In the vast woodlands that surround the Bavarian city of Augsburg, Eva Ritter looks across piles upon piles

Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded

Apple’s upcoming iPhone 15 Pro could be delayed or in short supply, rumours are increasingly suggesting. The phone might not arrive until October – and even then could be hit by stock shortages, according to a run of leaks. The potential shortage is at least in part the result of issues with making the new screens used in the premium, Pro and larger Pro Max models, according to a new report from The Information. Apple has been working to shrink the bezel around the display, and the new manufacturing process has made it harder to make the new device, it reported. Even if the phone does arrive on time, it is likely to be hit by stock shortages, the same report suggested. The manufacturing issues come at the point when the display is attached to the metal shell of the phone, but the process is failing in some cases. Apple is tweaking the design so that it can be more efficiently made, and can also rely on other manufacturers to build the phone. That new rumour came just hours after a research note from Bank of America Global Research that suggested the phone could be delayed by a “few weeks”, likely into October. That report came from analyst Wamsi Mohan – who previously correctly predicted that the iPhone 12 range would be delayed when it was released in 2020. That year, Apple released the new phone around a month later than usual, showing it off at an event on 13 October and then releasing it on 23 October. That year’s 12 Mini was delayed even further, not arriving until November. Those previous delays also came when Apple launched a new redesign, then for the first time since the iPhone X that came two years before. But the issues in 2020 were also at least in part because of lockdowns, which slowed down production in China. Last year, Apple also delayed the release of the iPhone 14 Plus into October. While the rest of its line-up was announced and released on the usual timescale, the larger version of the cheaper phone did not go on sale until 8 October. While the delay will mean only that customers may be required to wait for their new phone, it could also have significant consequences for Apple. Pushing the phone back into the fourth quarter of the year would mean that they would be logged as being in the next financial year in the company’s finances. Read More Apple ‘secretly working on its own AI chatbot’ Beats launches updated version of Studio Pro over-ear headphones Rare ‘Holy Grail’ iPhone sells for almost $200,000

President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced plans to curb planet-warming emissions from the nation's power stations, as part of the United States'...

Adin Ross posted a video in which he attacked Darvin Ham after losing $4 million in bets

TL;DR: Study for a dozen different IT certification exams with the Complete 2023 CompTIA Certification

LEGO’s Concorde plane is as sleek as its real-life counterpart.

Melanie Martinez fans have expressed their disappointment with the popstar over her VIP package on her Portals tour. The description of the package on Ticketmaster promises an "interactive photo experience" for VIP ticketholders, leading fans to believe this meant an in-person meet-and-greet with Martinez herself. However, this wasn't the case as the photo experience was Martinez in the form of an AI-generated hologram of that greets fans in her prosthetic mask, so the fans didn't get to meet the singer in person. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter With VIP tickets costing around $400, it has led to fans sharing their discontent on social media. "Does anyone else think the VIP AI meet and greet with Melanie is kinda stupid? I mean, the VIP tickets were $400, and you didn't even really get anything," one fan complained on TikTok. @melsgrippingtoes I still love melane and everything Im literally going to her concert. But she could atleast put in some more effort @kbhorsefan I’d be beyond upset oh my god #melaniemartinez #portals Another added: "When I saw videos of it, I thought that it was a joke, but then no that’s the real thing and it’s so disappointing." "It’s not even ai it’s just a pre-recorded video of her," someone else replied. A fourth person commented: "I would not pay for that… imma just take someone else’s video and photoshop me in. Same thing." Though some fans did defend Martinez, noting that a meet-and-greet was not mentioned in the package. One person said: "I thought it was cute everyone's hating it never said anywhere there was going to be a meet and greet. The concert was so fun." @katebellla I thought it was cute everyones hating it never said anywhere there was going to be a meet and greet. The concert was so fun ? #portalstour @Melanie Martinez "It wasn’t labeled as a meet and greet tho. It was 400 to be upfront in her concert, the ai thing was just an extra thing included," another person wrote. Someone else added: "I mean if it stated AI meet and greet and cost $400 maybe just don’t go." While other fans also claimed they didn't receive their VIP merchandise such as a signed poster, VIP merch and tote bag. One person said: "I didn’t even get the merch bruh," as another similarly echoed: "I heard someone bought VIP and didn't even get the merchandise stuff." Melanie Martinez's third album, Portals is out now after being released back on March 31. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Airbnb is celebrating the upcoming Barbie movie with the Barbie DreamHouse sleepover of your dreams.

Wall Street is returning to climate talks that it largely snubbed last year, as the United Arab Emirates

A top engineer at Twitter has announced he is quitting his role with the company following the glitch-ridden launch of Florida governor Ron Desantis’s 2024 presidential campaign on the social media platform. “After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday,” Foad Dabiri, who was an engineering chief at Twitter, tweeted on Thursday. The Twitter engineer’s exit from the company comes a day after Mr DeSantis’s long-anticipated 2024 campaign bid for the White House on a Twitter livestream. Mr DeSantis’s campaign launch announcement on Twitter Spaces – the platform’s audio group-chat feature – was marred by a a host of glitches, including long silences and persistent echoes. The Twitter app reportedly crashed for several users who tuned in to listen to the announcement and at one point the Republican governor himself disappeared from the livestream. Mr Musk – who had boasted about several overhauls to the microblogging site since his takeover of the company to make Spaces better – shut the initial Spaces event and started a new one. The second event where Mr DeSantis read a short speech, reportedly gathered fewer listeners than the first, attracting about 161,000 people, according to Twitter’s public-facing data. The buggy event, according to many users on the social media platform, is a reflection of how Twitter under Mr Musk is far from operating smoothly. Since Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter, he has laid off nearly three-fourths of the company’s workforce, following which the platform has faced several technical issues. Earlier this week, a bug caused tweets deleted by some users in the past to resurface on their timelines, and weeks earlier, many users complained that they were unable to post images and share external links. Mr Dabiri was the engineering lead at Twitter’s Growth Organisation. He tweeted on Thursday that during his stint with the company, he “experienced two distinct eras” before and after Mr Musk’s takeover. “And then came ‘2.0.’ What an extraordinary journey it has been. To say it was challenging at the outset would be an understatement,” Mr Dabiri said. The engineering chief however did not comment on why he was leaving Twitter, and whether it is linked to the problems with the DeSantis livestream. Both Twitter and Mr Dabiri did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. “Working with Elon Musk has been highly educational, and it was enlightening to see how his principles and vision are shaping the future of this company,” he tweeted. Read More Ron DeSantis news – live: DeSantis floats pardoning Trump and Jan 6 rioters after ‘train wreck’ Twitter launch AOC jokes more people watched her gaming online than listened to glitch-ridden DeSantis launch DeSantis pushes past embarrassing campaign start, outlines travel schedule for early state visits AOC jokes more people watched her gaming online than listened to DeSantis launch What is Twitter Spaces and why did it go so wrong during DeSantis’s 2024 launch? What are Elon Musk’s political beliefs?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 22, 2023--