The racial divide in track events is down to factors other than geneticsHannah Peters/Getty ImagesAdaptableHerman Pontzer (Allen Lane)Fancy eating the real paleo diet? Rotten meat should be top of your menu, preferably with a generous helping of maggots. Dietary records from every continent and climate are alive with maggots, worms and the soft, smelly flesh of decaying animals. Many groups preferred rotten meat to fresh, says evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer. The more it stank, the better.In fact, we seem to have evolved to eat rotten meat. Our stomachs are much more acidic than most other

Heading north in the dark, the only way Gavesh could try to track his progress through the Thai countryside was by watching the road signs zip by. The Jeeps three occupantsGavesh, a driver, and a young Chinese womanhad no languages in common, so they drove for hours in nervous silence as they wove their way out of Bangkok and toward Mae Sot, a city on Thailands western border with Myanmar. When they reached the city, the driver pulled off the road toward a small hotel, where another car was waiting. I had some suspicionslike, why are we changing vehicles? Gavesh remembers. But it happened so fast. They left the highway and drove on until, in total darkness, they parked at what looked like a private house. We stopped the vehicle. There were people gathered. Maybe 10 of them. They took the luggage and they asked us to come, Gavesh says. One was going in front, there was another one behind, and everyone said: Go, go, go. Gavesh and the Chinese woman were marched through the pitch-black fields by flashlight to a riverside where a boat was moored. By then, it was far too late to back out. Gaveshs journey had started, seemingly innocently, with a job ad on Facebook promising work he desperately needed. Instead, he found himself trafficked into a business commonly known as pig butcheringa form of fraud in which scammers form romantic or other close relationships with targets online and extract money from them. The Chinese crime syndicates behind the scams have netted billions of dollars, and they have used violence and coercion to force their workers, many of them people trafficked like Gavesh, to carry out the frauds from large compounds, several of which operate openly in the quasi-lawless borderlands of Myanmar. We spoke to Gavesh and five other workers from inside the scam industry, as well as anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. Their testimony reveals how global companies, including American social media and dating apps and international cryptocurrency and messaging platforms, have given the fraud business the means to become industrialized. By the same token, it is Big Tech that may hold the key to breaking up the scam syndicatesif only these companies can be persuaded or compelled to act. Were identifying Gavesh using a pseudonym to protect his identity. He is from a country in South Asia, one he asked us not to name. He hasnt shared his story much, and he still hasnt told his family. He worries about how theyd handle it. Until the pandemic, he had held down a job in the tourism industry. But lockdowns had gutted the sector, and two years later he was working as a day laborer to support himself and his father and sister. I was fed up with my life, he says. I was trying so hard to find a way to get out. When he saw the Facebook post in mid-2022, it seemed like a godsend. A company in Thailand was looking for English-speaking customer service and data entry specialists. The monthly salary was $1,500far more than he could earn at homewith meals, travel costs, a visa, and accommodation included. I knew if I got this job, my life would turn around. I would be able to give my family a good life, Gavesh says. What came next was life-changing, but not in the way Gavesh had hoped. The advert was a fraudand a classic tactic syndicates use to force workers like Gavesh into an economy that operates as something like a dark mirror of the global outsourcing industry. The true scale of this type of fraud is hard to estimate, but the United Nations reported in 2023 that hundreds of thousands of people had been trafficked to work as online scammers in Southeast Asia. One 2024 study, from the University of Texas, estimates that the criminal syndicates that run these businesses have stolen at least $75 billion since 2020. These schemes have been going on for more than two decades, but theyve started to capture global attention only recently, as the syndicates running them increasingly shift from Chinese targets toward the West. And even as investigators, international organizations, and journalists gradually pull back the curtain on the brutal conditions inside scamming compounds and document their vast scale, what is far less exposed is the pivotal role platforms owned by Big Tech play throughout the industryfrom initially coercing individuals to become scammers to, finally, duping scam targets out of their life savings. As losses mount, governments and law enforcement agencies have looked for ways to disrupt the syndicates, which have become adept at using ungoverned spaces in lawless borderlands and partnering with corrupt regimes. But on the whole, the syndicates have managed to stay a step ahead of law enforcementin part by relying on services from the worlds tech giants. Apple iPhones are their preferred scamming tools. Meta-owned Facebook and WhatsApp are used to recruit people into forced labor, as is Telegram. Social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, WeChat, and X, provide spaces for scammers to find and lure targets. So do dating apps, including Tinder. Some of the scam compounds have their own Starlink terminals. And cryptocurrencies like tether and global crypto platforms like Binance have allowed the criminal operations to move money with little or no oversight. Scam workers sit inside Myanmar's KK Park, a notorious fraud hub near the border with Thailand, following a recent crackdown by law enforcement.REUTERS Private-sector corporations are, unfortunately, inadvertently enabling this criminal industry, says Andrew Wasuwongse, the Thailand country director at the anti-trafficking nonprofit International Justice Mission (IJM). The private sector holds significant tools and responsibility to disrupt and prevent its further growth. Yet while the tech sector has, slowly, begun to roll out anti-scam tools and policies, experts in human trafficking, platform integrity, and cybercrime tell us that these measures largely focus on the downstream problem: the losses suffered by the victims of the scams. That approach overlooks the other set of victims, often from lower-income countries, at the far end of a fraud supply chain that is built on human miseryand on Big Tech. Meanwhile, the scams continue on a mass scale. Tech companies could certainly be doing more to crack down, the experts say. Even relatively small interventions, they argue, could start to erode the business model of the scam syndicates; with enough of these, the whole business could start to founder. The trick is: How do you make it unprofitable? says Eric Davis, a platform integrity expert and senior vice president of special projects at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST), a think tank in California. How do you create enough friction? That question is only becoming more urgent as many tech companies pull back on efforts to moderate their platforms, artificial intelligence supercharges scam operations, and the Trump administration signals broad support for deregulation of the tech sector while withdrawing support from organizations that study the scams and support the victims. All these trends may further embolden the syndicates. And even as the human costs keep building, global governments exert ineffectual pressureif any at allon the tech sector to turn its vast financial and technical resources against a criminal economy that has thrived in the spaces Silicon Valley built. Capturing a vulnerable workforce The roots of pig butchering scams reach back to the offshore gambling industry that emerged from China in the early 2000s. Online casinos had become hugely popular in China, but the government cracked down, forcing the operators to relocate to Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos, and Myanmar. There, they could continue to target Chinese gamblers with relative impunity. Over time, the casinos began to use social media to entice people back home, deploying scam-like tactics that frequently centered on attractive and even nude dealers. The doubts didnt really start until after Gavesh reached Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport. As time ticked by, it began to occur to him that he was alone, with no money, no return ticket, and no working SIM card. Often the romance scam was a part of thatbuilding romantic relationships with people that you eventually would aim to hook, says Jason Tower, Myanmar country director at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a research and diplomacy organization funded by the US government, who researches the cyber scam industry. (USIPs leadership was recently targeted by the Trump administration and Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency task force, leaving the organizations future uncertain; its website, which previously housed its research, is also currently offline.) By the late 2010s, many of the casinos were big, professional operations. Gradually, says Tower, the business model turned more sinister, with a tactic called sha zhu pan in Chinese emerging as a core strategy. Scamming operatives work to fatten up or cultivate a target by building a relationship before going in for the slaughterpersuading them to invest in a supposedly once-in-a-lifetime scheme and then absconding with the money. That actually ended up being much, much more lucrative than online gambling, Tower says. (The international law enforcement organization Interpol no longer uses the graphic term pig butchering, citing concerns that it dehumanizes and stigmatizes victims.) Like other online industries, the romance scamming business was supercharged by the pandemic. There were simply more isolated people to defraud, and more people out of work who might be persuaded to try scamming othersor who were vulnerable to being trafficked into the industry. Initially, most of the workers carrying out the frauds were Chinese, as were the fraud victims. But after the government in Beijing tightened travel restrictions, making it hard to recruit Chinese laborers, the syndicates went global. They started targeting more Western markets and turning, Tower says, to much more malign types of approaches to tricking people into scam centers. Getting recruited Gavesh was scrolling through Facebook when he saw the ad. He sent his rsum to a Telegram contact number. A human resources representative replied and had him demonstrate his English and typing skills over video. It all felt very professional. I didnt have any reason to suspect, he says. The doubts didnt really start until after he reached Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi Airport. After being met at arrivals by a man who spoke no English, he was left to wait. As time ticked by, it began to occur to Gavesh that he was alone, with no money, no return ticket, and no working SIM card. Finally, the Jeep arrived to pick him up. Hours later, exhausted, he was on a boat crossing the Moei River from Thailand into Myanmar. On the far bank, a group was waiting. One man was in military uniform and carried a gun. In my country, if we see an army guy when we are in trouble, we feel safe, Gavesh says. So my initial thoughts were: Okay, theres nothing to be worried about. They hiked a kilometer across a sodden paddy field and emerged at the other side caked in mud. There a van was parked, and the driver took them to what he called, in broken English, the office. They arrived at the gate of a huge compound, surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. While some people are drawn into online scamming directly by friends and relatives, Facebook is, according to IJMs Wasuwongse, the most common entry point for people recruited on social media. Meta has known for years that its platforms host this kind of content. Back in 2019, the BBC exposed slave markets that were running on Instagram; in 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported, drawing on documents leaked by a whistleblower, that Meta had long struggled to rein in the problem but took meaningful action only after Apple threatened to pull Instagram from its app store. Today, years on, ads like the one that Gavesh responded to are still easy to find on Facebook if you know what to look for. Examples of fraudulent Facebook ads, shared by International Justice Mission. They are typically posted in job seekers groups and usually seem to be advertising legitimate jobs in areas like customer service. They offer attractive wages, especially for people with language skillsusually English or Chinese. The traffickers tend to finish the recruitment process on encrypted or private messaging apps. In our research, many experts said that Telegram, which is notorious for hosting terrorist content, child sexual abuse material, and other communication related to criminal activity, was particularly problematic. Many spoke with a combination of anger and resignation about its apparent lack of interest in working with them to address the problem; Mina Chiang, founder of Humanity Research Consultancy, an anti-trafficking organization, accuses the app of being very much complicit in human trafficking and proactively facilitating these scams. (Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.) But while Telegram users have the option of encrypting their messages end to end, making them almost impossible to monitor, social media companies are of course able to access users posts. And its here, at the beginning of the romance scam supply chain, where Big Tech could arguably make its most consequential intervention. Social media is monitored by a combination of human moderators and AI systems, which help flag users and contentads, posts, pagesthat break the law or violate the companies own policies. Dangerous content is easiest to police when it follows predictable patterns or is posted by users acting in distinctive and suspicious ways. They have financial resources. You can hire the most talented coding engineers in the world. Why cant you just find people who understand the issue properly? Anti-trafficking experts say the scam advertising tends to follow formulaic templates and use common language, and that they routinely report the ads to Meta and point out the markers they have identified. Their hope is that this information will be fed into the data sets that train the content moderation models. While individual ads may be taken down, even in big waveslast November, Meta said it had purged 2 million accounts connected to scamming syndicates over the previous yearexperts say that Facebook still continues to be used in recruiting. And new ads keep appearing. (In response to a request for comment, a Meta spokesperson shared links to policies about bans on content or advertisements that facilitate human trafficking, as well as company blog posts telling users how to protect themselves from romance scams and sharing details about the companys efforts to disrupt fraud on its platforms, one statingthat it is constantly rolling out new product features to help protect people on [its] apps from known scam tactics at scale. The spokesperson also said that WhatsApp has spam detection technology, and millions of accounts are banned per month.) Anti-trafficking experts we spoke with say that as recently as last fall, Meta was engaging with them and had told them it was ramping up its capabilities. But Chiang says there still isnt enough urgency from tech companies. Theres a question about speed. They might be able to say Thats the goal for the next two years. No. But thats not fast enough. We need it now, she says. They have financial resources. You can hire the most talented coding engineers in the world. Why cant you just find people who understand the issue properly? Part of the answer comes down to money, according to experts we spoke with. Scaling up content moderation and other processes that could cause users to be kicked off a platform requires not only technological staff but also legal and policy expertswhich not everyone sees as worth the cost. The vast majority of these companies are doing the minimum or less, says Tower of USIP. If not properly incentivized, either through regulatory action or through exposure by media or other forms of pressure often, these companies will underinvest in keeping their platforms safe. Getting set up Gaveshs new office turned out to be one of the most infamous scamming hubs in Southeast Asia: KK Park in Myanmars Myawaddy region. Satellite imagery shows it as a densely packed cluster of buildings, surrounded by fields. Most of it has been built since late 2019. Inside, it runs like a hybrid of a company campus and a prison. When Gavesh arrived, he handed over his phone and passport and was assigned to a dormitory and an employer. He was allowed his own phone back only for short periods, and his calls were monitored. Security was tight. He had to pass through airport-style metal detectors when he went in or out of the office. Black-uniformed personnel patrolled the buildings, while armed men in combat fatigues watched the perimeter fences from guard posts. On his first full day, he was put in front of a computer with just four documents on it, which he had to read over and overguides on how to approach strangers. On his second day, he learned to build fake profiles on social media and dating apps. The trick was to find real people on Instagram or Facebook who were physically attractive, posted often, and appeared to be wealthy and living a luxurious life, he says, and use their photos to build a new account: There are so many Instagram models that pretend they have a lot of money. After Gavesh was trafficked into Myanmar, he was taken to KK Park. Most of the compound has been built since late 2019.LUKE DUGGLEBY/REDUX Next, he was given a batch of iPhone 8smost people on his team used between eight and 10 devices eachloaded with local SIM cards and apps that spoofed their location so that they appeared to be in the US. Using male and female aliases, he set up dozens of accounts on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and X and profiles on several dating platforms, though he cant remember exactly which ones. Different scamming operations teach different techniques for finding and reaching out to potential victims, several people who worked in the compounds tell us. Some people used direct approaches on dating apps, Facebook, Instagram, orfor those targeting Chinese victimsWeChat. One worker from Myanmar sent out mass messages on WhatsApp, pretending to have accidentally messaged a wrong number, in the hope of striking up a conversation. (Tencent, which owns WeChat, declined to comment.) Some scamming workers we spoke to were told to target white, middle-aged or older men in Western countries who seemed to be well off. Gavesh says he would pretend to be white men and women, using information found from Google to add verisimilitude to his claims of living in, say, Miami Beach. He would chat with the targets, trying to figure out from their jobs, spending habits, and ambitions whether theyd be worth investing time in. One South African woman, trafficked to Myanmar in 2022, says she was given a script and told to pose as an Asian woman living in Chicago. She was instructed to study her assigned city and learn quotidian details about life there. They kept on punishing people all the time for not knowing or for forgetting that theyre staying in Chicago, she says, or for forgetting whats Starbucks or whats [a] latte. Fake users have, of course, been a problem on social media platforms and dating sites for years. Some platforms, such as X, allow practically anyone to create accounts and even to have them verified for a fee. Others, including Facebook, have periodically conducted sweeps to get rid of fake accounts engaged in what Meta calls coordinated inauthentic behavior. (X did not respond to requests for comment.) But scam workers tell us they were advised on simple ways to circumvent detection mechanisms on social media. They were given basic training in how to avoid suspicious behavior such as adding too many contacts too quickly, which might trigger the company to review whether someones profile is authentic. The South African woman says she was shown how to manipulate the dates on a Facebook account to seem as if you opened the account in 2019 or whatever, making it easier to add friends. (Metas spam filtersmeant to reduce the spread of unwanted contentinclude limits on friend requests and bulk messaging.) Wang set up a Tinder profile with a picture of a dog and a bio that read, I am a dog. It passed through the platforms verification system without a hitch. Dating apps, whose users generally hope to meet other users in real life, have a particular need to make sure that people are who they say they are. But Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, ended its partnership with a company doing background checks in 2023. It now encourages users to verify their profile with a selfie and further ID checks, though insiders say these systems are often rudimentary. They just check a box and [do] what is legally required or what will make the media get off of [their] case, says one tech executive who has worked with multiple dating apps on safety systems, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak about their work with certain companies. Fangzhou Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington who studies romance scams, ran a test: She set up a Tinder profile with a picture of a dog and a bio that read, I am a dog. It passed through the platforms verification system without a hitch. They are not providing enough security measures to filter out fraudulent profiles, Wang says. Everybody can create anything. Like recruitment ads, the scam profiles tend to follow patterns that should raise red flags. They use photos copied from existing users or made by artificial intelligence, and the accounts are sometimes set up using phone numbers generated by voice-over-internet-protocol services. Then theres the scammers behavior: They swipe too fast, or spend too much time logged in. A normal human doesnt spend eight hours on a dating app a day, the tech executive says. Whats more, scammers use the same language over and over again as they reach out to potential targets. The majority of them are using predesigned scripts, says Wang. It would be fairly easy for platforms to detect these signs and either stop accounts from being created or make the users go through further checks, experts tell us. Signals of some of these behaviors can potentially be embedded into a type of machine-learning algorithm, Wang says. She approached Tinder a few years ago with her research into the language that scammers use on the platforms, and offered to help build data sets for its moderation models. She says the company didnt reply. (In a statement, Yoel Roth, vice president of trust and safety at Match Group, said that the company invests in proactive tools, advanced detection systems and user education to help prevent harm. He wrote, We use proprietary AI-powered tools to help identify scammer messaging, and unlike many platforms, we moderate messages, which allows us to detect suspicious patterns early and act quickly, adding that the company has recently worked with Reality Defender, a provider of deepfake detection tools, to strengthen its ability to detect AI-generated content. A company spokesperson reported having no record of Wangs outreach but said that the company welcome[s] collaboration and [is] always open to reviewing research that can help strengthen user safety.) A recent investigation published in The Markup found that Match Group has long possessed the tools and resources to track sex offenders and other bad actors but has resisted efforts to roll out safety protocols for fear they might slow growth. This tension, between the desire to keep increasing the number of users and the need to ensure that these users and their online activity are authentic, is often behind safety issues on platforms. While no platform wants to be a haven for fraudsters, identity verification creates friction for users, which stops real people as well as impostors from signing up. And again, cracking down on platform violations costs money. According to Josh Kim, an economist who works in Big Tech, it would be costly for tech companies to build out the legal, policy, and operational teams for content moderation tools that could get users kicked off a platformand the expense is one companies may find hard to justify in the current business climate. The shift toward profitability means that you have to be very selective in where you invest the resources that you have, he says. My intuition here is that unless there are fines or pressure from governments or regulatory agencies or the public themselves, he adds, the current atmosphere in the tech ecosystem is to focus on building a product that is profitable and grows fast, and things that dont contribute to those two points are probably being deprioritized. Getting onlineand staying in line At work, Gavesh wore a blue tag, marking him as belonging to the lowest rank of workers. On top of us are the ones who are wearing the yellow tagsthey call themselves HR or translators, or office guys, he says. Red tags are team leaders, managers And then moving from that, they have black and ash tags. Those are the ones running the office. Most of the latter were Chinese, Gavesh says, as were the really big bosses, who didnt wear tags at all. Within this hierarchy operated a system of incentives and punishments. Workers who followed orders and proved successful at scamming could rise through the ranks to training or supervisory positions, and gain access to perks like restaurants and nightclubs. Those who failed to meet the targets or broke the rules faced violence and humiliation. Gavesh says he was once beaten because he broke an unwritten rule that it was forbidden to cross your legs at work. Yawning was banned, and bathroom breaks were limited to two minutes at a time. KATHERINE LAM Beatings were usually conducted in the open, though the most severe punishments at Gaveshs company happened in a room called the water jail. One day a coworker was there alongside the others, and the next day he was not, Gavesh recalls. When the colleague was brought back to the office, he had been so badly beaten he couldnt walk or speak. They took him to the front, and they said: If you do not listen to us, this is what will happen to you. Gavesh was desperate to leave but felt there was no chance of escaping. The armed guards seemed ready to shoot, and there were rumors in the compound that some people who jumped the fence had been found drowned in the river. This kind of physical and psychological abuse is routine across the industry. Gavesh and others we spoke to describe working 12 hours or more a day, without days off. They faced strict quotas for the number of scam targets they had to have on the hook. If they failed to reach them, they were punished. The UN has documented cases of torture, arbitrary detention, and sexual violence in the compounds. We h

Orhan Veli moved to the US as a refugee when he was 11. Courtesy of Orhan Veli 2025-03-27T10:35:01Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Orhan Veli came to the US from the Soviet Union when he was 11.He owns 11 Saladworks locations, which had nearly $12 million in revenue in 2024.He and his wife have sponsored 11 refugees to come to the US from Ukraine.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Orhan Veli, owner of 11 Saladworks locations. It has been edited for length and clarity.I was born in what's now Azerbaijan. When I was a child, the Soviet Union fell apart. My family was of mixed ethnicity: my dad was Russian, and my mom had mixed roots, including Armenian. When I was 6, violence against people with Armenian heritage rose in our city, and we needed to flee to Moscow.We then applied for refugee status in the US. It was a long process that involved health screenings, psychological evaluations, and verifying my parents' education. After years, we were finally approved to move to the US when I was 11.As a refugee, when you think of the US, you always dream of living in New York City, Florida, or California. We landed in Jacksonville, Florida, and I was thrilled. Within two weeks, I used my life savings to go to Disney World. It was truly a dream come true. So were the more mundane aspects of my new life. I had experienced sharing a bathroom with four other families and being food insecure. I could literally and figuratively have all the bananas I wanted in the US.I started a career in wealth management, but it wasn't for meWhen I arrived in the US, I could say, "My name is Orhan," and that was about it. I started fifth grade and learned English alongside my parents. I was so happy to be in Florida, but I could see how challenging it was for them. My mother has multiple master's degrees in art, and my dad was an engineer with his own lab in Azerbaijan. In the US, they had to start over, beginning by learning the language. Their advanced education didn't mean much here.We moved to Philadelphia, so my dad could attend technical school. I went to an inner-city high school in Philadelphia, which forced me to develop a thick skin. After graduation, I was accepted to Penn State and later got an internship with Morgan Stanley.I graduated with multiple job offers in wealth management. I was only 22, but I had my own office and a lucrative career ahead of me. But I knew that wasn't my path. I couldn't see myself doing the office grind for decades. More importantly, I felt a disconnect with my wealthy clients. If I was going to spend my life doing something, I wanted it to be very straightforward, transparent, and honest.I run a multimillion-dollar business, but drive a used carI spoke with my dad, and we began researching franchise opportunities. Everyone else thought I was nuts, stepping away from my finance career, but my parents believed in me so much that they took out a second mortgage to help me afford my first restaurant. To this day, my dad and I are 50-50 partners. Orhan Veli and his dad are still business partners. Courtesy of Orhan Veli Those early years were rough. I was 23 and doing nothing but working, earning about $4 an hour. After the financial crisis in 2008, I learned how to operate a business with very slim margins, which ultimately made me a better businessman. Today, I own 11 SaladWorks locations; my restaurants brought in nearly $12 million in 2024.I have some financial independence, and I don't need to worry about money the way I used to. Still, I live modestly. My three kids are in public school, and my wife and I own an average home in our town. We both drive used cars a Volkswagen for me and a Lexus for her.I've used my financial security to help other refugeesMy wife, Anastasiya, is Ukrainian. When the war broke out, we both wanted to help people. I knew what it was like to have to flee your home country. Although I was a child when it happened, that has never left me. Orhan Veli and his wife drive used cars. Courtesy of Orhan Veli We started raising money to send to Anastasiya's Ukrainian network. That was impactful, but we wanted to do more, so we decided to sponsor refugees. Sponsors help refugees get settled but also take on the financial responsibility of covering costs like food and housing if the refugee isn't able to.Taking that step was scary. My hands shook every time I signed the paperwork. The first family we sponsored was a husband and wife with toddler twins and an infant. They had been in transit for two months before reaching the US. We've also sponsored six extended family members of Anastasiya's, some of whom she only met once before this.I absolutely love our country, and I've been on the receiving end of its help. A sponsor I never met allowed me to come here. Taking on financial responsibility for strangers was nerve-racking, but it felt right. I don't care about the politics of it I just know these are real people in a bad situation. I'm in a position to help, so I'm going to do that.

Theresa Park. Courtesy of Theresa Park 2025-03-27T10:08:45Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Theresa Park said Apple found her on LinkedIn in 2021 when she was not actively job hunting.She used keywords, networking and active posts to make her profile stand out to recruiters.Park said she always updates her LinkedIn even when she is not actively looking for a new role.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Theresa Park, a 32-year-old tech and creative recruiter. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider verified Park's past employment and business.About three years ago, I wasn't actively job hunting when a recruiter at Apple found me.I was happily working as a talent partner at Spotify with no plans to leave.Still, I'd made a conscious effort to keep my LinkedIn profile updated not for job searching but to position myself for the next step in my career.When Apple reached out with an offer to contract for them, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.A recruiting manager from Apple messaged me on LinkedIn in October 2021.She wrote: "You have an impressive background. I oversee design and creative recruitment for Apple Media Products. I'm eager to see if I might be able to get you on the phone for a few minutes at a convenient time? I look forward to hearing back!"I took the role and worked at Apple for seven months until they let go of over 100 contractors, including me. It wasn't the outcome I expected, but was a huge learning experience.I worked with some of the best creative leaders in the industry, saw what top companies look for in talent, and learned to think beyond traditional recruiting tools. This experience made me a stronger recruiter and shaped how I help job seekers today.I think having my LinkedIn profile optimized for the exact role I wanted was key to the recruiter finding me. Here's how I set it up and my advice for job seekers.Craft a compelling summary that tells your storyYour LinkedIn summary is one of the first things recruiters look at, so it needs to be clear and impactful. I always recommend keeping it short five to six sentences max.The key to structuring it well is:Start with who you are.Highlight the impact you bring to the industry.Use relevant keywords from the job descriptions you're interested in.Add a personal touch that reflects who you are outside work.For example, in my summary, I included my passion for music and DJing. That detail wasn't random my love of music led me to work at Spotify in April 2021. The detail helped me tell my story and connect it with my industry.If you're applying to Nike, maybe you run marathons. Include that. The goal is to align your personal insights with the role you're targeting.Use the right keywords to make your profile searchableWhen I transitioned from Big Pharma at Allergan and AbbVie to tech in 2021, I didn't just update my LinkedIn job title I made sure my headline clearly showed my expertise in creative and marketing recruitment. Theresa Park at Allergan's New York City offices. Courtesy of Theresa Park A LinkedIn headline is that line of text under your name, and one of the first things people on your profile. It should state what you bring to the table and help the right opportunities find you.Recruiters search for candidates using specific keywords, so I included terms relevant to my industry, such as "creative recruitment," "marketing," and "product design."In my summary, I went beyond listing my job experience. I used keywords relevant to the skills listed in relevant job descriptions like "Boolean search," "X-ray search," and "applicant tracking systems." I also highlighted my impact in each role I'd done scaling hiring efforts, partnering with leadership, and building recruitment strategies. Theresa Park's LinkedIn Spotify job description. Courtesy of Theresa Park Many people simply list their job titles, but that's not enough. A recruiter might see "Creative Director" in your headline, but they won't know your specific expertise.When I review 20 profiles, I'll choose the one that shows impact rather than just listing responsibilities.Keep your profile updated even if you're not job-huntingEven if you're happy in your current role, don't neglect your LinkedIn.I wasn't actively looking when Apple reached out, but my profile was up to date. That's what made it easy for them to find me.Make sure to:Update your job title and responsibilities with clear impact statements.Add results and metrics instead of just listing your tasks.Keep your location updated recruiters filter by location, and missing or outdated information can mean you don't show up in searches. Theresa Park's LinkedIn Apple role description. Courtesy of Theresa Park Stay active on LinkedInEngaging on LinkedIn doesn't mean posting every day, but sharing industry insights and interacting with professionals in your field can help you get noticed.As a job seeker, you can advertise yourself through posts about industry trends, challenges you've overcome, and lessons you've learned. Visibility can lead to opportunities. Theresa Park shares free career advice on her business' social media. Courtesy of Theresa Park Leverage networking and referralsBack in 2021, when an Apple recruiter found me on LinkedIn, companies were hiring fast, and opportunities were everywhere.Now, hiring has slowed down, and companies are much more selective. You can't just wait for recruiters to come to you. When I post a job as a recruiter, I can get 300 rsums. I don't have time to go through every one and use keywords to filter candidates and may miss some of the best applicants.If you know someone at a company you're interested in, reach out to them or a recruiter. It can make all the difference.The recruiter who helped me get my job at Allergan also helped me land my role at Spotify.Use LinkedIn as a tool, but don't rely on it aloneWhile LinkedIn is a powerful tool, different industries have different hiring strategies.When I was recruiting designers, I found candidates through portfolio sites like Behance, Squarespace, and Farmer. Instagram was an effective tool for finding social media managers or photographers. And for engineers, I used platforms like GitHub and GitLab.Many companies also post jobs in private Slack communities before making them public. Job seekers should join industry-specific Slack groups and engage in conversations there. It's an underrated way to network, especially in tech.Being intentional about where and how you present yourself, you can increase your chances of finding the right job.

Roku City, the oddly alluring cityscape screen saver, scrolls across millions of idle TVs every day. Recently, an island paradise appeared in the picture. In the foreground, a floating billboard invited me to subscribe to Disney+ and watch Moana 2 at the press of a button on my remote. The convenience, I dont mind about the new era of ad-supported everything. The wiretapping, I do.Ads are obviously not new on TV. As long as weve been watching shows on glowing boxes, weve been watching commercials that provide the economic engine for the entire entertainment factory to operate. While streaming platforms offered a reprieve for a few years by charging monthly fees for commercial-free content, its now practically impossible to watch TV without seeing some sort of marketing. Whats happening more under the radar is that your TV is collecting data about you and your watching habits sometimes by directly monitoring whats on your screen and serving you personalized ads on your TV or elsewhere.The screen that you once loved for private, uninterrupted Netflix-watching has become a big billboard that also spies on you.This isnt just a Roku problem, although the company found itself in hot water when some users were recently required to watch a video ad a Moana 2 trailer before they could access their TVs home screen at all. Roku says this is just a test, but the fact that its similar to a feature Amazon rolled out over a year ago on Prime Video suggests that ads are generally getting more brazen on streaming platforms. How you feel about it depends a lot on your mindset and feelings about privacy. Your TV wants your dataThe TV business traditionally included three distinct entities. Theres the hardware, namely the TV itself; the entertainment, like movies and shows; and the ads, usually just commercials that interrupt your movies and shows. In the streaming era, tech companies want to control all three, a setup also known as vertical integration. If, say, Roku makes the TV, supplies the content, and sells the ads, then it stands to control the experience, set the rates, and make the most money. Thats business!Roku has done this very well. Although it was founded in 2002, Roku broke into the market in 2008 after Netflix invested $6 million in the company to make a set-top box that enabled any TV to stream Netflix content. It was literally called the Netflix Player by Roku. Over the course of the next 15 years, Roku would grow its hardware business to include streaming sticks, which are basically just smaller set-top-boxes; wireless soundbars, speakers, and subwoofers; and after licensing its operating system to third-party TV makers, its own affordable, Roku-branded smart TVs. While most people think of Roku as a hardware company, it actually transitioned into becoming an advertising company almost a decade ago. In the early days, you might see a banner ad on your home screen or a tile telling you to watch Game of Thrones on HBO Go. But after firing up a more serious ad business in 2016, Roku started selling targeted ads on the Roku Channel, a free, ad-supported TV (FAST) service across its devices in 2017. Roku even started making its own content, including a biopic of Weird Al Yankovic. Your TV is collecting data about you and your watching habits sometimes by directly monitoring whats on your screen and serving you personalized ads on your TV or elsewhere.Things really ramped up when Roku started acquiring ad-tech companies, including Nielsens Advanced Video Advertising business in 2021. This helped Roku gain new insights into its audience in order to target ads better and ultimately charge more money for those ads. At the end of 2024, Roku reported annual ad revenues of $3.5 billion, which accounted for 85 percent of its total revenue far higher than its hardware business. Roku also has 90 million users millions more than Apple TV+ who have become a gold mine of data, not just about what they watch on TV but also who they are and what they like. Today, its better to think of Roku not just as an advertising company or the folks who make cheap TVs and streaming sticks, but also as a data company with millions of detailed profiles.The magical world of Moana 2 made an appearance in Roku City when the movie hit streaming in March 2025. RokuRegarding the Moana 2 controversy, Roku said in a statement that the companys growth has and will always require continuous testing and innovation across design, navigation, content, and our first-rate advertising products. The statement also said, Our recent test is just the latest example, as we explore new ways to showcase brands and programming while still providing a delightful and simple user experience.The shift toward ad-supported everything has been happening across the TV landscape. People buy new TVs less frequently these days, so TV makers want to make money off the TVs theyve already sold. Samsung has Samsung Ads, LG has LG Ad Solutions, Vizio has Vizio Ads, and so on and so forth. Tech companies, notably Amazon and Google, have gotten into the mix too, not only making software and hardware for TVs but also leveraging the massive amount of data they have on their users to sell ads on their TV platforms. These companies also sell data to advertisers and data brokers, all in the interest of knowing as much about you as possible in the interest of targeting you more effectively. It could even be used to train AI.The wealth of Rokus first-party data could be a gold mine for Amazon or Google, according to Laura Martin, an analyst at the investment bank Needham and Company. Roku is the perfect size with a really strategic fit, Martin told me, referring to a possible Amazon purchase. She added that Rokus data could also be a boon for any company with AI ambitions, including OpenAI. If I was a large language model, this is data I would absolutely want to own.The streaming industry has faced a reckoning in recent years too: After years of prioritizing growth over all else, companies like Netflix and Disney finally had to start making money. Thats resulted in those companies charging more, bundling services, and introducing cheaper ad-supported tiers. For better or worse, ads are the future of the TV business, just as they were its past. For consumers, its definitely a complicated ecosystem, said Jon Giegengack, founder of Hub Entertainment Research. Giegengack argues, though, that this ecosystem is ultimately better for consumers. In effect, theres a streaming option that works for any budget, and ads fill in the gaps.But not everyone is thrilled to be bombarded by ads and to have their data passively harvested. More ads also means less attention paid to the content you want to watch and more to the ads these companies want you to see. Nevertheless, the trade-off is worth it to a lot of Americans. Some 43 percent of all streaming subscriptions in the United States were ad-supported by the end of last year, according to the market data firm Antenna. Even if you pay for an ad-free tier, youre contributing to the ad ecosystem by giving up your data to whatever streaming platforms you use and even the company that makes your TV.Is it possible to escape the ads? Breaking free from this ad prison is tough. Most TVs on the market today come with a technology called automatic content recognition (ACR) built in. This is basically Shazam for TV Shazam itself helped popularize the tech and gives smart TV platforms the ability to monitor what youre watching by either taking screenshots or capturing audio snippets while youre watching. (This happens at the signal level, not from actual microphone recordings from the TV.) Advertisers and TV companies use ACR tech to collect data about your habits that are otherwise hard to track, like if you watch live TV with an antenna. They use that data to build out a profile of you in order to better target ads. ACR also works with devices, like gaming consoles, that you plug into your TV through HDMI cables. Yash Vekaria, a PhD candidate at UC Davis, called the HDMI spying the most egregious thing we found in his research for a paper published last year on how ACR technology works. And I have to admit that I had not heard of ACR until I came across Vekarias research.They havent kept it secret, but theres no awareness about it, Vekaria told me. So if people dont know, they will not question it.One surprising thingIts very difficult to watch streaming TV and avoid ads altogether these days. One, perhaps surprising option? Your local library. An app called Kanopy taps into the collections of local libraries across the country and has tons of great classic movies, documentaries, and indie films. Its also free and ad-free all you need is a library card.While ACR is popular across platforms, Roku is especially excited about the technology. Many of the companies that Roku has acquired in recent years have been working on ACR, and a Roku-owned company won an Emmy in 2023 for its work on the technology. Roku has also said that, because its share of the TV operating system market is 40 percent, the scale of its data collection capabilities is unparalleled. Unfortunately, you dont have much of a choice when it comes to ACR on your TV. You probably enabled the technology when you first set up your TV and accepted its privacy policy. If you refuse to do this, a lot of the functions on your TV wont work. You can also accept the policy and then disable ACR on your TVs settings, but that could disable certain features too. In 2017, Vizio settled a class-action lawsuit for tracking users by default. If you want to turn off this tracking technology, heres a good guide from Consumer Reports that explains how for most types of smart TVs.To be honest, after learning about all this in the past week or so, I havent done anything revolutionary. I can actually buy into the idea that more relevant ads provide a better experience. I dont need to see ads for a dozen different eczema treatments while Im watching YouTube TV, because I dont have eczema. Im okay learning about a new toy for young kids, because I have a young kid. (Advertising to kids or even letting your kids watch YouTube is an entirely different matter.) So Ive agreed to all the privacy policies and am enjoying my streaming content as the industry intended.But it does bug me, just on principle, that I have to let a tech company wiretap my TV in order to enjoy all of the devices features. If youre set on an ad-free TV experience, your best bet is to buy an old dumb TV off eBay and never connect it to a Roku, Amazon, or Google device. You can buy an antenna for network television, and a DVD player for movies. There are worse Y2K trends to resurrect than being completely offline for a few precious leisure hours.A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you dont miss the next one!See More:

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a new framework for thinking through your ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions. To submit a question, email Sigal at sigal.samuel@vox.com or fill out this anonymous form. Either way, if we choose your question, itll be anonymized. Heres this weeks question, condensed and edited for clarity: Im convinced that the fight against authoritarianism is the most important issue of our time. My family immigrated to America from an authoritarian country, and some of my relatives and I are astonished and horrified that the same thing is befalling the US. Theres more that I could be doing to participate in the pro-democracy resistance. Im in a public-facing (not government) job where I could shape my work in a way that draws more attention to Trumps corruption and war on the American people. But I feel both like my work wouldnt make much of a difference, and like I will be targeted and punished by the Trump administration for it, so what is the point? With the path were on now, more and more Americans are going to be persecuted for doing things the administration doesnt like, and Im terrified of the potential consequences for myself and my colleagues. Its a collective action problem, because no one persons actions alone are going to stop Trump and Musk, yet if we all tell ourselves that the risk isnt worth the gain to democracy, no one will do anything. How can I navigate this dilemma ethically, rationally, and without ruining my life?Dear Rational Resistance,Growing up in the Jewish community, my childhood was full of stories about the Holocaust. I heard horrifying stories, obviously, but also stories about inspiring people who resisted the Nazis like the Righteous Gentiles who hid Jews in their homes at great personal risk. My child-mind obsessed over the question: If I were in their place, would I have had the same courage they did? Would I hide someone in my attic? Ive been thinking about this question a lot since January 20. Not because I think todays America is equal to Nazi Germany, but simply because a lot of us are wondering how far to stick our necks out right now. How do we navigate the tension between personal safety and moral responsibility? Is there something about living in extraordinary times that demands more from us, morally speaking, than we would normally risk?I dont think that the moral demandingness of the universe suddenly changes in times like these. Instead, I think times like these open our eyes to the reality that was there all along: We are not just atomized individuals, as Western modernity conditions us to think. We are interdependent. Our fates are connected to the fates of other people, so to truly look out for ourselves and our own family, we have to look out for the broader collective, too. While a special minority of people are always tuned into this Buddhist monks, say, or extreme do-gooders most of us only see reality this way when tragedy strikes. As author Larissa MacFarquhar wrote in her book Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help:In wartime or in a crisis so devastating that it resembles war, such as an earthquake or a hurricane duty expands far beyond its peacetime boundaries. In wartime, its thought dutiful rather than unnatural to leave your family for the sake of a cause. In wartime, the line between family and strangers grows faint, as the duty to ones own enlarges to encompass all the people who are on the same side This is the difference between do-gooders and ordinary people: for do-gooders, it is always wartime. They always feel themselves responsible for strangers they always feel that strangers, like compatriots in war, are their own people. Whether its a war or an earthquake or an attack on democracy, dramatic events can cause a vertiginous shift in perspective, from me-myopia to a more telescopic vision. We see ourselves as part of the bigger story of humanity, which transcends not only national borders, but generations. Have a question you want me to answer in the next Your Mileage May Vary column?Feel free to email me at sigal.samuel@vox.com or fill out this anonymous form! Newsletter subscribers will get my column before anyone else does and their questions will be prioritized for future editions. Sign up here!I suspect thats why we all admire the Righteous Gentiles even though by taking in Jews, they were sometimes putting their own kids at risk, something we normally consider morally dodgy (in fact, its so counter to a parents wiring that I wouldnt blame parents who couldnt bring themselves to do it). They were looking beyond their children to the world they would inherit. What good is it to bring your kid up into a world thats morally bankrupt? And what would you be modeling for them if you did? Seeing that bigger story can motivate us to take action against authoritarianism, even when its risky. Yes, it may feel scary to stick our necks out now as you said, Im terrified of the potential consequences for myself and my colleagues but remember that authoritarians want you to feel too terrified to resist. Thats how they cultivate anticipatory obedience and how they gain power over time. Right now, for most of us, the risk is actually relatively minimal. Act now and you might lose your job, or maybe even get your organization defunded, resulting in more lost jobs. Thats not nothing. But unless you are an undocumented immigrant or otherwise especially vulnerable under Trump administration policies, you are, right now, not likely to be deported, imprisoned, or physically harmed the way resisters have been in more authoritarian states. And if you dont act now, America could well become a more authoritarian state. If that happens, people in the future really might not be able to resist without facing extreme consequences. Thats an argument for resisting now, while you can do it at relatively low risk. It is not, however, an argument for acting nobly but recklessly. Its an argument for acting strategically. Consider the story of Queen Esther from the Hebrew Bible. When she learns of a plot to destroy her people, the Jews, she faces a terrifying choice: She can go to her husband, the king of Persia, to plead for their protection which would mean risking her own life, since the king would kill anyone who approached him without being summoned or she can stay silent to protect herself. At first, she tells her cousin Mordecai that she cant just march over the king and speak her mind; thats not how being queen works. But he responds with a powerful rejoinder: Who knows if its for a time like this that you were made queen to begin with? What hes doing there is triggering the vertiginous shift in perspective getting her to stop seeing herself as an individual and start seeing herself as someone who was always meant to look out for the collective.You can be strategic, too. Rather than acting impulsively and alone, you can build a network of support by reaching out to colleagues both inside and outside your organization.And that who knows? also acts as a challenge. In situations of moral crisis, people often feel, as you wrote, that my work wouldnt make much of a difference so why bother? To which Mordecai says: Who knows! Its possible that your work wont make a difference but you dont know that, so youve got to try something. It works: Esther acts. But notice how she acts. She doesnt just rush immediately to the king and tell him to save the Jews. First, she builds a network of support and develops a multi-part strategy. She dresses up to the nines, making herself attractive to the king so he might want to keep her around. She invites the king and his vizier to a party, where she wines and dines them. The next day she invites them to another party. Gradually, through carefully orchestrated moments of influence, she reveals the truth and makes her ask.Esther is what the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman might call a Noble Winner. In Moral Ambition, Bregman urges readers to be more ambitious about the good they can do for the world. As he points to historical examples of people who stood up for whats right, he notes that some are Noble Losers they take a personal stand, but nothing much comes of it. Think of that famous photo showing a crowd of Germans all saluting Hitler, and the single man who refused to salute. He was on the right side of history, but he didnt make history, Bregman writes. If you really want to change things, then someone like Rosa Parks is a better role model.Parks was a Noble Winner. She didnt just decide one day, in a rash moment of fury, to refuse to give up her seat on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead, she spent years quietly getting involved with the civil rights movement and studying protest tactics. Her refusal to surrender her seat was planned. An action group called the Womens Political Council strategically portrayed her as a kindly seamstress and demure heroine someone milquetoast enough for white Americans to get behind and launched the call to boycott the bus system the instant she was arrested. The careful planning and collaboration paid off: They achieved not just fame, but concrete wins. You can be strategic, too. Rather than acting impulsively and alone, you can build a network of support by reaching out to colleagues both inside and outside your organization. If youre a nonprofit employee, you can organize within your union and push them to take a particular stance. If youre an educator, you can coordinate action with other schools. If youre a journalist, you can reach out to other journalists to forge consensus around covering news events in a certain way for example, calling a purge a purge. The point is to reach out to others and build power together. And one more word about those Righteous Gentiles. After the Holocaust, psychologists began to study them to figure out what made them courageously agree to hide Jews while the majority went along with tyranny. Maybe they were friends with Jews before the war? Maybe they had spare rooms or extra savings tucked away? Maybe some people just come wired with an altruistic personality?Nope. The psychologists found that none of these factors made the difference. Instead, as Bregman recounts in his book:Turns out there was one circumstance that determined almost everything. A new analysis of data showed that when this condition was met, nearly everyone took action 96 percent to be precise. And what was that condition? Simple: you had to be asked. Those who were asked to help someone in danger almost always said yes. Asking things of each other and acting together is how we move unjust systems. So go ahead. Reach out to someone. Ask. Bonus: What Im readingIn the New Yorker, Kyle Chayka writes about Elon Musks AI-fueled war on human agency. He notes that a government run by people is cautious and slow by design; a machine-automated version will be fast and ruthless, reducing the need for either human labor or human decision-making.Are major trends in philosophy today the consequence of the fact that most great Western thinkers were bachelors? The philosopher Mary Midgley thought so. Having no experience of living with women and children, she argued, led these unmarried men to generate philosophy that is overly abstract and removed from life, as this Aeon essay explains.In a previous installment of this advice column, I challenged the idea that having a child always fundamentally transforms someones personality. So when I saw Olga Khazans new article on the topic, with the subtitle I knew that becoming a parent would change me but I had no idea how it was an instant click for me. The always-hilarious Olga does not disappoint. This story was originally published in The Highlight, Voxs member-exclusive magazine. To get early access to member-exclusive stories every month, join the Vox Membership program today.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Pokemon TCG Pocket is getting another update, this time introducing shiny Pokemon and Ranked battles here's all we know about Shining Revelry, including when you can play itTech09:14, 27 Mar 2025A new booster is here, and this one is shinyIf you've been feeling a little down in the dumps with the Pokemon TCG Pocket after the Destined Rivals ordeal from this week, fear not.While we've got our handy guide to the expansion, there's a new free update to Pokemon TCG Pocket (one of our favourite games of 2024) to keep you ticking over.Article continues belowJust a month or so after Triumphant Light, the game is back with another themed booster pack, and it'll introduce a whole host of new critters. Shiny Pokemon are the headline addition, but there are also new offerings from the Paldea region, and the debut of ranked matches for multiplayer battlers.Here's everything new, and when you can play it.The update is already out, so go open your packs!Great news, the update is actually already out.That's because it arrived at the following times, and we lucky UK Pokemon collectors get to open packs nice and early on the commute.10 PM PST (on March 26)6 AM GMT1 AM EST7 AM CET3 PM JSTIf you can't see it yet, be sure to update the app in the App Store on iOS, or the Play Store on Android.As for what's new, there's plenty to enjoy. There are over 110 cards in the set, including the shiny new Charizard ex, Red supporter card, as well as new full-art versions of Giratina ex and more.The folks at Pokebeach have put together a full list with all the card art, so you can start planning your decks already.Charizard ex will surely be popularRanked Matches are also here, with the option to challenge players of a similar skill level and earn fresh emblems as you work through your opponents to "be the very best like no one ever was".Article continues belowI'll be looking to get that new Charizard ex for sure, as well as the Lucario ex that's been added, too.For more on the Pokemon TCG, be sure to check out our interview with Peter Murphy, Senior Director of Marketing at The Pokemon Company International who explains the game has never been more popular in the UK.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

Is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe happening? (Nintendo)Fan expectations are through the roof for todays Nintendo Direct, with theories including a Smash Bros. rerelease and a Halo port.Despite the big Nintendo Switch 2 showcase happening next week, Nintendo still wants to give the original Switch some love, with a shorter but no less intriguing showcase scheduled for later today.Officially, theres no clue at all as to what the Direct will talk about other than therell be no new Switch 2 news but one obvious guess is Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, with other rumours including a Kirby: Planet Robobot remaster and a new entry in a niche beloved franchise.Nothing concrete has leaked ahead of time (yet), but fans do have some theories, especially after Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai retweeted Nintendos announcement.Sakurais comment seems to have been lost in translation since, according to Xs auto translate feature, all he wrote was the word method. However, those that can speak Japanese suggest its actually the equivalent of HmmmThats not much to go on, but Sakurai must know that even just mentioning the Nintendo Direct is going to send fans into a frenzy, especially since hes already confirmed to be working on a new game.However, youd think his next project would be saved for the Switch 2. So, if Sakurai is meant to be hinting at something, perhaps its a remaster or re-release of one of his older games.Many are, naturally, suspecting/wishing for something related to Super Smash Bros., be it a new game or more DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.Professional Smash player Juan Manuel DeBiedma, better known as Hungrybox, claims it will be a deluxe edition of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, sharing a post he made in 2023 claiming an Ultimate Deluxe would launch in 2025 and include 10 new characters.Although he says he wont say more in case Nintendo ninjas me, its unclear if this is based on insider knowledge or just his assumptions.Another fan theory is that well see a remaster of 3DS game Kid Icarus: Uprising, which Sakurai directed.Given the originals reliance on stylus controls, we suspect such a remaster would be a better fit for Switch 2, since it will feature mouse controls that are perfectly suited for Uprisings gameplay.Elsewhere, Giant Bombs Jeff Grubb has claimed, in a recent YouTube video, that hes heard theres gonna be a game that will cause a lot of conversation and its not necessarily a Nintendo one.More TrendingIt being a third party game doesnt narrow it down that much but it has emboldened the theories that Hollow Knight sequel Silksong could finally make a reappearance.Some fans also think it could be Halo. It has previously been claimed that Microsoft will bring Halo: The Master Chief Collection to Switch 2, but theres also been chatter of a remaster or remake of the first Halo being in the works for Xbox and PlayStation 5.That would likely also come to Switch 2 and if thats the case it would make more sense to release the existing remasters on Switch 1 first.As a reminder, todays Nintendo Direct will air at 2pm GMT and run for approximately 30 minutes. Halo on Switch would definitely get people talking (Microsoft)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

MVRDV Unveils Its Strategic Plan for the Roosendaal Densification Masterplan in the NetherlandsSave this picture!The Mosaic . Image Courtesy of MVRDVIn 2021, the Municipality of Roosendaal began collaborating with MVRDV as an urban development consultant. The firm's partner, Winy Maas, was subsequently appointed as urban advisor, conforming a team that included MVRDV, Rebel Group, Transitiefocus, and other experts. Their task was to consolidate existing projects and initiatives into a unified strategic vision, seeking a mix of bottom-up and top-down planning approaches. The vision, also called "The Mosaic", was developed through a participatory process involving residents. It provides insight at multiple scales, from land-use adjustments across the municipality to over 40 potential projects aimed at harnessing the potential of specific locations. Published as a series of seven interconnected documents, the vision aims to provide Roosendaal with strategies to accommodate growth.Save this picture!Located in the southwest of The Netherlands, Roosendaal sits between the Randstad, Flanders, the major cities of Noord-Brabant, and Zeeland. The municipality comprises the city itself along with surrounding villages and landscapes. Currently a low-density area, it has set an unofficial goal of increasing its population to around 100,000, a growth that city officials believe would enhance cultural, recreational, and investment opportunities. The population has remained stagnant at approximately 77,000 for the past decade, with the out-migration of young people being one ot he main demographic concerns. "The Mosaic" masterplan was designed as part of a broader strategy to counter this trend by introducing new attractions and social equipment. The RSD40 initiative, detailed in the seven documents compiled by MVRDV's team, has been approved by the Municipality of Roosendaal.Save this picture!Save this picture!The plan begins with a redefinition of Roosendaal's land-use patterns, visually represented as a "barcode" with shifting percentages. It reallocates space to housing, culture, nature, water, and renewable energy production by layering functions and utilizing unbuilt areas within the city. This urban intensification is paired with a commitment to maintaining a fixed infrastructure footprint; any new infrastructure must be offset by a reduction elsewhere. Intending to promote a more walkable and bike-friendly future, the plan integrates a network of existing roadways, footpaths, and dikes. In response to population growth and the goal of attracting younger residents, the vision proposes a more diverse housing stock, moving beyond the dominance of single-family homes. This expansion in housing is designed to be complemented by increased investment in leisure, culture, and education, seeking to make the city appealing to people at all stages of life. Related Article From Helsinkis Landmark Bridge to Londons Urban Regeneration: Recent Updates from Knight Architects, Foster + Partners, and More The vision considers Roosendaal's character to be defined by multiple neighborhoods with individual identities rather than a dominant historic core. In the master plan, each neighborhood plays a specific role within the broader vision, outlining the transformations it will undergo. The plan includes 40 strategic projects aimed at enhancing both the city's appeal and functionality. Proposed initiatives include transforming the station area into a dynamic mixed-use district featuring a vocational school, covering a section of the A58 motorway to create a linear park with housing and sports facilities, densifying the Nieuwe Markt area with high-rise buildings that highlight the square, renovating the Mariadal monastery garden by integrating housing within the monastery walls while opening the garden to the public, widening streams to create recreational spaces, and repurposing vacant churches into homes, community centers, workshops, or cultural venues.Save this picture!Save this picture!Densification is a topic widely discussed in the planning strategies for diverse cities around the world. Whether as part of a less expansive city model or for the rehabilitation of strategically located land, it is one of the factors guiding urban design and real estate investment in cities such as Constanta, Romania, with a plan by Foster + Partners, or Salalah, Oman, with a plan designed by Sasaki aimed at enhancing its tourism appeal. Other large-scale projects led by architecture firms around the world include Zaha Hadid Architects Napoli Porta Est masterplan, the transformation of Tirana, the Albanian capital city, and THE LINE, a 170-kilometer-long linear city, part of the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia.Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorCite: Antonia Pieiro. "MVRDV Unveils Its Strategic Plan for the Roosendaal Densification Masterplan in the Netherlands" 27 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028454/mvrdv-unveils-its-strategic-plan-for-the-roosendaal-densification-masterplan-in-the-netherlands&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

t.house / ogawaa design studioSave this picture!Architects: ogawaa design studio LLCAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:25 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2023 PhotographsPhotographs:Akira Ito Lead Architects: Taishi Ogawa, Mariko Sakurama More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture! Akira ItoText description provided by the architects. In Osaka, there are usually cluttered and comfortable towns. Many of the residents who were born and raised there are attached to their own town. To be precise, they do not love the town very much, but may just be accustomed to the normal life there that has been repeated over the years. The daily scenes of these towns have no academic value and contain many illegal elements, but the strength of the residents who move things forward with a kind of selfish self-responsibility creates an extraordinary combination of ordinariness or a sense of security surrounded by noise, giving the city a strange sense of solidarity.Save this picture!We designed the home of a person who had lived in such a town for many years to be renovated into a house with a store. We renovated everything about the nearly 50-year-old building except for the foundation, steel frame, and the east and west exterior walls, which are semi-integrated with the houses on both sides.Although the site is in a highly convenient location, it is only a little less than 30 square meters in area. It was originally a five-story building, but in order to eliminate the cramped space and reduce the burden associated with legal regulations, the second and third floors were made into two-story atriums, making it a three-story building. However, we created a terrace between the floors that can be used for maintenance, making it look like a five-story building.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Considering the stairs necessary for vertical movement to be part of the living space, we planned to place them in the middle of the residential floor. The entire building is loosely connected through stairs and atriums, but privacy gradually increases from the base to the upper floors, and it connects with the town again at the rooftop. The second floor can be rented out if the residents have a relationship they can trust. The blurring of spatial boundaries and the integrated facade design create a unique relationship between residents, stores, and the town.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!We created a luxurious sense of openness and a direct relationship with the town while bringing the chaotic atmosphere of this town, with its mixture of old and new, into the house. This made the house feel special to the residents like a secret base, even though passers-by were passing in the immediate vicinity.Save this picture!We combined materials that give a sense of aging and new materials to create an unexpected sequence around the stairs and a space that requires ingenuity in how to use it. This allows for real attachment and nostalgia to develop over time. We believe that as the residents continue to enjoy collecting the items and the experiences they will have, this house will be filled with a variety of noises and will become more familiar with the town.Save this picture!Even if it is just the house that looks like junk to others, there is a space that is irreplaceable to the user. We aimed to realize an architecture that presents publicness, fostering an ordinary but rich townscape through private spaces that are loosely connected with the town with trust and attachment to it.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officePublished on March 27, 2025Cite: "t.house / ogawaa design studio" 27 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028384/thouse-junk-like-house-ogawaa-design-studio-llc&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream