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Not the best of days Rocket Report: Starship fails for a second time; whats to blame for Vulcan delays? "During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly." Eric Berger Mar 7, 2025 7:00 am | 33 The first commercial flight of Ariane 6, operated by Arianespace, lifts off on Thursday. Credit: Arianespace The first commercial flight of Ariane 6, operated by Arianespace, lifts off on Thursday. Credit: Arianespace Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWelcome to Edition 7.34 of the Rocket Report! What a day in space Thursday was. During the morning hours we saw the triumphant second flight of the Ariane 6 rocket, a pivotal moment for European sovereignty in space. Then Intuitive Machines had a partially successful landing on the Moon. And finally, on Thursday evening, SpaceX's Starship failed during its second consecutive test flight.As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.Firefly sets date for next Alpha launch. Having completed a static-fire test, Firefly Aerospace has set a target date of March 15 for the launch of its "Message in a Booster" mission. The Alpha rocket will launch Lockheed Martins LM 400 spacecraft from Vandenberg Space Force Base, with the 52-minute launch window opening at 6:25 am PT (14:25 UTC). Lockheed is self-funding the demonstration mission of its new satellite bus, the LM 400, which it says can serve civil, military, and commercial customers.A slow build ... This is Alpha's second launch for Lockheed Martin, and the first of Firefly's multi-launch agreement with the company that includes up to 25 missions over the next five years. Alpha is capable of lifting 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit, and this will be the rocket's sixth launch since its debut in September 2021. The company has recorded one failure, two partial failures, and two successes during the time. It's been a slow ramp up for Alpha, with the rocket having launched just a single time in 2024, in July.Isar Aerospace wins Asian launch contract. A Japanese microgravity services startup named ElevationSpace has become the first Asian customer for Germanys Isar Aerospace, Space News reports. ElevationSpace said Monday it has booked a launch during the second half of 2026 with Isar Aerospace for AOBA, a 200-kilogram spacecraft designed to test a recoverable platform for space-based experiments and manufacturing. This is a hopeful sign that European startups will have commercial appeal beyond the continent.Spectrum rocket nearing debut launch ... The Japanese firm cited Isar Aerospaces direct injection capability into low Earth orbit and flexible launch scheduling as key factors in its decision to sign the contract. Isar Aerospace said last month that Spectrum, designed to deliver up to 1,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit, has completed static-fire testing and is prepared for its first flight from Andya Spaceport in northern Norway, pending final regulatory approval. The Ars Technica Rocket Report The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's and Stephen Clark's reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We'll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox.Sign Me Up!A small launch site in French Guiana. The French space agency, CNES, has opened a public consultation period for the new multi-user micro-launcher facility at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, European Spaceflight reports. Last month, the first of four public consultation sessions into the construction of the new Multi-Launcher Launch Complex at the Guiana Space Centre was held at Kourou Town Hall. In March 2021, CNES announced plans to transform the old Diamant launch site into a new multi-use facility for commercial micro-launcher providers, supporting rockets with payloads of up to 1,500 kilograms.Lots of potential users ... The final mission launched from the Guiana Space Centres Diamant facility lifted off in 1976, after which it was abandoned and left to be reclaimed by the jungle. In 2019, the site was earmarked for revitalization to serve as a testing ground for the Callisto and Themis reusable rocket booster demonstrators. This testing was, however, always going to serve as a temporary justification for the launch facilitys rebirth. In July 2022, CNES pre-selected Avio, HyImpulse, Isar Aerospace, MaiaSpace, PLD Space, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and Latitude to use the facility. However, MaiaSpace has since allocated the Guiana Space Centres old Soyuz launch pad for its partially reusable Maia rocket.Firefly nets Earth science launch contract. Amid its successful lunar landing, forthcoming Alpha launch, and a new launch contract, Firefly is having one heck of a week. NASA revealed this week that it has selected Firefly Aerospace to launch a trio of Earth science smallsats that will study the formation of storms, Space News reports. The agency said March 4 that it awarded a task order through its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract to Firefly to launch the three-satellite Investigation of Convective Updrafts mission.Hello, Virginia ... NASA did not disclose the value of the task order, a practice it has followed on other VADR awards. The three satellites will launch on a Firefly Alpha rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA did not disclose a launch date in its announcement, but Firefly, in its own statement, said the launch would take place as soon as 2026. Firefly said it will launch the mission from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, which has been used by Northrop Grummans Antares rocket and will also be used by Alpha and the future MLV rocket.Ariane 6 delivers for Europe when it is needed. Europe's Ariane 6 rocket lifted off Thursday from French Guiana and deployed a high-resolution reconnaissance satellite into orbit for the French military, notching a success on its first operational flight. "This is an absolute pleasure for me today to announce that Ariane 6 has successfully placed into orbit the CSO-3 satellite," said David Cavaillols, who took over in January as CEO of Arianespace, the Ariane 6's commercial operator. "Today, here in Kourou, we can say that thanks to Ariane 6, Europe and France have their own autonomous access to space back, and this is great news."Can no longer rely on US rockets ... This was the second flight of Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket, following a mostly successful debut launch last July. The first test flight of the unproven Ariane 6 carried a batch of small, relatively inexpensive satellites. An auxiliary propulsion unit (APU)essentially a miniature second engineon the upper stage shut down in the latter portion of the inaugural Ariane 6 flight, after the rocket reached orbit and released some of its payloads. Philippe Baptiste, France's minister for research and higher education, says Ariane 6 is "proof of our space sovereignty," as many European officials feel they can no longer rely on the United States.US launch facilities are not prepared for a surge. Rocket firm executives warned this week that the nations primary launch facilities may soon be unable to handle the projected surge in rocket launches, potentially hampering Americas competitiveness in the rapidly expanding commercial space sector, Space News reports. "I dont think that people realize how many rockets are going to be launching five or eight years from now," Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, said at the Air & Space Forces Associations Warfare Conference in Aurora, Colorado.Support needed for multiple daily launches ... Limps concerns were echoed by executives from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance during a panel discussion, where all three agreed that the industry must collectively prepare for a future where multiple daily launches become the norm. Jon Edwards, SpaceXs vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, highlighted that even at Cape Canaveral, the busiest US spaceport, current protocols dont allow simultaneous launches by different providers.Falcon 9 first stage fails to land safely. After what appeared to be a routine Starlink mission on Sunday, a Falcon 9 first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly after the landing, however, a fire broke out in the aft end of the rocket. This damaged a landing leg and caused the rocket to topple over. Florida Today has video of the badly damaged rocket returning to Port Canaveral.Space remains hard ... The Starlink satellites safely reached orbit, so this did not impact the primary mission. However, Falcon 9 landings have become so seemingly routine, such a failure now stands out. This booster was relatively new, having launched three Starlink missions, GOES-U, and Maxar 3. It was only the first-stage booster's fifth flight. To date, SpaceX has successfully flown a single booster 26 times.India begins construction of a new launch site. The Indian space agency, ISRO, presently has two operational launch pads at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The space agency launches Indian and foreign satellites aboard rockets like PSLV and GSLV from here. As it seeks to expand its launch activities, ISRO officially began constructing a new launch site at Kulasekaranpattinam, in Tamil Nadu, this week, The National reports.Avoiding the dogs ... The Kulasekaranpattinam launch site is strategically located near the equator. With open seas to the south of it, the site allows for direct southward launches over the Indian Ocean. This will minimize fuel consumption and maximize payload capacity for small satellite launch vehicles, particularly beneficial for cost-effective commercial satellite launches. The site also avoids the need for complex "dogleg" maneuvers around Sri Lanka.SpaceX launches Starship on its eighth flight. SpaceX launched the eighth full-scale test flight of its enormous Starship rocket on Thursday evening after receiving regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The test flight sought a repeat of what SpaceX hoped to achieve on the previous Starship launch in January, when the rocket broke apart and showered debris over the Atlantic Ocean and Turks and Caicos Islands.Alas ... Unfortunately for SpaceX, the Starship upper stage failed again, in a similar location, with similar impacts. About a minute before reaching the cutoff of the vehicle's engines en route to space, the upper stage spun out of control and broke apart. "During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost," SpaceX said in a statement about an hour later. "Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses." Ars will have full coverage of what is a serious setback for the company.Amazon culture comes to Blue Origin. Jeff Bezos has moved to introduce a tough Amazon-like approach to his rocket maker Blue Origin, as the worlds third-richest person seeks to revive a company that has lagged behind Elon Musks SpaceX, the Financial Times reports. The space companys founder and sole shareholder has pushed to shift its internal culture with management hires from Amazon, while implementing policies akin to the e-commerce giant, including longer working hours and more aggressive targets.Work-life balance, what? ... Key to Bezoss effort is chief executive Dave Limp. The former Amazon devices chief was appointed in late 2023 and has been followed in quick succession by several veterans from the $2.2 trillion tech giant, including supply chain chief Tim Collins, chief information officer Josh Koppelman, and chief financial officer Allen Parker. The changes in leadership have been accompanied by significant layoffs. In February, roughly 10 percent of Blue Origins more than 10,000-strong workforce was dismissed. Employees are now expected to work longer hours, and badge scanners have been introduced to track employee time similar to Amazon.Space Force is to blame for Vulcan delays? The debut of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket was delayed more than four years, ultimately from 2019 to January 2024. The first flight went very well, but during the second certification mission in October 2024 there was an anomaly with one of the two solid rocket boosters powering the vehicle. Although the rocket reached its intended orbit, this issue necessitated an investigation. Vulcan has yet to fly again, and with the certification process still ongoing, it is now likely to launch no earlier than sometime this summer.Spacecraft end up moving to the right ... No one is more interested in seeing Vulcan fly than the US Space Force, which has dozens of missions lined up for the rocket. These missions were supposed to be launched between 2022 and 2026. To make up for lost time, the Space Force now hopes to launch 11 national security missions this year (this almost certainly won't happen). In a curious comment to Space News, Bruno appeared to put some of the blame for delays on the Space Force, rather than Vulcan's tardiness: Bruno pointed out there is inherent unpredictability in national security launch schedules, noting that "about half of the spacecraft end up needing to move right, and they move right by a lot." It is a weird comment to make with a rocket that is years late.Next three launchesMarch 9: Falcon 9 | SPHEREx & PUNCH | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 03:09 UTCMarch 9: Falcon 9 | Starlink 12-21 | Cape Canaveral, Fla. | 04:10 UTCMarch 10: Electron | The Lightning God Reigns | Mhia Peninsula, New Zealand | 00:oo UTCEric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 33 Comments

Goodbye SE iPhone 16e review: The most expensive cheap iPhone yet The iPhone 16e rethinksand prices upthe basic iPhone. Samuel Axon Mar 7, 2025 6:00 am | 21 The iPhone 16e, with a notch and an Action Button. Credit: Samuel Axon The iPhone 16e, with a notch and an Action Button. Credit: Samuel Axon Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreFor a long time, the cheapest iPhones were basically just iPhones that were older than the current flagship, but last weeks release of the $600 iPhone 16e marks a big change in how Apple is approaching its lineup.Rather than a repackaging of an old iPhone, the 16e is the latest main iPhonethat is, the iPhone 16with a bunch of stuff stripped away.There are several potential advantages to this change. In theory, it allows Apple to support its lower-end offerings for longer with software updates, and it gives entry-level buyers access to more current technologies and features. It also simplifies the marketplace of accessories and the like.Theres bad news, too, though: Since it replaces the much cheaper iPhone SE in Apples lineup, the iPhone 16e significantly raises the financial barrier to entry for iOS (the SE started at $430).We spent a few days trying out the 16e and found that its a good phoneits just too bad its a little more expensive than the entry-level iPhone should ideally be. In many ways, this phone solves more problems for Apple than it does for consumers. Lets explore why.Table of ContentsJump to sectionA beastly processor for an entry-level phoneLike the 16, the 16e has Apples A18 chip, the most recent in the made-for-iPhone line of Apple-designed chips. Theres only one notable difference: This variation of the A18 has just four GPU cores instead of five. That will show up in benchmarks and in a handful of 3D games, but it shouldnt make too much of a difference for most people.Its a significant step up over the A15 found in the final 2022 refresh of the iPhone SE, enabling a handful of new features like AAA games and Apple Intelligence.The A18s inclusion is good for both Apple and the consumer; Apple gets to establish a new, higher baseline of performance when developing new features for current and future handsets, and consumers likely get many more years of software updates than theyd get on the older chip.The key example of a feature enabled by the A18 that Apple would probably like us all to talk about the most is Apple Intelligence, a suite of features utilizing generative AI to solve some user problems or enable new capabilities across iOS. By enabling these for the cheapest iPhone, Apple is making its messaging around Apple Intelligence a lot easier; it no longer needs to put effort into clarifying that you can use X feature with this new iPhone but not that one.Weve written a lot about Apple Intelligence already, but heres the gist: There are some useful features here in theory, but Apples models are clearly a bit behind the cutting edge, and results for things like notifications summaries or writing tools are pretty mixed. Its fun to generate original emojis, though!The iPhone 16e can even use Visual Intelligence, which actually is handy sometimes. On my iPhone 16 Pro Max, I can point the rear camera at an object and press the camera button a certain way to get information about it.I wouldnt have expected the 16e to support this, but it does, via the Action Button (which was first introduced in the iPhone 15 Pro). This is a reprogrammable button that can perform a variety of functions, albeit just one at a time. Visual Intelligence is one of the options here, which is pretty cool, even though its not essential.The screen is the biggest upgrade over the SEAlso like the 16, the 16e has a 6.1-inch display. The resolutions a bit different, though; it's 2,532 by 1,170 pixels instead of 2,556 by 1,179. It also has a notch instead of the Dynamic Island seen in the 16. All this makes the iPhone 16es display seem like a very close match to the one seen in 2022s iPhone 14in fact, it might literally be the same display.I really missed the Dynamic Island while using the iPhone 16eits one of my favorite new features added to the iPhone in recent years, as it consolidates what was previously a mess of notification schemes in iOS. Plus, its nice to see things like Uber and DoorDash ETAs and sports scores at a glance.The main problem with losing the Dynamic Island is that were back to the old minor mess of notifications approaches, and I guess Apple has to keep supporting the old ways for a while yet. That genuinely surprises me; I would have thought Apple would want to unify notifications and activities with the Dynamic Island just like the A18 allows the standardization of other features. The notch on the iPhone 16e. Samuel Axon The notch on the iPhone 16e. Samuel Axon The lone camera on the back of the 16e. The bright side: minimal camera bump! Samuel Axon The lone camera on the back of the 16e. The bright side: minimal camera bump! Samuel Axon The notch on the iPhone 16e. Samuel Axon The lone camera on the back of the 16e. The bright side: minimal camera bump! Samuel Axon This seems to indicate that the Dynamic Island is a fair bit more expensive to include than the good old camera notch flagship iPhones had been rocking since 2017s iPhone X.That compromise aside, the display on the iPhone 16e is ridiculously good for a phone at this price point, and it makes the old iPhone SEs small LCD display look like its from another eon entirely by comparison. It gets brighter for both HDR content and sunny-day operation; the blacks are inky and deep, and the contrast and colors are outstanding.Its the best thing about the iPhone 16e, even if it isnt quite as refined as the screens in Apples current flagships. Most people would never notice the difference between the screens in the 16e and the iPhone 16 Pro, though.There is one other screen feature I miss from the higher-end iPhones you can buy in 2025: Those phones can drop the display all the way down to 1 nit, which is awesome for using the phone late at night in bed without disturbing a sleeping partner. Like earlier iPhones, the 16e can only get so dark.It gets quite bright, though; Apple claims it typically reaches 800 nits in peak brightness but that it can stretch to 1200 when viewing certain HDR photos and videos. That means it gets about twice as bright as the SE did.Connectivity is keyThe iPhone 16e supports the core suite of connectivity options found in modern phones. Theres Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and Apples usual limited implementation of NFC.There are three new things of note here, though, and theyre good, neutral, and bad, respectively.USB-CLets start with the good. Weve moved from Apples proprietary Lightning port found in older iPhones (including the final iPhone SE) toward USB-C, now a near-universal standard on mobile devices. It allows faster charging and more standardized charging cable support.Sure, its a bummer to start over if youve spent years buying Lightning accessories, but its absolutely worth it in the long run. This change means that the entire iPhone line has now abandoned Lightning, so all iPhones and Android phones will have the same main port for years to come. Finally!The finality of this shift solves a few problems for Apple: It greatly simplifies the accessory landscape and allows the company to move toward producing a smaller range of cables.Satellite connectivityRecent flagship iPhones have gradually added a small suite of features that utilize satellite connectivity to make life a little easier and safer.Among those is crash detection and roadside assistance. The former will use the sensors in the phone to detect if youve been in a car crash and contact help, and roadside assistance allows you to text for help when youre outside of cellular reception in the US and UK.There are also Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite, which let you communicate with emergency responders from remote places and allow you to be found.Along with a more general feature that allows Messages via satellite, these features can greatly expand your options if youre somewhere remote, though theyre not as easy to use and responsive as using the regular cellular network.Wheres MagSafe?I dont expect the 16e to have all the same features as the 16, which is $200 more expensive. In fact, it has more modern features than I think most of its target audience needs (more on that later). That said, theres one notable omission that makes no sense to me at all.The 16e does not support MagSafe, a standard for connecting accessories to the back of the device magnetically, often while allowing wireless charging via the Qi standard.Qi wireless charging is still supported, albeit at a slow 7.5 W, but there are no magnets, meaning a lot of existing MagSafe accessories are a lot less useful with this phone, if theyre usable at all. To be fair, the SE didnt support MagSafe either, but every new iPhone design since the iPhone 12 way back in 2020 hasand not just the premium flagships.Its not like the MagSafe accessory ecosystem was some bottomless well of innovation, but that magnetic alignment is handier than you might think, whether were talking about making sure the phone locks into place for the fastest wireless charging speeds or hanging the phone on a car dashboard to use GPS on the go.Its one of those things where folks coming from much older iPhones may not care because they dont know what theyre missing, but it could be annoying in households with multiple generations of iPhones, and it just doesnt make any sense.Most of Apples choices in the 16e seem to serve the goal of unifying the whole iPhone lineup to simplify the message for consumers and make things easier for Apple to manage efficiently, but the dropping of MagSafe is bizarre.It almost makes me think that Apple might plan to drop MagSafe from future flagship iPhones, too, and go toward something new, just because thats the only explanation I can think of. That otherwise seems unlikely to me right now, but I guess well see.The first Apple-designed cellular modemWeve been seeing rumors that Apple planned to drop third-party modems from companies like Qualcomm for years. As far back as 2018, Apple was poaching Qualcomm employees in an adjacent office in San Diego. In 2020, Apple SVP Johny Srouji announced to employees that work had begun.It sounds like development has been challenging, but the first Apple-designed modem has arrived here in the 16e of all places. Dubbed the C1, its perfectly adequate. Its about as fast or maybe just a smidge slower than what you get in the flagship phones, but almost no user would notice any difference at all.Thats really a win for Apple, which has struggled with a tumultuous relationship with its partners here for years and which has long run into space problems in its phones in part because the third-party modems werent compact enough.This change may not matter much for the consumer beyond freeing up just a tiny bit of space for a slightly larger battery, but its another step in Apples long journey to ultimately and fully control every component in the iPhone that it possibly can.Bigger is better for batteriesThere is one area where the 16e is actually superior to the 16, much less the SE: battery life. The 16e reportedly has a 3,961 mAh battery, the largest in any of the many iPhones with roughly this size screen. Apple says it offers up to 26 hours of video playback, which is the kind of number you expect to see in a much larger flagship phone.I charged this phone three times in just under a week with it, though I wasnt heavily hitting 5G networks, playing many 3D games, or cranking the brightness way up all the time while using it.Thats a bit of a bump over the 16, but its a massive leap over the SE, which promised a measly 15 hours of video playback. Every single phone in Apples lineup now has excellent battery life by any standard.Quality over quantity in the camera systemThe 16Es camera system leaves the SE in the dust, but its no match for the robust system found in the iPhone 16. Regardless, its way better than youd typically expect from a phone at this price.Like the 16, the 16e has a 48 MP Fusion wide-angle rear camera. It typically doesnt take photos at 48 MP (though you can do that while compromising color detail). Rather, 24 MP is the target. The 48 MP camera enables 2x zoom that is nearly visually indistinguishable from optical zoom.Based on both the specs and photo comparisons, the main camera sensor in the 16e appears to me to be exactly the same as that one found in the 16. Were just missing the ultra-wide lens (which allows more zoomed-out photos, ideal for groups of people in small spaces, for example) and several extra features like advanced image stabilization, the newest Photographic Styles, and macro photography. The iPhone 16e takes excellent photos in bright conditions. Samuel Axon The iPhone 16e takes excellent photos in bright conditions. Samuel Axon And unlike previous low-end iPhones, it supports night mode, which allows solid low-light photos, too. Samuel Axon And unlike previous low-end iPhones, it supports night mode, which allows solid low-light photos, too. Samuel Axon For contrast, here's an example with night mode turned off. Samuel Axon For contrast, here's an example with night mode turned off. Samuel Axon And unlike previous low-end iPhones, it supports night mode, which allows solid low-light photos, too. Samuel Axon For contrast, here's an example with night mode turned off. Samuel Axon Thats a lot of missing features, sure, but its wild how good this camera is for this price point. Even something like the Pixel 8a cant touch it (though to be fair, the Pixel 8a is $100 cheaper).Video capture is a similar situation: The 16e shoots at the same resolutions and framerates as the 16, but it lacks a few specialized features like Cinematic and Action modes. Theres also a front-facing camera with the TrueDepth sensor for Face ID in that notch, and it has comparable specs to the front-facing cameras weve seen in a couple of years of iPhones at this point.If you were buying a phone for the cameras, this wouldnt be the one for you. Its absolutely worth paying another $200 for the iPhone 16 (or even just $100 for the iPhone 15 for the ultra-wide lens for 0.5x zoom; the 15 is still available in the Apple Store) if thats your priority. The iPhone 16's macro mode isn't available here, so ultra-close-ups look fuzzy. Samuel Axon The iPhone 16's macro mode isn't available here, so ultra-close-ups look fuzzy. Samuel Axon Next up, zoom capabilities. There's no telephoto or ultra-wide angle lens; here's the normal 1x zoom... Samuel Axon Next up, zoom capabilities. There's no telephoto or ultra-wide angle lens; here's the normal 1x zoom... Samuel Axon ...and here's 2x zoom, which is accomplished by cropping with the help of algorithms. Samuel Axon ...and here's 2x zoom, which is accomplished by cropping with the help of algorithms. Samuel Axon Next up, zoom capabilities. There's no telephoto or ultra-wide angle lens; here's the normal 1x zoom... Samuel Axon ...and here's 2x zoom, which is accomplished by cropping with the help of algorithms. Samuel Axon But for the 16es target consumer (mostly folks with the iPhone 11 or older or an iPhone SE, who just want the cheapest functional iPhone they can get) its almost overkill. Im not complaining, though its a contributing factor to the phones cost compared to entry-level Android phones and Apples old iPhone SE.RIP small phones, once and for allIn one fell swoop, the iPhone 16es replacement of the iPhone SE eliminates a whole range of legacy technologies that have held on at the lower end of the iPhone lineup for years. Gone are Touch ID, the home button, LCD displays, and Lightning portstheyre replaced by Face ID, swipe gestures, OLED, and USB-C.Newer iPhones have had most of those things for quite some time. The latest feature was USB-C, which came in 2023s iPhone 15. The removal of the SE from the lineup catches the bottom end of the iPhone up with the top in these respects.That said, the SE had maintained one positive differentiator, too: It was small enough to be used one-handed by almost anyone. With the end of the SE and the release of the 16e, the one-handed iPhone is well and truly dead. Of course, most people have been clear they want big screens and batteries above almost all else, so the writing had been on the wall for a while for smaller phones.The death of the iPhone SE ushers in a new era for the iPhone with bigger and better featuresbut also bigger price tags.A more expensive cheap phoneAssessing the iPhone 16e is a challenge. Its objectively a good phonegood enough for the vast majority of people. It has a nearly top-tier screen (though it clocks in at 60Hz, while some Android phones close to this price point manage 120Hz), a camera system that delivers on quality even if it lacks special features seen in flagships, strong connectivity, and performance far above what youd expect at this price.If you dont care about extra camera features or nice-to-haves like MagSafe or the Dynamic Island, its easy to recommend saving a couple hundred bucks compared to the iPhone 16.The chief criticism I have that relates to the 16e has less to do with the phone itself than Apples overall lineup. The iPhone SE retailed for $430, nearly half the price of the 16. By making the 16e the new bottom of the lineup, Apple has significantly raised the financial barrier to entry for iOS.Now, its worth mentioning that a pretty big swath of the target market for the 16e will buy it subsidized through a carrier, so they might not pay that much up front. I always recommend buying a phone directly if you can, though, as carrier subsidization deals are usually worse for the consumer.The 16es price might push more people to go for the subsidy. Plus, its just more phone than some people need. For example, I love a high-quality OLED display for watching movies, but I dont think the typical iPhone SE customer was ever going to care about that.Thats why I believe the iPhone 16e solves more problems for Apple than it does for the consumer. In multiple ways, it allows Apple to streamline production, software support, and marketing messaging. It also drives up the average price per unit across the whole iPhone line and will probably encourage some people who would have spent $430 to spend $600 instead, possibly improving revenue. All told, its a no-brainer for Apple.It's just a mixed bag for the sort of no-frills consumer who wants a minimum viable phone and who for one reason or another didnt want to go the Android route. The iPhone 16e is definitely a good phoneI just wish there were more options for that consumer.The goodDramatically improved display than the iPhone SELikely stronger long-term software support than most previous entry-level iPhonesGood battery life and incredibly good performance for this price pointA high-quality camera, especially for the priceThe badNo ultra-wide cameraNo MagSafeNo Dynamic IslandThe uglySignificantly raises the entry price point for buying an iPhoneSamuel AxonSenior EditorSamuel AxonSenior Editor Samuel Axon is a senior editor at Ars Technica. He covers Apple, software development, gaming, AI, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and heis a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development. 21 Comments

Somehow, one AI is never enough. Heres why.

When companies back major digitalization initiatives and invest in new technologies, its another way of saying that they want to be data driven in their transactional operations and in their business intelligence.However, no matter how scintillating a new technology is, it willbe only as good as the data that drives it. This is a main reason why data management, as it has over the past five years, has continued to dominate CIOs as a top concern.Are we winning or losing the data management battle?In 2023, healthcare experts reported that as much as 95% of hospital data goes unused, and it is likely that high percentages of unused data plagued other industry sectors as well. Also in 2023, only 16% of organizations surveyed believed that data had been successfully integrated into their business processes and that the data was actively being used for decision making.Finally, there are the AI systems that everybody wants -- yet, how soon will they get them if data is a problem?GenAI is NOT a pure data science problem. It is equally a DATA problem, writes Chad Anderson, CEO at Gable.ai. Data is fuel for the model, in the same way a healthy diet is fuel for an athlete. If garbage goes in, then garbage comes out.Most CIOs I talk with confirm this. Consequently, they are unsure as to how much they are willing to trust their data, and they understand that data preparation, integration and management are still works in progress.Related:Drafting a Data Battle PlanFor most organizations, achieving high quality, fully integrated and trustworthy data is a battle. It therefore requires a battle plan.A majority of companies find that they already have battle plans. Unfortunately, these plans tend to address data only on certain fronts in the battlefield. They lack an overall approach to data that can successfully bring all data under universal, high-quality management.There are data purity, governance and security standards that are set forth as SLAs for data vendors.There are ETL (extract-transform-load) rules and operations that IT defines whenever corporate data is moved from one data repository to another, and that ensure that the data being moved is first cleaned, prepared and formatted for the target data repository before it is integrated into that repository.There are programmed routines that edit and verify data throughout the day as workers use applications and databases.In short, there is a lot being done already to assure that data is of high quality and can be used. Yet, CIOs, IT staffers and end users still have reservations that the data they use is of high and trustworthy quality.Related:Why is this?A Plan of AttackDisparate dataIn 2023, three out of four companies reported that internal collaboration was hindered because of data silos.Individual pools of data in user departments create inconsistencies between data and business decisions. They also produce disparate forms of data that cant be integrated into a common data repository without undergoing ETL.The plot thickens when data is ingested from outside vendor sources that potentially represent data in alternate formats. This data must also be ETLd.Knocking down data silos is one way that companies can help achieve data unity. Another way is by automating all data intake processes with ETL so that data is normalized before it ever enters a data repository.Lack of data controlIn 2024, data generation reached 361 billion emails sent daily, 16 million texts sent every minute, and 378.77 million terabytes of data created daily. Data is streaming into enterprises at enormous volumes and velocities and not all of it is useful.There are companies that are afraid to lose data because they think it could be useful "some day". However, its also important to control the data flow by determining what you need to keep and what you dont. For instance, in network communications, its not useful to maintain all data in the stream, including handshakes and other jitter that goes on between devices. Eliminating some of the metadata from the flow seems like a straightforward thing to do, but too many companies arent willing to do it.Related:Organizing dataApproximately 80% of data in companies is now unstructured, meaning that this data comes in with no data key, metadata, etc., that would be needed to manage or access it in a meaningful way.Getting unstructured data under control so it can be utilized by the enterprise is the number one data management challenge for most companies, because it takes time (human time, in most cases) to develop keys or tags for the data, in some cases transforming the data into structured data.Without taking this first step toward organizing data, businesses will be unable to manage, mine or use the data they collect.SecurityIBMs average estimated cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.88 million. If organizations are going to avoid data breaches, their governance and security policies and practices must be airtight and up to date, and security safeguards around data must be robust. This includes not only protecting internal data repositories but also assuring that data incoming from and outgoing to third parties and the cloud are properly secured and, when in transit, preferably encrypted. Additionally, companies should set aside dollars forconducting annual (at a minimum) cyber and internal audits, using outside firms to do these.ConclusionData management is a foundational piece for digitalization, AI, automation, new system deployment and edge computing. There is virtually no part of the enterprise that data doesnt touch.This might be why CIOs and IT leaders wring their hands in frustration when they think about how they will get their arms around all of this data. However, in the course of their frustration, its also time to take stock of the steps that have already been taken to better manage data, whether its been rendering unstructured data usable, normalizing data so it can work with more than one system, or even knocking down a data silo or two.What now could greatly benefit these companies is the orchestration of a complete data management plan. This plan would undoubtedly reveal holes in the data management battle lines that need to be filled, but it will also reveal those areas where true progress has been made.

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. This week saw the release of some fascinating news about some very furry rodentsso-called woolly micecreated as part of an experiment to explore how we might one day resurrect the woolly mammoth. The idea of bringing back extinct species has gained traction thanks to advances in sequencing of ancient DNA. In recent years, scientists have recovered genetic blueprints from the remains of dodo birds, more than 10,000 prehistoric humans, and frozen mammoths, a species that went extinct around 2000 BCE. This ancient genetic data is deepening our understanding of the pastfor instance, by shedding light on interactions among prehistoric humans. But researchers are becoming more ambitious. Rather than just reading ancient DNA, they want to use itby inserting it into living organisms. Colossal Biosciences, the biotech company behind the woolly mice, says thats its plan. The eventual goal is to modify elephants with enough mammoth DNA to result in something resembling the extinct pachyderm. To be sure, there is a long way to go. The mice Colossal created include several genetic changes previously known to make mice furry or long-haired. That is, the changes were mammoth-like, but not from a mammoth. In fact, only a single letter of uniquely mammoth DNA was added to the mice. Because this idea is so new and attracting so much attention, I decided it would be useful to create a record of previous attempts to add extinct DNA to living organisms. And since the technology doesnt have a name, lets give it one: chronogenics. Examples are exceptionally few currently, says Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore, an organization that applies genetic technology to conservation efforts. Novak helped me track down examples, and I also got ideas from Harvard geneticist George Churchwho originally envisioned the mammoth projectas well as Beth Shapiro, lead scientist at Colossal. The starting point for chronogenics appears to be in 2004. That year, US scientists reported theyd partly re-created the deadly 1918 influenza virus and used it to infect mice. After a long search, they had retrieved examples of the virus from a frozen body in Alaska, which had preserved the germ like a time capsule. Eventually, they were able to reconstruct the entire virusall eight of its genesand found it had lethal effects on rodents. This was an alarming start to the idea of gene de-extinction. As we know from movies like The Thing, digging up frozen creatures from the ice is a bad idea. Many scientists felt that recovering the 1918 fluwhich had killed 30 million peoplecreated an unnecessary risk that the virus could slip loose, setting off a new outbreak. Viruses are not considered living things. But for the first example of chronogenics involving animals, we have to wait only until 2008, when Australian researchers Andrew Pask and Marilyn Renfree collected genetic data from a Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, that had been kept in a jar of ethanol (the last of these carnivorous marsupials died in a Hobart zoo in 1936). The Australians then added a short fragment of the extinct animals DNA to mice and showed it could regulate the activity of another gene. This was, at one level, an entirely routine study of gene function. Scientists often make DNA changes to mice to see what happens. The difference here was that they were studying extinct genes, which they estimated accounts for 99% of the genetic diversity that has ever existed. The researchers used almost religious language to describe where the DNA had come from. Genetic information from an extinct species can be resurrected, they wrote. And in doing so, we have restored to life the genetic potential of a fragment of this extinct mammalian genome. That brings us to what I think is the first commercial effort to employ extinct genes, which came to our attention in 2016. Gingko Bioworks, a synthetic-biology company, started hunting in herbariums for specimens of recently extinct flowers, like one that grew on Mauis lava fields until the early 20th century. Then the company isolated some of the genes responsible for their scent molecules. We did in fact insert the genes into yeast strains and measure the molecules, says Christina Agapakis, Gingkos former senior vice president for creative and marketing, who led the project. Ultimately, though, Ginkgo worked with a smell artist to imitate those odors using commercially available aroma chemicals. This means the resulting perfumes (which are for sale) use extinct genes as inspiration, not as actual ingredients. Thats a little bit similar to the woolly mouse project. Some scientists complained this week that when, or if, Colossal starts to chrono-engineer elephants, it wont really be able to make all the thousands of DNA changes needed to truly re-create the appearance and behavior of a mammoth. Instead, the result will be just a crude approximation of an extinct creature, one scientist said. Agapakis suggests not being too literal-minded about gene retrieval from the past. As an artwork, I saw how the extinct flower made different people feel a deep connection with nature, a sadness and loss at something gone forever, and a hope for a different kind of relationship to nature in the future, she says. So I do think there is a very powerful and poetic ethical and social component here, a demand that we care for these woolly creatures and for our entanglements with nature more broadly. To wrap up our short list of known efforts at chronogenics, we found only a few more examples. In 2023, a Japanese team added a single mutation found in Neanderthals to mice, to study how it changed their anatomy. And in unpublished research, a research group at Carlsberg Laboratory, in Copenhagen, says it added a genetic mutation to barley plants after sifting through 2-million-year-old DNA recovered from a mound in Greenland. That change, to a light-receptor gene, could make the crop tolerant to the Arctics extremely long summer days and winter nights. Now read the rest of The Checkup Read more from MIT Technology Reviews archive How many genetic edits can be made to a cell before it expires? The answer is going to be important if you want to turn an elephant into a mammoth. In 2019, scientists set a record with more than13,000 edits in one cell. We covered a project in Denmark where ancient DNA was replicated in a barley plant. Its part of a plan to adapt crops to grow in higher latitudesa useful tool as the world heats up. To learn more about prehistoric animals, some paleontologists are building robotic models that fly, swim, and slither around. For more, have a look at this MIT Technology Review story. The researcher who discovered how to make a mouse with extra-long hair, back in 1994, is named Jean Hebert. Last year we profiled Heberts idea for staying young by gradually replacing your brain with substitute tissue. Looking for an unintended consequence of genetic engineering? Last year, journalist Douglas Main reported how the use of GMO crops has caused the evolution of weeds resistant to herbicides. From around the web The United Kingdom now imports half the donor sperm used in IVF procedures. An alleged donor shortage is causing sperm to become more expensive than beluga caviar, on a per-gram basis. (Financial Times) Jason Bannan, the agent who led the FBIs scientific investigation into the origins of covid-19, is speaking out on why he thinks the pandemic was started by a lab accident in China. (Vanity Fair) An Australian company, Cortical Labs, released what its calling the first commercial biological computer. The device combines silicon chips with thousands of human neurons. (Boing Boing) The Trump administration is terminating medical research grants that focus on gender identity, arguing that such studies are often unscientific and ignore biological realities. Researchers vowed to press on. (Inside Medicine). The US Senate held confirmation hearings for Stanford University doctor Jay Bhattacharya to be director of the National Institutes of Health, which funds nearly $48 billion in research each year. Bhattacharya gained prominence during the covid-19 pandemic for opposing lockdowns. (NPR) Francis Collins has retired from the National Institutes of Health. The widely admired geneticist spent 12 years as director of the agency, through 2021, and before that he played a key role in the Human Genome Project. Early in his career he identified the gene that causes cystic fibrosis. (New York Times)

2025-03-07T12:40:00Z Read in app ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? A coalition of 20 attorneys general is suing the Trump administration over mass layoffs.The lawsuit claims that federal agencies did not provide the required notice for the layoffs.It said that notices allow employees to budget for lost income and for states to mobilize resources.A coalition made up of 20 attorneys general from across the US is suing the Trump administration over the firing of thousands of probationary federal workers.On Thursday, the attorneys general for 19 states and Washington, D.C., filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Maryland, arguing that President Donald Trump's administration violated legal requirements governing the layoff of federal workers.The lawsuit, which names multiple federal agencies and their secretaries as defendants, claims that federal agencies failed to provide the legally required notice before carrying out the terminations.It specifically accused the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of unlawfully directing federal agencies to conduct mass terminations of probationary employees "suddenly and without any advance notice."Probationary employees are typically workers who have served in the role for less than two years.Under federal law, agencies must generally give employees 60 days' written notice of a "Reduction-in-Force" before they are released.Additionally, when 50 or more employees within an agency receive these notices, federal laws require the agency to notify state governments.The lawsuit said that these notices serve critical purposes: they give employees time to find new jobs and budget for the loss of income, and they allow states to better mobilize resources, including job placement services, training opportunities, and connections to social services."Over the past month, the new Administration has run roughshod over the RIF requirements," the lawsuit said.As a result, it said that employees and their families are "struggling to make ends meet," while plaintiff states have been forced to "scramble and expend additional resources to identify even which agencies have conducted layoffs and which affected employees require support."The attorneys general involved represent the states of Maryland, Minnesota, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C."The Trump administration's illegal mass firings of federal workers are a slap in the face to those who have spent their careers serving our country," New York AG Letitia James said in a statement.The attorneys general are seeking a court order to stop further mass layoffs without the required notice period, and the reinstatement of workers laid off since January 20, 2025.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.Thousands of probationary employees have been fired amid the push by the White House and the Department of Government Efficiency to shrink the federal workforce. Last week, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the OPM must withdraw memos calling for other agencies to terminate probationary employees, saying the OPM had exceeded its legal authority.Earlier this week, the OPMquietly revised a memoabout firing probationary employees, clarifying that individual agencies, not the OPM, are responsible for terminating federal workers.

2025-03-07T12:32:26Z Read in app The case claimed Corrine Durber was told she won the 'Monster Jackpot,' but was instead paid the amount due for the 'Daily Jackpot.' Joe Raedle/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? A British woman has won a legal case against a bookmaker over an unpaid million-dollar prize.Corrine Durber initially won a $1.4 million jackpot but was later paid a lower prize of $26,000.She took gambling firm Paddy Power to court and this week was awarded the full prize money.A woman from the UK who was told on a gambling game that she had won over $1.4 million but was only given $26,000 has won a legal challenge against the betting firm.In October 2020, Corrine Durber placed a bet on the online platform of Irish gambling firm Paddy Power. The game, Wild Hatter, was a combination of fruit machine reels and a wheel of fortune, documents from the court case said.Durber, who lives in Gloucestershire in southwest England, said she was playing the game on her iPad when she won a jackpot prize in its first stage and was moved to the next level. Per court documents, she was then asked to spin the jackpot wheel.After clicking the "spin" button, Durber was informed she had won the "Monster Jackpot" of 1,097,132.71 ($1,416,000).Instead, she was paid 20,265.14 ($26,160) by Paddy Power, the amount due if Durber had won the 'Daily Jackpot' instead. The case, which reached the UK's High Court, said that no explanation was provided for why the sum changed to a much smaller figure.Durber complained to the gambling company on the same evening she won, the case said. At the time, Paddy Power said the computer system that ran the game had made a mistake and displayed an incorrect figure.Paddy Power said she should have won a 'Daily Jackpot,' but because of the programming issue, the 'Monster System' segment lit up.Durber sued PPB Entertainment, which trades as Paddy Power and Betfair, for the money she was due under the terms of a consumer contract and breach of contract.In his ruling earlier this week, High Court judge Justice Andrew Ritchie said: "When a trader puts all the risk on a consumer for its own recklessness, negligence, errors, inadequate digital services and inadequate testing, that appears onerous to me."Speaking to PA Media after the decision, Durber said: "As you can imagine, I'm so relieved and happy that the judge has confirmed I fairly and squarely won 1 million from Paddy Power.""I will never bet with them ever again," she said.Flutter UKI, which owns Paddy Power, told Business Insider in a statement: "Every week, tens of thousands of customers win with Paddy Power, including an individual who received a 5.7m jackpot just one year ago."We always strive to provide the best customer experience possible and pride ourselves on fairness."We deeply regret this unfortunate case and are reviewing the judgment."

Since returning to office, the Trump administration has moved to upend Americas long-standing approach to tackling homelessness. The housing-first model which has enjoyed bipartisan support for decades prioritizes getting people into stable accommodations before addressing other issues like mental health or substance abuse. This evidence-backed approach first gained prominence during George W. Bushs presidency, with Salt Lake City becoming an early success story in 2005. It was supported by the Trump administration during the presidents first term, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson publicly praised the model several times.But as homelessness has worsened due to the nations housing affordability crisis, conservative think tanks and GOP lawmakers have increasingly pointed to housing-first, and the network of nonprofits and service providers that support it, as the culprit. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundations 900-page policy blueprint, explicitly calls to end housing-first policies.Trumps appointment of Scott Turner a pastor and former Texas state lawmaker to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) signals a deeper shift. Federal policy is poised to turn away from the individuals and institutions that have backed housing-first and toward a new approach that embraces mandatory treatment and even faith-based models. During his time as a legislator, Turner voted against multiple bills to expand affordable housing and protect low-income tenants, while blaming government welfare for harming American families. In his confirmation hearing, Turner emphasized an interest in leaning more heavily on local organizations, including religious groups, to solve the homelessness crisis. Now as secretary, hes created a DOGE-style task force aimed at slashing agency spending, including money directed to housing-first organizations. Recent leaks suggest HUD is planning massive staffing cuts, particularly to the Office of Community Planning and Development the division responsible for homelessness programs, affordable housing, and disaster relief. The New York Times reported in February that this office could see an 84 percent reduction, from 936 employees to just 150.When Vox asked HUD to explain its homelessness strategy and position on housing-first, spokesperson Kasey Lovett repeatedly declined to address homelessness, only confirming that the agencys disaster relief efforts will not be impacted.A rapid policy reversalThe administration didnt wait long to act. By January 27, the Office of Management and Budget had imposed an across-the-board grant freeze affecting $3.6 billion in previously approved homelessness funding. Though a federal judge ordered this freeze lifted, many homeless service providers still havent received the money. Earlier this week more than 50 Democrats sent a letter urging HUD to release these congressionally appropriated funds.The consequences are already visible. In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a region outside Philadelphia, officials recently held a press conference to highlight the $5 million in homeless funds theyve been promised but havent received. Losing this funding could mean that we see a doubling in the number of people that are sleeping on the streets and in our un-housed population, one commissioner warned. This is extremely serious. It affects children 120 children and 400 people as a whole. The freeze, even if it ultimately ends, reflects years of growing skepticism among conservatives about the federal governments approach to tackling homelessness and selecting grantees. By 2019, Trumps Council of Economic Advisers was questioning the effectiveness of housing-first, and Trumps appointment of longtime housing-first critic Robert Marbut to lead the US Interagency Council on Homelessness underscored the shift. Under Marbuts leadership, the Council published a report encouraging leaders to consider requiring sobriety and other treatments in exchange for housing assistance a report that 12 national homelessness organizations condemned as ineffective and dishonest. Leaders for the most part did not take up the recommendations.The Biden administration then pivoted back to unequivocal support for housing-first, even expanding it by authorizing federal Medicaid dollars for rental assistance effectively embracing the idea that housing is a form of health care.Yet, during this time, the attacks on housing-first started to pick up momentum in several GOP-led states, which began diverting resources away from the model with backing from conservative groups like the Cicero Institute, an Austin-based think tank founded in 2016, the Manhattan Institute, and the Heritage Foundation. Missouri, Florida, Georgia, and Utah now redirect tens of millions from permanent housing solutions toward transitional and short-term options, in explicit rebuke of the housing-first approach.Whats the best way to help?At the heart of the debate is a fundamental disagreement about what constitutes success in addressing homelessness. For housing-first advocates, stable housing is both the primary goal and the foundation for addressing other issues. Critics, however, argue that simply being housed without improvements in health or substance use doesnt represent real progress.This philosophical divide shapes how both sides interpret research on housing-firsts effectiveness. Critics like Judge Glock, an alumnus of the Cicero Institute who now directs research at the Manhattan Institute, point to studies from the National Academies of Science and The Lancet that found limited evidence of improved health outcomes among housing-first participants.Proponents like Margot Kushel from the University of California San Franciscos Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative see the debate differently. Housing-first is not and has never been housing only, she told Vox. Rather, it describes a strategy that best pairs housing with services in the most efficient way possible. She argues that the voluntary nature of housing-first makes it successful by helping preserve client dignity and autonomy while increasing the odds that people actually embrace and stick with treatment.Veterans homelessness provides perhaps the clearest example of the models potential. In 2008, a housing-first program began combining HUD-provided housing vouchers for veterans with case management and clinical services provided by the VA. As a result, while overall homelessness has increased nationwide in the last decade, veteran homelessness has decreased by more than half. But most housing-first programs are not as well supported (financially or politically) as the efforts to end veteran homelessness. The problem with the housing-first policy is that Congress has not funded it to scale, Dennis Culhane from the University of Pennsylvania told Vox. Only about 15 percent of people who experience homelessness get into a housing-first program in a given year. And although regular check-ins by case managers remain a core component of housing-first programs, many programs do not live up to these standards. As critics note, this leaves some vulnerable individuals effectively abandoned, albeit indoors, with limited improvement in other outcomes.Despite these shortcomings, most experts see the shift away from housing-first as deeply concerning. Culhane found, for an upcoming paper, that the model was associated with a 15 percent decline in homelessness nationwide from 2010 to 2018. HUDs housing-first investments have added more than 100,000 units of permanent supportive housing, and another 144,000 subsidized beds of other types. Culhane added that past experience has shown that models like transitional housing or treatment first, which were the predominant approach from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s, are expensive and unsuccessful. Funding was entirely tied up in the high costs of administering the beds and services, and there was no funding dedicated to the endgame of getting people into housing, he said. Glock, the critic, conceded that the evidence for his preferred alternatives that carry more strings attached isnt great either. We have to wrestle with the fact that the turnover rates in those [transitional] units are wild and substantial, that people who go into a very structured environment that often requires sobriety or regular mental health checkups are often going to leave those units quickly because they dont want the structure, he said. Still, Glock believes having zero mandates on people is a mistake. That doesnt have to be complete sobriety, he added. But right now you arent even forced to, like, get a checkup. He expects the Trump administration to abandon what he calls its one-size-fits-all approach. The problem is that the federal government made housing-first the uniform and universal standard for homeless housing, and that was inappropriate, he added.Trumps tight-lipped pivot on housing-first comes at a time when over 650,000 people in America experience homelessness on any given night, and roughly 40 percent of those individuals are sleeping outside on the streets, in cars, parks, train stations, and other places not designed primarily for people. In Congress, its unclear whether lawmakers even plan to adequately fund the federal housing voucher program one of the key policy tools used to prevent ending up unsheltered in the US. Even if it is funded, though, gutting the federal agency that administers the vouchers could lead to further problems in fighting homelessness.See More:

Last year, a specific archetype for an ideal boyfriend gained traction online: a Man in Finance. Trust fund. Six-foot-5. Blue eyes. What began as a playful TikTok song from creator Megan Boni became a viral sensation endlessly memed and remixed until even David Guetta hopped on the track. Aside from its earworm status, Man in Finance winked at a wider trend in dating: the standards for what women desire in a romantic partner have reached new heights. Boni later said she was inspired by the complaints of women, herself included, who lament singledom but then have this laundry list of impossible needs.Its not just heterosexual women who are accused of having impossible standards for their male partners. Certain men seem to harbor a very specific fantasy of how their female partners should look and behave too: look no further than the popularity of the tradwife or the fact that late last year, actor Sydney Sweeney was labeled mid by a bevy of online male commenters. If Sweeney isnt good-looking enough, one might wonder, then what woman is?It should go without saying that maintaining some sort of inventory of qualities youre looking for is mostly beneficial when choosing a partner. These ideals provide a loose sketch of the type of person you want to date and how youd like to be treated. There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, where the standard most appropriate for women to have was, Can he provide enough to ensure we wont be destitute? Now, with more freedom, daters want to ensure they align with their partners on values and worldviews. If not, theyre empowered to walk away.The issue, experts say, is that people who, in theory, want romantic partnership may be delaying commitment until they find a potential partner who checks all of their boxes even about the most minute things. As online dating entered the mainstream, licensed marriage and family therapist Elizabeth Earnshaw observed more clients feeling disposable to other singles, all the while becoming just as dismissive of those they were dating. They might have been thrown away, she says, but their behavior is often very much throw-away behavior. They wont see it that way. Theyll see it as their standards are really high.However, singles might end up disappointed when no one measures up. According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, among both straight and queer Americans who reported difficulty dating, 43 percent said it was because they failed to find someone who meets their expectations. I dont think that people are realistic at all, says Daphney Poyser, the CEO, matchmaker, and head dating coach at LGBTQ matchmaking service Fern Connections. People just think that Im gonna meet my Prince Charming and were gonna live happily ever after. And it just doesnt work that way.What men and women wantPrior to the 20th century, marriage was largely an economic decision and whether or not a prospective spouse could provide, either financially or through unpaid labor, was perhaps the most important romantic standard. Though society and laws have changed to allow women to earn an education, own property, hold jobs, and live independently, pairing off with a provider remains attractive to women. Over the last 30 years, women have consistently said they value male partners who have good financial prospects, socioeconomic status, ambition, and intelligence. Why I reported thisMany of the straight single women I know have expressed a similar sentiment: All the guys Im dating kind of suck. These are smart, beautiful, successful women who feel like the dating pool is full of duds who cant answer a text or initiate an actual date. Meanwhile, TikTok is full of talk about red flags and not settling for the bare minimum. I wondered: Is it that important to you that he opens the door or pays for the date? So I decided to talk to some singles to find out whats happening with mens and womens dating standards.Men, on the other hand, consistently aspire to date someone hot. Across the same studies spanning decades, results show men prefer physically attractive mates with good genes and reproductive capacity. As a matchmaker, Poyser says, I hear a lot of I need someone whos petite. I want someone whos younger, when it comes to men.Raymond Truong, a 27-year-old accountant in Portland, is looking for a woman who is fit, interesting, ambitious, conventionally attractive, and who shares his values. While hes gone out with a number of women primarily from dating apps he likes the information he gets up front only a handful have progressed to second dates. Truong has been told his standards are too high, but he doesnt see the point in lowering them. In the beginning of my dating I did do that, he says, and it felt like a waste of time. He also wonders if the women hes seeing have better options than him. These good-on-paper ideals, however, do not represent the world in which we live. Although men outnumber and generally outearn women in the workforce, millions of American men of working age are not working nor looking for employment. Compared to men, more young women are enrolled in and graduate from college. More women occupy the C-suite than a decade ago. And in some metro areas, like New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, young women make more than their male counterparts. This has implications for dating: If women want a man with high earning potential, the pool of potential matches is dwindling. Women dont want to be stay-at-home wives, but they still want to feel like they dated well and they married up, says Arielle Kuperberg, associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Meanwhile, female breadwinners tend to inspire stress among their male partners. When wives outearn their husbands, men are increasingly anxious, research shows. A lot of these men who are not going on to college are often having trouble finding jobs and then resenting women, says Campbell Leaper, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Traditional gender roles still dominate datingOne reason for the current state of affairs in dating may be that despite societys shift toward more egalitarian partnerships, young people still support traditional gender roles. In a 2016 study, both male and female college students said men should be the ones to initiate a date, hold the door open, pay for the date, and propose marriage, while women should take the mans last name. A 2020 study found that gender stereotypes in first dates, where men are proactive and women are reactive, persist and may create unrealistic expectations. Among the LGBTQ people Ellen Lamont, an associate sociology professor at Appalachian State University, spoke to for her book The Mating Game: How Gender Still Shapes How We Date, these gendered expectations are a non-issue. When someone wants to make a move, they do so. In fact, for certain people I interviewed who had been in heterosexual relationships before coming to identify as LGBTQ, Lamont says, they discussed having to unlearn those expectations, and they came to see those expectations as very toxic.As for heterosexual singles, even if they say they want an equal relationship, social scripts can be deeply rooted and internalized. Throughout her life, Morgan Moore, 33, observed her parents dote on each other, and watched as her father cheered on her mother when she became the breadwinner. Moore, who works in ad sales in the DC area, yearns for a relationship like her parents one where values are aligned, and where her future partner emotionally, physically, financially takes care of her.You should be coming up to me. You are now, as a man, in your feminine energy and putting me in my masculine energy.Still, she struggles to find a man who lives up to these standards. I cant remember the last time a guy bought me a drink at the bar in my adulthood, Moore says. While she has no issue approaching men and making the first move, she assumes these prospective partners arent serious about a relationship. The sperm chases the egg, she says. You should be coming up to me. You are now, as a man, in your feminine energy and putting me in my masculine energy. This kind of talk about masculine and feminine energies, it should be noted, is all over social media. Earnshaw, the therapist, says the examples of love and romance people observe whether in culture or in their lives can shape daters beliefs around what they should want or how courtship should look. Many men Earnshaw speaks with, she says, were socialized to approach women first, but they realize thats no longer the expectation or preference. Youve got a generation of people, Earnshaw says, who feel very stuck in What the hell is my role supposed to be? Society is telling me I want a more modern way of dealing with this, but my heart and my mind and my socialization are telling me that thats icky, and so I dont know what Im supposed to do here.Standards as protectionSo its fair to ask: are we all just being too picky? Exceedingly high expectations have given way to red flags habits and quirks that are instant dealbreakers. Its impossible to know whether your dates penchant for cutting you off mid-sentence may portend deeper issues, but the impulse to self-protect could lead you to write them off anyway. You may be well-meaning in wanting to avoid an unhealthy relationship, but its very hard to build relationships with people if youre trying to control everything and if you arent able to settle into allowing some things to not be perfect, Earnshaw says. Dating apps, which lay bare plenty of characteristics, from height to dietary preferences, make it easier to choose or discount others based on these qualities under the auspices of having standards.Ironically, the normalization of prioritizing mental health led to greater acceptance of our own flaws and imperfections, Earnshaw says, but less willingness to tolerate that same messiness in others. As a result, minor foibles are filed under red flags and the person possessing them is dubbed as failing to meet your standards. Weve made everything toxic when it comes to relationships except ourselves were not toxic, she says. Were wonderful, authentic, should be able to be our full selves. But if somebody isnt good at texting back, thats a toxic person.RelatedWhy we use therapy-speak and when to stopOn the other hand, standards provide an effective framework for what behavior is and isnt acceptable to you in a romantic partner. Without them, you may find yourself in an unfulfilling relationship with someone whos so misaligned or whose actions make you feel disrespected, unheard, or worse, unsafe. In an effort to pair off with someone who shares their values, singles may decide that dating someone of another political party is off limits, which data suggests they are. To say nothing of meeting high standards, evidence points to men failing at the basics. In her research, Lamont has found that men are struggling to fulfill womens baseline expectations: someone who isnt controlling, someone who believes in reciprocity, someone who will commit. When men fail to clear these hurdles, some women may raise the bar to weed out those who dont meet the bare minimum.In her research, Lamont has found that men are struggling to fulfill womens baseline expectations.Kay, a 22-year-old psychology major living in Pensacola, Florida, whose last name is being withheld so she can speak freely about her relationships, feels this lack of effort from some of the men shes dated. A lot of men my age seem uninterested in moving forward in life and its frustrating because many of them try to hold women back who are focused on advancing their education or career, she says in an email. Its hard to find someone whos not intimidated by ambition and who is willing to grow alongside me. While she says financial stability is important in a relationship, she cares more about a potential partners values and their willingness to grow together.Compromise is possibleSo what hope do singles with high standards have if they feel the dating pool is full of duds? First, you need to home in on what qualities in a partner really matter and which are non-essential, Poyser, the matchmaker, says. Sure, dating someone with a six-figure salary would be nice, but do they share your values? After ending a six-and-a-half-year relationship, Gia Aldisert, a 22-year-old content creator based in Los Angeles, reevaluated what she wanted out of a partner. While she admits her past relationship wasnt unhealthy, there were some boxes her ex left unchecked, some areas where she felt she was settling. Her current list of standards for a boyfriend includes someone ambitious, who embraces romantic gestures, who makes time for her friends and family, and who wants to show her off. I feel like a major way that dating as a whole for women [changed] is that they understand their value now and they dont just settle for the first guy that treats them with the bare minimum, Aldisert says.Standards are only as good as your ability to reciprocate, Poyser says. If you hope to date someone who prioritizes their career, you should be able to say the same about yourself. If Im going to say I want someone who is kind and thoughtful, Poyser says, then I need to be kind and thoughtful too.You may also want to interrogate the source of your expectations, especially ones rooted in established gender roles. Singles shouldnt be ashamed to admit to themselves if they do yearn for more stereotypical dating scripts, such as a man pursuing a woman, Earnshaw says. But you might also come to the realization that you were socialized to believe you desired these traditional dating roles. In reality, many relationships will have some combination of traditional and modern: a woman may not care that she outearns the men she dates, but she would like a long-term partner who cares for the lawn and the car. Just lean into it, Earnshaw says. You want traditional? Fine. Youll find somebody out there thats like that, but then you have to be willing to lean into that. If you want to be the one to talk to this guy in the bar then you got to do it.I usually recommend people do three dates in three totally different places, he says. Actually give people chances and try to do fun things that you would do anyway.Standards can help guide your romantic choices, but theyre best utilized once you have a fair assessment of the person youre dating. Paul Eastwick, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, says we generally dont have a good read on someone until the third date so dont immediately write them off if youre not instantly physically attracted or felt their jokes were lacking. I usually recommend people do three dates in three totally different places, he says. Actually give people chances and try to do fun things that you would do anyway.But maybe its time to unburden yourself from the tyranny of rigid standards anyway. In one of his studies, Eastwick and his collaborators found that while participants tended to be romantically attracted to people who had the qualities they were looking for in an ideal partner, they were equally as attracted to people who had qualities other study participants listed as ideal. In other words, what we think we want in a romantic partner doesnt matter so much. So keep your standards as a north star, a path from which you dont want to stray too far. But as a checklist for the perfect partner? Unfortunately, the 6-foot-5, blue-eyed trust fund man in finance whos also kind and doting and funny probably doesnt exist. See More: