The courier firm already has some experience delivering medical products thanks to its WakeMed partnership, which sees it delivering medical samples across WakeMed’s campus. This is far more ambitious, of course. UPS would be flying over residential areas and deliver a much wider range of products.

There’s a strong incentive to move quickly. Wing’s deal could give FedEx an early edge in the fledgling courier drone space — this prevents a rival from gaining too much technological ground. CVS no doubt wants to counter Walgreens as well. And then there’s pure bragging rights. This positions both UPS and CVS as tech-savvy companies, even if it could take a long time before a robotic aircraft delivers your medication.

“Protecting these next generation communications networks from disruption or manipulation and ensuring the privacy and individual liberties of the citizens of the United States, Poland, and other countries is of vital importance,” the agreement reportedly states.

As Reuters notes, Huawei has a strong presence in Poland. But in January, authorities arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a former Polish security official on spying allegations. Huawei denied the charges, but it has remained under scrutiny.

The US has been urging other countries against using Huawei’s 5G network tech since last year. Huawei has repeatedly denied US allegations and objected to being blacklisted by the Trump administration. This spring, the UN said that US fears over Huawei’s equipment are politically motivated. Huawei has through November 19th to serve existing US customers. Time will tell if more countries take a similarly wary stance toward 5G network equipment from foreign providers.

Under the new agreement, the carriers will implement call-blocking technology, make anti-robocall tools free to consumers and deploy a system that labels calls as legitimate or spam, The Washington Post reports. The companies also agree to aid investigations by law enforcement. The major players — AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) — are on board, as well as smaller carriers — Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Consolidated, Frontier, US Cellular and Windstream. Though, there’s no deadline for the companies to implement these measures.

Several of the companies already have their own tools. AT&T and Comcast use the STIR/SHAKEN protocol to verify calls between their networks, and AT&T and T-Mobile have a similar agreement. Verizon uses the same technology to offer a free spam filter to its customers. The FCC recently voted to allow carriers to block robocalls by default. This summer, the FTC cracked down on operations responsible for one billion robocalls, and a bipartisan bill to curb the spam calls passed Senate.

But rather than wait on regulations, the carriers and attorneys general are moving forward with this agreement. “We don’t want our efforts to be contingent on actions by Congress,” said Josh Stein, attorney general of North Carolina. He said the goal is to “catalyze” the industry to end robocalls and for carriers to take action “as soon as practical.”

The agreement also improves residual earnings from movie theaters, sets new overtime rules for stunt performers, offers more exclusivity and options rights and creates protections against harassment and for auditions. SAG-AFTRA added that minimum salary and turnaround conditions now apply to all Netflix shows, whether or not they reach the “high-budget” streaming threshold. An actor won’t need to be part of a large production just to get pay guarantees.

The contract expires June 30th, 2022.

While SAG-AFTRA clearly sees its actors as the main beneficiaries of the deal, Netflix has plenty of reasons to hop aboard. If the internet giant is going to attract top talent, it needs to reassure performers that they’ll be treated well — even if they’re not visible in a given scene. Increases in pay and labor costs could easily pay for themselves if they lead to greater star power and more awards.

The companies are poised to talk about extending the partnership at a July 11th meeting, according to one of the sources.

Neither VW nor Ford is willing to discuss the finer points of negotiations, although spokespeople for both said they were making progress.

If the agreement holds, this could have a far-reaching effect on both companies as well as the industry at large. VW would land one of its largest rivals as a customer, guaranteeing a major influence over the near future of EVs and autonomous driving. Ford, meanwhile, could fast track its electrification plans and focus more on the finer points of design than the basics. As for drivers? A deal would reduce the amount of variety in EV and driverless options, but the commonality could improve the economies of scale and make the technology more affordable.

The signatories include major countries like the US, China and Russia. However, there are already concerns as to whether or not this will lead to concrete action. Some of the participants are highly protective of their country’s data, for various reasons. China and Russia, for instance, tend to insist on companies storing data locally both as a competitive tool and to help them crack down on political dissidents. The European Union, meanwhile, is concerned about privacy violations that can come with sharing info outside of member states.

Other G20 members, including India, Indonesia and South Africa, were also absent. India in particular has wanted to keep data at home to claim a competitive edge.

Osaka Track could still be helpful. It promises to frame negotiations over digital commerce at the World Trade Organization, where 78 countries intend to participate. However, it’s really just the start of a long, uncertain process — albeit a promising one.

Work will start “immediately,” Volvo said. Staff from Volvo and NVIDIA will even share workspace at their respective headquarters in Gothenburg and Santa Clara. There’s no timetable for when you can expect to see the first fruits of the partnership on a road near you.

To some degree, this is about fast-tracking Volvo’s work to keep up with the competition. Waymo is testing self-driving big rigs, while a more direct rival like Daimler wants its autonomous trucks on the road within a decade. The NVIDIA team-up could save Volvo from doing as much work as it would if it had to develop systems largely from scratch.

Moreover, driverless trucks would simply be good business for Volvo. They can run around the clock without stopping for anything other than recharge or refill, and they’d be particularly helpful for mundane tasks like navigating some bus routes and offloading cargo. The sooner Volvo can get these vehicles on the road, the more trucks it can sell to companies that might have otherwise held back.

Some of the data transfer won’t be completely voluntary. A judge has ordered Airbnb to comply with subpoenas by providing detailed info for “dozens” of hosts and “hundreds” of guests who’ve either listed or stayed in over a dozen buildings in three boroughs over the past seven years. The data includes sensitive material like names and addresses, bank account details and reservation histories.

An Airbnb representative told Wired that the company hoped that honoring the subpoenas was a “first step” toward city regulations that were in line with its rights and obligations. It also claimed this “reinforces” privacy concerns by having the city show the court why it needed more detailed information. The company had previously characterized the subpoenas as “overbroad and unduly burdensome.”

This doesn’t represent a definitive end to the quarrel between Airbnb and NYC, but it could have a significant influence on how the city treats home rental services. The metropolis has long been concerned that Airbnb and similar services exacerbate housing issues by letting tenants and landlords turn apartments into makeshift hotel rooms, denying permanent residents a place to stay. Airbnb’s info could help NYC determine the scale of this practice and prosecute offenders.

The US Commerce Department tempered expectations somewhat by noting that this is ultimately a “vehicle” for team-ups rather than a formal alliance. As a member of the European Union, Luxembourg can only realistically do so much without involving its EU neighbors. Still, it won’t be surprising if space commerce gets a significant boost through this agreement — even if it takes years to see the results.