solved:
apt-transport-https must have been corrupted or some other similar issue. (i am not sure if this previous sentence actually had anything to do with the successful repair, but i did it, so i am documenting) then used apt-get purge remove apt-transport-https, and followed the checked answer to complete my repair of the issue.
original:
I am running ubuntu 21.10 and apt-get update stopped working, here is the output:
sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security InRelease [90.7 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates InRelease [90.7 kB]
Hit:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-backports InRelease
Err:4 https://dl.bintray.com/etcher/debian stable InRelease
403 Forbidden [IP: 52.42.128.10 443]
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch https://deb.etcher.io/dists/stable/InRelease 403 Forbidden [IP: 52.42.128.10 443]
E: The repository 'https://deb.etcher.io stable InRelease' is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
Any ideas why this would have suddenly started happening? And how to repair it?