Sony is raising the recommended retail prices of PlayStation 5 consoles across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The company cites “a challenging economic environment, including high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates” as the catalyst for the increase.The price increases were confirmed via a post on PlayStation Blog.New PS5 RRPs (effective from April 14)EuropePS5 Digital Edition – €500 (No change for standard PS5 with disc drive) UKPS5 Digital Edition – £430 (No change for standard PS5 with disc drive)  AustraliaStandard PS5 with disc drive – AUD $830, PS5 Digital Edition – AUD $750New ZealandStandard PS5 with disc drive – NZD $950, PS5 Digital Edition – NZD $860The price of the PS5 Pro has remained unchanged.In the wake of similar RRP hikes made in 2022, the PS5 is now considerably more expensive in many territories than it was at its launch. In Europe and the UK the PS5 digitial edition is now €100/£70 more expensive than it was at launch (up from €400/£360). In Australia, the standard PS5 is now AUD $80 more than it launched at (up from AUD $750) and the digital edition is up AUD $150 (from AUD $600). In New Zealand, the standard PS5 is now NZD $130 more than it launched for (NZD $820), and the digital version has increased by NZD $210 (up from NZD $650).The RRP of the PS5 disc drive, however, is dropping to €80/£70/AUD $125/NZD $140.Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

There are a lot of new characters introduced in the season 2 premiere of The Last of Us. We meet Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and her crew years before in Salt Lake City. There’s Jesse (Young Mazino) and Dina (Isabela Merced), new friends of Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) in Jackson. Many of these characters fans of the games expected to see as we dive into this new chapter of the story, but game players may have noticed another familiar character mentioned by newcomer Gail (Catherine O’Hara) – Eugene. Who is Eugene? We unfortunately never meet Eugene in The Last of Us Part II. We only get to know him through what he leaves behind. At the beginning of the game, Ellie and Dina are on patrol and get caught in a blizzard. They take refuge in an old library and soon find that Eugene had a secret outpost hidden within the basement full of weed plants, bongs, and porn – you know, the apocalypse necessities. Ellie finds Eugene’s Firefly tag and an old photo of him and Tommy from their days as Fireflies. Eugene had a wife named Claire and the two had a daughter, but it’s not clear if either have survived Eugene or not, as he abandoned them to join the Fireflies. In the game, Eugene was a mentor figure to Dina, teaching her a lot about how to repair electronics, a role that Joel seems to have taken on in the series.  While Ellie and Dina are looking through the library, we learn from them that Eugene died of a stroke. They talk about how rare it is for someone to die of natural causes nowadays and how they hope to maintain their wit and humor as Eugene did. Eugene is still dead in the HBO series, but we come to find out from his wife Gail, who is very much alive and lived with him in Jackson up until his death, that Joel killed him. The show hasn’t yet revealed the exact circumstances behind Eugene’s death, but if Joel killed him, it’s likely that something happened on a patrol or otherwise that led to Eugene being exposed to Cordyceps. Eugene’s love of weed does still seem to be alive and well, however, as Gail mentions him growing the plant when she accepts some as payment from Joel. Is Gail a Character From The Last of Us Games? Speaking of Gail, she is a character created for the series and not featured in the games. She is doing her best as the only living psychotherapist in Jackson, offering therapy to Joel in exchange for weed even though she’s still upset with him about Eugene’s death.  Joel definitely does not seek out therapy in the games, and it’s an interesting addition to the series. It shows that he’s trying to work through some of his trauma, but he is still holding stuff back, as Gail rightfully calls him out for. It makes sense that he’s still trying to protect Ellie’s secret, the laws of patient confidentiality are probably nonexistent in the apocalypse, and it’ll take a while for Joel to unlearn all of the decades of mistrust that this world has ingrained within him. But at the same time, Gail can’t help him figure out how to atone for what he did to Ellie if she doesn’t know exactly what he did. Gail might not be a character from the games, but as we saw last season with the addition of Melanie Lynskey’s character Kathleen last season, that’s not a bad thing. Both characters have added interesting layers to the story that the games don’t explore, and it will be interesting to see how Gail’s story affects Joel and Ellie’s this season. New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, culminating with the finale on May 25, 2025.

Google apparently has one weird trick to hoard its talent from poachers: paying them to not work.As Business Insider reports, some United Kingdom-based employees at Google's DeepMind AI lab are paid to do nothing for six months — or, in fewer cases, up to a year — after they quit their jobs.Known as "garden leave," this type of cushy clause is the luckier stepsister to so-called "noncompete" agreements, which prohibit employees and contractors from working with a competitor for a designated period of time after they depart an employer. Ostensibly meant to prevent aggressive poaching, these sorts of clauses also bar outgoing employees from working with competitors.Often deployed in tandem with noncompetes, garden leave agreements are more prevalent in the UK than across the pond in the United States, where according to the Horton Group law firm, such clauses are generally reserved for "highly-paid executives."Though it seems like a pretty good gig — or lack thereof — if you can get it, employees at DeepMind's London HQ told BI that garden leave and noncompetes stymie their ability to lock down meaningful work after they leave the lab.While noncompetes are increasingly a nonstarter in the United States amid growing legislative pushes to make them unenforceable, they're perfectly legal and quite commonplace in the UK so long as a company explicitly states the business interests they're protecting.Like DeepMind's generous garden leave period, noncompete clauses typically last between six months and a year — but instead of getting paid to garden, per the former's logic, ex-employees just can't work for competitors for that length of time without risking backlash from Google's army of lawyers.Because noncompetes are often signed alongside non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), we don't know exactly what DeepMind considers a "competitor" — but whatever its contracts stipulate, it's clearly bothersome enough to get its former staffers to speak out."Who wants to sign you for starting in a year?" one ex-DeepMind-er told BI. "That's forever in AI."In an X post from the end of March, Nando de Freitas, a London-based former DeepMind director who now works at Microsoft offered a brash piece of advice: that people should not sign noncompetes at all."Above all don’t sign these contracts," de Freitas wrote. "No American corporation should have that much power, especially in Europe. It’s abuse of power, which does not justify any end."It's not a bad bit of counsel, to be sure — but as with any other company, it's easy to imagine DeepMind simply choosing not to hire experts if they refuse to sign.More on the world of AI: Trump's Tariffs Are a Bruising Defeat for the AI IndustryShare This Article

The exemption of smartphones, laptops and other electronic products from import tariffs on China will be short-lived, top US officials have said, with Donald Trump warning that no one was “getting off the hook.”“There was no Tariff ‘exception’, Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”In the post on his Truth Social platform, Trump promised to launch a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector and the “whole electronics supply chain”.“We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China,” he added.The White House had announced on Friday the exclusion of some electronic products from steep reciprocal tariffs on China. US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.Lutnick said Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new duties would fall outside Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on China, he said.“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC, predicting that the levies would bring production of those products to the United States. “These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a fast-moving game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports.Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145%, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125% levy on US imports.Trump’s back-and-forth on tariffs triggered the wildest swings on Wall Street since the Covid pandemic of 2020. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down more than 10% since Trump took office on 20 January.After announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners, Trump abruptly issued a 90-day pause for most of them. China was excluded from the reprieve.The fallout from Trump’s tariffs – and subsequent whiplash policy reversals – sent shock waves through the US economy, with investors dumping government bonds, the dollar tumbling and consumer confidence plunging.US senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticised the latest revision to Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned could dent economic growth and fuel inflation.“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption,” Warren said on ABC’s “This Week,” speaking before Trump’s latest post on social media.Beijing’s commerce ministry had said Friday’s move to exempt some electronic products only “represents a small step” and insisted that the Trump administration should “completely cancel” the whole tariff strategy.China has sought to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries amid the escalating trade war. Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Vietnam on Monday as he begins a tour of south-east Asia.With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

A new study released by the United Nations has some detail about how AI is getting implemented around the world.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared a new time-lapse video showing some of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites streaking across space. Other lines of light appearing in the 18-second clip captured from the International Space Station (ISS) include city lights on Earth 250 miles below, and those of distant stars. Pettit has earned a reputation for creating striking images and videos showing star streaks, but this is one of a few that also features SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit. Recommended Videos Since deploying the first Starlink satellites in 2019, SpaceX now has more than 7,000 of them orbiting Earth following multiple launches, the most recent of which took place just a few days ago using SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. Related The satellites provide internet connectivity to more than five million individuals and businesses on the ground, with SpaceX looking to build out its coverage with as many as 42,000 satellites in the coming years. The internet service is primarily aimed at under-served, low-density areas rather than heavily populated areas, though its ultimate goal is to become a premier global communications provider. Several companies are competing with Starlink to some degree, though a newcomer that could give SpaceX a real run for its money is Amazon’s Project Kuiper service, which, like Starlink, is targeting residential and business users. The company was supposed to launch its first Project Kuiper satellites from Cape Canaveral in Florida a few days ago, but inclement weather prompted the mission team to scrub the liftoff. Starlink hasn’t been without controversy, with astronomers complaining about reflected light from the satellites disrupting their efforts to explore deep space. SpaceX has tried to reduce the strength of the reflected light by coating the satellites in a dark material, while also adding reflective film to redirect the sunlight away from Earth, a move that may have caused the satellites to appear so prominently in Pettit’s time-lapse video. Additionally, Starlink’s critical role in Ukraine’s military operations has sparked tensions over SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s unilateral control of the service, including his 2022 refusal to extend coverage to Crimea for a drone attack, and recent public clashes with European leaders over potential shutdowns. Editors’ Recommendations

The erstwhile Marxist-turned-free-marketeer wrote historical novels, semi-autobiographical comedies, murder mysteries, political essays and plays.

Social media videos show the rotary systems apparently detaching from the helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images 2025-04-14T01:50:23Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? New York Helicopter Tours is shutting down after crash kills six, FAA says. The FAA will launch an immediate review of the company's license and safety record. The Thursday crash killed three adults and three children. The operator of the helicopter involved in a crash that killed six people in New York last week is shutting down immediately, according to the Federal Aviation Administration."New York Helicopter Tours — the company involved in the deadly crash on the Hudson earlier this week — is shutting down their operations immediately," the FAA said in a statement on X on Sunday night."Additionally, the FAA will be launching an immediate review of the tour operator's license and safety record."The FAA also said it will continue to support the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation.New York Helicopter Tours could not be reached for comment.The FAA said it is analyzing helicopter and airplane hotspots across the US and will host a helicopter safety panel on April 22 to discuss findings, risks, and additional mitigation measures."Safety is the FAA's number one priority, and we will not hesitate to act to protect the flying public," the agency said.On Saturday, the NTSB said that the tourism helicopter was not equipped with any flight recorders and that the accident occurred during the aircraft's eighth flight of the day."No onboard video recorders or camera recorders have been recovered and none of the helicopter avionics onboard recorded information that could be used for the investigation," the NTSB said in an update.It added that the helicopter's last "major" inspection took place on March 1.The crash into the Hudson River near Manhattan on Thursday killed a Siemens executive, his wife, their three children, and a pilot.Agustín Escobar, 49, was the global CEO of Siemens Mobility's rail unit. His wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, worked for the company as the global commercialization manager for its energy division. Recommended video

Stone Whisper Residence / KC Design StudioSave this picture!© Yi-Hsien LEE (YHLAA) Architects: KC Design Studio Area Area of this architecture project Area:  159 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Yi-Hsien LEE (YHLAA) Lead Architects: Sung, Hsiao-yu More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. The owners are a couple who loves life. They enjoy collecting and inviting friends to their home. In our design, we consider the interaction between the collections and the people and hope to create an open, free, and flowing space that allows individuals to appreciate the collections naturally as they move around. Like a part of the spatial language, each piece of work is low-profile but rich in presence.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!A part of the collections is placed on the backdrop wall outlined by light. The translucent screen and illuminated furniture further create subtle visual layers and add a poetic feeling. In a space different from traditional solid wall partitions, we extend the storage function along the wall and define areas with non-full-height cabinets. Through the consistent floor, ceiling, and indirect lighting, we create a sense of visual flow and emphasize a sense of extension in the space.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The overall dark tone is accompanied by a low-profile, foggy texture. Wood, metal, glass, and light are incorporated, allowing the space to achieve a balance between tranquility and tension, showcasing a reserved but richly-layered atmosphere.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City, TaiwanLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeKC Design StudioOffice••• Published on April 14, 2025Cite: "Stone Whisper Residence / KC Design Studio" 13 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029020/stone-whisper-residence-kc-design-studio&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 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

Nature, Published online: 09 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08807-4Acute stress activates autophagy in the lateral habenula, whereas chronic stress suppresses it, with this autophagy having a causal role in maintaining emotional homeostasis against stress, and its restoration through autophagy enhancers offers a novel antidepressant strategy.