointment arrived via a text in the Messages app to delete it you should swipe from right to left and choose Delete. Your iPhone may then offer to Report Junk, which we suggest you do.Then follow the next steps.How delete spam calendar events on iPhoneIf a load of appointments have suddenly arrived on your iPhone what can you do? How can you get rid of the iPhone calendar spam?One way is to follow these steps:Open the Apple Calendar app.Tap Calendars at the bottom of the page.Look for any that you dont recognise. Once youve located it, tap the red circle with an i inside to open up the information panel.Finally, scroll down to the bottom of the panel until you find the Delete Calendar option. Select this and hopefully that will put an end to the unwanted invites.If that doesnt fix the problem, move onto the next stepHow to stop calendar spam on iPhoneIf you continue to receive spam invites, then it could be that the troublesome calendar has a subscription set up on your iPhone. Removing this is simple.Open Settings.Select Calendar > Accounts.Look for the Subscribed Calendars option and tap it.Find any calendars that you dont want, then select them and tap the Delete Account option.This should be all you need to do to stop the rogue appointments and reminders from appearing on your calendar.For more ways to get organized, check out our guide to the best productivity apps.

Amazon's month-end MacBook Air sale delivers prices as low as $799 on models equipped with at least 16GB RAM.Grab a MacBook Air from $799 - Image credit: AppleApple's MacBook Air line is on sale this Thursday, with the M2 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage ringing in at $799 on Amazon thanks to a $200 instant rebate. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

A massive data leak from AI startup DeepSeek has raised alarms about the security of sensitive user data in the rapidly evolving AI industry.DeepSeek AICybersecurity researchers at Wiz recently found a major security lapse at DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup. The company, known for its DeepSeek-R1 AI model, had left a ClickHouse database exposed an oversight with serious consequences.Over a million log entries, containing chat history, secret keys, and backend details, were left unprotected in the exposed database. Worse, the database allowed full administrative control without authentication, making it a goldmine for potential attackers. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The arts funding organization United States Artists has awarded grants to five architects and designers as part of the 2025 United States Artists Fellowship. As with previous years, each fellow will receive a $50,000 grant to support their boundary-pushing work and contributions to their respective fields.The five fellows from the Architecture and Design category join recipients in eight other fields, namely Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theatre & Performance, Traditional & Visual Arts, and Writing. Since 2006, the organization has awarded more than $41 million to artists across the U.S.With this unrestricted grant, recipients are encouraged to use their award for any purpose, whether that be creating new work, paying rent, reducing debt, obtaining healthcare, or supporting their families, the organization added announcing the 2025 recipients.The 2025 Architecture and Design Fellows are as follows:

Get Lectured continues today with a look at whats in store for students at the Virginia Tech University School of Architecture in the Spring 2025 semester.The list includes Frank Weiner (January 30); Salazar Sequero Medina (February 6); Andrew Linn (February 13); Joseph Bedford (February 20); Lawrence Scarpa (February 23); and Shigeru Ban (February 27). Following them are Robert Becker (March 6); Hansy Better Barraza (March 20); and Preston Scott Cohen (March 27). SO ILs Kevin Lamyuktseung will close the semester on April 3, followed by the Blnd Design Keynote address on April 10.Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your poster and details toconnect@archinect.com.

While Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt has announced that he will be taking a sabbatical from working on the game, Arrowhead Game Studios itself wants to reassure fans that it can keep the title alive in the mean time.On the official Helldivers 2 Discord channel, studio CEO Shams Jorjani wanted to reassure fans of the game by saying that development on the title will continue as long as people play. He also said that work on the game wont stop even if it has to go on for 10 more years.As long as people play, pay and we can build a business case around it, well support it to hell and back, said Jorjani, according to GamesRadar. If we can keep it going for 10 years we will.Jorjani went on to talk about Pilestedts break from development, and how it wont do much to affect the pace of development on Helldivers 2 moving forward, since the title has been headed up by Mikael Eriksson for the last few years.The lead for the game is Mikael Eriksson and has been for the last few years, explained Jorjani. Johans role as a senior creative is to support all our projects. So hell absolutely still be involved in the same way hes been the past year gives input on high-level plans and collaborates with designers on some stuff. As Jorjani states, The vast majority of Helldivers is a team effort its not one Jesus figure.While Pilestedt was important in key creative areas of Helldivers and its sequel, Jorjani said that there were many others at the studio that helped in getting the game developed.The title doesnt seem to be in any danger of losing players, however. The game wrapped up its first calendar year by getting more than 15 million players. When it comes to hard sales data, it had sold 12 million copies back in May 2024.Pilestedt announced his sabbatical earlier this week, stating that he needed the break after having worked on the Helldivers franchise almost non-stop since 2013.11 years of working around the clock on the same IP has made me set aside family, friends and my lovely wife and myself, posted Pilestedt when he announced his sabbatical. I am going to take some time now to redeem what was lost from all of those that supported me for over a decade.Pilestedts sabbatical might involve a nice vacation, but he almost immediately kicked it off by hosting a game jam with his friends from the studio. While the game itself didnt turn out too great, Pilestedt did mention that the team enjoyed it, and that sometimes the journey itself is the destination.When it comes to Helldivers 2 itself, the title recently got an update that brought fixes for crashes related to Illuminate missions. This includes a fix for a crash related to Illuminate ships despawning, as well as jittering from players trying to use ADS with a scoped weapon.Helldivers 2 is available on PC and PS5. For more details on the title, check out our review from back when it first came out.