Bad DOGE Judge orders Musk and DOGE to delete personal data taken from Social Security Restraining order blocks DOGE's "unlimited access" to Social Security records. Jon Brodkin Mar 21, 2025 2:18 pm | 12 A sign in front of the entrance of the Security Administration's main campus on March 19, 2025 in Woodlawn, Maryland. Credit: Getty Images | Kayla Bartkowski A sign in front of the entrance of the Security Administration's main campus on March 19, 2025 in Woodlawn, Maryland. Credit: Getty Images | Kayla Bartkowski Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA federal judge yesterday issued a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE's access to Social Security Administration records, saying the DOGE agency created by President Donald Trump "is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion."Plaintiffs are likely to win their case alleging that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and other government defendants are violating the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, said a ruling by US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in the District of Maryland. Social Security officials "provided members of the SSA DOGE Team with unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers' license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses," Hollander wrote.Trump and Musk have claimed there is widespread Social Security fraud, with Musk calling it "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time." But there's no evidence to justify the DOGE access purportedly needed to root out fraud, Hollander wrote:Yet, defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA's entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government. Indeed, the government has not even attempted to explain why a more tailored, measured, titrated approach is not suitable to the task. Instead, the government simply repeats its incantation of a need to modernize the system and uncover fraud. Its method of doing so is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer.SSA, Musk, and DOGE are defendantsThe defendants are the SSA and its leaders; Elon Musk, "in his official capacity as Senior Advisor to the President and de facto head of DOGE"; the US DOGE Service; the US DOGE Service Temporary Organization; and DOGE Acting Administrator Amy Gleason. There are also "ten anonymous individuals affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency with unfettered access to the SSA records of millions of Americans," Hollander wrote.The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Alliance for Retired Americans; and American Federation of Teachers. "Never before has a group of unelected, unappointed, and unvetted individualscontradictorily described as White House employees, employees of either existing or putative agencies (multiple and many), and undefined 'advisors'sought or gained access to such sensitive information from across the federal government," the lawsuit said.A temporary restraining order preserves the status quo until a preliminary injunction hearing can be held, although the legal standards for granting a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction are essentially the same, Hollander wrote. A temporary restraining order lasts 14 days by default but can be extended."In my view, plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits as to their claim that the access to records provided by SSA to the DOGE Team does not fall within the need-to-know exception to the Privacy Act. Therefore, the access violates both the Privacy Act and the APA," Hollander wrote.The SSA has meanwhile been hit with DOGE-fueled budget cuts affecting its operations.The orderThe order says the SSA must cut off DOGE's access. Musk, Gleason, and all other DOGE team members and affiliates "shall disgorge and delete all non-anonymized PII [personally identifiable information] data in their possession or under their control, provided from or obtained, directly or indirectly, from any SSA system of record to which they have or have had access, directly or indirectly, since January 20, 2025," it says.The DOGE defendants are also prohibited "from installing any software on SSA devices, information systems, or systems of record, and shall remove any software that they previously installed since January 20, 2025, or which has been installed on their behalf," and are prohibited "from accessing, altering, or disclosing any SSA computer or software code."The SSA is allowed to provide DOGE with redacted or anonymized records, and may provide "access to discrete, particularized, and non-anonymized data, in accordance with the Privacy Act" under certain conditions. "SSA must first obtain from the DOGE Team member, in writing, and subject to possible review by the Court, a detailed explanation as to the need for the record and why, for said particular and discrete record, an anonymized or redacted record is not suitable for the specified use," the order said. "The general and conclusory explanation that the information is needed to search for fraud or waste is not sufficient to establish need."Defendants were ordered to file a status report by March 24 to certify their compliance and document the actions taken to comply with the order.DOGE is an agency, despite denying itThis is just one of numerous lawsuits filed over DOGE's extraordinary access to personal data housed in government systems. A federal judge in one case blocked DOGE from accessing private data held by the US Department of Education and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and found that "plaintiffs have shown that Education and OPM likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent." In another case, Musk and Trump are appealing a court order requiring the government to turn over information about DOGE.During a hearing, "defendants took the position that DOGE is not an agency," but Hollander rejected this claim. Even if it was true, DOGE not being an agency would hurt its defense, the judge wrote."This is curious. If DOGE is not an agency, then its employees cannot be detailed from DOGE to the SSA under the Economy Act," she wrote.Other courts already ruled that DOGE is an agency, Hollander noted. "Guided by case law, and without the benefit of briefing on the issue, I am satisfied, for the purposes of this opinion, that DOGE is an agency with[in] the meaning of the Privacy Act," the ruling said. "Were I to rule otherwise, I would be compelled to conclude that disclosure of SSA records to the DOGE Team constituted a violation of the Privacy Act, because members of the DOGE Team could not qualify as employees of an agency detailed to SSA."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 12 Comments

You can spell NASA without DEI Trump White House drops diversity plan for Moon landing it created back in 2019 "Were updating our language regarding plans to send crew to the lunar surface." Eric Berger Mar 21, 2025 1:07 pm | 18 NASA names a cadre of "Artemis Astronauts" in 2020. Credit: NASA NASA names a cadre of "Artemis Astronauts" in 2020. Credit: NASA Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAbout five years ago, the Trump-appointed administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, revealed the name of the program that would return humans to the Moon. It was to be Artemis, from a Greek goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo.The symbolism was clear. NASAs second human program to the Moon would be different: We were going to stay this time, there would be more international partnership, and instead of being all-male, the crews would include women. Shortly thereafter, NASA began to refer to Artemis as a program that would land the "first woman" on the Moon. Soon, an additional bit of diversity was added: and the first person of color.One of the very last acts of the first Trump administration in regard to space was to name a cadre of astronauts that would fly as part of the Artemis Program. This subset of 18 people within NASAs corps of four dozen active astronauts skewed significantly more female and minority than the general corps."It is amazing to think that the next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read. The Artemis Team astronauts are the future of American space exploration, and that future is bright," then-Vice President Mike Pence said in 2020.Callie goes to the Moon, then gets memory-holedThe Biden administration embraced this vision and made few major changes to Artemis over the next four years. They leaned into the idea of flying a woman to the Moon in September 2021, when the space agency released a graphic novel titled "First Woman." This was a fictional story about a character named Callie Rodriguez and her group of diverse crewmates as they explored the Moon. The space agency released subsequent editions about their ongoing adventures."Diversity is at the core of NASAs missions and the reason we continue breaking the boundaries of whats possible," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in 2023. "First Woman embodies the rich history of countless women who broke barriers and continue to lead NASA to the stars."That was then. NASAs landing page for the First Woman comic series, where young readers could download or listen to the comic, no longer exists. Callie and her crew survived the airless, radiation-bathed surface of the Moon, only to be wiped out by President Trumps Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion executive order, signed two months ago.Another casualty is the "first woman" language within the Artemis Program. For years, NASA's main Artemis page, an archived version of which is linked here, included the following language: "With the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before."Artemis website changesThe current landing page for the Artemis program has excised this paragraph. It is not clear how recently the change was made. It was first noticed by British science journalist Oliver Morton.The removal is perhaps more striking than Callie's downfall since it was the first Trump administration that both created Artemis and highlighted its differences from Apollo by stating that the Artemis III lunar landing would fly the first woman and person of color to the lunar surface. How NASA's Artemis website appeared before recent changes. Credit: NASA How NASA's Artemis website appeared before recent changes. Credit: NASA For its part, NASA says it is simply complying with the White House executive order by making the changes."In keeping with the Presidents Executive Order, were updating our language regarding plans to send crew to the lunar surface as part of NASAs Artemis campaign," an agency spokesperson said. "We look forward to learning more from about the Trump Administrations plans for our agency and expanding exploration at the Moon and Mars for the benefit of all."The nominal date for the Artemis III landing is 2027, but few in the industry expect NASA to be able to hold to that date. With further delays likely, the space agency will probably not name a crew anytime soon.Eric 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. 18 Comments

Prototaxites formed tall structures like tree trunks, shown in this illustration of a landscape from the Silurian PeriodRICHARD JONES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYA bizarre ancient organism previously thought to be a giant fungus may actually belong to an undiscovered branch of the tree of life that mysteriously went extinct.Prototaxites, which lived between 420 million and 375 million years ago, was the first giant terrestrial life form to inhabit Earth. It grew trunk-like structures up to 8 metres tall and 1 metre wide.Its fossils were first

The Odysseus spacecraft as it approached the moonIntuitive MachinesThe first successful use of a radio telescope on the moon has kicked off a new era of astronomy that could shed light on the cosmic dark ages despite a bumpy landing.NASAs ROLSES-1 (Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath) telescope was mounted on the Odysseus lander, an Intuitive Machines spacecraft that made the first ever private lunar landing last year. While Odysseus was the first such spacecraft to survive a landing, it tipped on its side, rendering most of the equipment on

OpenAI says over 400 million people use ChatGPT every week. But how does interacting with it affect us? Does it make us more or less lonely? These are some of the questions OpenAI set out to investigate, in partnership with the MIT Media Lab, in a pair of new studies. They found that only a small subset of users engage emotionally with ChatGPT. This isnt surprising given that ChatGPT isnt marketed as an AI companion app like Replika or Character.AI, says Kate Devlin, a professor of AI and society at Kings College London, who did not work on the project. ChatGPT has been set up as a productivity tool, she says. But we know that people are using it like a companion app anyway. In fact, the people who do use it that way are likely to interact with it for extended periods of time, some of them averaging about half an hour a day. The authors are very clear about what the limitations of these studies are, but its exciting to see theyve done this, Devlin says. To have access to this level of data is incredible. The researchers found some intriguing differences between how men and women respond to using ChatGPT. After using the chatbot for four weeks, female study participants were slightly less likely to socialize with people than their male counterparts who did the same. Meanwhile, participants who set ChatGPTs voice mode to a gender that was not their own for their interactions reported significantly higher levels of loneliness and more emotional dependency on the chatbot at the end of the experiment. OpenAI currently has no plans to publish either study. Chatbots powered by large language models are still a nascent technology, and its difficult to study how they affect us emotionally. A lot of existing research in the areaincluding some of the new work by OpenAI and MITrelies upon self-reported data, which may not always be accurate or reliable. That said, this latest research does chime with what scientists so far have discovered about how emotionally compelling chatbot conversations can be. For example, in 2023 MIT Media Lab researchers found that chatbots tend to mirror the emotional sentiment of a users messages, suggesting a kind of feedback loop where the happier you act, the happier the AI seems, or on the flipside, if you act sadder, so does the AI.OpenAI and the MIT Media Lab used a two-pronged method. First they collected and analyzed real-world data from close to 40 million interactions with ChatGPT. Then they asked the 4,076 users whod had those interactions how they made them feel. Next, the Media Lab recruited almost 1,000 people to take part in a four-week trial. This was more in-depth, examining how participants interacted with ChatGPT for a minimum of five minutes each day. At the end of the experiment, participants completed a questionnaire to measure their perceptions of the chatbot, their subjective feelings of loneliness, their levels of social engagement, their emotional dependence on the bot, and their sense of whether their use of the bot was problematic. They found that participants who trusted and bonded with ChatGPT more were likelier than others to be lonely, and to rely on it more. This work is an important first step toward greater insight into ChatGPTs impact on us, which could help AI platforms enable safer and healthier interactions, says Jason Phang, an OpenAI policy researcher who worked on the project. A lot of what were doing here is preliminary, but were trying to start the conversation with the field about the kinds of things that we can start to measure, and to start thinking about what the long-term impact on users is, he says. Although the research is welcome, its still difficult to identify when a human isand isntengaging with technology on an emotional level, says Devlin. She says the study participants may have been experiencing emotions that werent recorded by the researchers. In terms of what the teams set out to measure, people might not necessarily have been using ChatGPT in an emotional way, but you cant divorce being a human from your interactions [with technology], she says. We use these emotion classifiers that we have created to look for certain thingsbut what that actually means to someones life is really hard to extrapolate."

2025-03-21T18:21:05Z Read in app Chris Rokos' hedge fund has made money in March when other big-name managers have faltered. Les Wilson This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Rokos Capital, the $20 billion macro fund, is up 3.4% in March through the end of last week.Market volatility has stung other hedge funds, like macro peer Brevan Howard, this month.Rokos is following up 2024, when it made close to 31%.Not all big-name funds have hated March.Chris Rokos' eponymous fund is up 3.4% this month through the end of last week, a person familiar with the firm's performance told Business Insider. The firm is positive for the year, the person said, though Rokos' exact year-to-date performance is unclear.The $20 million manager declined to comment on what drove the standout performance so far in March, but the firm is known for taking big directional bets when it has serious conviction. It's profited off both of President Donald Trump's elections making nearly $1 billion in profits the day after the most recent victory and returned close to 31% last year.March has been a rocky month for plenty of funds, as volatility hit its highest peak this year thanks to uncertain trade policies. One of Rokos' main macro peers, Brevan Howard, was unable to escape it unscathed. Brevan, which Rokos was a cofounder of before launching his own firm in 2015, lost money in its Master Fund to start the month, pushing the strategy's losses to more than 5% for the year, Bloomberg previously reported.Additionally, big-name multistrategy investors struggled to handle the early-month volatility; firms such as Citadel, Millennium, Point72, Balyasny, and Schonfeld lost money during March's first week.Industry sources say these managers have bounced back in recent weeks, though it's unknown to what extent. Stocks have slightly rebounded, as well. While the S&P 500 is down close to 5% for the month, the index is roughly flat since the start of last week, in part thanks to the Federal Reserve's indication on Wednesday that rate cuts later this year are still on the table.

Recycling is a multistep process that many people in Japan closely follow.Recycling bins in Japan can be overwhelming at first. Nickelle Tilley When I moved to Japan and learned I'd have to sort all my trash into nine categories before properly disposing of it, I was overwhelmed.Some of these categories include combustibles, plastic water bottles, plastic containers, aluminum, cardboard, and newspapers.This system was a huge change coming from the US, where recycling mostly includes separating cans and plastic bottles from the rest of my garbage.Before recycling a plastic water bottle in Japan, I wash it first, rinse the inside, recycle the cap separately, and tear off the logo before placing the bottle in a color-coded bag. It might seem tedious, but it's efficient and people seem to follow the recycling rules here closely.Interestingly, I haven't found a lot of public trash cans in Japan. People tend to hold onto their trash and throw it away when they get home, where they can properly categorize it. Honestly, it's refreshing not to see much litter on the streets here.The roads are filled with Kei cars, which are pretty great. Kei cars come in some fun colors. Nickelle Tilley Driving in Japan gave me a huge albeit fun dose of culture shock. The country is home to Kei vehicles, which are tiny (no longer than 11 feet and no wider than 4.9 feet) with a limited engine capacity.I love my lightweight Kei car, a 2017 Suzuki Spacia. It has heated seats, automatic sliding doors, lane assistance, and a camera. Japan has many narrow streets and parking lots, so having a small car makes it easier to navigate traffic and pull into compact parking spots. Plus, it's relatively fuel-efficient.People also drive average-size vans and cars in Japan, but I haven't seen pickup trucks or large SUVs, which are common in the US. Reverse parking also seems to be an unwritten rule in Japan. I've noticed that drivers here tend to back into their parking spots rather than pull in.Napping in public places, including trains and parks, feels perfectly acceptable in Japan.Some people nap on bullet trains. tackune / Shutterstock.com Inemuri, a term that means sleeping on duty, has been a part of Japanese culture for over 1,000 years. It's not uncommon to see someone taking a nap at work, at the subway station, or on the train home.Getting shut-eye isn't frowned upon here like it sometimes is in the US, where it's rare to see someone dozing in public. When you do see someone sleeping on the job or in public, some people in the US may perceive it as laziness. In Japan, many see it as a sign that someone is working hard and putting in long hours.Vending machines in Japan dispense everything from hot coffee to ramen.Japan has a huge vending-machine culture. Nickelle Tilley Vending machines are one of my favorite things in Japan, and they're everywhere. I can barely make it a block or two without running into one.Most of them only serve beverages, from electrolyte water to canned hot coffee. I've also seen ones that dispense ice cream, hot canned soup, warm and cold drinks, and even warm curry and ramen.I've never been tempted to have a meal from a vending machine in the US, but I think I could happily survive off the food and drinks inside the ones in Japan.Many people wear masks inside and outside, even though face coverings aren't required.It's common to wear masks in Japan. Nickelle Tilley When I was living in North Carolina in 2022, I didn't often see people wearing masks in public. So when I moved from there to Japan, I was surprised to find seemingly everyone donning face coverings, both when they were inside and outside.Even though Japan dropped its mask requirements in March 2023, face coverings have remained a fixture of life here. To be fair, people in many Asian countries have worn masks long before the coronavirus pandemic for environmental and cultural reasons.It's been really interesting to see the difference between people's reactions to masks in the US versus in Japan. Face coverings were a highly divisive political issue in the US at the peak of the pandemic, but in Japan, they seem to be widely accepted.Unlike the US, which is known for its individualistic culture, Japan has more of a collectivisticsociety, which prioritizes the group's needs rather than personal needs.Plus, cleanliness is a big part of Japanese culture, so it makes sense that people would want to protect themselves from germs.A lot of public spaces in Japan have incredible accommodations for families and young children.I don't have to bring my own stroller everywhere I go. Nickelle Tilley One of my favorite things about living in Japan has been the family-friendly accommodations, specifically ones for small children.In the US, some malls and amusement parks have strollers, but most of the ones I came across when I was living there weren't free to use.So, you can imagine my surprise when I went to the grocery store in Okinawa for the first time and saw sanitized strollers available to use for free. I later found more of them in malls, stores, and even the airport.Many of these spaces also have child-size bathrooms and baby rooms for nursing individuals.In Japan, some bathroom spaces are designed just for kids. Nickelle Tilley Baby rooms in Japan are usually equipped with comfortable changing tables that are way better than the foldable plastic ones I often saw in the US.They also tend to have benches, a private nursing room, sinks, and even a hot-water dispenser to fill or heat baby bottles. These amenities have been lifesavers.When I was living in the US, I could rarely find a dedicated place in public where I could feed my baby. If I was lucky, I'd find a bathroom in the back of a department store with a lounge for mothers. Still, it was nothing like what I've seen in malls, airports, and department stores in Japan.I've even come across child-size restrooms with small toilets, urinals, and sinks making things easier for kids and giving them some independence.Almost every public restroom I've entered in Japan has been filled with state-of-the-art technology.Many public restrooms in Japan feel clean and modern. Nickelle Tilley I can always count on the public restrooms in Japan to be extremely clean and well-maintained.For starters, many public toilets have bidets, heated seats, and deodorizers to mask unpleasant smells.I've also seen some with a button that turns on a white-noise machine to drown out bathroom sounds. And those unnecessarily large cracks between many bathroom stalls in the US? They're not a thing here.These small details help lessen my bathroom anxiety when I'm out and about. In traditional Japanese bathrooms, people tend to rinse off before and after soaking in tubs.Bathrooms in Japan often consist of a few areas. Nickelle Tilley Bathing is a big part of Japanese culture. Some take to the country's natural hot springs or public baths, but many have special space in their home with full-size tubs.In a traditional Japanese home, the bathrooms consist of three different areas. One is a space for undressing, with a sink and vanity. There's also typically a separate room for the toilet and another with a full-size bathtub and shower.In the US, it's common to get into a bath right away, but in Japan, people tend to rinse off in the shower first and then soak in the tub. After relaxing in the water, they shower again with soap.Because people wash themselves before and after getting in the tub, it's not uncommon for everyone in a household to use the same bath water.Unfortunately, my house in Okinawa doesn't have the traditional Japanese setup (it's on a US military base, where our accommodations are Americanized), but I love enjoying the combination of bathtubs and showers in local hotels and Airbnbs.Starbucks and McDonald's stores in Japan offer seasonal menus with locally inspired treats.I can find fun seasonal treats in Japan. Nickelle Tilley I can find familiar American fast-food chains in Japan, and I like the locations here a lot better than the ones in the US.For example, Starbucks and McDonald's locations in Japan both release seasonal menus, and it's fun to try new items. When the cherry blossoms bloom here, Starbucks releases sakura-inspired Frappuccinos, lattes, and sweets with seasonal cups and packaging. At McDonald's, I've tried a lot of menu items I'd never find back home, from french fries seasoned with nori (seaweed) to special Teritama hamburgers with ginger, egg, apples, and pork patties coated in teriyaki sauce. I've been to McDonald's locations in five different countries, and the ones in Japan have served my favorite items. The top-notch customer service is also unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else.The clothing sizes tend to run much smaller here than they do in the US.It's been tough to get used to the sizes of clothes in Japan. Nickelle Tilley In my experience, the clothes in Japan aren't the most size-inclusive.Most stores I've stopped into only carry sizes between small and extra large. Even though I wear a small or a medium in the US, I fit into garments that are large or extra large here.I've found the pants and sleeve lengths to be shorter than what I'm used to as well.This story was originally published on July 13, 2023, and most recently updated on March 21, 2025.

WWE 2K25 is one of the best games in the series, and a new tool aims to connect players to downloadable superstars much more easily than the in-game system here's how it worksTech18:15, 21 Mar 2025Updated 18:16, 21 Mar 2025You can now pick from just about anyone to tackle Roman Reigns(Image: 2K)WWE 2K25 launched earlier this month, and while there's a huge number of DLC roster updates to come, longtime fans will know fans will have beaten 2K to the punch.Being able to download stars, arenas, and more is one of the best parts about WWE titles, but it's not always been particularly easy to dig through the amazing library. Thankfully, WWE2KTools is a new service from the folks at gaming TV channel Ginx.TV that may make it a little simpler to build your dream roster.Article continues belowHey, maybe you'll be able to find those 'secret' DLC characters like Shaquille O'Neal.WWE 2K25 looks fantastic, and plays well too(Image: 2K)WWE2KTools is a new site that offers a huge database of created superstars, meaning fans can find say, Edge's 2006 attire, and add it to their game with ease by finding the creator.It features a bunch of screenshots to ensure you find what you're looking for, and will eventually feature a wrestler's stats, and a peek at their moveset.You can filter via era, too, meaning you can dig through stars from the Attitude Era, or go straight to Post-Covid, as well as stars from other organisations."The WWE 2K series has long been celebrated for its deep customisation features and thriving player-driven content," a press release explains."WWE2KTools builds on that legacy by offering a streamlined and user-friendly platform where players can browse, upload, and share their favourite community creations - including wrestlers, arenas, and championships - all in one convenient location.""For years, dedicated WWE 2K fans have found creative ways to showcase their work, whether through community spreadsheets or social media. WWE2KTools brings all of that passion under one roof, giving players a centralized space to find, follow, and upload the best community-made content with ease. The platform also caters to fans of all wrestling promotions, making it easy to discover content inspired by AEW, TNA, NJPW, and more."The Bloodline headline this year's Showcase(Image: 2K)More features are planned, too. There's already a way to track current Locker Codes for in-game freebies, but there's also a Universe Mode Planner on the docket that will let players prepare their storylines in advance.A Draft Simulator is also planned, ideal for fantasy bookers so they can generate their chosen brand rosters."The WWE 2K community is incredibly creative, and we wanted to build something that makes it easier for players to find and share the content they love," said James Wright, Editor-in-Chief at GINX TV."WWE2KTools isnt just a websiteits a celebration of the passion and dedication of the games player base. Whether you're looking for the newest superstar creations, custom arenas, or fresh attires for your favorite wrestlers, were excited to provide a platform that makes it all more accessible and enjoyable."We awarded WWE 2K25 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review. We said:Article continues below"Aside from the Island pulling a heel-turn to make John Cena proud, WWE 2K25 is a Hall of Fame entry for a series that just a few years felt like it was approaching release.""Its the most fun you can have with a wrestling video game right now, and while its not a massive change from whats come before, it marks the series' most refined entry yet."For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

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Before Amazon even thinks about casting the next James Bond (or planning the inevitable myriad spinoffs its already tried to get off the ground), with the creative exit of Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson last month the studio needs to find producers willing to take on the next chapter of the legendary spy-fi franchise. And now, it might be close. Variety reports that Amazon and MGM Studios are in close talks to bring aboard both Amy Pascal and David Heyman to shepherd its new creative ownership of the Bond franchise. Pascalthe former head of Sony Pictures best known among nerd circles for production of the Spider-Man movies, a role she continued over the course of the Tom-Holland-led trilogy with Marvel Studios, and will continue with the upcoming Spider-Man 4has history with 007, having been a key player in Sonys distribution of severalBond films in the Daniel Craig era. Heyman, meanwhile, guided the production of theHarry Potter films and their spinoffs at Warner Bros., so is no stranger to the demands of producing a major franchise. Whether or not Amazon ultimately taps Pascal and Heyman, the studio is going to need to find people who are not just willing to head up a huge series likeBond, but ones willing to lean in the direction Amazon wants to take with the franchise. After all, part of the reason the studio has made this deal with Broccoli and Wilson to get them out of the franchise is that the past few years have been spent with less work on Bond movies, and more with behind-the-scenes squabbles between the fiercely protective producers and Amazons desires to spin out its investment beyond just films and into TV and other venues. A report by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month alleged that recent apparent comments by Broccoli that Amazon execs were fucking idiots is what ultimately pushed the company to begin working on a deal to get her and Wilson away from the franchise, after years of stalling over both finding Daniel Craigs replacement and spinoffs like a floated Ms. Moneypenny series. Whoever becomes the next proverbial M of the franchise then, isnt going to just have to deal with managing the next chapter of Bonds story, but the whims of an executive branch who want much more exploitation of the series than weve seen for a long while. A bit Bond-ian in and of itself, really. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.