The London-listed ad group said that InfoSumwhich will join its media investment group GroupMwill help it create marketing solutions that are enhanced by AI.

The fast-paced, low-cost, emergency-room drama is serving as a model for other potential projects at Warner Bros. Discoverys Max service.

Bonus! A bonus from the shingles vaccine: Dementia protection? The study shows a sharp change when the vaccine was introduced in Wales. John Timmer Apr 3, 2025 10:39 am | 0 Credit: Cavan Images Credit: Cavan Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA study released on Wednesday finds that a live-virus vaccine that limits shingles symptoms was associated with a drop in the risk for dementia when it was introduced. The work took advantage of the fact that the National Health Service Wales made the vaccine available with a very specific age limit, essentially creating two populations, vaccinated and unvaccinated, separated by a single date. And these populations showed a sharp divide in how often they were diagnosed with dementia, despite having little in the way of other differences in health issues or treatments.What a dayThis study didn't come out of nowhere. There have been a number of hints recently that members of the herpesvirus family that can infect nerve cells are associated with dementia. That group includes Varicella zoster, the virus that causes both chicken pox andpotentially many years after shingles, an extremely painful rash. And over the past couple of years, observational studies have suggested that the vaccine against shingles may have a protective effect.But it's extremely difficult to do a clinical trial given that the onset of dementia may happen decades after most people first receive the shingles vaccine. That's why the use of NHS Wales data was critical. When the first attenuated virus vaccine for shingles became available, it was offered to a subset of the Welsh population. Those who were born on or after September 2, 1933, were eligible to receive the vaccine. Anyone older than that was permanently ineligible.(The UK NHS considers things like the cost/benefit of treatments, and likely took into account the potential impact of the side effects on the elderly in making this decision.)This created what's termed a natural experiment, in that the populations born a few weeks on either side of this data should be roughly equivalent in terms of health risks and cumulative exposure. The only real difference is whether or not they were likely to get the vaccine. And health records indicated that only 0.01 percent of those in the ineligible group did, while nearly half of those eligible received it.So residents of Wales born on either side of the dividing date were matched according to their use of preventative health services, past diagnoses, and educational level. The incidence of dementia was then compared between people on either side of September 2, 1933. As a first step, the researchers confirmed that the vaccine was effective at reducing the incidence of shingles, with numbers similar to those in the vaccine's clinical trials.Overall, being eligible for the vaccine was associated with a 1.3 percent reduction in the absolute risk of a dementia diagnosis. That translates to a 8.5 percent reduction of relative risk; when scaled to account for the fact that fewer than half of those eligible received the vaccine, that works out to be a 20 percent reduction in relative risk, which is pretty substantial.To make sure that it was real, the researchers repeated the analysis using a difference-in-difference approach and came up with roughly the same numbers. That also eliminates the possibility that people who came in for health care (for shingles or some other condition) were more likely to incidentally receive a dementia diagnosis. They also compared the before-and-after populations in terms of a collection of common health outcomes and found that none of those showed any change in the two populations. And nothing else related to NHS policy was changed based on the September 2 date.Separately, in a draft manuscript the researchers posted on the Med arXiv, the researchers find a similar effect when using UK HNS data to search for a protective effect of the shingles vaccines when it comes to deaths diagnosed to result from dementia. So by all indications, the effect was real.Whats going on?The researchers suggest three potential explanations. One of them is the obvious: Suppressing the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus reduces dementia onset. But it's also possible that the effect is indirectthat dementia is associated with immune activity, and the vaccine alters that in some way. Finally, there's the possibility that being treated for shingles could promote the onset of dementia or increase the frequency of diagnoses.The last question was fairly easy to answer. The researchers note yet again that other chronic diagnoses show a change at around the critical date. And they also adjusted their analysis to control for the frequency of medical care. The subgroup that interacted with the NHS most often showed roughly the same protection by the vaccine as the group as a whole did. Finally, the researchers note that shingles diagnosis and treatment didn't increase the probability of dementia diagnoses.In contrast, there is some evidence that the effect is related to the activation of the virus. People who experienced multiple shingles events were more likely to receive a dementia diagnosis. And people who received an antiviral treatment in response to shingles had a reduced incidence of dementia.But there were also differences that suggest the immune response in general may be involved. Those who are prone to autoimmune or allergic responses (which are more common in women) showed a greater protection from the vaccine, as did women. These effects aren't large, but they may provide a hint that there's something more than a specific response to one virus.Following up on these results, however, will be complicated. While most people associate the onset of dementia in the elderly with Alzheimer's, there are a number of distinct dementia diagnoses, often with risk factors and underlying biology that only partly overlap. In many cases, there's no easy way to distinguish between some of them. So there's the chance that these results represent an even stronger effect that's specific to a subset of the known dementias.But at least from a medical perspective, it doesn't really matter. The vaccine is highly effective at preventing severe cases of shingles, and it seems to significantly reduce the frequency of dementia. There is even less reason to avoid getting it.Nature, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x (About DOIs).John TimmerSenior Science EditorJohn TimmerSenior Science Editor John is Ars Technica's science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots. 0 Comments

express train to storageville Explaining MicroSD Express cards and why you should care about them Little-used 2019 standard bridges a gap between internal and external storage. Andrew Cunningham Apr 3, 2025 10:00 am | 9 The microSD Express standard has existed for a long time, but it hasn't seen wide adoption in a mass-market consumer device. Enter Nintendo's new Switch 2. Credit: SanDisk The microSD Express standard has existed for a long time, but it hasn't seen wide adoption in a mass-market consumer device. Enter Nintendo's new Switch 2. Credit: SanDisk Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAmong the changes mentioned in yesterday's Nintendo Switch 2 presentation was a note that the new console doesn't just support MicroSD Express cards for augmenting the device's 256GB of internal storage, but it requiresMicroSD Express. Whatever plentiful, cheap microSD card you're using in your current Switch, including Sandisk's Nintendo-branded ones, can't migrate over to your Switch 2 alongside all your Switch 1 games.MicroSD Express, explainedWhy is regular-old MicroSD no longer good enough? It all comes down to speed.Most run-of-the-mill SD and microSD cards you can buy today are using some version of the Ultra High Speed (UHS) standard. Designed to augment the default speed (12.5MB/s) and high speed (25MB/s) from the earliest versions of the SD card standard, the three UHS versions enable data transfers of up to 624MB/s.But most commodity microSD cards, including pricier models like Samsung's Pro Ultimate series, use UHS-I, which has a maximum data transfer speed of 104MB/s. The original Switch uses a UHS-I microSD card slot for storage expansion.Why have newer and faster versions of the standardUHS-II, UHS-III, and SD Expressfailed to achieve critical mass? Because for most consumer applications, it turns out that 100-ish megabytes per second is plenty. The SD Association itself says that 90MB per second is good enough to record an 8K video stream at up to 120 frames per second. Recording pictures and video is the most demanding thing most SD cards are called upon to dogive or take a Raspberry Pi-based computerand you don't need to overspend to get extra speed you're not going to use.All of that said, thereis a small but measurable increase in launch and loading times when loading games from the original Switch's microSD card instead of from internal storage. And for games with chronic performance issues like Pokmon ScarletandViolet, one of the community-suggested fixes was to move the game from your microSD card to your Switch's internal storageto alleviate one of the system's plentiful performance bottlenecks.The Switch 2's additional power opens the door to more complex games that could lag even more noticeably, especially if they're ported from consoles that expect more than 50 times the storage bandwidth (Sony requires an SSD with read speeds of at least 5,500MB/s for the PlayStation 5).And that's where SD Express comes in. These cards are connected to the same PCI Express/NVMe interface that internal SSDs use in modern PCs and the other game consoles, theoretically giving your SD card access to the same bandwidth as internal storage.Now, you won't actuallyget performance as fast as an internal SSD using this interface. The speed varies a lot based on the PCI Express version your gadget is using (3.0 or 4.0) and how many "lanes" of bandwidth it's allowed to use (these are, in short, the connections between a device's CPU and external accessories like SSDs, Wi-Fi adapters, or dedicated GPUs, and all CPUs and SoCs have a limited number of them to hand out). Depending on these factors, microSD Express can deliver anywhere between 985MB/s and 3940MB/s of theoretical bandwidth.MicroSD cards will also be slowed down because there are fewer physical flash memory chips to write to at a time, a process called "interleaving" that is responsible for much of an SSD's speed. This SanDisk microSD Express card, one of the only ones actually available at retail right now, lists its top speeds as 880MB/s for reads and 650MB/s for writes.But even at its worst, this is several times the amount of bandwidth available to whatever UHS-I microSD card is inserted into your current Switch. Express cards won't make an SD card feel as fast as internal storage, but it will help the microSD card keep pace a bit.At what cost?One other benefit of workaday, plain-old UHS-I microSD cards? The price. Great ones are cheap. Good-enough ones are dirt cheap, even if you stick to major storage vendors like Samsung, Sandisk, and Lexar (please do not buy no-name solid state storage). A quality 256GB microSD card will run you around $20, a pittance compared to whatever you paid for the device you're putting it in.For the SanDisk microSD Express, the same amount of storage will run you around $60. This is not only more expensive than a regular cheap SD card, but it's more expensive than actual internal SSDs. The cheaper name-brand 1TB internal SSDs, including some sold by SanDisk parent company Western Digital, can give you four times as much space for around the same price.These prices should go down over time, and the Switch 2 will be a part of the reason whyat a bare minimum, it will likely prompt the creation of multiple alternate microSD Express options from SanDisk's competitors. But at launch, it may still feel like a raw deal because it's just one ofmany things about the Switch 2 that costs more money than the Switch 1. Compared to the first Switch, you're paying between $100 and $150 more for the console itself, $10 more for each pair of Joy-Cons or Pro Controllers you buy, $50 for a replacement dock, and between $10 and $20 more for first-party games.The Switch 2's relatively generous 256GB of internal storage should help you avoid the need for an SD card, and it could be all you ever need if you manage your storage space carefully. But the extra cost of microSD Express on top of everything else does rankle, even if the technical reasons behind the move are totally justifiable.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 9 Comments

Comment and TechnologyA cost-cutting initiative in the world of passenger aviation could see flight-deck staff reduced to just a captain, with their co-pilot replaced by AI. It may save money, but it's a risk too far, argues Paul Marks 2 April 2025 Adri VoltA dangerous idea is stalking the world of passenger aviation: that of halving, sometime in the 2030s, the number of pilots at the helm of civilian airliners and filling the vacant seats with AI a move experts say could make flying far less safe. Instead of a captain and co-pilot on the flight deck, as big jets have today, Single Pilot Operations (SPOs) will have just one pilot alongside an AI somehow designed to undertake the tough, safety-critical role of co-piloting.This, airlines argue, will address a pilot shortage that has become economically debilitating for the industry. But SPO

Josie FordFeedback is New Scientists popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Streisand strikes againSome things are sadly inevitable: death, taxes, another Coldplay album. One such inevitability, long since proved beyond any reasonable doubt, is that if you try to suppress an embarrassing story, you will only draw more attention to it.This phenomenon is called the Streisand Effect, after an incident in 2003 when Barbra Streisand sued to have an aerial photograph taken off the internet. The shot was part of a series documenting coastal erosion in California, but identified her cliff-top mansion. She lost, and in the process drew public attention to the photo. Having previously been downloaded six times (twice by her lawyers) it was then accessed hundreds of thousands of times.AdvertisementAnd so, with weary inevitability, we come yet again to Meta, Mark Zuckerbergs personal empire encompassing Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and a sizeable chunk of Hawaii. In March, Sarah Wynn-Williams Facebooks former director of public policy put out a memoir of her time at the company, which has the Gatsby-esque title Careless People. Feedback isnt going to repeat the specific allegations in it, because Meta has very high-powered libel lawyers and we dont want to be responsible for New Scientists in-house lawyers all dropping dead of heart attacks. Suffice it to say, it is a real page-turner.Meta responded by taking legal action. By leveraging a non-disclosure agreement Wynn-Williams had signed when she left the company, Meta prevented her from promoting Careless People. Any interviews you may have seen with her were conducted before Meta obtained the injunction.The result? The book has become a global bestseller, and you just read about it in the silly bit at the back of New Scientist.Offensive ParidaeFeedback recently told the story of researcher Nicolas Guguen, who has had some of his papers retracted including one about the advantages of having large breasts while hitchhiking as the result of investigations by data sleuths Nick Brown and James Heathers (15 March).So we were naturally intrigued to get an email from Brown, who came across our coverage because he has a Google alert set up for Nicolas Guguen'. We wondered if we might have got a detail wrong, or otherwise bungled the story.However, he was writing in response to another item in the same column. This related to the perennial Scunthorpe problem: the fact that completely innocent words can contain letter strings that are offensive in isolation, so the automated systems that block questionable words often catch harmless ones in their nets.Before I became a scientist I worked in IT, explains Brown. Maybe around 1999, someone came to me with a question. Her email to the Royal Bank of Scotland had bounced, and the rejection notice literally said this: Reason: Dirty Word: TITS.Readers: take a moment to recover from the shock. We too were stunned that the automated system used the phrase dirty word: we didnt realise RBSs systems were based on primary school behaviour guidance.Brown examined the message, which was entirely innocuous and contained no reference to birds of the Paridae family. Then he used a text editor to look at the email header, and there he found the dirty word.We were in France and used names from the Asterix comics for our servers, says Brown. One of the mail servers that the message had passed through was named Petitsuix. This is an innkeeper who appears in three Asterix volumes: his name is a parody of petit-suisse cheese, if you didnt get that. So, says Brown, the email header contained something like Via:Petitsuix.domain.com, thus bumping up against the Scunthorpe problem.This led Brown to wonder what might have happened if, by some infernal coincidence, his employers had been using the same anti-spam software. Would our spam filter server have replied with You said tits, and then they would have come back with No, you said tits, and so on for ever?So what happened next? I remember saying at the time, Well, clearly that bank is going to go bust, says Brown. He had to wait until 2008 and legally Feedback has to say that despite the glory of Browns pun, that didnt happen: the government bailed the bank out.Queued upSometimes, Feedback comes across a solution to a problem that is simultaneously brilliant and rock-stupid. Such a solution was brought to our attention by reporter Matthew Sparkes.Three researchers were trying to make queueing less deadly dull, so they developed a robot for people in queues to play with. As they explained, the robot is called Social Queue. It is a robotic stanchion pole with a responsive tentacle on top that interact[s] with people through three modes of interaction, Attracting, Escaping, and Friendly. Apparently, this enhanced peoples enjoyment.Feedback isnt a roboticist: not out of an utter lack of technical ability perish the thought it is just that we saw Battlestar Galactica and decided not to be complicit in the robot apocalypse. Still, this sounds like a feat of engineering.But we did wonder why anyone would go to the bother of designing a queue robot, when you could just set up a timed-entry system and eliminate the queue.Got a story for Feedback?You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This weeks and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

Prince Harry. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images 2025-04-03T14:25:17Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? On March 26, Prince Harry resigned from Sentebale, a charity he cofounded.He resigned in solidarity with the board of trustees, who stepped down after the chair refused to.Now, the chair, Sophie Chandauka, has accused Prince Harry of bullying her.One of Prince Harry's charitable organizations has become the center of controversy.On March 26, Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho announced they were resigning as patrons of Sentebale, a charity they cofounded in 2006.The pair said in their announcement that it was "devastating" they had to step down and pointed to issues with the organization's chair, Sophie Chandauka, as the reason for their resignation.Days later, Chandauka accused Prince Harry of "harassment and bullying at scale" in a Sky News interview.Sentebale in turmoilWhen it was founded, Sentebale aimed to support children and young people living with HIV or AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana. In 2024, it expanded its mission to help young people more generally in southern Africa.The princes confounded the organization in honor of their late mothers and have maintained a close relationship for decades. Prince Seeiso even appeared in the Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan" in 2022.Harry and Seeiso have been patrons of Sentebale for nearly 20 years, with Harry frequently traveling to Africa to support the organization.However, in recent months, tensions have been mounting between Sentebale's board and Chandauka, who was appointed chair in July 2023. Chandauka, a lawyer and biotech founder, had previously been a Sentebale board member from 2009 to 2015, according to the organization's website. Prince Harry and Sophie Chandauka in October 2024. Brian Otieno/Getty Images for Sentebale Five former Sentebale trustees said in a statement shared with Business Insider that they "made the difficult decision to unanimously resign," adding that they saw "no other path forward as the result of our loss in trust and confidence in the Chair of the board.""Our priority has always been, and will always be, what's in the best interest of the charity, and it's desperately sad the breakdown in relationship escalated to a lawsuit by the Chair against the charity, to block us from voting her out after our request for her resignation was rejected," the trustees said. "We could not in good conscience allow Sentebale to undertake that legal and financial burden and have been left with no other option but to vacate our positions."CBS News said the trustees asked Chandauka to resign because of "a change in Sentebale's mission." On Tuesday, the BBC also reported that financial issues led to tension at the organization.Harry and Seeiso announced their resignation in a joint statement "in support of and solidarity with the board of trustees.""It is devastating that the relationship between the charity's trustees and the chair of the board broke down beyond repair, creating an untenable situation," their statement said. "What's transpired is unthinkable. We are in shock that we have to do this, but we have a continued responsibility to Sentebale's beneficiaries, so we will be sharing all of our concerns with the Charity Commission as to how this came about.""Although we may no longer be Patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care," the princes said. Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry in October 2024. Brian Otieno/Getty Images for Sentebale Chandauka said in a statement shared with People that she refused to step down at the board's request because "beneath all the victim narrative and fiction that has been syndicated to press is the story of a woman who dared to blow the whistle about issues of poor governance, weak executive management, abuse of power, bullying, harassment, misogyny, misogynoir and the coverup that ensued."Chandauka did not respond to a request for comment from BI.The New York Times also reported that Chandauka replaced the board with four new members following the resignations and filed a report against the former trustees with the Charity Commission, which regulates and registers charities in England and Wales, including Sentebale. Harry and Seeiso said in their statement that they also intended to file a report to the commission.When contacted by BI for this story on Tuesday, the Charity Commission said, "We can confirm that we are aware of concerns about the governance of Sentebale. We are assessing the issues to determine the appropriate regulatory steps."On Thursday, the Charity Commission announced it had opened a compliance case "to examine concerns raised about the charity Sentebale.""The regulator's focus, in line with its statutory remit, will be to determine whether the charity's current and former trustees, including its chair, have fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under charity law," the Charity Commission said. "The Commission is not an adjudicator or mediator and is guided by the principle of ensuring trustees fulfill their primary duty to their charitable purpose and beneficiaries."A source close to the trustees told BI that the board "fully expected this publicity stunt and reached their collective decision with this in mind. They remain firm in their resignation, for the good of the charity, and look forward to the adjudication of the truth."Then, last weekend, Chandauka accused Harry of "bullying" her by going public with Sentebale's problems.Sophie Chandauka said Prince Harry was 'bullying' herOn Sunday, Chandauka appeared on the Sky News program "Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips" to discuss Sentebale, focusing on Harry in her interview even though Seeiso and the board members also resigned.Chandauka said in the interview that her relationship with the prince had largely been "fantastic" but accused him of "harassment and bullying." Specifically, she said he did not inform her of his decision to resign as patron before he and Seeiso released their statement publicly."At some point on Tuesday, Prince Harry authorized the release of a damaging piece of news to the outside world without informing me or my country directors or my executive director," she said. "Can you imagine what that attack has done for me, on me, and the 540 individuals in the Sentebale organizations and their family?" Sophie Chandauka and Prince Harry at a charity polo match in April 2024. Yaroslav Sabitov/PA Images via Getty Images "That is an example of harassment and bullying at scale," Chandauka said, adding that she believes Harry activated "the Sussex machine" to publicize Sentebale's issues.A source familiar with the events told BI that despite Chandauka's comments, Harry and Seeiso had sent their joint resignation letter to the trustees and the chair on March 10.In the same interview, Chandauka also said she had issues with Prince Harry since she became chair and believed he had been trying to oust her for months.She said his step back as a senior royal put Sentebale at financial risk and that his Netflix series about polo interfered with a Sentebale charity fundraiser, pointing to a venue change. However, a source close to the production said the show's involvement ultimately led to another player participating and Sentebale being featured in the docuseries.Chandauka also said Meghan Markle'sunexpected attendance became a problem at the match. Cameras filmed an awkward interaction between her and Meghan as they tried to fit onstage together during an awards ceremony, which led to negative press stories about Meghan. Chandauka told the Financial Times that Harry asked her to release a statement in support of his wife at the time, but she refused."I said no, we're not setting a precedent by which we become an extension of the Sussex PR machine," she told the outlet.As of Thursday, Chandauka remains chair of Sentebale's board.Recommended video

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 2025-04-03T14:08:19Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Donald Trump's tariffs are about to hit Apple hard.Tariffs are set to hit Apple's key manufacturing hubs, including China, Vietnam, Thailand, and others.It could mean more expensive iPhones if Apple passes the costs on to consumers.Tim Cook might be out of luck this time: Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs look like they're about to hit Apple hard.A long-expected executive order signed by the president on Wednesday introduced a 34% tariff on goods from Apple's most important manufacturing hub China. It adds to an existing 20% tariff, meaning the effective tariff rate on the country is now 54%.China has long been its central hub for manufacturing and assembling everything from iPhones to MacBooks. Tariffs now threaten to raise the cost of Apple goods imported from the center of its supply chain universe.Although the sweeping tariffs are also set to hit other tech companies with sprawling supply chains such as Tesla or Nvidia it's a particularly big hit for Apple.Jamie MacEwan, senior analyst at Enders Analysis, previously told Business Insider he estimates that "almost half of Apple's revenue is exposed to China through direct sales and the supply chain."It is also a blow to Cook, who has spent years trying to build a tight-knit relationship with Trump. The Apple CEO met the president for dinner at Mar-a-Lago in December, attended his inauguration in January, and pledged a $500 billion investment in the US in February.Apple has made moves in recent years to diversify its supply chain away from China in the face of geopolitical tensions, but Trump's levies appear to diminish even those efforts.The countries Apple has increasingly shifted manufacturing and assembly operations to India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Ireland have all been hit with tariffs above Trump's baseline 10% rate.Though Cook managed to secure an exemption for the company when Trump first escalated a tariff-led trade war in 2018, as things stand, Apple has no escape from the latest wave of tariffs.Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.The reality facing Apple is already being digested by markets. Apple shares fell by about 9% on Thursday as investors triggered a panic sell-off over fears of the implications of Trump's plans.In a note, analysts at investment bank Citi wrote that "if Apple cannot get exempted this time and assuming Apple gets hit by the accumulative 54% China tariffs and does not pass it through, we estimate about 9% negative impact to the company's total gross margin."Analysts at Jefferies, meanwhile, wrote in a Thursday note that in their worst-case scenario one in which the 27 million iPhones made in China and imported to the US are subject to the 54% tariff Apple's net profit for the fiscal year could be reduced by 14%.This all paints a less-than-pretty picture for Apple and, potentially, its consumers. Without an exemption, there could be more expensive iPhones on the way, Apple's margins could take a hit or both.Recommended video

Democratic voters just won a 10-point landslide in a state that Trump won last year. How?The answer is a defining trend of modern elections: There are two different kinds of electorates who come out to vote in the Trump era.On Tuesday night, the liberal, Democrat-aligned Judge Susan Crawford defeated her Republican-backed opponent by nearly 300,000 votes a 10-point margin less than a year after President Donald Trump carried the state on his way to a battleground sweep.She achieved that victory as more than 2.3 million people turned out to vote, about two-thirds of last years electorate. Thats significantly more than the last time a high-profile court seat was up for grabs and nearly matches the level of turnout in the 2022 midterms.Crawfords victory has been cast as symbolic for many reasons. Its both a referendum on the months-old Trump administration and on Elon Musk for his involvement and spending in the race. It was a test of liberal organizing and Democratic enthusiasm ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, as the partys base demands their leaders do more and they look for ways to resist Trump.But Wisconsins weird voting dynamics in the Trump era, combined with other national special and off-year elections, also demonstrate the role Trump has played in scrambling electoral coalitions and see-sawing the balance of power both in Washington and in the states. Two different electorates, polarized by education, class, and political engagement, have emerged one which benefits Democrats broadly, another which benefits solely Trump himself.Wisconsins recent see-sawingWisconsin in the age of Trump has been a curious place to watch. As a battleground for presidential and state-level contests, it has swung wildly between barely electing a Republican or Democratic presidential candidate, and delivering comfortable margins for liberals and Democrats running in off-year or midterm cycles. 2016: Red. Trump flipped the state, long a part of the Democratic Blue Wall (the Rust Belt, overwhelmingly white working-class states that used to elect Democrats) by a tiny margin of 0.7 percent, or about 20,000 votes. White working-class and non-college educated voters came out to vote for Trump, while minority voter turnout dropped, dooming Hillary Clinton.2018: Blue. Just two years later, the states progressive Democratic senator, Tammy Baldwin, won reelection by about 10 points, boosted by high Democratic enthusiasm and Trump disaffection. Suburbs and urban centers boosted Baldwins win, as college-educated, wealthier, and suburban voters around the country moved away from the Trump Republican Party and felt comfortable voting for a Democrat.2020: Blue. Joe Biden flipped the state back from Trump, but just barely. He won with a 0.62 percent margin, much closer than expected, as Trump was able to again get out more votes from his Republican base of white non-college educated voters. Turnout in cities and suburbs helped the Democrats outpace the number of new rural and non-college educated voters going for Trump. 2022: Red (barely). Two years later, during midterm elections that went much better than expected for Democrats, the states other senator, the conservative, ultra-MAGA loyalist Ron Johnson, retained his seat with a 20,000 vote or 1 percent margin. Most counties in the state shifted right during that election compared to 2020, making it a bit of an outlier among battleground states.2024: Red again. Trump would then go on to win the state in 2024, beating Kamala Harris by about 30,000 votes, or 0.86 percent, as he turned out even more rural voters. All but four highly urban and college-educated counties would shift to the right that year.What explains these wild pendulum swings?A clear story emerges when looking at overall turnout, county-specific demographics, Democratic enthusiasm, and polling in Wisconsin. And that story fits into a pattern of elections in the state. Wisconsins 2025 electorate was deeply Democratic: made up of not just the most informed and engaged voters, but also some lower-propensity voters who were persuaded to flip. As the data journalist Steve Kornacki pointed out ahead of the election, in off-year contests when Trump isnt on the ballot, pro-Trump blue-collar white voters have been less motivated to vote than have anti-Trump college-educated voters. That dynamic leads to results like Tuesday nights, when turnout in the most highly educated, Democratic parts of the state was much higher than turnout in the more non-college educated, pro-Trump places. An emblematic location was Dane County, home of Madison: Crawford received more net votes and a higher share of the vote than the Democrats 2022 Senate nominee Mandela Barnes.This dynamic may continue to repeat itselfWisconsin is just the latest example of how two different electorates are determining the balance of power in America. When Trump is on the ballot, lower-propensity, non-college educated, and (more recently) disaffected voters of color are more likely to turn out and vote for him, even if they dont necessarily vote for other Republicans. That was a factor that contributed not just to Harriss loss in 2024, but also to Senate and House Democrats overperformance in swing states. Democratic Senate candidates like Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, Ruben Gallego in Arizona, and Baldwin in Wisconsin all outran Harriss performance and won their respective races, in part because Republican turnout for Trump didnt trickle its way down the ballot.When Trump is not on the ballot, highly motivated, high-information, and disaffected anti-Trump voters (some of them former Republicans) still turn out, or turn out at even higher rates for Democratic candidates and those candidates still win over some share of Republicans who can be persuaded to vote for a Democrat. At the same time, lower-propensity Trump voters stay home. This is a historic shift. For most of the last 30 years, its been the Republican Party that has had the more attuned, higher-propensity voters who would turn out in off-year elections, and so would benefit from a smaller electorate. Democrats were the ones struggling to get their voters to the polls when Barack Obama wasnt on the ballot. But the Republican Party has been trading away many of those higher-propensity, college-educated, and wealthier voters to the Democrats in the Trump era, as Democrats lost more white, non-college educated voters.This pattern was again demonstrated in Wisconsin this week, but also in special elections across the country. In Floridas First and Sixth Congressional Districts, a share of Republican voters who turned out voted for Democratic candidates, particularly in the First District, which has more of a college-educated electorate. This was also a factor in the 2022 midterms, when states like Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia had plurality-Republican electorates that still ended up sending Democratic Senate candidates to Congress.Democrats are celebrating this most recent win in Wisconsin, and there are clear signs that the next year stands to see a score of Democratic victories in statewide and House elections. But the dynamic that is saving them in off years might not rescue them in the next presidential election (in which Trump will presumably not be on the ballot). They may have more lessons to learn about how to take advantage of the fundamentals that benefit them right now, and they surely have lessons to learn about how to counter Trumps influence before the next presidential cycle.See More:

After Nintendos intriguing hour-long live stream on Wednesday, we now know a lot more about its follow-up to the phenomenally successful Switch. But how does the Switch 2 play? After the online presentation, I got to spend about four hours road-testing the new console at a press event in the Grand Palais, Paris, the box-white exhibition hall adorned in Nintendo red and lined with rows of high-end TV screens and Switch 2 consoles. There was also a 90-minute roundtable with three of the masterminds behind the console: Tetsuya Sasaki (hardware design lead), Kouichi Kawamoto (producer) and Takuhiro Dohta (director). Heres what I learned.The gamesSmooth ride Mario Kart World for the Nintendo Switch 2. Photograph: NintendoMario Kart WorldThe headline feature here (playable cow aside) is Knockout Tour mode, which replaces the traditional three-lap circuits with hefty sprints across a sprawling world map. There are 24 racers, double that of its predecessor, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. As you progress, large checkpoints emerge on the horizon and at each of these the bottom four racers drop out. This continues until the final stretch, when the final four duke it out for first place. Think Mario Kart does battle royale. Its intense. Its exciting. It runs incredibly smoothly and will reinvigorate even the most hardened dare I say jaded Mario Kart player.Elsewhere there is a more traditional Mario Kart experience where everyone gets to finish the race. Youre still sprinting across some configuration of a world map one moment youre driving through Boos cinema, the next youre hurtling through a Toad-branded manufacturing plant. Tweaks from the previous game include: a few new weapons, skidding feels less agile, the tracks feel less claustrophobic and theyve styled Waluigi like Steven Van Zandt.Super Mario Party JamboreeQuirky Super Mario Party Jamboree. Photograph: NintendoMario Party is Nintendos party game franchise board games, mini games, screwing each other over, players taking it far too seriously you get the drill. This series has always allowed Nintendo to showcase the quirkier aspects of its hardware, and the camera works well in the mini games I played. I enjoyed the goomba-catching mini game (named Goombalancing Act): you stand in front of the console and camera, then marvel as youre projected on to the TV, now with a red pedestal on your head; as goombas begin falling from the sky you bob and weave to catch, stack and balance. The player with the most goombas at the end wins.Elsewhere, theres a squatting/standing decision based game (I can already see the camera being incorporated into the next Ring Fit/Wii Fit title) and a game that rewards those who move and shout the most, making use of the inbuilt microphone (this one might quickly grow old). Its all very reminiscent of PlayStations EyeToy. The mouse functionality gets a run-out too tagging Bob-ombs with spray scans is the standout (you literally shake the Joy-Con like a canister when you run out of spray).At the roundtable were told that Nintendo developed the microphone to remove unwanted external noise, but the sound of clapping will still get picked up, to allow the full emotion of the experience to come through. Nintendo is clearly trying to keep the spirit of local multiplayer gaming alive at a time where people are more isolated and less inclined to leave their homes. Theres an option to have your friends appear via camera at the bottom of your screen too. Being able to look people in the eye as you stab them in the back at a digital board game thats what makes life worth living.Drag x DriveDrag x Drive is Nintendos combination of Rocket League and wheelchair basketball. You hold the Joy-Con in mouse mode, one in each hand, and then manouvre as though youre operating a wheelchair. Theres a tutorial which takes some getting used to and at times it makes your arm ache a bit, but thankfully the game itself is less taxing and much more about smaller motions and precision. If you dont have a table in front of you to use the mouse then its designed to work on your lap. I gave this a try, but quickly became conscious of the fact that I was a 35-year-old man furiously rubbing his legs under a table.And the rest There have been concerns that the more iterative approach to the new Switch marks a new age for Nintendo, one where its less weird. Well, look no further than Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. Picture the Switch 2 on its side, then enlarge it to the size of the airport, then turn buttons into kiosks with digital receptionists that you can explore: essentially its a playable guide to your console through the medium of mini games, explainers, tutorials and quizzes. It is more fun that it sounds just.In Donkey Kong Bananza you run around and destroy a lot of rocks. Maybe it was just the early levels I played, but it feels as if it skews toward a beginner audience. It looks amazing though. Then theres Metroid Prime 4. The opening sequence was playable here and all Ill say is it looks and feels exactly like Metroid Prime Remastered (complimentary) but slightly more vibrant, cinematic and busy, with mouse functionality for those who play their shooters that way.The hardwareAn iterative hop Nintendo Switch 2. Photograph: NintendoThe Switch 2 is more of an iterative hop than a grand redesign. The focus is on pragmatic changes that improve quality of life. Its a wider model than its predecessor, and though it feels sturdier it doesnt feel that much heavier in handheld mode. The bigger screen pops, as youd expect; and it all looks very sleek and less like a toy. It all feels like marginal gains, but together adds up to a much slicker, more modern device.The Joy-Con feels more durable, weightier than their predecessors and more comfortable to hold, with bigger buttons that are less awkward to press (the shoulder buttons in particular). I wasnt able to test out the magnetic attach/detach aspect, but I was able to detach the thin case that goes over the edges once theyre no longer docked in the system what a relief to no longer be messing about with those cheap black sliders. As for the dreaded Joy-Con drift, we were told during the roundtable that the new models have been designed from the ground up to account for bigger and smoother movements.The pro controller feels exactly as it did before, albeit with joysticks that feel slightly more durable and comfortable. I have minor concerns about accidentally hitting the new buttons at the base of the controller in the heat of karting battle accidentally firing off a premature red shell maybe but Im sure Ill get used to it. In the developer roundtable it was also confirmed that Joy-Con and pro controllers from the previous generation would be compatible with the Switch 2 (though presumably with some obvious restrictions on functionality).A note on the performance of the Switch 2: in my four hours playtime I remember seeing one loading screen. That was for Cyberpunk and it lasted maybe five to 10 seconds. I only had a few minutes to play, so immediately began shooting Night City cops to start a riot and my brief impressions are that the hardware coped pretty well with the ensuing carnage. Likewise for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I immediately loaded the save marked Korok Forest and sprinted under the Deku Tree, witnessing the forest for the first time without a single frame dropping.The verdictWhether or not Nintendo can convince diehard fans like me isnt the question here. Nintendo has often struggled with following up its triumphs in the home console market, lurching from runaway success to squandered opportunities. When the original Switch came out in March 2017, it was off the back of the dismal performance of the Wii U, a device that sold 13.5m units in its lifetime. Its job was to move devotees on from a failing system and convince casual gamers to come back. Nintendo has a different job this time around: it now has to convince perhaps the largest install base in its history (150m units sold and counting) to make the switch (Im sorry) to its reasonably similar new model. Its a big ask for Nintendo, and in this climate of home console uncertainty, for the entire industry.