Highly anticipated: Electronic Arts is pulling back the curtain on its highly anticipated turn-based strategy title Zero Company, developed by the newly formed Bit Reactor studio. It's set to launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The game has been a closely guarded secret, but that's set to change soon. The Bit Reactor studio is made up of a crew of industry vets who previously worked on major strategy franchises like XCOM, Civilization, Gears of War, and Elder Scrolls Online. It was founded in 2022 and has been cooking up this Star Wars project in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and Respawn Entertainment. Up until now, details about Zero Company have been basically non-existent beyond it being a single-player turn-based tactics experience set in a galaxy far, far away. But that will change this Saturday, April 19, at the Star Wars Celebration event happening in Japan. EA will host a panel providing our first real look at Zero Company gameplay at 4:30pm local Tokyo time. For those in the US, that translates to 12:30am PT / 3:30am ET screen time. The promo image depicted a gritty, somber aesthetic filled with a ragtag squad of familiar Star Wars archetypes – clone troopers, Mandalorians, alien warriors, a droid, and more. // Related Stories While we'll have to wait for the panel to get the full scoop, some leaked screenshots from March may have given us an early taste of what to expect. Those gave off some serious XCOM vibes, which tracks given the Bit Reactor founders' past experience. One has to imagine we'll see a blend of squad-based combat, parceled-out character abilities, environmental destruction, and tense decision-making under fire as players command their outnumbered forces. Zero Company represents one of three Star Wars games that Respawn teased back in January 2022. We already know one of those was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the 2023 follow-up to the acclaimed Jedi: Fallen Order. As for the third game mentioned, the studio described it as an "all-new" first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe.

If you’ve been waiting for phone deals on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, here’s your chance at a $200 discount. You can get its 256GB model for only $1,100 instead of $1,300, but there’s a catch — you have to sign up to a Mint Mobile subscription. That’s not a negative though, as you can get the service’s Unlimited plan for only $180 for 12 months instead of $360. All in all, it’s the 256GB Samsung Galaxy Ultra with a 12-month Unlimited plan from Mint Mobile for $1,280 instead of $1,660, for total savings of $380. This is a limited-time offer though, so you have to act fast if you want to take advantage of it. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is the largest model in the brand’s latest series of flagship smartphones, and it was released just over two months ago. It scored a solid 4 out of 5 stars in our review, where we described it as “a powerhouse you won’t regret buying,” partly because of the speedy performance provided by its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite for Galaxy processor and 12GB of RAM. We’ve also tagged the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra as the best Samsung-made Android phone in our list of the best Android phones. It ships with One UI 7 over Android 15, and it’s the best version yet of Samsung’s firmware. The 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X touchscreen of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is simply gorgeous with its 3,120 x 1,440 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and support for HDR10+. The smartphone also has an impressive camera system, headlined by a 200MP primary camera at the back that’s perfect for those who love taking photos and videos. Related Don’t miss this chance to buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with a discount: $200 off on the 256GB model to bring its price down to $1,100 from $1,300 — though Mint Mobile will require you to sign up for a subscription. Its 12-month Unlimited plan is down to $180 from $360 though, so you can get the 256GB Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with this plan for a total of $1,280 instead of $1,660, for a total discount of $380. Samsung Galaxy deals on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are rare, so pounce on this offer while you still can. Editors’ Recommendations

Big money Netflix plans to bring streaming into the $1 trillion club by 2030 Netflix aims to double its revenue over the next five years, WSJ reports. Scharon Harding – Apr 15, 2025 2:32 pm | 0 A scene from the Netflix original series Adolescence. Credit: Netflix A scene from the Netflix original series Adolescence. Credit: Netflix Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Netflix plans to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion by 2030, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this week, citing anonymous people who attended an “annual business review meeting” that Netflix held in March. Netflix's current market capitalization is nearly $400 billion. Netflix is reportedly partnering its market cap goals with plans to double revenue within the same time frame. For 2024, Netflix reported $39,000,966,000 in revenue, meaning the company is aiming to raise its annual revenue to $78,001,932,000 in five years. Compared to the prior five years, Netflix’s revenue grew 93.5 percent from 2019 ($20,156,000,000) to 2024. But that time period represented a different market, one where streaming subscriber counts were rising rapidly, and Netflix faced less competition than it does today. However, Netflix's 2030 revenue goals are also dependent on its advertising business, something Netflix lacked in 2019. WSJ, citing anonymous people who attended Netflix’s March meeting, reported that Netflix plans to make $9 billion in ad sales by 2030. Netflix hasn’t disclosed ad revenue since launching its ad subscription tier in November 2022. But eMarketer has estimated that Netflix will make over $2 billion in US ad revenue this year. Netflix will try growing its ad business by getting more people to subscribe to its ad tier, which is its cheapest subscription option. But additional methods for growing ad revenue will also be critical over the next five years, including showing more live events. Live events force all viewers, including those with ad-free subscriptions, to watch commercials. Netflix will also look to take more control over ad revenue tied to its platform by using proprietary ad technology. Since launching its ad tier, Netflix has largely relied on Microsoft for ad tech. Netflix is supposed to release its own technology, a supply-side platform and ad server called The Netflix Ads Suite, this month. The company has discussed potentially introducing new ad formats, like pause ads, while keeping ad loads at four minutes per hour with its tech. However, US President Donald Trump's wavering tariff plans have stirred uncertainty for advertisers and are expected to hurt the ad market in the coming months and years. Netflix doesn’t plan to disclose subscriber counts anymore, but one of WSJ’s anonymous sources said that the streaming leader wants to have 410 million subscribers by 2030. That would require Netflix to add 108,370,000 more subscribers than it reported at the end of 2024, or about 21,674,000 per year, and expand its global reach. In 2024, Netflix added 41.36 million subscribers, including a record number of new subscribers in Q4 2024. Netflix plans to release its Q1 2025 earnings report on April 17. $1 trillion club hopeful Should Netflix achieve its reported goals, it would be the first to join the $1 trillion club solely through streaming-related business. The club is currently populated mostly by tech brands, including two companies that own Netflix rivals: Apple and Amazon. Netflix is, by far, the most likely streaming candidate to potentially enter the lucrative club. It’s currently beating all other video-streaming providers, including Amazon Prime Video and Disney+, in terms of revenue and profits. Some streaming businesses, including Apple TV+ and Peacock, still aren’t profitable yet. Netflix's reported striving for a $1 trillion market cap exemplifies the meteoric rise of streaming since Netflix launched its streaming service in 2007. As linear TV keeps shrinking, and streaming companies continue learning how to mimic the ads, live TV, and content strategies of their predecessors, the door is open for streaming firms to evolve into some of the world's most highly valued media entities. The potential for Netflix to have a trillion-dollar market cap also has notable implications for rivals Apple and Amazon, which both earned membership into the $1 trillion-dollar club without their streaming services. Whether Netflix will reach the goals reported by WSJ is not guaranteed, but it will be interesting to watch how Netflix's strategy for reaching that lofty goal affects subscribers. Further, with streaming set to be more central to the viewing of TV shows, movies, and live events by 2030, efforts around things like ads, pricing, and content libraries could impact media consumption as we head toward 2030. Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She's been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK. 0 Comments

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower as visible in Sri Lanka in 2024Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto/ Getty Images The Lyrids and Eta Aquarids meteor showers will soon be appearing in the night skies. This year, they will start becoming visible within days of each other in April, with the bright Lyrids peaking on the night between 21 April and 22 April and the Eta Aquarids peaking between midnight and dawn on 5 May. What is the Lyrids meteor shower? The Lyrids result from pieces of debris from the Thatcher comet interacting with Earth’s atmosphere and eventually disintegrating to become the bright streaks of light we see in the night sky. The meteor shower’s radiant – the spot in the night sky from which the meteors appear to radiate – is in the northern-hemisphere constellation Lyra, which contains the bright star Vega. People have been spotting the Lyrids for at least 2700 years. “The Lyrids are maybe the smallest of the major showers,” says Margaret Campbell-Brown at Western University in Canada. “The rates are not as high as most other meteor showers, but they do sometimes have a lot of bright meteors.” Advertisement When is the Lyrids meteor shower? This year, the Lyrids are active from 17 April to 26 April. Their peak activity occurs on the night of 21 April and is most visible just before dawn on 22 April. How can you boost your chances of seeing the Lyrids? The Lyrids can be best seen from Earth’s northern hemisphere in the dark hours just before dawn. The meteors will typically appear as fast streaks of light and may occasionally create a bright flash. You can expect to see around five or six meteors every hour on a typical night and as many as 10 to 20 meteors during the peak. The constellation Lyra is below the horizon for most viewers in the southern hemisphere, but the Lyrids may still be seen in more limited numbers. “There will be a bit of a moon this year, but if there are lots of bright meteors that doesn’t matter as much,” says Campbell-Brown. What is the Eta Aquarids meteor shower? The Eta Aquarids meteors are icy and rocky debris originally shed by Halley’s comet that eventually reach Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate in a fiery nighttime display. The shower’s radiant is near Eta Aquarii, which is one of the brightest stars in the constellation Aquarius. “They’re a very interesting shower, producing strong outbursts some years,” says Campbell-Brown. But this year will probably have more moderate activity, she says. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. Sign up to newsletter When is the Eta Aquarids meteor shower? This year, the Eta Aquarids can be seen between 20 April and 28 May. The best viewing time will be during their peak period between midnight and dawn on 5 May. How can you boost your chances of seeing the Eta Aquarids? The southern hemisphere provides the best viewing opportunity for the Eta Aquarids. It is also visible in the northern hemisphere but much lower in the night sky, so sky watchers there will have to look towards the horizon to see the meteors. “The shower radiant only rises a couple of hours before dawn in the northern hemisphere, and it’s well light by the time it’s high in the sky, so observers only have a small window for seeing the meteors,” says Campbell-Brown. The Eta Aquarids can also sometimes leave glowing dust trains in their wake that appear visible for several seconds or even minutes, she says. You can expect to see about 10 to 30 meteors per hour from the northern hemisphere, and about 30 meteors per hour from the southern hemisphere. Meteor-spotting tips from an astronomer Your best bet is to get out of the city to find a place with the darkest skies possible, says Campbell-Brown. She recommends bringing a star map to help locate the constellations where each of the meteor showers will originate, as well as a reclining lawn chair or camping mattress. Dressing warmly is also a good idea since you won’t be moving around much. “Where in the sky you look is not important; the rates might be a little higher if you look toward the radiant – which for both of these showers will be rising in the East – but anywhere the sky is dark and clear is fine,” she says. Keep in mind that some of the meteors you see won’t necessarily be from these specific meteor showers. But for both meteor showers, the best viewing opportunities will come well after sunset in the several hours before dawn, says Campbell-Brown. Mysteries of the universe: Cheshire, England Spend a weekend with some of the brightest minds in science, as you explore the mysteries of the universe in an exciting programme that includes an excursion to see the iconic Lovell Telescope. Find out more Topics:

Bowling Green, Kentucky, is home to 75,000 residents who recently wrapped up an experiment in using AI for democracy: Can an online polling platform, powered by machine learning, capture what residents want to see happen in their city? When Doug Gorman, elected leader of the county that includes Bowling Green, took office in 2023, it was the fastest-growing city in the state and projected to double in size by 2050, but it lacked a plan for how that growth would unfold. Gorman had a meeting with Sam Ford, a local consultant who had worked with the surveying platform Pol.is, which uses machine learning to gather opinions from large groups of people.  They “needed a vision” for the anticipated growth, Ford says. The two convened a group of volunteers with experience in eight areas: economic development, talent, housing, public health, quality of life, tourism, storytelling, and infrastructure. They built a plan to use Pol.is to help write a 25-year plan for the city. The platform is just one of several new technologies used in Europe and increasingly in the US to help make sure that local governance is informed by public opinion. After a month of advertising, the Pol.is portal launched in February. Residents could go to the website and anonymously submit an idea (in less than 140 characters) for what the 25-year plan should include. They could also vote on whether they agreed or disagreed with other ideas. The tool could be translated into a participant’s preferred language, and human moderators worked to make sure the traffic was coming from the Bowling Green area.  Over the month that it was live, 7,890 residents participated, and 2,000 people submitted their own ideas. An AI-powered tool from Google Jigsaw then analyzed the data to find what people agreed and disagreed on.  Experts on democracy technologies who were not involved in the project say this level of participation—about 10% of the city’s residents—was impressive. “That is a lot,” says Archon Fung, director of the Ash Center for Innovation and Democratic Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. A local election might see a 25% turnout, he says, and that requires nothing more than filling out a ballot.  “Here, it’s a more demanding kind of participation, right? You’re actually voting on or considering some substantive things, and 2,000 people are contributing ideas,” he says. “So I think that’s a lot of people who are engaged.” The plans that received the most attention in the Bowling Green experiment were hyperlocal. The ideas with the broadest support were increasing the number of local health-care specialists so residents wouldn’t have to travel to nearby Nashville for medical care, enticing more restaurants and grocery stores to open on the city’s north side, and preserving historic buildings.  More contentious ideas included approving recreational marijuana, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s nondiscrimination clause, and providing more options for private education. Out of 3,940 unique ideas, 2,370 received more than 80% agreement, including initiatives like investing in stormwater infrastructure and expanding local opportunities for children and adults with autism.   The volunteers running the experiment were not completely hands-off. Submitted ideas were screened according to a moderation policy, and redundant ideas were not posted. Ford says that 51% of ideas were published, and 31% were deemed redundant. About 6% of ideas were not posted because they were either completely off-topic or contained a personal attack. But some researchers who study the technologies that can make democracy more effective question whether soliciting input in this manner is a reliable way to understand what a community wants. One problem is self-selection—for example, certain kinds of people tend to show up to in-person forums like town halls. Research shows that seniors, homeowners, and people with high levels of education are the most likely to attend, Fung says. It’s possible that similar dynamics are at play among the residents of Bowling Green who decided to participate in the project. “Self-selection is not an adequate way to represent the opinions of a public,” says James Fishkin, a political scientist at Stanford who’s known for developing a process he calls deliberative polling, in which a representative sample of a population’s residents are brought together for a weekend, paid about $300 each for their participation, and asked to deliberate in small groups. Other methods, used in some European governments, use jury-style groups of residents to make public policy decisions.  What’s clear to everyone who studies the effectiveness of these tools is that they promise to move a city in a more democratic direction, but we won’t know if Bowling Green’s experiment worked until residents see what the city does with the ideas that they raised. “You can’t make policy based on a tweet,” says Beth Simone Noveck, who directs a lab that studies democracy and technology at Northeastern University. As she points out, residents were voting on 140-character ideas, and those now need to be formed into real policies.  “What comes next,” she says, “is the conversation between the city and residents to develop a short proposal into something that can actually be implemented.” For residents to trust that their voice actually matters, the city must be clear on why it’s implementing some ideas and not others.  For now, the organizers have made the results public, and they will make recommendations to the Warren County leadership later this year. 

One of the most memorable scenes from James Cameron's 1997 movie "Titanic" showed the ship breaking in half — a dramatic moment that matched some survivors' stories of the early hours of April 15, 1912.But it might not be accurate."They're contradictory," Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson said of the passengers' accounts. The ship itself would be better able to tell the tale. "Steel rarely lies," he told Business Insider.The problem is that the wreck is over 2.3 miles below the waves in the Atlantic Ocean, but new technology has recently made it more accessible than ever.In 2022, underwater mapping company Magellan Ltd., headquartered in the Channel Islands, took 715,000 images of the Titanic. It took months to piece them all together into a "digital twin" of the ship.Now historians and researchers are hoping it can answer some of Titanic's biggest mysteries.A new National Geographic special from Atlantic Productions, "Titanic: The Digital Resurrection," shows how Stephenson and other experts are using these images to examine the wreck in a whole new way. In 1912, the Titanic sank, killing over 1,500 people. The RMS Titanic. Hulton Archive/Getty Images The ship's size, its famous passengers, the unfathomable loss of life, and the harrowing tales from survivors instantly made it headline news.Interest in the disaster continued, especially in 1985 when Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel found the shipwreck during a secret US Navy mission.It's far too fragile to raise. Artifacts and small pieces of the ship have been recovered, but the rusting remains will stay on the ocean floor.It's risky and expensive to visit the shipwreck — five people died when a submersible visiting the Titanic imploded in June 2023 — and conditions are murky at that depth. The digital twin offers an ultra-clear view that's impossible to see from a submersible. The digital twin captured the Titanic in remarkable detail while also giving a sense of its size. The Juliet ROV scans the bow railing of the Titanic wreck site. Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions Two submersibles, Romeo and Juliet, spent three weeks photographing and measuring the ship and the debris surrounding the two halves. The digital model is made up of the images and scans to reveal areas of the ship that are hard to view from trips to the wreck.Other techniques have been used to create photo mosaics of the Titanic, but this photogrammetry process captured every inch of the wreck — down to its rivets — and its surroundings without losing resolution or details."You can zoom right into an area of interest, right down to a floor tile on the ocean floor," Stephenson told BI. "It is amazing."Stephenson, who appears in the documentary, has viewed the Titanic a few times from crewed and uncrewed submersibles. He said that in person, it's difficult to see much of the ship through a 7-inch viewport. That meant he was glimpsing the ship section by section instead of as a whole. "What you really need to make sense of all this evidence is context," he said."It's how it's all put together and presented as a whole that's the paradigm shift here," Stephenson said. "That's what's going to be the future of deep ocean exploration." Researchers want to know why the iceberg did so much damage. The bow of the Titanic seen in a digital recreation. Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions Crew member Frederick Fleet described hitting the iceberg as a narrow shave, thinking they'd avoided disaster. Many passengers didn't realize the ship had struck anything. Yet the collision was deadly.The Titanic's builders designed the ship to withstand four of its 16 compartments flooding. Edward Wilding, a naval architect who worked on the design, speculated from the beginning that the iceberg scraping alongside the ship punctured more than four sections. Enough water flowed in to pull down the entire ship.The portion of the ship that struck the iceberg slammed into the seafloor when it sank. It's now buried in mud. Even if it were visible, it would likely be difficult to tell the difference between the damage before and after sinking.For the documentary, researchers from University College London and Newcastle University put together a simulation to find some potential answers. Using the ship's blueprints and estimated speed, they found that the iceberg may have torn open an 18-square-foot gash along six compartments, enough to take down the Titanic.The simulation aligned very closely with Wilding's speculations from over 100 years ago."He really knew that ship," Anthony Geffen, the film's producer, told BI, which is perhaps why they match so well.With much of the bow sunk in the mud, we may never know the full story of the iceberg's effect, Stephenson said. Large pieces from the ship show how it may have split in two. Engines on the Titanic digital recreation. Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions In Cameron's movie, the ship basically cracks in half. Passenger Jack Thayer later wrote that part of the ship rose into the sky and seemed to hang there, and then, "with the deadened noise of the bursting of her last few gallant bulkheads, she slid quietly away from us into the sea.""Even Jim Cameron, today, will say that the way he depicted it in the movie is not correct," Stephenson said. It was based on what was known in 1997, which was eyewitness testimony, like Thayer's.The way it broke apart may have been far more explosive. The model shows large pieces of the hull scattered around the wreck that may be evidence of such an event."It was a giant, catastrophic fracture," metallurgist Jennifer Hooper said in the documentary, which caused a domino effect of compression and buckling that destroyed roughly 20% of the ship.That might explain why the two large sections of the ship are a third of a mile apart, Geffen said. "Something massive must have happened," he said. "It didn't just float apart." The model gives a new perspective on passengers' and crew's final moments. The Titanic digital recreation shows the boilers in the hull where the ship broke apart. Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions Before the ocean liner disappeared under the water, survivors recalled its lights still being on. The model gives a clear view of boiler room two. That's likely where the Titanic engineers stayed until the end, shoveling coal to keep the ship illuminated and the wireless transmitting calls for help.Further away, a valve can be seen in the open position, indicating that steam continued flowing to generate electricity."These boilers tell us about a very personal story about the people" who stayed behind on the ship, Geffen said.First-class passengers John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, two of the wealthiest men on the boat, both lost their lives — the documentary revealed that the crumbling ship may have come apart right where the first-class cabins were located. Personal possessions are clear enough to recognize. Possessions from people aboard the Titanic, including a shark tooth fob, pocket watch, and tusk bangle. Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions The crew's and passengers' possessions are scattered for miles around the Titanic. Researchers have been able to identify the owners' of some of them from these new images, and Geffen said AI could help find more.For example, there's a shark tooth that seems to have been attached to a pocket watch belonging to a first-class passenger, Colonel John Weir.The Titanic site is a graveyard, where hundreds of people lost their lives. "I think sometimes that gets lost," Geffen said, but their belongings can help tell their stories. One day, anyone may be able to virtually visit the Titanic. Jennifer Hooper, Chris Hearn, and Parks Stephenson examine the Titanic digital twin in the virtual studio. Atlantic Productions The new scans have frozen the Titanic in time. It's already covered in rusticles, the pointy structures created by deep-sea bacteria. As it continues to deteriorate, more evidence will be lost.As well as being dangerous and expensive, some also consider visiting the site via submersible disrespectful. Geffen said there are plans to put the digital twin in simulators so people can do virtual dives to the wreck, instead. Eventually, people will be able to put on a VR headset and walk around the site."With this digital twin, we can now bring the entire Titanic wreck site up to the surface and make it available to everyone," Stephenson said."Titanic: The Digital Resurrection" premiered on National Geographic on April 11 and is available on Disney+ and Hulu.

When President Donald Trump unveiled tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories early this month, there was one place that was conspicuously left off the list: Russia. Initially, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios that Russia had been excluded because US sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade.” But this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Though the US trades very little with Russia these days, the US slapped a broad 10 percent tariff on most other places — tariffs that are still in force despite a reversal on plans to target different countries with different tariff rates — it doesn’t trade much with, including some uninhabited islands. Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reiterated that it was because the US doesn’t trade with Russia due to sanctions on that country. (Again, a claim that’s not quite accurate.)But before that, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told ABC that the decision had been made because “There’s obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues.” Ukraine, the country Russia invaded, was hit with a 10 percent tariff.But if the Russians were toasting their good fortune in the Kremlin, that probably didn’t last long — because the new tariffs quickly began to disrupt the key part of the Russian economy: energy production.Oil prices have been dropping precipitously on fears that even a limited US-China trade war — like the one going on now — will trigger a global recession and reduce demand. Despite a brief spike after Trump paused many of the tariffs last Wednesday, global prices have continued to slide to their lowest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest forecasts project prices will continue to flounder. That’s very bad news for Russia, a country that depends on oil and gas sales for roughly a third of its government revenues and just hiked defense spending by 25 percent to the highest levels since the end of the Cold War as it works to sustain its war in Ukraine. Russian Urals grade oil fell to $50 a barrel recently, its lowest level since 2023. It’s rebounded some since then, but Russia’s finance ministry had budgeted for $70-a-barrel oil for 2025 — something that now seems unlikely. Since Russia invaded Ukraine 2022, the world has been caught in a vicious cycle where the geopolitical turbulence caused by the war helps keep oil prices high, while those high prices allow Russia to keep fighting the war. These dynamics may now be starting to shift, a development that’s been cause for some early schadenfreude in Ukraine: “The lower the oil prices, the less money Russians will have to fund their war,” Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, posted on social media. It’s worth noting that one reason Russia has been able to maintain its war economy despite tight international sanctions is that western governments have been wary about targeting Russia’s energy exports due to fears of spiking global energy prices. Complex workarounds have been devised to allow Russia to keep selling its oil on international markets.All of this doesn’t mean Russia’s war machine is going to collapse overnight. But with economic growth stagnant and inflation running high, Russia has less room for maneuver than it has in the past — it literally can’t afford oil prices to collapse. It would be a supreme irony if the Trump administration found a more effective way to attack the most important sector of Russia’s economy while providing a boost to the west’s Ukrainian allies than the Biden administration ever did. Especially if it does so via a trade policy that seems specifically designed not to hurt Russia. This piece originally ran in the Today, Explained newsletter. For more stories like this, sign up here.See More:

Switch 2 shows Nintendo is ‘losing their identity’ says ex-PS5 boss Michael Beckwith Published April 15, 2025 6:42pm Updated April 15, 2025 6:42pm Shuhei Yoshida has been very down on Nintendo lately (X/Nintendo) Shuhei Yoshida has expressed disappointment that the Nintendo Switch 2 is exactly what everyone thought it’d be. Even before the controversial Nintendo Switch 2 news dropped (primarily the prices of first party games), not everyone was fully enamoured with the new hardware once it was properly unveiled. There are those who feel Nintendo is playing things too safe with the Switch 2, arguing that it lacks innovation and is too straightforward a hardware upgrade. It turns out one of those people is former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, who has been quite vocal with his disappointment in the Switch 2, going so far as to say Nintendo is simply following the crowd. Yoshida was already quite negative when he reacted to the Nintendo Direct earlier this month, which he considered underwhelming aside from the announcement of The Duskbloods – the next game from FromSoftware. More recently, Yoshida made an appearance on the Easy Allies podcast, where he was asked to go more in-depth on his Switch 2 thoughts (his comments start from the 8:47 mark). While he gave it some praise, Yoshida revealed he was ultimately disappointed that the console is exactly what everyone expected. ‘To me it was a bit [of a] mixed message from Nintendo. In a sense I think Nintendo is losing their identity, in my opinion,’ explained Yoshida. ‘For me, they’re always about creating some new experience, like designing hardware and games together to create something that amazing new experience [sic].’ With Nintendo focusing on making the new console a stronger Switch, Yoshida feels that the company is aping its contemporaries: ‘Because it’s a better Switch, the core premise of the whole Switch 2 is ‘we made things better’. And that’s something other companies have been doing all the time.’ As a reminder, the Switch 2 is not without some new gimmicks to further differentiate itself from the original, in particular its new mouse controls. In fact, Yoshida expressed excitement for Drag X Drive, which only uses mouse controllers, for being ‘very Nintendo.’ Yoshida does acknowledge that the Switch 2 being more powerful isn’t inherently a bad thing, especially since it allows more third party games to appear on the system. But he feels this is only a benefit for those who missed out on games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 the first time around, arguing that ‘core gamers’ like himself will have already experienced these games on other platforms. He’s also as perplexed as everyone else is, over Nintendo’s decision to charge money for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, even calling it an ‘opportunity loss’ for the company. While it still lacks a UK price, it’ll cost $10 in the US, which is roughly £7.50. More Trending ‘I just don’t understand,’ said Yoshida. ‘You would want everyone to experience that, right? You would have a better understanding of the Switch 2 and become a fan of the system.’ Considering how profitable the original Switch has been (it’s the third best-selling console ever) and how much of a failure the more gimmicky Wii U was, it may be in everyone’s best interests that Nintendo play things a little more safely for now. Yoshida’s continued criticism also seems a little one-sided given he no longer works at Sony and is free to say whatever he likes about PlayStation, which has never gone out on a limb with hardware innovations like the Wii or Switch. So far though, he has offered little real criticism of his former employer, during what continues to be a very controversial generation for PlayStation. Although he did previously imply he would’ve tried to resist the current push for live service games. How much would you pay for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour? (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign 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

Instead of artificial implants, patients may receive lab-grown tooth replacements. Credit: Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Researchers are closing in on a breakthrough that could one day change one of dentistry’s most common practices: fillings. Building off work published late last year in ACS Macro Letters, a team at King’s College London is developing methods for lab-grown replacement teeth and fillings made from human cells. Humanity has endured the pain of cavities for as long as we’ve had teeth, but the basic remedy has remained fundamentally the same for millennia. Evidence dating at least as far back as 13,000 years ago indicates Paleolithic peoples made fillings from a combination of bitumen, plant fibers, and even hair to adhere to a tooth’s inner walls. Around 6,500 years ago, remedies in present-day Slovenia involved beeswax fillings, while Pliny the Elder referenced similar procedures in his Naturalis Historia (shortly before his untimely demise during the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE). Today’s dental fillings can be composed of multiple synthetic materials like alloys, amalgams, and composite resins. But at the end of the day, a filling is a filling—and they can still pose problems. Xuechen Zhang examines teeth cells on a computer during research into growing replacements from stem cells. Credit: King’s College London “Fillings aren’t the best solution for [repairing] teeth. Over time, they will weaken tooth structure, have a limited lifespan, and can lead to further decay or sensitivity,” Xuechen Zhang said in an April 14 university profile. More intensive therapies like implants can also add further complications, and require a precisely crafted prosthetics to attach to the alveolar bone. Zhang and fellow researchers have spent years attempting to grow human teeth in the lab using organoids, but routinely hit a wall when trying to direct cells to communicate with one another. Without the ability to “tell” one another that they need to form into tooth cells, the organoids simply couldn’t grow from there. However, Zhang’s team discovered a solution after collaborating with experts at nearby Imperial College. The problem was that their target cells previously attempted to send signals all at once, as if they were simultaneously shouting over one another. By suspending mouse cells in specialized three-dimensional matrices made with modified hydrogels, the cells paced their signal releases and properly communicated tooth production plans. “This new material releases signals slowly over time, replicating what happens in the body,” explained Zhang. Now that it’s possible to create teeth from bioengineered mouse stem cells, researchers are moving on to investigating the best methods to get future human versions into mouths. In the case of whole tooth replacement, options may include transplanting young cells from a lab culture directly into the space where it was, then fostering them to grow into an entirely new tooth. Another possibility may be to grow an entire tooth in the laboratory, then treating it like a natural implant once it is ready.  “Lab-grown teeth would naturally regenerate, integrating into the jaw as real teeth,” said Zhang. “They would be stronger, longer lasting, and free from rejection risks, offering a more durable and biologically compatible solution than fillings or implants.”

Reviews Artificial Intelligence Tech billionaires’ vision of an AI-dominated future is flawed — and dangerous A new book unravels the fantasy of a limitless society in outer space served by superintelligent AI A new book contends that Silicon Valley’s vision of the future — one in which AI enables humans to surpass biological limitations and build an ever-growing society in space — is implausible and morally fraught. Westend61/Getty Images Plus By Ashley Yeager 1 hour ago More Everything ForeverAdam Becker Basic Books, $32In the eyes of tech billionaires, our future is clear. We will be an ever-growing society living in outer space, our every need answered by superintelligent AIs. This vision may seem like science fiction. But around the world, a league of financial elites believes that such a transhumanistic future — one where technology enhances human capabilities and lets us surpass biological limitations — is inevitable. Science journalist Adam Becker counters this fantasy in More Everything Forever. In a deeply researched and engaging narrative, Becker dives into AI’s limitations to show that this vision of the future is not only unrealistic but also laden with racism, sexism and “endless capitalism of the most brutal sort.” Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.