Facepalm: YouTube and Amazon star MrBeast's reputation isn't as sparkling as it once was. Now, it's taken another hit after fans who paid $1,000 for the promise of an "unforgettable" experience in Las Vegas were left angry and seeking refunds. Even MrBeast himself, Jimmy Donaldson, admitted the event hadn't lived up to expectations. Resorts World Las Vegas announced in January that it was partnering with Donaldson on the new MrBeast Experience. The three-day event that took place from April 13 to April 15 promised all attendees would receive an exclusive MrBeast mystery bag filled with limited-edition merchandise and goodies, with one containing a $10,000 gift voucher, redeemable for cash. Theresa Metta, who traveled to Las Vegas with her mother, said she expected the likes of mini-games, meet and greets, themed drinks, and other elements usually seen at events like these. The reality was quite different. Many guests told 8 News Now that when they checked in, they were told by the hotel's front desk to wait in their rooms for their welcome goodie box to arrive. Some waited more than 24 hours for what turned out to be a disappointing surprise. "I was told to wait in my room for two days for a package to come, so I legit spent two days in my room for a package to come, and it was a box of chocolates," Metta said. Metta added that the mystery bag she received contained kids' shorts, an extra-small shirt, a hat, and a medium shirt, all items that are currently on clearance for $9 on the MrBeast store. // Related Stories "We were told we'd get exclusive merch. Obviously, that's not the case," Metta added. Courtesy of KLAS According to Reddit posts, there were no activities during the event, and the only thing that seemed to relate to MrBeast other than the cheap mystery bags was a channel on the TV showing the MrBeast logo. The fact Donaldson himself wasn't there was also a disappointment, though it seems he was never scheduled to make an appearance. The hotel's high prices added to the guests' anger. Some were compensated with a $50 food and beverage credit for two different outlets on the site, which, according to atendee David Yacksyzn, would have been enough for one drink. Some people were also offered $50 pool credit. "They gave us an experience, alright, a real bad one," Yacksyzn told FOX5. "If Jimmy is part of this, I hope he feels good for scamming a whole bunch of adults and their children," said Abigail Marquez, an attendee who traveled from Los Angeles. "That's how you get subscribers? Cool." Some guests are reportedly looking into launching a class-action lawsuit against the hotel. The MrBeast Experience event page has now been removed from the Resorts World Las Vegas website. A few fans reached out to Donaldson on X, complaining about the event. "Hey! This definitely isn't the experience we hoped they'd deliver," he replied. "My team's already on it – I'd love to personally make it up to you and anyone else by inviting everybody affected to tour my actual studio! Can't wait to meet you all and my team is reaching out to everyone :D" MrBeast has faced several controversies over the last year, including lawsuits from five contestants from Beast Games, allegations against a longtime collaborator, accusations and a lawsuit from former employees, and a backlash against the Lunchly snack kit he launched in partnership with Logan Paul and KSI. Nevertheless, he still has the world's most-subscribed YouTube channel, a consumer brand that could be worth billions, and a possible eye on buying TikTok.

It’s not just you, Spotify is down. Tens of thousands of users across the world are reporting issues with the popular music streaming service, and Spotify has already acknowledged the fault on X. It looks like a fix is in the works though, and the service could be returning to normal for users already. LiveLast updated April 16, 2025 7:28 AM Related The liveblog has ended.No liveblog updates yet. Editors’ Recommendations

The ban on sales of the H20 chips calls into question the company’s ability to continually beat Wall Street’s lofty expectations..

Burning it down Feds charge New Mexico man for allegedly torching Tesla dealership Jamison Wagner also faces charges for an arson attack on a Republican office. Caroline Haskins, wired.com – Apr 16, 2025 9:26 am | 22 Credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images Credit: Getty Images | SOPA Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more A New Mexico man is facing federal charges for two separate incidents of alleged arson—one at an Albuquerque Tesla showroom and one at the New Mexico Republican Party’s office—according to a Monday press release from the Department of Justice. Jamison Wagner, 40, was charged with allegedly setting fire to a building or vehicle used in interstate commerce. The charge can apply to goods manufactured and sold in different states and the facilities that house them—like the Tesla showroom or the Republican office, which also sells MAGA merchandise. DOJ spokesperson Shannon Shevlin tells WIRED that Wagner’s arrest happened on Saturday. “Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the Monday press release. “We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.” Wagner’s arrest warrant alleges that he is responsible for a February 9 incident at a Tesla showroom in which windows were shattered and two Tesla Model Ys were set on fire. It also alleges that he is responsible for a March 30 incident at the Republican Party of New Mexico office in which the entrance area was set on fire and “ICE=KKK” was graffitied on the building’s exterior. The arrest warrant also says that a lead investigator on Wagner’s case is an FBI agent specializing in “international terrorism, domestic terrorism and firearms.” This marks the second known time that FBI terrorism investigators have gotten involved in a criminal investigation tied to the recent public backlash against Musk and Tesla. However, it’s the first time that the suspect was also allegedly tied to another incident—which, in this case, targeted a Republican office. The arrest comes amid repeated calls by Bondi, President Trump, Elon Musk, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to treat arson and vandalism of Tesla property as “domestic terrorism.” Five other people are currently facing federal charges for alleged vandalism and arson targeting Tesla property, according to press releases by the DOJ. As reported by WIRED, law enforcement can get access to surveillance technologies and have more legal leeway during terrorism investigations than in other types of investigations. These investigations could also possibly enable Musk and Tesla executives to access surveillance on “Tesla Takedown” protesters, though the protests have broadly been peaceful, and public-facing protest organizers have said that they don’t endorse property damage. The FBI can decide to share this type of information with the victim of a crime during an investigation, WIRED previously reported. Bondi teased news of Wagner’s arrest last week in a televised Cabinet meeting, telling Trump that there would be “another huge arrest” pertaining to an attack on a Tesla dealership within the next 24 hours. “That person will be looking at at least 20 years in prison with no negotiations,” Bondi said on Thursday. (The DOJ press release issued after Wagner’s arrest notes, “A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”) DOJ spokesperson Shannon Shevlin confirmed that Wagner's arrest was the announcement Bondi was referring to. Her timeline was off, though, because Wagner was not in custody until Saturday. Wagner was first identified as a suspect due to an unspecified “investigative lead developed by law enforcement through scene evidence,” according to the arrest warrant. Investigators claim that after analyzing CCTV footage from buildings near the Republican office and traffic cameras, they identified a car consistent with the one registered to Wagner. After reviewing Wagner’s driver’s license and conducting physical surveillance outside his home, investigators also believed he resembled the person seen on surveillance footage from the Tesla showroom. The arrest warrant claims that upon executing a search warrant at Wagner’s house, investigators found red spray paint, ignitable liquids "consistent with gasoline," and jars consistent with evidence found at both the Tesla showroom fire and the Republican office fire. They also found a paint-stained stencil cutout reading “ICE=KKK” consistent with the graffiti found at the Republican office, and clothes that resembled what the suspect was seen wearing on surveillance footage outside the Tesla showroom. According to the arrest warrant, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives forensic laboratory tested “fire debris,” fingerprints, and possible DNA at the scene, but no results are cited in the warrant, which notes that an analysis of the evidence and seized electronic devices is still pending. The five other people currently facing federal charges for allegedly damaging Tesla property include 42-year-old Lucy Grace Nelson of Colorado, 41-year-old Adam Matthew Lansky of Oregon, 24-year-old Daniel Clarke-Pounder of South Carolina, 24-year-old Cooper Jo Frederick of Colorado, and 36-year-old Paul Hyon Kim of Nevada. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the incident that led to Kim’s indictment on April 9; however, press releases and court filings indicate that the task force was not deployed in the other four investigations. This story originally appeared on wired.com. Caroline Haskins, wired.com Wired.com is your essential daily guide to what's next, delivering the most original and complete take you'll find anywhere on innovation's impact on technology, science, business and culture. 22 Comments

John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorApril 16, 20255 Min ReadDmitriy Shironosov via Alamy Stock PhotoIn an era of unprecedented technological advancement, IT teams are expected to embrace new tasks and achieve fresh goals without missing a beat. All too often, however, the result is an overburdened IT workforce that's frustrated and burned out. It doesn't have to be that way, says Ravindra Patil, a vice president at data science solutions provider Tredence. "Overwork tends to come from an 'always-on' culture, where remote work and digital tools make people feel they must be available all the time," he explains in an online interview. Warning Signs One of the earliest signs that a team is reaching its breaking point is an increasing number of errors, missed steps, or just plain sloppy work, says Archie Payne, president CalTek Staffing, a machine learning recruitment and staffing firm. "These are indications that the team is trying to work faster than is realistic, which is likely to happen when they have too much work on their to-do lists," he explains in an email interview. "This is likely to be paired with a general decline in morale, which can come across as more complaints, more cynical or frustrated comments, a lack of enthusiasm for the work, or increased emotional volatility." IT leaders can also detect overwork through various warning signs, such as a mounting number of sick leaves, high turnover rates, increasing mistakes, and overall lower work quality, Patil says. He adds that beleaguered team members may also look tired, act emotionally, or seem unengaged during meetings. "Keeping an eye on things like overtime, slower progress, or falling performance despite long hours can also show that the team is under too much pressure." Related:John Russo, vice president of technology solutions at healthcare software provider OSP Labs, says that a sudden drop in creativity and problem-solving are also strong signs indicating team weariness. In an email interview, he states that an IT team that's stretched too thin will stop generating innovative ideas, opting instead to complete tasks mechanically. Another strong unrest indicator is a change in communication patterns. "If the team members delay responses, or seem disengaged during discussions, it's worth digging deeper," Russo recommends. Working under unrelenting high pressure is a recipe for burnout, and that's the greatest risk if you keep pushing your IT team too hard, Payne says. "Burnout could drive employees to quit, forcing you to waste resources on recruiting replacements," he warns. "Even if they stay, burned-out employees are less productive and more likely to make mistakes, so your overall team productivity and work quality will likely suffer." Related:Pressure Release The simplest and most effective answer to burnout is reducing the team’s workload. This can be accomplished in several ways, Payne says. Review the IT team's current assignments, then consider whether some of the tasks could be assigned to another team or department, which may be more adequately staffed. "If all of the work must be done by IT, that may mean it's time to expand the team," he advises. Meanwhile, adding temporary freelance talent during workload spikes can relieve IT team pressure during peak times without committing to adding new hires who may not be needed over the long-term. Careful planning, focusing on important tasks, and delaying or skipping less critical ones, can also make workloads more manageable, Patil says. Setting realistic deadlines can help, too, preventing the dread that can, over time, lead to burnout. He also advises using automation tools whenever possible to cut down on repetitive tasks, making work easier and less stressful. Patil says that Tredence reduces team pressure with initiatives, such as "No-Meeting Fridays," which gives team members uninterrupted time to focus and recharge. "Flexible schedules and open communication also help our teams stay balanced," he adds. Related:IT leaders should schedule regular check-ins with their teams to identify stress points as soon as possible, Russo advises. "When employees feel heard and validated, they're more likely to share their concerns before burnout sets in," he explains. At OSP Labs, Russo introduced flexible work models into well-being initiatives. "This policy allows my team members to set their own hours, with more freedom to balance work and personal time." Russo says he also makes a concerted effort to celebrate his team's accomplishments with "thoughtful goodies and high-fives". Such small initiatives, he notes, eventually make a huge difference. Parting Thoughts Long-term excessive pressure can lead to burnout, leaving team members feeling completely drained, Patil says. "This lowers productivity and may cause employees to leave, leading to more stress for those who stay." Health issues may also arise. including anxiety, depression, or even physical problems. Russo recommends setting realistic expectations and encouraging a culture in which asking for help isn't seen as a weakness. "Create an environment where open communication about workloads is the norm, not the exception," he advises. About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

The only office within the US State Department that monitors foreign disinformation is about to be eliminated, two State Department officials have told MIT Technology Review. The Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub is a small office in the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy that tracks and counters foreign disinformation campaigns.  In shutting R/FIMI, the department's controversial acting undersecretary, Darren Beattie, is delivering a major win to conservative critics who have alleged that it censors conservative voices. Created at the end of 2024, it was reorganized from the Global Engagement Center, a larger office with a similar mission that had long been criticized by conservatives who claimed that, despite its international mission, it was censoring American conservatives. In 2023, Elon Musk called the center the "worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation" and a “threat to our democracy.”  The culling of the office will leave the State Department without a way to actively counter the increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns from foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China. The office could be shuttered as soon as today, according to sources at the State Department who spoke with MIT Technology Review. Censorship claims For years, conservative voices both in and out of government have complained about Big Tech’s censorship of conservative views—and often blamed R/FIMI’s predecessor office, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), for enabling this censorship.  GEC has its roots as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), created by an Obama-era executive order, but shifted its mission to fight propaganda and disinformation from foreign governments and terrorist organizations in 2016, becoming the Global Engagement Center. It was always explicitly focused on the international information space. It shut down last December, after a measure to reauthorize its $61 million budget was blocked by Republicans in Congress, who accused it of helping Big Tech censor American conservative voices.  R/FIMI had a similar goal to fight foreign disinformation, but it was smaller: the newly created office had a $51.9 million budget, and a small staff that, by mid-April, was down to just 40 employees, from 125 at GEC. Sources say that those employees will be put on administrative leave and terminated within 30 days.  But with the change in administrations, R/FIMI never really got off the ground. Beattie, a controversial pick for undersecretary— he was fired as a speechwriter for attending a white nationalism conference during the first Trump administration, has suggested that the FBI organized the January 6 attack on Congress, and has said that it’s not worth defending Taiwan from China —had instructed the few remaining staff to be “pencils down,” one State Department official told me, meaning to pause in their work.  The administration’s executive order on countering censorship and restoring freedom of speech reads as a summary of conservative accusations against GEC: “Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.  Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.” In 2023, The Daily Wire, founded by conservative media personality Ben Shapiro, was one of two media companies that sued GEC for allegedly infringing on the company’s first amendment rights by funding two non-profit organizations, the London-based Global Disinformation Index and New York-based NewsGuard, had labeled The Daily Wire as “unreliable,” “risky,” and/or (per GDI,) susceptible to foreign disinformation. Those projects were not funded by GEC. The lawsuit alleged that this amounted to censorship by “starving them of advertising revenue and reducing the circulation of their reporting and speech,” the lawsuit continued.  In 2022, the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana named GEC among the federal agencies that, they alleged, were pressuring social networks to censor conservative views. Though the case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which found no first amendment violations, a lower court had already removed GEC’s name from the list of defendants, ruling that there was “no evidence” that GEC’s communications with the social media platforms had gone beyond “educating the platforms on ‘tools and techniques used by foreign actors.’” The stakes The GEC—and now R/FIMI—was targeted as part of a wider campaign to shut down groups accused of being “weaponized” against conservatives.  Conservative critics railing against what they have called a “disinformation industrial complex” have also taken aim at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Stanford Internet Observatory, a prominent research group that conducted widely cited research on the flows of disinformation during elections.  CISA’s former director, Chris Krebs, was personally targeted in an April 9 White House memo, while in response to the criticism and millions of dollars of legal fees, Stanford University shuttered Stanford Internet Observatory ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.   But this targeting comes at a time when foreign disinformation campaigns—especially by Russia, China, and Iran—have become increasingly sophisticated.  According to one estimate, Russia spends $1.5 billion per year on foreign influence campaigns. In 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, its primary foreign propaganda arm, had a $1.26 billion budget. And a 2015 estimate suggests that China spent up to $10 billion per year on media targeting non-Chinese foreigners—a figure that has almost certainly grown. In September 2024, the Justice Department indicted two employees of RT, a Russian state-owned propaganda agency, of a $10 million scheme to create propaganda aimed at influencing US audiences through a media company that has since been identified as the conservative Tenet Media.  The GEC was one effort to counter these campaigns. Some of its recent projects have included developing AI models to detect memes and deepfakes and exposing Russian propaganda efforts to influence Latin American public opinion against the war in Ukraine.  By law, the office of public diplomacy has to provide Congress with 15-day advance notice of any intent to re-assign any funding allocated by Congress over $1 million dollars. Congress then has time to respond, ask questions, and challenge the decisions–though if its record with other executive branches' unilateral decisions to gut government agencies, it is unlikely to do so. 

Scott Harrison at 42 (left) and at 50. Scott Harrison/Max Ellis 2025-04-16T14:20:54Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Scott Harrison's weight crept up as a father with a busy work schedule. At 42, he decided to learn about nutrition and get in shape without counting calories. He's now a personal trainer and runs a fat loss coaching business. Scott Harrison distinctly remembers looking at the other parents at school pick-up in December 2015 and thinking they all looked unhealthy. "What example was that setting for their children?" he thought."Then I looked at myself and I realized I was one of them," the dad of three from the UK told Business Insider.It was the turning point that saw Harrison lose weight by focusing on three things: eating nutritious, whole foods; learning about how calorific foods are without counting calories; and not eliminating treats from his diet. Harrison, 51, shared how he got in shape and has maintained his physique for a decade without giving up treats or alcohol, and started a business to help others do the same. Scott Harrison has maintained his healthy lifestyle and physique for a decade. Scott Harrison Harrison's weight crept up over the decadesHarrison started his working life as a trader in London, and worked hard and played hard for nine years. "I would be taken out by brokers all the time and could choose any restaurant. One of my favorite meals was steak covered in Stilton cheese, and my alcohol consumption was horrifically bad," he said. At the time, Harrison wasn't thinking about his health, he just wanted to have fun. Now, he realizes he was "chipping away at my body in a negative way."After leaving banking, Harrison worked various jobs during his 30s and 40s, including opening a small chain of sunbed and beauty salons, a jewelry shop, and a double-glazing company.Work and parenting kept Harrison busy, and he would typically skip breakfast then eat food like sausage rolls (pastry filled with sausage meat) and sandwiches on the go. In the evenings, he and his wife enjoyed at least one glass of wine and generally shared a bottle on the weekends."It's not that we were piss-heads or anything, we were totally normal and functioning. We've got kids, we weren't falling over or feeling drunk," Harrison said. "You don't realize alcohol has a gazillion calories."He also ate big portions of food and would order every starter on the menu when eating out. Harrison before and after losing weight. He now helps others get in shape. Scott Harrison Harrison knew he would be healthier and feel more energized if he lost some weight, but his attempts generally consisted of eating a packet of ham for dinner, which never worked. "I didn't know what I was doing," he said, adding that he thought the ham packet, being a relatively small amount of food, was the answer.Registered nutritionists and dietitians have previously told BI that to lose weight sustainably, people should focus on eating a variety of whole foods with a balance of protein, carbs, and fats, plus plenty of fiber, to keep yourself feeling full and nourished. Focusing on high-volume foods, which take up a lot of space on your plate for relatively few calories, can also help.Focusing on whole foodsAt age 42, Harrison's schoolgate revelation prompted him to make his 2016 New Year's Resolution to get in shape in 90 days. The goal? "Get a six-pack, the ultimate male visual," he said.Harrison didn't have much of a workout regime but started running and whipping battle ropes in the garden. "I could barely run for one kilometer at the beginning," he said.His aim diet-wise was simply to eat as many nutritious, whole foods as possible, including lots of chicken, fish, and vegetables.Harrison learned about the anti-inflammatory Zone Diet and simplified its principles of counting specific amounts of protein, fats, and carbs. He didn't count calories, but he learned about them. For example, he's more sparing with olive oil when cooking than he used to be.To help keep himself accountable, Harrison posted on Facebook about his goal and 36 of his friends and followers decided to join him. "I got 19 to the finish line," Harrison said.He didn't offer meal plans, recipes, or workout regimes at the time, but he enjoyed motivating others to hit their goals. So he did it again later that year. This ultimately led Harrison to launch his coaching business, The Six-Pack Revolution (but he acknowledges the name is a turn-off for those who aren't striving for a six-pack, so is in the process of rebranding).Harrison is now a qualified personal trainer and also has a registered nutritionist, psychotherapist, and primary care doctor on his team. Harrison believes that what you eat makes 80% of the difference when losing weight, so he focuses on nutrition and mindset with clients, with less emphasis on workouts. Harrison focuses on nutrition to get results. Scott Harrison Harrison got his six-pack gradually, and his healthy diet became his lifestyle. "I looked like Wolverine and I felt like him as well," Harrison said. "I could stop cars with my bare hands. That's how I felt."His diet is less strict now, but he has maintained his physique (he never weighs himself as he prefers not to focus on numbers) by eating mostly nutritious foods without depriving himself of what he enjoys.A healthy lifestyle includes the occasional treat Harrison is against cutting calories too low because it's unsustainable. Instead, he encourages people to focus on nutritious, filling, whole foods in reasonable quantities."I teach everyone how to keep their results and still party twice a week, which is for me the best of both worlds," Harrison said. "So if you want a bit of chocolate or a pint or a curry with the girls or whatever else, it's going to bounce off you because your body is now a machine that burns fuel efficiently."Partying could mean going to an actual party, or it could be enjoying a tub of ice cream on the sofa with your kids. Either way, Harrison stressed that for sustainability, it's important to still be able to enjoy your life."Everything that you've ever been, everything that currently are, and everything that you are to become is reliant on your health," Harrison said. "Because if you don't have that, you don't have anything." Recommended video

The United States and China are locked in an economic war. They’ve levied tit-for-tat tariffs on each other, and there’s little sign of detente. President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday that “The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them.”Meanwhile, a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry said at the start of the week that the US needs to “take a big step to correct its mistakes, completely cancel the wrong practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’ and return to the right path of mutual respect.”My colleague Miles Bryan recently produced an episode of Today, Explained that’s all about China’s response to Trump’s tariffs, so I asked him about the stalemate we’re seeing, and what all this means for China. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below. So Miles, we’re in a trade war with China right now, right? What’s going on?Well, it’s been changing nearly every day. So it might change by the time this publishes, but things really took a turn on April 2, when President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” 10 percent baseline tariffs on every country, with higher so-called reciprocal tariffs on many countries on top of that.That led to days of chaos, stock market swings, bond market problems, and to President Trump deciding to pause those reciprocal tariffs. However, he left big tariffs on China. As of us talking on Tuesday, they’re at 145 percent for most items, which is just a massive, a massive blow to trade between the United States and China. In the last couple of days, the administration’s walked the scope of its tariffs on China back a bit, putting a pause on a lot of consumer electronics — think things like the iPhone — though Trump says tariffs on those goods are coming back down the line.China’s taken some counter measures. Tuesday, it announced it was halting delivery of some orders it had with Boeing, the jet company. It’s halted some rare earth mineral exports to the United States. And it has a pretty broad 125 percent tariff on most US goods.So what we’re left with is a trade war against the world that’s kind of in suspended animation, but a trade war against China that’s very real.Got it. Now, a lot of countries are — at least according to Trump — trying to negotiate on tariffs, but China, if anything, seems to be taking an aggressive, even antagonistic stance. Why is that?China is not backing down. And they are kind of needling the administration. State media, Chinese social media users, and the Chinese Embassy in the United States have been putting out all these reports and funny cultural memes, things like videos of Mao Zedong, you know, sounding belligerent in the early ’50s, when the Chinese were fighting the United States in the Korean War; pieces on how dependent Trump is on China for his merchandise; and even strange AI-generated videos showing fat Americans, stitching together Nikes in an American factory looking sad.It’s stuff designed to hit us where it hurts in terms of stereotypes, but also to point at the inanity of our seeming attempt to reshore things like shoe and T-shirt factories.And that’s just on the culture front.Right, China is really digging its heels in overall, and I think that’s for a few reasons. The first is, China’s been preparing for this for years. Trump put tariffs on China during his first administration, and the experts and journalists I talked to said China wasn’t particularly well-prepared for that. But Chinese leaders learned from that, and since then, they have been preparing, hardening their markets, and building relationships with other countries. Two, they feel like this is an existential question for China and for the legitimacy of China’s Communist Party, which is an authoritarian country. They both want to show China’s strength and believe there is no upside to trying to work with Trump. They see how Trump treats countries that acquiesce. They look at how Trump treats America’s allies. They look at how he treated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. And they say, That kind of belittling is unacceptable, so they don’t see any other course but to hold their ground. Three, the experts I talked to told me that Chinese leaders just think that they can tolerate pain to a much higher degree than the United States can. Over the last decade, China has really made a concerted effort to develop its economy and its industrial base around the technologies of the future. We all know China makes lots of stuff for the world, but now it also makes some of the best electric cars in the world, some of the most advanced robotics, some of the best EV battery technologies — these are things that if the US doesn’t want, Europe or other places will buy.There aren’t elections in China in the way we think of elections. Dissenting media and voices are suppressed very effectively. They just have the capacity to ride this out in a way that they think the United States doesn’t, and there are pieces of evidence that support that belief: Trump walked back the reciprocal tariffs when the bond market looked shaky, he paused tariffs that would affect big American companies like Apple. He’s been signaling that he wants President Xi Jinping to call him. They have a lot of reason, good reason, to think that they’re going to be the one that can grin and bear it for longer.Does China then stand to gain anything from this way that the US doesn’t?China’s leadership says, and the experts I talked to agree, that nobody wins a trade war. This is going to hurt Chinese exporters. It’s going to hurt the Chinese economy, which has been suffering for the last couple of years due to a property crisis, and because Chinese consumers haven’t been spending enough money. The Chinese economy is kind of anemic, and this is going to probably make that worse. That said, a trade war is also going to cost American consumers a lot of money, and it’s going to hurt American manufacturers who end up sourcing parts from China, even if they put them together here.Ironically, the US putting big tariffs on low-value items like shoes and T-shirts, but pausing the tariffs, at least for now on things like electronics, only encourages China to put more focus on the advanced manufacturing of the future, which could arguably put the country even further ahead technologically. The folks I talked to for this episode suggested that in the medium to long term, China could come out of this looking like the more stable partner. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and making overtures to the European Union recently, saying like, Hey, we’re the standard bearers for normalcy and stability, work with us. That outreach could really boost their standing and boost their trading relationships outside of the United States. When I went into reporting this story, I thought the trade war would put China in position to dominate the world, and the war was going to be good for China. But I heard over and over again that this is going to make the whole world not just poorer, but more dangerous. I learned that trade between the United States and China is a stabilizing force in our relationship. And the experts I talked to mentioned issues like the sovereignty of Taiwan as things that could become a lot more uncertain if there isn’t trade binding the United States and mainland China together. Without trade, China has less of a reason to not act unilaterally and invade or blockade, or do other stuff that we don’t want to see happen.So we’re not necessarily now looking at a future where China is in charge?My reporting suggested that the trade war might have sped up the movement towards a more multipolar world, one where China doesn’t replace the United States as the global cultural and economic hegemon, but maybe the US loses that position. China and the United States may both have their spheres of influence and spheres of trade, coexisting, but in a fraught — potentially explosive — way. This piece originally ran in the Today, Explained newsletter. For more stories like this, sign up here.See More:

Diablo has a ten-year roadmap, but fans aren't impressed by the 2025 one so far – thankfully, one Diablo 4 content creator has spotted something others may have missedTech12:35, 16 Apr 2025Updated 13:46, 16 Apr 2025Here's hoping for more challenging combat encountersDiablo 4 got a sizeable roadmap of seasonal content last week, but some of the community feel a little disappointed that much of it feels a tad predictable.Article continues belowSeasonal powers, an anniversary event, and confirmation that the game's second expansion will launch in 2026 haven't exactly shaken up the fanbase, although the series' general manager insists Diablo is "here for the long haul" with a ten-year roadmap.‌Now, though, one respected content creator has suggested that the roadmap he saw while preparing for an interview with the dev team was a little different to the one we saw earlier this month – here's all we've learned.Over on YouTube, Rhykker, who is known for his expertise in the ARPG genre, noted the disappointment of the fanbase that some big features like rankings and leaderboards aren't coming until 2026.Article continues belowNoting Season 8 will have an increased focus on challenge and variety, Rhykker acknowledges that each season feels like it's following a template.In the video above, Rhykker confirms what we'd already suspected at around the 7-minute 30-second mark. There, he confirms he saw a slightly different version of the roadmap from Blizzard in preparing for an interview with the developers, which had less of a flame over the information (you can see the image below)."In the version that I got that "new something" wasn't entirely hidden by flames and I was able to analyse it in Photoshop and see that it said "new class" - I just thought it was noteworthy that after I pointed out to them [Blizzard] that I could figure out that it said "new class" that they went and hid that for the public version."‌2025 could be big for Diablo 4, even without a new expansionSo, it seems likely we'll get a new class in 2026. Blizzard seemingly obfuscating the image is perhaps the most surprising part here, though – given a big part of Vessel of Hatred was the new Spiritborn class, it felt pretty nailed-on the second expansion would look to repeat the trick.‌Rhykker also points to former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra's post on X (formerly Twitter), where he delivers his opinion on Diablo's roadmap.Among Ybarra's thoughts are toning down story investment to get expansions out more quickly, as well as considering the release cadence of seasonal updates."Don't ship to check a box. Season's need to get off the cycle of shipping, spending 2 months to fix issues, then repeating," Ybarra said.‌"Pause and give the team time to really address the end-game issues. Playing for a week to then 1 or 3 shot a "uber" boss 500 times for a unique, then quitting until next season is fundamentally not fun."Expansions schedule is too long - should be yearly. Reduce "story" investment (costs so much for 1 time element in a ARPG) and focus on new classes, new mob types, new end-game activities that last more than a few days."If the cycle continues to just ship w/o fixing the fundamental issues, then I'm not sure where Diablo is going. You can add all the end-game activities you want, but you'll be running in place with the same issues. At some point there's just so many random things, it's not worth the effort."Article continues belowExcited for more Diablo 4, or have you switched to Path of Exile 2? Let us know!For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

Science & technology | Deep freezeScientists are getting to grips with iceClimate change is making water freeze in unexpected waysPhotograph: Science Photo Library Apr 16th 2025Jack Frost is a tricky adversary. As the mercury falls, water’s behaviour becomes erratic, leading to ice and snow with physical properties that can vary enormously depending on environmental factors such as temperature and moisture. That can complicate tasks as varied as developing new ice-repellent materials and predicting the likelihood of an avalanche. New research is suggesting ways to put this slippery field on firmer foundations.Explore moreThis article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Deep freeze”From the April 19th 2025 editionDiscover stories from this section and more in the list of contents⇒Explore the editionReuse this content