SUMMARY

08
HOW TO KEEP YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT

SECURE — WITHOUT PAYING

28
WHAT IS SECTION 230, THE RULE THAT

MADE THE MODERN INTERNET?

64
AI SUMMIT: APPLE IS ENTERING THE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RACE

94
PAY-PER-CHEW: MORE RESTAURANTS

TRYING SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAMS

 META TESTING NEW SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE FOR VERIFIED ACCOUNTS 20

FDA’S OWN REPUTATION COULD BE RESTRAINING ITS MISINFO FIGHT 44

AMAZON ASKS CORPORATE STAFF TO BE IN OFFICES 3 DAYS A WEEK 86

BAIDU TO IMPLEMENT CHATGPT-LIKE ERNIE BOT CHATBOT FROM MARCH 108

MICROSOFT BRINGS BING CHATBOT TO PHONES AFTER CURBING QUIRKS 114

HONDA CR-V HYBRID VS KIA SPORTAGE HYBRID 124

STELLANTIS EARNINGS RISE AS EV PUSH DRIVES HIGHER SALES 136

JAPAN ABORTS LAUNCH OF NEW ROCKET CARRYING MISSILE SENSOR 144

MICROSOFT MAKES CASE FOR ACTIVISION MERGER AMID EU SCRUTINY 172

JAPANESE STARTUP UNVEILS BALLOON FLIGHT SPACE VIEWING TOURS 180

MOVIES & TV SHOWS 150

TOP 10 ALBUMS 162

TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 164

TOP 10 TV SHOWS 166

TOP 10 BOOKS 168

TOP 10 SONGS 170

HOW TO KEEP
YOUR TWITTER
ACCOUNT SECURE
— WITHOUT
PAYING

08
09
10
Twitter users were greeted last weekend with an
ultimatum from the social media app: Subscribe
to the platform’s new premium service or lose a
popular account security feature.
A pop-up message warned users they will lose
the ability to secure their accounts via text
message two-factor authentication unless they
pay $8 a month to subscribe to Twitter Blue.

The message said that starting March 19, users

who don’t subscribe will be locked out of their
accounts until they remove the security feature.

Here are some questions and answers about

why Twitter made this change and alternative
ways to secure your account:

WHAT IS TWO-FACTOR
AUTHENTICATION?
Two-factor authentication adds a second layer
of security to password-protected accounts by
having users enter an auto-generated code to
log in.

This extra step helps safeguard online accounts

because in addition to the password, you need
access to a separate app, device or phone
number where you can receive the code.

Such codes can be generated by apps

like Microsoft Authenticator or Google
Authenticator. Or they can be sent to a user’s
smartphone via text message.
It’s the text message-based two-factor
authorization that Twitter is now restricting only
to subscribers of Twitter Blue.

11
12
13
WHY IS TWITTER DOING THIS?
In a blog post Wednesday, the San Francisco-
based company acknowledged that the text
message-based security method has been
historically popular with its users, but said
the feature is being “used — and abused —
by bad actors.”

The company did not respond early Saturday

to an email seeking more details on how the
security method was being abused.
Elon Musk, who completed his $44 billion
takeover of Twitter in October, has been trying
to find way to maximize profits at the company.

One of those is Twitter Blue, which among other

features allows anyone to pay for verification
previously reserved for celebrities, journalists
and other well-known people.

In its blog, Twitter encouraged users who are not

going to subscribe to Twitter Blue to consider
using alternative account security options,
specifically an authentication app or security key.
These methods require you to have physical
possession of the authentication method and
are a good way to ensure your account is secure.

WHAT ARE OTHER OPTIONS TO SECURE

MY TWITTER ACCOUNT?
An authentication app or a security key will
also add a layer of account security beyond
just a password.

A security key is a small, portable device that

generates a set of random numbers that you
enter when prompted when logging into an
online account.

14
15
An authentication app uses the same approach,
but instead of a separate physical device, the
app is on your phone.

To set up an authentication app to secure your

Twitter account, you will need to download one
of a number of available applications to your
device. They are free in the Apple or Android
app stores. If you’d rather not use Google or
Microsoft Authenticator, there are other options,
including Authy, Duo Mobile and 1Password.

Once you have the app, open the desktop

version of Twitter and click on the icon showing
ellipses in a circle. There, you’ll find “Settings
and privacy” then “Security and account access”
and finally, “Security.” Here, you can select
“Authentication app” and follow the instructions
to set it up. Twitter will ask you to share your
email address to do this, if you have not already.
Once you are all set, you can use the auto-
generated numeric codes from your
authentication app to add an extra layer of
security when logging into Twitter.

16
17
META
TESTING NEW
SUBSCRIPTION
SERVICE
FOR VERIFIED
ACCOUNTS

Meta is testing a new subscription service that

would let Facebook and Instagram users pay for
a verified account.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta

Verified on his social media accounts. Testing will
begin in New Zealand and Australia this week
and will roll out to other countries soon, he said.

For $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99

per month on Apple and Android operating
systems, Meta will use a government
identification to verify a user’s account and give
the account a blue badge. Previously, Meta’s
blue badges were free and reserved for notable
public figures or businesses.

20
21
22
23
24
Subscribers will also get extra protection against
account impersonation and direct access to
customer support, Meta said.

“This new feature is about increasing

authenticity and security across our services,”
Zuckerberg said in his message.

Meta said public figures and others who were

previously verified won’t be affected by the
change. Meta Verified is aimed at influencers
and others who use social media for their
business but aren’t notable public figures.
Meta is taking a page from Twitter’s playbook in
launching a subscription service. Late last year,
Twitter began charging users $8 per month for
Twitter Blue, which verifies their account with
a blue check.

Last weekend, Twitter took the service a step

further, announcing that Twitter users would
lose their ability to secure their accounts with
two-factor authentication unless they pay the $8
monthly Twitter Blue subscription.

Social media companies have been trying to

find new revenue sources as online advertising
slows. Earlier this month, Meta announced its
third consecutive quarter of revenue declines
despite an increase in users. Meta announced
it was laying off 11,000 workers, or 13% of its
workforce, in November.

25
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WHAT IS
SECTION 230,
THE RULE
THAT MADE
THE MODERN
INTERNET?

Twenty-six words tucked into a 1996 law

overhauling telecommunications have allowed
companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to
grow into the giants they are today.

A case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court

this week, Gonzalez v. Google, challenges this
law — namely whether tech companies are
liable for the material posted on their platforms.

Justices will decide whether the family of an

American college student killed in a terror
attack in Paris can sue Google, which owns
YouTube, over claims that the video platform’s
recommendation algorithm helped extremists
spread their message.

28
29
30
31
A second case, Twitter v. Taamneh, also focuses
on liability, though on different grounds.
The outcomes of these cases could reshape the
internet as we know it. Section 230 won’t be
easily dismantled. But if it is, online speech could
be drastically transformed.

WHAT IS SECTION 230?

If a news site falsely calls you a swindler, you can
sue the publisher for libel. But if someone posts
that on Facebook, you can’t sue the company —
just the person who posted it.

That’s thanks to Section 230 of the 1996

Communications Decency Act, which states that
“no provider or user of an interactive computer
service shall be treated as the publisher or
speaker of any information provided by another
information content provider.”
That legal phrase shields companies that can
host trillions of messages from being sued
into oblivion by anyone who feels wronged
by something someone else has posted —
whether their complaint is legitimate or not.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have

argued, for different reasons, that Twitter,
Facebook and other social media platforms
have abused that protection and should lose
their immunity — or at least have to earn it by
satisfying requirements set by the government.

Section 230 also allows social platforms to

moderate their services by removing posts that,
for instance, are obscene or violate the services’
own standards, so long as they are acting in
“good faith.”

32
33
WHERE DID SECTION 230 COME FROM?
The measure’s history dates back to the 1950s,
when bookstore owners were being held liable
for selling books containing “obscenity,” which
is not protected by the First Amendment. One
case eventually made it to the Supreme Court,
which held that it created a “chilling effect” to
hold someone liable for someone else’s content.

That meant plaintiffs had to prove that

bookstore owners knew they were selling
obscene books, said Jeff Kosseff, the author
of “The Twenty-Six Words That Created the
Internet,” a book about Section 230.
Fast-forward a few decades to when the
commercial internet was taking off with services
like CompuServe and Prodigy. Both offered

34
Image: Matt Cardy
35
36
online forums, but CompuServe chose not to
moderate its, while Prodigy, seeking a
family-friendly image, did.
CompuServe was sued over that, and the
case was dismissed. Prodigy, however, got in
trouble. The judge in their case ruled that “they
exercised editorial control — so you’re more like
a newspaper than a newsstand,” Kosseff said.

That didn’t sit well with politicians, who worried

that outcome would discourage newly forming
internet companies from moderating at all. And
Section 230 was born.

“Today it protects both from liability for user

posts as well as liability for any claims for
moderating content,” Kosseff said.

37
 Image: Yui Mok
38
WHAT HAPPENS IF SECTION 230
GOES AWAY?
“The primary thing we do on the internet is we
talk to each other. It might be email, it might
be social media, might be message boards,
but we talk to each other. And a lot of those
conversations are enabled by Section 230, which
says that whoever’s allowing us to talk to each
other isn’t liable for our conversations,” said Eric
Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University
specializing in internet law. “The Supreme Court
could easily disturb or eliminate that basic
proposition and say that the people allowing
us to talk to each other are liable for those
conversations. At which point they won’t allow
us to talk to each other anymore.”

39
There are two possible outcomes. Platforms
might get more cautious, as Craigslist did
following the 2018 passage of a sex-trafficking
law that carved out an exception to Section
230 for material that “promotes or facilitates
prostitution.” Craigslist quickly removed its
“personals” section, which wasn’t intended to
facilitate sex work, altogether. But the company
didn’t want to take any chances.
“If platforms were not immune under the law,
then they would not risk the legal liability that
could come with hosting Donald Trump’s lies,
defamation, and threats,” said Kate Ruane,
senior legislative counsel for the American Civil
Liberties Union.

Another possibility: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

and other platforms could abandon moderation
altogether and let the lowest common
denominator prevail.

Such unmonitored services could easily end up

dominated by trolls, like 8chan, a site that was
infamous for graphic and extremist content.
Any change to Section 230 is likely to have ripple
effects on online speech around the globe.

“The rest of the world is cracking down on the

internet even faster than the U.S.,” Goldman said.
“So we’re a step behind the rest of the world
in terms of censoring the internet. And the
question is whether we can even hold out on
our own.”

40
41
FDA’S
OWN REPUTATION
COULD BE
RESTRAINING ITS
MISINFO FIGHT

44
Image: Jason Reed
45
The government agency responsible for
tracking down contaminated peanut butter and
defective pacemakers is taking on a new health
hazard: online misinformation.
It’s an unlikely role for the Food and Drug
Administration, a sprawling, century-old
bureaucracy that for decades directed
most its communications toward doctors
and corporations.

But FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf has

spent the last year warning that growing
“distortions and half-truths” surrounding
vaccines and other medical products are now “a
leading cause of death in America.”

“Almost no one should be dying of COVID

in the U.S. today,” Califf told, noting the
government’s distribution of free vaccines and
antiviral medications. “People who are denying
themselves that opportunity are dying because
they’re misinformed.”

46
47
 Image: Pavlo Gonchar
48
49
Califf, who first led the agency under
President Barack Obama, said the FDA could
once rely on a few communication channels
to reach Americans.
“We’re now in a 24/7 sea of information without
a user guide for people out there in society,”
Califf said. “So this requires us to change
the way we communicate.”

The FDA’s answer? Short YouTube videos, long

Twitter threads and other online postings
debunking medical misinformation, including
bogus COVID-19 remedies like ivermectin, the
anti-parasite drug intended for farm animals.
“Hold your horses y’all. Ivermectin may be
trending, but it still isn’t authorized or approved
to treat COVID-19” the FDA told its 500,000
Twitter followers in April.

On Instagram, FDA memes referencing Scooby-

Doo and SpongeBob urge Americans to get
boosted and ignore misinformation, alongside
staid agency postings about the arrival of
National Handwashing Awareness Week.
They said it mostly reflects the latest science
on combating misinformation, but they also
questioned whether it’s reaching enough
people to have an impact — and whether
separate FDA controversies are undercutting
the agency’s credibility.

“The question I start with is, ‘Are you a trusted

messenger or not?’” said Dr. Seema Yasmin,
a Stanford University professor who studies
medical misinformation and trains health
officials in responding to it. “In the context of
FDA, we can highlight multiple incidents which
have damaged the credibility of the agency and
deepened distrust of its scientific decisions.”

50
Image: Manuel Balce Caneta
51
In the last two years the FDA has come under
fire for its controversial approval of an unproven
Alzheimer’s drug as well as its delayed response
to a contaminated baby formula plant, which
contributed to a national supply shortage.
Meanwhile, the agency’s approach to booster
vaccinations has been criticized by some of its
top vaccine scientists and advisers.

“It’s not fair, but it doesn’t take too many

negative stories to unravel the public’s
trust,” said Georgetown University’s Leticia
Bode, who studies political communication
and misinformation.

About a quarter of Americans said they have “a

lot” of trust in the FDA’s handling of COVID-19,
according to a survey conducted last year by
University of Pennsylvania researchers, while
less than half said they have “some trust.”
“The FDA’s word is still one of the most highly
regarded pieces of information people want
to see,” said Califf, who was confirmed to his
second stint leading the FDA last February.

As commissioner he is trying to tackle a host

of issues, including restructuring the agency’s
food safety program and more aggressively
deploying FDA scientists to explain vaccine
decisions in the media.

The array of challenges before the FDA

raises questions about the new focus on
misinformation. And Califf acknowledges the
limits of what his agency can accomplish.
“Anyone who thinks the government’s going
to solve this problem alone is deluding
themselves,” he said. “We need a vast network of
knowledgeable people who devote part of their
day to combating misinformation.”
Image: Arun Sankar
52
53
54
Georgetown’s Bode said the agency is “moving
in the right direction,” on misinformation,
particularly its “Just a Minute” series of
factchecking videos, which feature FDA’s
vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks succinctly
addressing a single COVID-19 myth or topic.
But how many people are seeing them?

“FDA’s YouTube videos have a minuscule

audience,” said Brandon Nyhan, who studies
medical misinformation at Dartmouth College.
The people watching FDA videos “are not the
people we typically think about when we think
about misinformation.”

Research by Nyhan and his colleagues

suggests that fact-checking COVID-19 myths
briefly dispels false beliefs, but the effects are
“ephemeral.” Nyhan and other researchers
noted the most trusted medical information
source for most Americans is their doctor,
not the government.
Even if the audience for FDA’s work is small,
experts in online analytics say it may be having
a bigger impact.

An FDA page dubbed “Rumor Control” debunks

a long list of false claims about vaccines, such
as that they contain pesticides. A Google search
for “vaccines” and “pesticides” brings up the
FDA’s response as a top result, because the
search engine prioritizes credible websites.

“Because the FDA puts that information on

its website, it will actually crowd out the
misinformation from the top 10 or 20 Google
results,” said David Lazer, a political and
computer scientist at Northeastern University.

55
56
Perhaps the most promising approach to
fighting misinformation is also the toughest
to execute: introduce people to emerging
misinformation and explain why it’s false before
they encounter it elsewhere.
That technique, called “pre-bunking,” presents
challenges for large government agencies.

“Is the FDA nimble enough to have a detection

system for misinformation and then quickly put
out pre-bunking information within hours or
days?” Lazer asked.

Califf said the FDA tracks new misinformation

trends online and quickly decides whether —
and when — to intervene.
“Sometimes calling attention to an issue can
make it worse,” he notes.

57
58
59
Other communication challenges are baked
into how the FDA operates. For instance, the
agency consults an independent panel of
vaccine specialists on major decisions about
COVID-19 shots, considered a key step in
fostering trust in the process.
But some of those experts have disagreed on
who should receive COVID-19 vaccine boosters
or how strong the evidence is for their use,
particularly among younger people.

The FDA then largely relies on news media to

translate those debates and its final decisions,
which are often laden with scientific jargon.

The result has been “utter confusion,” about

the latest round of COVID-19 boosters, says
Lawrence Gostin, a public health specialist
at Georgetown.
“If you’re trying to counteract misinformation on
social media your first job is to clarify, simplify
and explain things in an understandable way
to the lay public,” said Gostin. “I don’t think
anyone could say that FDA has done a good
job with that.”

60
61
64
Apple is entering the artificial

intelligence race

65
With the AI war heating up and companies
like Microsoft and Google battling it out to
offer more advanced technologies to their
customers, Apple looks set to enter the
ring next. With its own AI conference, Siri
enhancements, and hardware, there’s much to
look forward to.

66
67
68
APPLE’S AI-FOCUSED EVENT
Apple’s recent AI summit, an employee-only
event described as the “WWDC for AI,” was
set to be the Cupertino company’s answer to
ChatGPT, bringing Apple firmly into the ring in
the AI battles. The reality, however, is slightly
different: it’s been reported to have been less
groundbreaking than anticipated. The summit,
held in person at the Steve Jobs Theater, was
a rare opportunity for teams to get together
after years of virtual-only events. However,
it was more of a chance for gradual nudges
in the same direction rather than one that
could provide any significant technological
change. According to Mark Gurman’s “Power
On” newsletter for Bloomberg, Apple’s AI
chief did discuss machine learning and AI
advancements within Apple during the event.
Gurman mentioned that the brochure for
the event had Apple’s AI chief commenting
that “machine learning is moving faster
than ever, and the talent we have here is
truly at the forefront.” Despite the positive
feedback, Gurman claimed he had not heard
anything groundbreaking from the summit for
consumers. The lack of announcements may
have come as a disappointment to some as
Google and Microsoft have made significant
advancements in AI, and the continued
evolution of AI models such as ChatGPT has
also been notable. However, the event was
designed to provide an opportunity for Apple
employees to discuss the broader roadmap
and strategy for its AI initiatives rather than to
make specific feature announcements.

It’s no secret that Apple takes its time in

product and software development: we all

69
70
71
know that the company is working on a car,
a mixed-reality headset, its search engine,
and foldable iPhones and Macs, but we don’t
know when they’re coming. What we do know
for sure is that Apple’s solutions are always
fully formed. Unlike early betas that some
companies provide in the form of experimental
AI chatbots, Apple’s technology will be
vigorously tested and tweaked to deliver
the very best service to end-customers. The
event itself wasn’t a total waste of time: it was
significant in that it allowed Apple to hold an
in-person event for the first time in years, which
could be considered a trial run before holding
larger public-facing events such as WWDC in
the summer or in-person media events for
product launches. The event was a combination
of live attendance and streams for employees
who couldn’t attend in person, indicating that
the central event-related systems were given
a thorough shakedown, making it easier to
hold similar events in the future. And with
Apple widely expected to announce its new
headset in the coming months, an in-person
event makes sense, offering a unique hands-on
experience unlike it’s ever offered before.

APPLE’S NEW HEADSET IS COMING

Apple has long been known for its
groundbreaking products and innovations, and
this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference
(WWDC) promises to be no different. The
annual event, which is scheduled for June, is
one of Apple’s most important showcases of
the year, and it’s where the company typically
discusses the state of its platform for the next
18 months. This year’s event is expected to be

72
73
74
particularly significant, as it will likely feature
the long-awaited debut of Apple’s first mixed-
reality headset. While Apple had initially
planned to debut its mixed-reality headset
at a consumer-focused launch at the start
of the year in January, engineering issues
related to hardware and software forced the
company to delay the launch. Instead, Apple
aims to introduce all of the specifics of the
device at WWDC alongside new versions of
iOS, watchOS, and macOS. The switch in plans
may have worked out for the best. Apple’s
mixed-reality headset, expected to be released
under the Reality brand, will include nascent
technologies such as pass-through cameras,
in-air typing, hand and eye control, and ultra-
high-resolution displays. It will also have an
external battery and main uses that may
not immediately appeal to mass consumers.
The product will likely be more exciting to
developer types than the regular consumer
glued to their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It will take
several years to shift the headset from a device
that is interesting to technology fans to a
product many Apple customers want: but the
sooner it starts, the better.

Apple believes it makes sense to shop the

device first to the crowd that will naturally be
most interested: the developers. The WWDC
event is typically one of Apple’s most important
showcases of the year, and it will be the ideal
place for Apple to plant its flag in the mixed-
reality market and introduce the category as its
next big initiative to carry it many years beyond
the iPhone. But Apple is up against another
issue with its headset: selling into a market
that has been disappointed and confused by

75
efforts from competitors. Meta, for example,
has described the mixed-reality market as built
around a metaverse, virtual avatars, and all-
day experiences inside of virtual reality. That
approach hasn’t taken off, and the number of
people who stick to their Meta headsets has
reportedly dwindled.
Apple will need a safer venue to debut its
device, and WWDC is the perfect place. The
conference is the ideal venue for Apple to
debut its Apple Reality software development
kit and Mac-based simulator and to sell
developers on this device if it ever wants
the category to become an iPhone-like hit.

76
The first-party features on the device, such
as virtual reality FaceTime, immersive video
watching, and expanding Mac’s display into
VR, aren’t enough to catapult the device into
the mainstream. Instead, Apple will need to
rely on third-party developers to develop more
innovative apps and games that will make
Apple’s mixed-reality products must-haves, just
like the App Store did for the iPhone in 2008
and for the iPad in 2010. In addition to the
mixed-reality headset, Apple is also pushing
into next-generation financial services with the
launch of its buy now, pay later service called
Apple Pay Later. This service is expected to start
rolling out in the coming weeks, and it has an

77
interesting twist: the company will scrutinize
spending histories to make loan decisions.
Apple will leverage the massive amounts of
customer data to determine the loan amount,
typically a maximum of $1,000, unlocking
another revenue stream for the company.

NEXT-LEVEL SIRI
There’s no denying that Siri falls behind the
competition, especially when compared
to Google’s Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman,
Apple is working on a significant modification
to Siri that would eliminate the need for the
current “Hey Siri” trigger phrase to activate
the virtual assistant hands-free. In his “Power
On” newsletter, Gurman stated that Apple is
developing a way for Siri to comprehend and
react to instructions without using “Hey Siri” as
a trigger phrase. Instead, users will only need
to say “Siri” to activate the virtual assistant.
This change presents a technical challenge,
as Siri must be capable of understanding the
singular phrase “Siri” in various accents and
dialects. The modification would bring Siri
closer to Amazon’s voice assistant, which can
be activated simply by beginning a command
with “Alexa.” Apple is also said to be working
on integrating Siri more deeply with third-
party apps and services to provide improved
assistance based on additional context.
The modifications to Siri are anticipated to
be implemented in 2023 or 2024, with the
possibility of being announced during the
release of iOS 17 at WWDC this summer.
However, there may be fewer significant
changes in iOS 17 due to Apple’s focus on the

78
79
“xrOS” operating system for its AR/VR headset,
with the update focusing more on bug fixes
and stability improvements. We might be
another year off for any significant changes.

Chat AI technology, however, will undoubtedly

make Siri smarter in the long run. Apple,
the most valuable tech company on earth,
seems to be missing out on this revolution in
computing, despite its expertise in AI. While
Apple has built a Neural Engine into all its
chips, specialized hardware that accelerates
machine learning tasks, it has not shown
any interest in generative AI. Many AI tools
are already being used for real work and
creative projects, and the pace of innovation
is staggering, with AI models doubling in
complexity and sophistication every six
months. Apple could be missing out on a
transformative technology that could define
state of the art for computing for decades
to come. However, given Apple’s history
of secrecy, the company may be working
behind the scenes to incorporate generative
AI features into its software and services and
could surprise us with a world-class generative
AI toolset in the future linked to Siri, iOS,
macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS, and rxOS.

80
81
Apple is likely working
hard behind the scenes to
make artificial intelligence
an even greater part of
its business model, from
sales and support to
innovative customer use
cases. We can’t wait to see
what’s coming next and
where AI will take Apple
over the next decade.

82
83
AMAZON ASKS
CORPORATE
STAFF TO BE
IN OFFICES 3
DAYS A WEEK

Amazon will require its corporate employees to

return to the office at least three days a week.

CEO Andy Jassy announced the policy in a

memo to staff. It marks a shift from Amazon’s
current policy of allowing leaders to determine
how their teams worked. The change will go into
effect May 1.

Many companies have been calling their

employees back to the office after the COVID-19
pandemic forced them to operate virtually.

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Last month, Starbucks told its corporate
employees to plan to work from the office three
days a week. Disney is asking employees to plan
for four in-office days starting in March. And
Walmart said this week that it would require its
tech teams to plan regular in-office work days.

Jassy said in his memo that Amazon made its

decision after observing what worked during
the pandemic. Among other things, he said
the senior leadership team watched how
staff performed and talked to leaders at other
companies. He said they concluded employees
tended to be more engaged in person and
collaborate more easily.

The move could help local economies, he said.

“I’m also optimistic that this shift will provide a
boost for the thousands of businesses located
around our urban headquarter locations in the
Puget Sound, Virginia, Nashville, and the dozens
of cities around the world where our employees
go to the office,” Jassy wrote.

Jassy said the details of the policy haven’t

been finalized. He said he wanted to share the
decision — made at a meeting of the company’s
senior leadership team this week — as early as
possible. He said there will be certain roles that
will be exempted from the policy, “but that will
be a small minority.”

Last month, Amazon announced it would trim

18,000 corporate positions in its efforts to prune
payrolls that rapidly expanded during the
pandemic lockdown. Other big tech companies,
including Salesforce and Google, have been
doing the same.

91
PAY-PER-CHEW:
MORE
RESTAURANTS
TRYING
SUBSCRIPTION
PROGRAMS

Consumers are willing to pay monthly

subscription fees for streaming services, pet
food and even toilet paper. And now some
restaurants are betting they’ll do the same for
their favorite meals.

Large chains like Panera and P.F. Chang’s as well

as neighborhood hangouts are increasingly
experimenting with the subscription model as
a way to ensure steady revenue and customer
visits. Some offer unlimited drinks or free

94
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delivery for a monthly fee; others will bring out
your favorite appetizer each time you visit.
They’re following a trend: The average American
juggled 6.7 subscriptions in 2022, up from 4.2
in 2019, according to Rocket Money, a personal
finance app.

“This is just another way for customers to

provide a level of support and joy and love
for our offerings,” said Matt Baker, the chef
at Gravitas, a Michelin-starred restaurant
in Washington.

For $130 per month, Gravitas Supper Club

subscribers get a three-course takeout meal
for two. Baker said Gravitas shifted to takeout
during the pandemic but saw demand fizzle
once its dining room reopened. The Supper Club
— which serves about 60 diners per month —
keeps that revenue flowing.
The upscale Chinese chain P.F. Chang’s also
saw an opportunity to increase to-go orders
with its subscription plan, which launched in
September. For $6.99 per month, members get
free delivery, among other perks.

Other restaurants are experimenting with

memberships, which let diners pre-pay toward
their visits.

El Lopo, a San Francisco bar, has 26 members in

its Take-Care-Of-Me Club. They pay either $89
per month for $100 in dining credits or $175 per
month for $200 in credits. When members come
in, El Lopo starts bringing out their favorite
dishes. Each visit, they can gift a free drink to
anyone in the bar.
El Lopo owner Daniel Azarkman started the
club in March 2021 to encourage patrons to

97
return as the pandemic eased. Now, he’s hearing
from restaurants all over the country who are
interested in starting similar programs.

“What it really achieves is getting them in more

often,” he said.

Rick Camac, executive director of Industry

Relations at the Institute of Culinary Education,
said he expects many more restaurants to offer
subscriptions in the coming years. Consumers
are accustomed to them, he said, and the
regular monthly income helps restaurants
manage their cash flow.
But not all subscription programs have had
success. In 2021, On the Border Mexican Grill
introduced its Queso Club, which offered
free cheese dip for a year for $1. The program
stopped taking new subscribers a year later.

Edithann Ramey, On the Border’s chief marketing

officer, said more than 150,000 people signed up
for the Queso Club, and members visited seven
times more often than the average guest. But
the Dallas-based chain wasn’t making enough to
cover the cost of the dip.

On the Border is now retooling the program

and expects to reintroduce it later this year. It
may charge more or move to a monthly model,
Ramey said, but the subscription element
will remain.
“It’s becoming kind of a hot trend and we want
to stay as a leading brand,” Ramey said.

Taco Bell is also tinkering with its $10 Taco Lover’s

Pass, which lets subscribers get a taco every
day for a month. The pass was introduced in
January 2022 and again in October; it generated
buzz, but the chain is trying to think of ways

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to make it more valuable to consumers, said
Dane Matthews, Taco Bell’s Chief Digital Officer.
A subscription could promise faster service, for
example, or unlock unique menu items.

Other restaurants have dropped subscriptions,

saying they have their hands full just running
the kitchen.

In late 2020, SheWolf, an upscale Italian

restaurant in Detroit, started sending subscribers
a box of pasta, sauces and other treats for $80
per month. But when its dining room fully
reopened six months later, it was too much work
to put together hundreds of boxes.
Still, SheWolf is keeping one foot in the
subscription space. Dan Reinisch, the
restaurant’s beverage director, sends Italian
wines to about 80 subscribers who pay $60 or
more each month.

Other businesses have had better luck. St. Louis-

based Panera had nearly 40 million members in
its loyalty program in early 2020, but it wanted
to convince them to drop in more often. So it
launched a subscription program that offered
unlimited coffee and tea for $8.99 per month.
Customers started coming in several times a
week, and about one-third of the time they
bought food.

Last year, Panera expanded the subscription.

Now, members can pay $11.99 per month or
$119.99 per year for unlimited hot and cold
drinks. Annual subscribers also get free delivery.
Eduardo Luz, Panera’s chief brand and concept
officer, won’t share exact numbers but he
said members now make up 25% of the
chain’s transactions.

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“It’s a huge traffic driver,” Luz said.

The idea quickly spread overseas. Pret A Manger,

a sandwich chain owned by the same private
company as Panera, launched its own coffee
subscription in the U.K. in 2020. As of November,
it was being used 1.2 million times per week. Pret
also offers subscriptions in France and the U.S.

Chris Hosford, a communications consultant in

southern California, joined Panera’s subscription
plan a year ago. He passes four or five Paneras
on his regular routes and often stops to grab a
coffee and a bite to eat.
“It’s not a huge amount of savings for me —
probably $5-10 in the average month,” Hosford
said. “But I’m good with that.”

104
105
BAIDU TO
IMPLEMENT
CHATGPT-LIKE
ERNIE BOT
CHATBOT FROM
MARCH

Baidu Inc., one of China’s biggest search and

artificial intelligence firms, said Thursday it plans to
implement its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie
into its search services from March.

Baidu, which is known for its search engine and

autonomous driving technology, leads China’s
efforts to create an equivalent of OpenAI’s
ChatGPT chatbot. It said earlier this month that it
will complete internal testing of Ernie Bot in March
before making the service public.

108
109
In an internal memo, Baidu CEO Robin Li said that
Ernie Bot will be integrated across all of Baidu’s
operations, including its search and cloud services.
Baidu also plans to integrate Ernie into its smart
car operating system and smart speaker.

The company’s stock price in New York jumped

nearly 7% to more than $150 a share after the
announcement.

“AI technology has reached a tipping point

and all industries will inevitably go through
transformation,” Li said in the memo.
“Baidu stands as the best example of the long-
term growth of China’s AI market and is advancing
at the forefront of this new wave,” he said.

The company also announced a $5 billion share

buyback this week.

Baidu reported revenues of 33.1 billion yuan ($4.8

billion) for the quarter that ended in December,
about level with the same period of 2021.
Most of Baidu’s revenue comes from its online
marketing services, which generated 18.1 billion
yuan ($2.62 billion) in sales in the last quarter.

Its Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing services

provided 561,000 rides in the fourth quarter, up
162% from a year earlier.

After years of regulatory scrutiny following

a crackdown on the technology sector and
a sluggish economy battered by COVID-19,
companies like Baidu look likely to invest more as
China looks to the industry to revive the economy.

110
111
MICROSOFT BRINGS
BING CHATBOT
TO PHONES AFTER
CURBING QUIRKS

114
Image: Jonathan Raa
115
Microsoft is ready to take its new Bing chatbot
mainstream — less than a week after making
major fixes to stop the artificially intelligent
search engine from going off the rails.

The company said Wednesday it is bringing the

new AI technology to its Bing smartphone app,
as well as the app for its Edge internet browser.

Putting the new AI-enhanced search engine

into the hands of smartphone users is meant to
give Microsoft an advantage over Google, which
dominates the internet search business but
hasn’t yet released such a chatbot to the public.
In the two weeks since Microsoft unveiled
its revamped Bing, more than a million users
around the world have experimented with a
public preview of the new product after

116
Image: Lionel Bonaventure
117
118
signing up for a waitlist to try it. Microsoft
said most of those users responded positively,
but others found Bing was insulting them,
professing its love or voicing other disturbing
or bizarre language.

Powered by some of the same technology

behind the popular writing tool ChatGPT, built
by Microsoft partner OpenAI, the new Bing is
part of an emerging class of AI systems that
have mastered human language and grammar
after ingesting a huge trove of books and
online writings. They can compose songs,
recipes and emails on command, or concisely
summarize concepts with information found
across the internet. But they are also error-prone
and unwieldy.

119
120
Reports of Bing’s odd behavior led Microsoft
to look for a way to curtail Bing’s propensity
to respond with strong emotional language
to certain questions. It’s mostly done that by
limiting the length and time of conversations
with the chatbot, forcing users to start a fresh
chat after several turns. But the upgraded Bing
also now politely declines questions that it
would have responded to just a week ago.

“I’m sorry but I prefer not to continue this

conversation,” it says when asked technical
questions about how it works or the rules that
guide it. “I’m still learning so I appreciate your
understanding and patience.”

Microsoft said its new technology will also be

integrated into its Skype messaging service.

121
HONDA CR-V
HYBRID VS
KIA SPORTAGE
HYBRID

The 2023 Honda CR-V and 2023 Kia Sportage

are two highly rated small SUVs. Notably,
they also come in hybrid versions that offer
some compelling advantages. The big one
is significantly better fuel efficiency than the
regular gas-only versions. They’re also more
powerful and have the same interior space.
Altogether, it’s pretty easy to justify the slight
price premiums that the hybrid CR-V and
Sportage command. But which SUV should
you get?

The Honda CR-V has long been considered a

benchmark of the class and it receives a full
redesign for 2023 that ushers in a roomier

124
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126
interior, enhanced technology features and an
improved hybrid powertrain. The Kia Sportage
also received a 2023 redesign. It’s got a bold
new look, up-to-date tech and an all-new hybrid
powertrain to rival the CR-V’s. Experts compare
them to find out which one is the fuel-sipping
SUV champ.

FUEL ECONOMY & POWER

Both hybrid SUVs are efficient, but there’s a
clear winner. The front-wheel drive version of
the Sportage Hybrid gets an impressive EPA
estimate of 43 mpg combined (44 mpg city/42
mpg highway). The front-wheel-drive hybrid
version of the CR-V gets 40 mpg combined (43
mpg city/36 mpg highway). When all-wheel
drive is equipped, the estimates become closer:
38 mpg combined for the Sportage and 37 mpg
combined for the CR-V.

Also driven the all-wheel-drive versions of both

SUVs on its real-world test route. Here, the
results were less than the EPA’s estimates but still
respectable: 34.5 mpg for the Sportage and 33.3
mpg for the CR-V.

Hybrids were once known for their lack of

power, but these two hybrid SUVs provide a
suitable amount of grunt. The CR-V combines
a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with a hybrid
system for a total output of 204 horsepower.
The Sportage one-ups it with its hybrid system
and turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine
that combine for 227 horsepower. The Sportage
puts it to use and sprints from 0 to 60 mph in 7.7
seconds. The hybrid CR-V is decently quick, too,
but needs 8 seconds to get to 60 mph.
Winner: Kia Sportage Hybrid

127
128
129
130
TECHNOLOGY & INTERIOR SPACE
The base Sportage Hybrid trim has an average-
size 8-inch center touchscreen. But all other
trims get a large and sharp-looking 12.3-inch
unit. The Sportage also sports a sizable standard
fully digital instrument panel. The CR-V’s 7- and
9-inch touchscreens are less impressive, and so
is its instrument panel, which consists of a small
digital screen and an analog speedometer.

Both hybrids offer many advanced driver aids

that can help make driving easier and safer.
Honda provides more of them as standard
equipment, however. For example, every hybrid
CR-V has standard adaptive cruise control. On
the Kia Sportage Hybrid, it’s standard on the top
trim level only.
Cargo room is even in each SUV: Both provide
more than 39 cubic feet of space behind the
second row, which is among the biggest
capacities in the small SUV class. Passenger space
is also abundant, and getting in and out is easy.

Winner: tie

COMFORT & DRIVING

The CR-V Hybrid’s ride quality is impressive. But
it’s not as smooth and accommodating as the
Sportage Hybrid’s. The Kia also benefits from a
quieter interior. Drivers have noted that the CR-
V’s hybrid powertrain can sometimes get loud
when accelerating. Up front, you’ll find the seats
comfortable and supportive in each SUV.
The CR-V does have a few advantages. It’s more
composed around turns, for example, and its
continuously variable transmission leads to
smoother acceleration than the Sportage’s six-

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speed automatic. But overall the Sportage’s
superior ride helps it eke out a win here.

Winner: Kia Sportage Hybrid

PRICING & VALUE

The Sportage Hybrid’s base LX trim starts
at $28,815 including destination. That’s
significantly less than the hybrid version of
the CR-V that starts at $34,245. The CR-V’s
higher price gets you heated seats and some
helpful advanced driver aids, but isn’t worth
the price increase for those alone. Furthermore,
the Sportage’s midlevel EX trim is still more
affordable than the cheapest CR-V Hybrid and
packs more features. As for top-spec trims, once
again, the Sportage delivers a better deal than
the CR-V and provides features the Honda lacks,
including ventilated front seats and a surround-
view camera system.
If you plan on keeping your hybrid SUV for many
years, you should definitely consider warranties.
Kia offers a four-year/60,000-mile limited
warranty, which tops Honda’s three-year/36,000-
mile limited warranty.

Winner: Kia Sportage Hybrid

The Honda CR-V has been one of the best small

SUVs for a long time, but its latest hybrid model
has been upstaged by the Kia Sportage Hybrid’s
efficiency, price, comfort and feature-packed
trim levels.

134
135
STELLANTIS
EARNINGS
RISE AS EV
PUSH DRIVES
HIGHER SALES

136
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138
Automaker Stellantis reported its earnings grew
in 2022 from a year earlier and said its push into
electric vehicles led to a jump in sales even as it
faces growing competition from an industrywide
shift to more climate-friendly offerings.
Stellantis, formed in 2021 from the merger of
Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, said net
revenue of 179.6 billion euros ($191 billion) was
up 18% from 2021, citing strong pricing and
its mix of vehicles. It reported net profit of 16.8
billion euros, up 26% from 2021.

Stellantis plans to convert all of its European

sales and half of its U.S. sales to battery-electric
vehicles by 2030. It said the strategy led to a 41%
increase in battery EV sales in 2022, to 288,000
vehicles, compared with the year earlier.

The company has “demonstrated the

effectiveness of our electrification strategy in
Europe,” CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement.
“We now have the technology, the products, the
raw materials and the full battery ecosystem to
lead that same transformative journey in North
America, starting with our first fully electric Ram
vehicles from 2023 and Jeep from 2024.”
The automaker is competing in an increasingly
crowded field for a share of the electric vehicle
market. Companies are scrambling to roll out
environmentally friendly models as they look to
hit goals of cutting climate-changing emissions,
driven by government pressure.

The transformation has gotten a boost from

a U.S. law that is rolling out big subsidies for
clean technology like EVs but has European
governments calling out the harm that they
say the funding poses to homegrown industry
across the Atlantic.

139
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141
Stellantis’ Jeep brand will start selling two fully
electric SUVs in North America and another one
in Europe over the next two years. It says its Ram
brand will roll out an electric pickup truck this
year, joining a rush of EV competitors looking to
claim a piece of the full-size truck market.

The company plans to bring 25 battery-electric

models to the U.S. by 2030. As part of that push,
it has said it would build two EV battery factories
in North America.

A $2.5 billion joint venture with Samsung will

bring one of those facilities to Indiana, which
is expected to employ up to 1,400 workers.
The other factory will be in Windsor, Ontario,
a collaboration with South Korea’s LG Energy
Solution that aims to create about 2,500 jobs.
The EV push comes amid a slowdown in U.S. car
sales tied to a global computer chip shortage
and other problems finding parts. Sales at
Stellantis dropped 13% last year.

The company also announced a share buyback

valued at up to 1.5 billion euros to be carried out
this year as well as a 4.2 billion-euro dividend,
amounting to 1.34 euros per share.

142
143
144
 JAPAN ABORTS
LAUNCH OF
NEW ROCKET
CARRYING
MISSILE SENSOR

145
146
Japan’s space agency aborted the inaugural
launch of its next-generation H3 rocket after
the auxiliary booster engines failed to ignite,
officials said.

The main engine of the rocket, which is carrying

an observation satellite and an experimental
sensor to detect missile launches, had already
ignited when the launch was halted, the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency said.

“I know many people were waiting for and

looking forward to this day. I’m so sorry. We also
feel extremely regretful and frustrated,” JAXA
project manager Masashi Okada said at a news
conference as he wiped away tears.
Okada described it as an aborted launch — not a
failure — because it was suspended as a result of
safety features that functioned properly.

Still, the unsuccessful launch at the Tanegashima

Space Center in southern Japan was a setback
for Japan’s space program, which suffered an
earlier failed launch in October of a smaller
Epsilon-series sold-fueled rocket designed to
launch scientific satellites.

The H3 launch had been put off from earlier in

the week due to poor weather after more than a
two-year postponement from 2020 because of an
engine development delay.
The H3 rocket — Japan’s first new series in more
than 22 years — was developed at a cost of 200
billion yen ($1.5 billion) by JAXA and Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries as a successor to Japan’s H-2A
rocket, which is due to retire after its upcoming
50th launch.

Okada said the H3s main engine ignited

successfully, but the subsequent signal to ignite

147
a pair of auxiliary boosters was not sent after an
unidentified abnormality was detected in the
process. He said the problem was not related to
the engines but was most likely in an electrical
system in the first stage.
“We will investigate the cause as soon as possible
and do our utmost to try again,” Okada said. He
said he hopes the problem can be resolved and
another launch attempted before the current
launch window closes on March 10.

The rocket is carrying an Advanced Land

Observation Satellite tasked primarily with
Earth observation and data collection for
disaster response and map making, and an
experimental infrared sensor developed by
the Defense Ministry that can monitor military
activity including missile launches.

The H3, about 60 meters (196 feet) long,

can carry larger payloads than the 53-meter
(174-foot) H-2A. But its launch cost has been
slashed approximately in half to about 50
million yen ($371,000) by simplifying its design,
manufacturing and operation in an effort
to win more commercial launch customers.
The hydrogen-fueled main engine is newly
developed and uses fewer parts by altering the
combustion method.
The space launch business has become increasing
competitive, with major players including SpaceX
and Arianespace.

148
149
REESE
WITHERSPOON,
ASHTON
KUTCHER SHINE
IN A ROM-COM’

150
151
If you decide to settle in and watch “Your Place
or Mine” to see the sparks fly between Reese
Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, you’ll be
initially disappointed. They’re not in the same
room until the last 12 minutes.

The premise of this particular Netflix rom-com

is two old friends switching homes for a week
and snapping each other out of their ruts.
Might they also fall in love? (Do many rom-
coms not end that way?)

In this one, Witherspoon and Kutcher play

opposites — he’s a rich consultant who lives
in a chic but chilly New York apartment; she’s
an earthy and protective single mom to a
13-year-old boy in Los Angeles. They hooked
up 20 years ago but decided friendship was the
better path.
These two talk every day, forcing the
filmmakers to spend a fortune on split screens.
It’s an intimate relationship over two decades
as each supports and encourages the other.
Someone asks him the obvious question — “If
you like each other so much, why aren’t you
guys together?” — and there is no really good
answer. She offers another: “Uh, barf.”

A last-minute emergency triggers the film’s

central action: Witherspoon needs to fly to
New York but her childcare main option flakes,
so Kutcher’s character decides to go to Los
Angeles as backup. “You need help and I’m
coming,” he tells her. They find themselves
in each other’s homes, getting to know each
others’ friends and generally shaking things up.

Written and directed by Aline Brosh McKenna,

“Your Place or Mine” is cute and light from a
creator known more for satires like “Devil Wears

152
153
 Your Place Or Mine | Official Trailer | Netflix

154
155
Prada” and “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” This Valentine’s
Day, it hits the spot if you’re in the mood for pretty
people acting insecure and clueless.
At first, though, the film meanders with an
alarming lack of urgency, as if Brosh McKenna
was happy enough just filling the screen with
her two beautiful leads and putting them in
pretty places. You might initially mistake it as a
rom-com for real estate.

Eventually, each start to see the other as a

project that needs fixing. Kutcher tries to
loosen up his best friend’s son — snack on
junk food, letting him watch scary movies and
allowing him to try out for the hockey team, all
things forbidden when mom’s around. He sees
it all as an extension of work: “That’s what I do: I
get in, manage things, no muss, no fuss.”

On the other coast, Witherspoon finds an old

manuscript her best friend has hidden from her
and decides she must try to get it published.
She also flirts with a hunky publisher — Jesse
Williams, smoldering — and breaks all logic
when she doesn’t immediately fall into the
cool, sensual piercing blue of his eyes and
never wants to leave... Wait, where was I?
The film soon mines an interesting area,
namely how much do best friends really
know about each other? When Witherspoon’s
character finds the book, she is in shock. “We
tell each other everything,” she says. Replies a
friend: “Obviously you don’t.” This is also a film
that champions taking a chance, going for it
and not playing it safe.

The film allows Witherspoon and Kutcher to

show off their naturally funny sides, especially
when they’re fishes out of water. But many

156
157
158
Reese Witherspoon & Ashton Kutcher Guess Mov-
ie Quotes | Your Place Or Mine

159
of the scenes drag on and sometimes the
exposition is chalky, like when Witherspoon
says: “I have to finish this program before the
end of the year so I can apply for that open
senior accounting position at the regional
school district.”
Some smaller roles give important jolts of
quirky, like Zoë Chao as a slinky former flame
of Kutcher’s character in New York and Tig
Notaro and Steve Zahn in LA. Notaro’s wit is
as dry as a cactus, while Zahn plays a loopy
gardener who is credited for writing two
oddball songs on the soundtrack.

Speaking of songs, the producers must have

forked over tons of cash to the estate of Ric
Ocasek. To establish Kutcher’s character as a fan
of The Cars, no less than nine songs — including
“Heartbreak City,” “Drive” and “You Might Think”
— have been used. The film’s soundtrack could
double as a greatest-hits album.

The film builds to — finally! — a scene when

Witherspoon and Kutcher are in the same zip
code and a nice flipping of the traditional rom-
com airport scene on its head. That’s when the
film answers the question can men and women
just be friends with a strong: “Uh, barf.”
“Your Place or Mine,” a Netflix release, is rated
PG-13 for “suggestive material and brief strong
language.” Running time: 111 minutes. Two and
a half stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may

be inappropriate for children under 13.

Online: https://www.netflix.com/title/81045831

160
161
 Jordan Davis

162
 TRUSTFALL
P!NK

ROLLING UP THE WELCOME MAT - EP

KELSEA BALLERINI

BLUEBIRD DAYS
JORDAN DAVIS

QUEST FOR FIRE

SKRILLEX

DON’T GET TOO CLOS

SKRILLEX

STARTING OVER
CHRIS STAPLETON

ONCE UPON A MIND

JAMES BLUNT

TRAVELLER
CHRIS STAPLETON

MIDNIGHTS (3AM EDITION)

TAYLOR SWIFTTRACKS

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC!, VOL. 85

VARIOUS ARTISTS

163
 Dolly Parton

164
 THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER (LIVE)
CHRIS STAPLETON

JOLENE
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN FEAT. DOLLY PARTON

SUPER BOWL LVII HALFTIME SHOW (LIVE)

RIHANNA

FLOWERS
MILEY CYRUS

MONSTERS
JAMES BLUNT

YESHUA
JESUS IMAGE

NEVER
HEART

HOLY FOREVER
BETHEL MUSIC & JENN JOHNSON

BEAUTY
BETHEL MUSIC & DAVID FUNK

HOPE
NF

165
 RuPaul’s Drag Race

166
 THE WORLD-WIDE PRIVACY TOUR
SOUTH PARK

LIPSYNC LALAPARUZA SMACKDOWN

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

REUNION, PT. 1
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF POTOMAC

LUDACRISMAS
ALL AMERICAN

WEDDING RINGS & SECRET FLINGS

LOVE AFTER LOCKUP

DON’T SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE

ALL AMERICAN

A KNIFE AND NO COIN

YELLOWSTONE

DON’T SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE

VANDERPUMP RULES

IF YOU CAN’T JUMP, YOU PLUNGE

90 DAY FIANCE: THE OTHER WAY

TURN DOWN FOR WHAT

ALL AMERICAN

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 Gregg Hurwitz

168
 IT ENDS WITH US
COLLEEN HOOVER

IT STARTS WITH US
COLLEEN HOOVER

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
BONNIE GARMUS

CLUE KREWE
JANA DELEON

VERITY
COLLEEN HOOVER

SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES

JOJO MOYES

NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT

KRISTAN HIGGINS

THE LAST ORPHAN

GREGG HURWITZ

UNNATURAL HISTORY
JONATHAN KELLERMAN

DAISY JONES & THE SIX

TAYLOR JENKINS REID

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 P!nk

170
 FLOWERS
MILEY CYRUS

MONSTERS
JAMES BLUNT

LAST NIGHT
MORGAN WALLEN

FUNKY COLD MEDINA

TONE-LOC

TRUSTFALL
P!NK

JUST SAY I’M SORRY (FEAT. CHRIS...)

P!NK

BUST A MOVE
YOUNG MC

LIFT ME UP (FROM BLACK PANTHER...)

RIHANNA

WHEN I GET THERE

P!NK

WILD THING
TONE-LOC

171
MICROSOFT
MAKES CASE
FOR ACTIVISION
MERGER AMID
EU SCRUTINY

Microsoft’s Xbox video game division

announced new partnerships with Nintendo
and chipmaker Nvidia as it tries to persuade
European regulators to approve its planned
$68.7 billion takeover of game publishing giant
Activision Blizzard.

A key audience for the announcements were the

European Union antitrust regulators who held
a closed-door meeting with executives from
Microsoft and some of its competitors, including
Sony and Google.

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Microsoft announced a 10-year agreement
with chipmaker Nvidia to bring Xbox games
to Nvidia’s cloud gaming service. Microsoft
also said it has now signed a similar deal with
Nintendo, formalizing a commitment it revealed
late last year.
What it does not have is an agreement with
Xbox’s chief rival, PlayStation-maker Sony, which
has sought to convince antitrust regulators
around the world to stop the Activision
Blizzard merger.

The all-cash deal, which is set to be the largest in

the history of the tech industry, faces pushback
from regulators in the U.S. and Europe because
it would give Microsoft control of popular game
franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft
and Candy Crush.

The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s

executive arm, has been investigating whether
the merger would distort fair competition to
popular Activision Blizzard game titles. It’s
scheduled to make a decision by March 23.
Microsoft first announced the agreement to buy
the California-based game publisher early last
year, but the takeover has also been stalled in
the U.S., where the Federal Trade Commission
has sued to block the deal, and in Britain, where
an antitrust watchdog’s provisional report said it
will stifle competition and hurt gamers.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond,

Washington, has been counting on getting
approval in either the EU or Britain to help
advance its case in the U.S.

Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said at a

Brussels news conference after meeting with
regulators that he was “not in a position to say

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exactly what was said in the hearing room” but
emphasized that Xbox has a much smaller share
of the market than PlayStation does in Europe,
and asserted that the deal would be good
for the industry by bringing more games to
more people.

“For us at Microsoft, this has never been about

spending $69 billion so that we could acquire
titles like Call of Duty and make them less
available to people,” Smith said. “That’s actually
not a great way to turn a $69 billion asset into
something that will become more valuable
over time.”

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 JAPANESE
STARTUP
UNVEILS
BALLOON
FLIGHT SPACE
VIEWING TOURS

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A Japanese startup announced plans to launch
commercial space viewing balloon flights that
it hopes will bring an otherwise astronomically
expensive experience down to Earth.
Company CEO Keisuke Iwaya said passengers do
not need to be billionaires, go through intense
training or have the language skills needed to fly
in a rocket.

“It’s safe, economical and gentle for people,”

Iwaya told reporters. “The idea is to make space
tourism for everyone.” He said he wants to
“democratize space.”

The company, Iwaya Giken, based in Sapporo

in northern Japan, has been working on the
project since 2012 and says it has developed an
airtight two-seat cabin and a balloon capable
of rising up to an altitude of 25 kilometers
(15 miles), where the curve of the Earth can
be clearly viewed. While passengers won’t be
in outer space — the balloon only goes up
to roughly the middle of the stratosphere —
they’ll be higher than a jet plane flies and have
an unobstructed view of outer space.
The company teamed up with major Japanese
travel agency JTB Corp., which announced plans
to collaborate on the project when the company is
ready for a commercial trip. Initially, a flight would
cost about 24 million yen ($180,000), but Iwaya
said he aims to eventually bring it down to several
million yen (tens of thousands of dollars).

While Japanese space ventures have fallen behind

U.S. companies like SpaceX, Iwaya said his aim is to
make space more reachable.

SpaceX launched three rich businessmen and

their astronaut escort to the International
Space Station in April for $55 million each —

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the company’s first private charter flight to the
orbiting lab after two years of carrying astronauts
there for NASA.

But unlike a rocket or a hot air balloon, the Iwaya

Giken vessel will be lifted by helium that can
be largely reused, company officials said, and
flights will safely stay above Japanese territory or
airspace. The first trip is planned as early as later
this year.

The balloon, which can carry a pilot and a

passenger, would take off from a balloon port
in Hokkaido, rise for two hours to as high as
25 kilometers (15 miles) and stay there for one
hour before a one-hour descent. The drum-
shaped plastic cabin is 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in
diameter and has several large windows to
allow a view of space above or the Earth below,
the company said.
Applications for a space viewing ride opened
Tuesday and will continue through the end of
August. The first five passengers selected will be
announced in October, company officials said,
and flights will be approximately a week apart,
depending on the weather.

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