The US law market is largely off-bounds to Big Four firms due to ethical rules on legal independence.KPMG is close to changing that by securing a unique license in Arizona to practice law.Traditional law firms shouldn't feel threatened by the move, a legal expert told Business Insider.KPMG is one step closer to becoming the first Big Four firm to set up a legal division in the US.On Tuesday, an Arizona judicial committee unanimously recommended that the state Supreme Court approve KPMG US's application for a unique state license that would allow it to practice law.If approved, the firm will establish KPMG Law US as an alternative business structure (ABS). The Arizona Supreme Court told BI it would weigh the decision on January 28.Arizona began its ABS program in 2021, scrapping a rule that prevents non-legal ownership of law firms.The rule was set by the American Bar Association and only allows licensed lawyers to own or invest in law firms in an effort to prevent conflicting interests.It has held back the Big Four professional services firms KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC from establishing legal divisions in the US as they have done in other key markets.Practicing law in the US "is something that no Big Four network firm can currently do,"The firm does provide business advice to legal clients in the US, he explained, but does "not interpret and apply legal standards to legal questions."Athanasoulas said advances in technology and the growing demand for alternative legal services made it the right time to establish KPMG Law US, and they were "excited by the opportunity" that Arizona's regulatory reform presented."Pending approval, this innovation would differentiate KPMG Law US both in the legal and the consulting markets," he said. KPMG Law already provides legal services in more than 80 jurisdictions globally. Schning/ullstein bild via Getty Images The firm aims to focus primarily on large-scale, process-driven work, such as volume contracting, remediation exercises, and M&A-driven harmonization of contracts. KPMG will position itself as complementing the services of traditional law firms rather than competing with them. It won't work on complex commercial transactions, trademark disputes, and other areas that are "core capabilities of traditional law firms," Athanasoulas told BI.What they do have over competitors is the ability to harness KPMG's holistic, global suite of services."We see opportunities in the market to provide these required tasks, at scale, with better controls and more standardized outcomes than some existing market participants currently provide," Athanasoulas said.Their work would not be limited to Arizona but could extend nationally, depending on individual state rules.KPMG is already a major player in the global legal landscape, providing legal services in more than 80 jurisdictions. In the last financial year, the tax & legal division was KPMG's fastest-growing function, expanding by almost 10%.The Big Four and the US legal landscapeThe pending approval of KPMG Law US's ABS status raises questions about whether the other leading firms will follow suit and whether that will change the nature of the US legal market.The Arizona Supreme Court said it introduced the ABS program to "transform the public's access to legal services," according to a 2020 press release."If the rules stand in the way of making those services available, the rules should change," the Court said.Over 100 firms have since been approved to practice law under the program. Advocates for the Arizona ABS program say it deepens competition, lowers prices, and facilitates easier access to justice.Utah is running a similar pilot program, and there are exceptions in Washington, D.C., that allow non-lawyers to hold minority stakes in a law firm. But other states have not yet followed suit."The most frequently stated concerns are that non-lawyer ownership or investment will create conflicts or low-quality work because of profit motivations," Brad Blickstein, CEO of Blickstein Group, a legal industry consultancy, told BI.KPMG said any new firm would be governed by the same high ethical standards that apply to other law firms, and there would be no crossover between legal services clients and audit clients.Legal experts have been predicting that the Big Four will move into the US law market for several years, Blickstein said. While they may take some work over time, traditional law firms shouldn't feel threatened, he added."KPMG is somewhat limited in what it can do as an Arizona law firm, and even in markets like the UK where they have free rein, the Big Four has not put too many law firms out of business."I continue to believe that the Big Four will eventually have a meaningful - but not existential - impact on US law firms and legal departments," Blickstein said. "This is a step in that direction, but only a step."

As fires continue to rage in and around Los Angeles, burning more than 40,000 acres since last week, destroying more than 12,000 homes and other buildings, and killing at least 25 people, two things are becoming clear: California must rebuild quickly, and it must rebuild differently.Housing affordability and availability in Los Angeles, and California more broadly, were already at a crisis point even before the fires broke out.Since January 7, tens of thousands of families have been forced to evacuate and are now rushing to find places to live. Many were stunned to realize there are virtually no rental options available to them, even when theyd be willing to pay large sums of money to stay in the area. The regions rental market was already strained before the fires. An analysis by CoStar Group Inc. found that vacancy rates meaning the percentage of rental homes sitting empty and available bottomed out at 2.1 percent in western Los Angeles County now affected by the Palisades Fire and 3.8 percent in Pasadena, where the Eaton Fire burns. Los Angeles as a whole had vacancy rates of about 5 percent.For larger apartments with three or four bedrooms, the rental options are even worse. Almost all new housing developed over the last decade has been studios or one- and two-bedroom apartments, built with singles, childless couples, and adult roommates in mind.I think the real wakeup call this is giving is it doesnt matter how much money you have if you live in a city that has never allowed housing to be built for families, said Matt Lewis, the communications director for California YIMBY. The presumption all along has been that fires happen to someone else.But the housing impact extends well beyond the immediate needs of evacuees. Facing mounting losses from increasingly severe climate disasters, insurance companies have hiked rates statewide over the last few years and declined to renew coverage for nearly 3 million homeowners in vulnerable regions. (The state updates its regulations to force more insurance companies to cover homes in fire-prone areas, but those changes took effect just before the recent fires broke out.)As a result of losing their coverage many of the newly uninsured homeowners turned to Californias FAIR plan, a last-resort option that offers limited home coverage for higher costs. FAIR plans are not publicly funded, and if their reserves and reinsurance deplete, then insured homeowners across the state help foot the bill.All policyholders, not just FAIR plan policyholders, could be on the hook for the fires, Dave Jones, the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeleys Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, told Vox.In other words, all Californians could face higher premiums next year, making it even more expensive to live in the already the most unaffordable state.These wildfires could be the tipping point for Californias already teetering housing ecosystem. As insurance premiums soar, both current residents and prospective homebuyers face impossible choices: absorb the skyrocketing costs, abandon their properties, or leave the state entirely.Years of warnings about this scenario have proven prescient. The next few months of policy decisions will determine whether the state can stabilize its housing market, or whether the fires will trigger a wave of foreclosures, homelessness, and exodus unprecedented in California history.Build Back Better?While California politicians so far have taken small steps to signal they want to make it easier to rebuild homes quickly, housing advocates say the moment calls for much bolder leadership: not just for restoring homes that burned, but significantly increasing the amount of fire-resistant houses and apartments in less risky areas for people at all income levels. On Sunday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order calling to waive permitting requirements under the landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is notorious for holding up housing development. To rebuild properties quickly, Newsom also suspended permitting requirements under the states Coastal Act, which ensures the protection of Californias coastal resources including its beaches and environmental wildlife.But these flashy measures were not meaningful reform. Single-family homes are already exempt from CEQA, and the Coastal Act already exempts reconstruction of homes destroyed by disasters from typical coastal permitting. Legal experts were skeptical it would lead to real change, especially as rebuilt homes would still need to become compliant with zoning and building ordinances that have changed significantly over the years.On Monday, LA Mayor Karen Bass followed suit with her own executive order calling to expedite rebuilding in Pacific Palisades, though critics note that the citys already slow permitting is attributed partly to city understaffing, and this order doesnt say anything about funding more staffers. To merely restore what was lost which will take years even with potentially rushed permitting approvals wont be enough to stem the mounting crisis. As insurance companies begin to deploy artificial intelligence to assess a regions climate risk, and as state insurance rules evolve to allow insurers to charge policyholders more for more vulnerable homes, there will be more pressure to rebuild suburban homes that can better withstand fire and other natural disasters; this will undoubtedly be more expensive to both construct and insure than they were before the fires. These changes could force a long-overdue transformation in how and where leaders build: away from fire-prone suburban sprawl and toward denser urban neighborhoods that are naturally more fire-resistant. But without major zoning changes to allow this kind of urban development, the crisis could instead accelerate displacement as middle and working-class families especially those who inherited their homes in communities like Altadena and Pasadena are forced out of uninsurable areas with nowhere affordable to go.University of Southern California policy and planning professor Dowell Myers told Vox theres no good data yet on how longtime residents who inherited their homes have been handling rising insurance premiums. The average annual cost of homeowners insurance in the state has surged to $3,100 a 62 percent increase compared to the national average with some California coastal and inland locations facing double-digit percentage increases.To create housing for people who cant afford soaring insurance premiums or multimillion-dollar homes, advocates are urging policymakers to make it easier to build housing in denser, relatively fire-safe cities, places that already combine modern building codes, rapid emergency response times, mandatory sprinkler systems, and updated infrastructure to minimize risk. Communities must build back differently faster and with more density than theyve traditionally allowed.A bill introduced back in 2020 by a California state representative would have exempted infill housing from CEQA, but it died in the legislature. Lawmakers could reintroduce and pass that quickly, and advocates have been urging Newsom to support such a step.The real challenge is that were very late to try to do this, and so it wont actually solve the problem for people who need housing today, said Lewis of California YIMBY. This crisis will absolutely spill over into other states, as people who arent willing to rebuild or cant afford to rebuild will find they have nowhere left to stay. The mounting barriers to homeownershipWhile the fires are devastating to homeowners, the crisis has made the situation even more stressful for renters.The ripple effects of Californias insurance crisis extend far beyond current homeowners, threatening to worsen an already severe housing affordability crisis. For renters, who make up more than half of Los Angeles County residents, the impact could be devastating. The insurance crisis creates what National Low Income Housing Coalition disaster recovery manager Noah Patton describes as a three-pronged impact on housing affordability. Rising insurance costs push more potential buyers into the rental market, increasing demand. Meanwhile, landlords pass these costs onto renters via rent increases, and developers struggle to finance new affordable housing projects in disaster-prone areas that desperately need it.The stakes are particularly high in California, where nearly 186,000 people already live on the streets or in shelters an 8 percent increase since 2022. Homeless people already have greater exposure to the climate crisis and wildfire smoke in particular when they cannot take shelter inside. For the many households spending over half their income on housing, even small rent increases can trigger a cascade toward eviction and homelessness. While residents displaced by the fires may be allowed to live temporarily on their properties in recreational vehicles, tiny homes, and other modular structures, this stopgap solution does nothing to help the many Californians still struggling to become homeowners or pay their rent in the first place.While many millennials were able to take advantage of record-low mortgage rates during the pandemic, young people are still facing a housing affordability crisis that doesnt show many signs of improvement on the for-sale side, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. Whats more, these devastating wildfires are in Los Angeles, which already has the least affordable housing market in the country, with the median home price exceeding $900,000.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

How much does it cost to make a video game? The development expenses of blockbuster games are closely guarded business secrets, but they have been climbing ever higher over the years towards big Hollywood-style spending.Industry leaks have exposed how the budgets of major video games are spiralling upwards: $100m, or $200m, even more. One of the bestselling franchises, Call of Duty, saw costs balloon to $700m (573m), a number only revealed recently when a reporter dug into court filings.There is, however, one game with a budget that is anything but secret. The sprawling multiplayer space simulator Star Citizen publishes its funds on its website and they are updated in real-time. Currently, they stand at $777,145,107 (a figure that will be out of date as soon as this article is published). Soon itll surpass $800m and, possibly in a year or so, breach the ceiling to become the worlds first billion-dollar video game.Unless beaten to it by another huge game and there are a few of those in production, although their costs are likely to remain undisclosed that would make it the single most expensive piece of entertainment ever produced. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the priciest movie ever made, cost roughly half that.Star Citizens figures are publicly available because it is not investors that are funding this PC game, but the players themselves.Fandom is at the beating heart of Star Citizen, says Rhys Elliott, a games industry analyst at the London-based market research firm, MIDiA Research. Its more of a movement than a game. Theres a mutual commitment between the developers and the players to make something cool and revolutionary something that hasnt been done before.Olli43 playing the latest version of Star Citizen.British-American video game developer Chris Roberts famed for his 1990s Wing Commander spaceship fighting series launched Star Citizen as a crowdfunded project in 2012, promising to create a digital universe so huge yet still so detailed that players would forget its a game.He raised its first $2m on Kickstarter and it has been growing ever since, fuelled by fans willing to put their money into a plan so ambitious in scope that no profit and deadline-focused publisher would consider the risk of making it.After a few years, an early version of the game became available for fans to test, but it was almost always unplayable, constantly freezing and crashing. Only recently has Star Citizen started to look and feel like a real video game.YouTube is filled with videos of players cruising around the Star Citizen universe with each other. Their spaceships fly seamlessly from space stations and down through planetary atmospheres to land in sci-fi-styled cities, before they head onwards on foot into caverns deep below the ground. Warp holes have just been added to the game, allowing players to jump between two solar systems.Space games are very easy to get excited about, says Oliver Hull, who runs a gaming-focused YouTube channel with 1.56 million subscribers. Its a very pretty game. I think, visually, people see it and they go, Oh whats this about?Hull, 32, used to play a lot of other games, such as Grand Theft Auto, but now mostly posts videos showing him playing Star Citizen, flying around and looking for things to do, whether it be mining asteroids or attacking space pirates. Often, Hulls videos show him frustrated when things dont work as they should. But that is part of the interest, he says.To be frank, the game is still in development, he says. When something doesnt work how its intended to work it doesnt really bother me because its kind of a work in progress. If anything, I find it quite interesting from a game development standpoint.Its the rough edges of the game, the promise of what it could be and seeing the game slowly move in that direction, that motivates Star Citizen fans. I cant think of many games that do what Star Citizen does, says Hull. Its not finished but I think its very attractive the fact that theres nothing else quite like it.It might not be finished, but people have nonetheless been paying money for Star Citizen for all this time. A starter ship costs $45, and the game now has over 80 flyable ships. The most expensive ones currently available cost more than 500.The pre-release version allows the development team, Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), to test how the game functions with live players as they develop it. But it also gives funders something tangible to play with, a glimpse into the long and complicated processes of game development, rather than waiting for years until the full release.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionAs time goes on, satisfying the community becomes increasingly important. Many fans have now given large sums of their money, including through a controversial money-making scheme in which CIG pre-sells spaceships online that they intend to make in the future. Some so-called superbackers have spent well over $10,000.Fans, says industry analyst Elliot, have been pouring so much money into it that they are really emotionally invested.The Star Citizen website, showing ships for sale. Photograph: Roberts Space IndustriesDevelopment teams, too, have felt the pressure from the community, with allegations in the industry media made against CIG management for imposing long working hours. A 2016 investigation by the gaming website Kotaku cited former employees who described crunch practices in which development teams are asked to work overtime before a big milestone, such as a gaming convention. Roberts told Kotaku at the time that he did not want crunch as a culture.CIG describes Star Citizen as the largest scale open development game in existence but that ambition has also meant the game has now been in development for well over a decade, with repeated, frustrating delays. In a 2012 interview with Roberts, the Guardian reported the plan was to release the game two years later, in 2014. Fan forums regularly question if the game will ever be properly released.But late last year, there were tentative signs of hope. For the first time, CIG revealed what the eventual launch version will look like, offering a clear vision of what will and wont be included, even if no date was given.What they did provide, however, was a 2026 release date for a standalone single-player game, Squadron 42, a story-driven narrative set within the wider Star Citizen universe, with a Hollywood cast of voice actors including Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson and Andy Serkis.More delays are certainly expected, but the end may finally be in sight.No game made the traditional way, through an established publisher with investors expecting a return, could have weathered 13 years of development without a finished product. Star Citizen has been able to buck the trend of the rest of the industry, which is in crisis, with ballooning costs and regular layoffs. Its main backers are players, not investors, and they have different motivations.I think Star Citizen funders saw it as a direct line to fight back against corporatisation and support a passion project of the highest degree, says Elliott. Success isnt just about spreadsheets, maximising value and return on the investment, but putting fans at the heart of it.

The Liberty City Preservation Project has been taken offline by its creator after discussions with Rockstar Games, leaving GTA 6 fans downtrodden in the processTech12:01, 16 Jan 2025A huge GTA 5 mod has been closed down(Image: Still)We reported yesterday that GTA 6 fans are expecting the game's second trailer in the next couple of weeks, but while all eyes are on our impending visit to Leonida and Vice City, we need to pour one out for GTA 4's Liberty City.That's because a fan-made mod project, The Liberty City Preservation Project, has reportedly been taken down after its creator spoke to Rockstar Games.The GTA 5 mod, which was in development for 6 years, shifted GTA 4's world, including pedestrians, vehicles, and even building interiors, over to 2013's game.Content cannot be displayed without consentAs shared on X (formerly Twitter) by GTA 6 Countdown, the mod's creator, Nkjellman posted the following on Discord.They wrote: "Due to the unexpected attention that our project received and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City Preservation project.""We appreciate all the support that the project has received, and we look forward to continuing to pursue our passion for modding the Grand Theft Auto series".While some fans speculated that Rockstar aggressively tried to take down the mod, Nkjellman followed up by mentioning that it was a "friendly takedown, mutually agreed upon by all parties involved"."There is no negativity between us and Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive," they continued, but acknowledged they can't share a download link for the mod on the Discord server any longer.As for what Rockstar is currently working on, GTA 6 fans are still waiting for a second trailer, but an earnings call at the start of February could reveal whether it's on track to hit 2025, or whether it'll hbe pushed to 2026.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.RECOMMENDED

Anyone else refreshing Nintendos X account over and over again? (Reddit)Despite complete silence from Nintendo, multiple sources remain confident the Switch 2 reveal is just hours away.Video game fans are going to be on tenterhooks today, while waiting for Nintendo to say anything about the new Nintendo Switch 2 console.Multiple, reliable sources have pointed to January 16 as the date for a formal reveal but the expected annoucement of an announcement has not happened, so if it is going to be unveiled today its going to be a shadow drop.Even after near constant leaks since December, Nintendos only response has been to say a Switch 2 replica by accessory company Genki wasnt official. But as scepticism and impatience increases amongst fans, insiders are sticking to their prediction.In the meantime, new leaks continue to happen, include new images of the consoles redesigned Joy-Con controllers. This comes from NextHandheld, the same individual who claimed to have a final unit for the Switch 2 and shared images of its dock and controllers around Christmas time.The last Joy-Con pictures they shared only showed one controller on its side, but now theyveposted a look at both controllers from the front, albeit in the hands of grotesque looking AI-generated Donkey Kong.Although the AI image makes it look fake, the Joy-Cons appear to be legitimate. At the very least, they match with NextHandhelds previous claims that theyll come in matte black, with each controller having blue or orange colouring along the rails and around the control sticks.They also line up with how the controllers on the Genki replica look, complete with the new mystery button, which was included based on previously leaked information.The buttons functionality is one of the few things Nintendo has managed to keep under wraps in terms of hardware, sparking theories that the Switch 2 will have at least one new gimmick to differentiate itself from the original.The Joy-Cons are also believed to have sensors that allow them to be used like a computer mouse. More recently, Bloomberg reporter Takashi Mochizuki has suggested the Switch 2 will have unique aspects besides the sensors, but that third party developers are unlikely to make use of them.I often hear from third parties that they dont want to deal with the unique aspects of the console, especially the sensors, because the benefits are small compared to the labour and cost involved, said Mochizuki.I think that its not the platforms role to differentiate itself by creating original parts, but I also think that its only going to be a topic of conversation for a while after the launch.There was also speculation floating around that Amazon Italy had accidentally leaked the Switch 2s release date, with people spotting a listing of March 6 when searching Nintendo Switch 2 Amazon on Google.However, it appears to be an error on either Google or Amazons part since not only has the search result been removed, but people soon noticed March 6 is the same date Konamis Suikoden remasters launch, so the date could have been drawn from that by accident.Or both could be happening on the same day.Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be revealed today?Ultimately, the only one who truly knows if a Switch 2 reveal is happening today is Nintendo itself. While the company has developed a habit of shadow dropping announcements with no warning, thats usually only for new videos of games that have already been announced.A brand new console is significantly more important and you wouldve expected them to give a heads-up if a reveal video is coming.More TrendingThey certainly did for the original Switchs reveal. On October 20, 2016, Nintendos social media accounts alerted everyone that said reveal trailer would drop in 10 hours time.Nintendos silence does make it seem like plans have changed and its opted to delay the reveal. However, most of the sources who were pushing January 16 as the big day have insisted that today is still the day.Insider Nate the Hate, who was the first to allege a specific date, is standing by his initial claim and acknowledged a shadow drop is possible, with Giant Bombs Jeff Grubb supporting him.Leakers PH Brazil and Pyoro are similarly confident something will happen by the end of the day. The former has even set up a reaction livestream in preparation for a reveal. Is Nintendo going to wait till the last possible second? (Nintendo)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive 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

The Moon, Gaza, and Ukraine Among New Additions to the 2025 Monuments WatchSave this picture!Defense wall at the Erdene Zuu monastery at Karakorum, Mongolia. Image Chantal de Bruijne via ShutterstockThe World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced its 2025 World Monuments Watch, highlighting 25 sites facing significant challenges. This biennial program, launched in 1996, aims to raise awareness and mobilize action for the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide. The 2025 list includes diverse locations across five continents and, notably, the Moon, representing the need to protect artifacts from humanity's first lunar missions. The selection process involved over 200 nominations, revealing regional trends such as climate change impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa and urbanization challenges in Asia and the Pacific.Sites on the Watch illustrate the interconnectedness of heritage preservation and broader societal issues. The inclusion of sites impacted by conflict (Ukraine's Teacher's House, Gaza's Historic Urban Fabric, and Antakya, Trkiye) underscores the importance of heritage in community resilience and recovery. Sites vulnerable to climate change, such as the Swahili Coast and Maine's historic lighthouses, highlight the urgent need for adaptation strategies. Over-tourism at sites like China's Buddhist grottoes and under-tourism affecting Albania's Drino Valley monasteries demonstrate the varying challenges faced by cultural heritage in the tourism sector.The Moon's inclusion marks a first for the Watch, recognizing the need for international protocols to protect the historic artifacts left behind by the Apollo missions and future lunar activities. This underscores WMF's commitment to preserving heritage beyond Earth, acknowledging the universal significance of protecting our collective narrative, regardless of location. The WMF has already secured $2 million in funding for projects at these sites and will partner with Accor to support sustainable tourism initiatives. Related Article World Monuments Fund Announces Financing for New Projects to Safeguard Endangered Places Worldwide Over the next two years, the WMF will collaborate with local partners at each site to develop preservation strategies, including advocacy campaigns, research, and physical conservation efforts. The 2025 Watch serves as a call to action, bringing global attention to these important sites and encouraging international support for their preservation.Read on to discover the list of 25 endangered sites on the 2025 World Monuments Watch, along with descriptions provided by the jury.Monasteries of the Drino Valley, AlbaniaA constellation of Orthodox monasteries, once vital to Albania's social fabric, needs reinvestment after decades of abandonmentbut could be a model for sustainable tourism via preservation.Save this picture!Cinema Studio Namibe, AngolaFifty years after its construction was abruptly halted, this modernist cinema lies in a state of decay, but a community effort could breathe new life into an unfinished landmark.Qhapaq an, Andean Road System, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, PeruAn extraordinary pre-Hispanic road network is facing development pressure and environmental degradation, but local and international advocacy could achieve socially sustainable management.Save this picture!Buddhist Grottoes of Maijishan and Yungang, ChinaTwo breathtaking collections of rock-cut cave temples are feeling the impact of mass tourism, underscoring the need for innovative visitor management strategies.Save this picture!Swahili Coast Heritage Sites, Comoros, Kenya, Mozambique, TanzaniaEast Africa's distinctive heritage reflects centuries of African, Arab, and European cultural exchange, but storm surges and coastal erosion are threatening these sites and the communities that keep them alive.Save this picture!Chapel of the Sorbonne, FranceIn Paris's Latin Quarter, this jewel of French architecture at the Sorbonne has suffered decades of conservation issues that must be addressed before it can reopen after years of closure.Save this picture!Serifos Historic Mining Landscape, GreeceThe rising Cycladic beach destination of Serifos possesses an irreplaceable record of Greece's industrial past, but comprehensive protections and conservation are needed to prevent imminent loss.Save this picture!Bhuj Historic Water Systems, IndiaIngenious water management systems have fallen out of use in favor of modern infrastructurebut as India's water crisis deepens, revitalizing this heritage technology could foster resource security.Save this picture!Musi River Historic Buildings, IndiaHyderabad's Musi River corridor, rich in history, faces mounting challenges from pollutionbut as the city pursues its revitalization, heritage can provide a sense of continuity and other community benefits.Save this picture!Noto Peninsula Heritage Sites, JapanAfter a devastating earthquake in January 2024, restoring historic buildings in this hard-hit region can spur cultural, social, and economic recovery.Save this picture!Erdene Zuu Buddhist Monastery, MongoliaAddressing climate impacts at one of the few Buddhist sites to survive Mongolia's decades of anti-religious crackdowns can help train the country's future heritage experts.Save this picture!Jewish Heritage of Debdou, MoroccoIn Morocco's Atlas Mountains, documentation and advocacy are crucial for the survival of historic Jewish sites, which testify to an inspiring tradition of multi-faith respect and coexistence.Save this picture!Chief Ogiamien's House, NigeriaThis millennium-old earthen structure faces an uncertain future as critical maintenance skills are lost, highlighting the need to preserve local building traditions.Gaza Historic Urban Fabric, PalestineUnprecedented destruction of heritage sites has severed vital connections between the people of Gaza and its urban fabric.Save this picture!Waru Waru Agricultural Fields, PeruAn ancestral agricultural system offers a pathway to resilience and food security in the Lake Titicaca floodplains as local communities face climate change-induced droughts and migration.Save this picture!Terracotta Sculptures of Alcobaa Monastery, PortugalAs environmental changes damage traditional terracotta sculptures, training local artisans to conserve these baroque masterpieces can help revive a local art tradition.Save this picture!Ruins of Old Belchite, SpainConservation of a historic village left in ruins by the Spanish Civil War and neglected in the decades since can ensure that its remains endure as a site of memory and reconciliation.Save this picture!Water Reservoirs of the Tunis Medina, TunisiaPreserving traditional Tunisian water infrastructure, much of which has been forgotten or destroyed in favor of modern piping, can help the country weather increasingly severe droughts.Save this picture!Historic City of Antakya, TrkiyePreservation efforts in the ancient city of Antakya are desperately needed to address the devastation from the 2023 earthquakes and support the return of displaced residents.Save this picture!Kyiv Teacher's House, UkraineThe former legislative seat of a newly independent Ukraine, this national icon was severely damaged by a missile blast in 2022, highlighting war's impact on heritage and the power of preservation to catalyze healing.Save this picture!Belfast Assembly Rooms, Northern Ireland, United KingdomLocal advocates aim to repair and repurpose one of Belfast's oldest civic buildings, transforming it into a museum encouraging reflection on Northern Ireland's Troubles.Save this picture!The Great Trading Path, United StatesPreserving a historic trail can strengthen Indigenous links to ancestral lands, even as poor recognition of its significance and a need for more meaningful participation in decision-making leaves the site vulnerable.Historic Lighthouses of Maine, United StatesFacing rapidly intensifying coastal climate threats, Maine's historic lighthouses can catalyze the development of coastal adaptation strategies.Save this picture!Barotse Floodplain Cultural Landscape, ZambiaWestern Zambia is home to a remarkable landscape whose inhabitants have built their culture around seasonal river flooding, but erosion, droughts, and other climate effects are threatening these living traditions.Save this picture!The MoonAs a new era of space exploration dawns, international collaboration is required to protect the physical remnants of early Moon landings and preserve these enduring symbols of collective human achievement.Save this picture!Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorCite: Maria-Cristina Florian. "The Moon, Gaza, and Ukraine Among New Additions to the 2025 Monuments Watch" 16 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025841/the-moon-gaza-and-ukraine-among-new-additions-to-the-2025-monuments-watch&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Materials innovation is one of the key drivers of major technological breakthroughs. The discovery of lithium cobalt oxide in the 1980s laid the groundwork for todays lithium-ion battery technology. It now powers modern mobile phones and electric cars, impacting the daily lives of billions of people. Materials innovation is also required for designing more efficient solar cells, cheaper batteries for grid-level energy storage, and adsorbents to recycle CO2 from atmosphere.Finding a new material for a target application is like finding a needle in a haystack. Historically, this task has been done via expensive and time-consuming experimental trial-and-error. More recently, computational screening of large materials databases has allowed researchers to speed up this process. Nonetheless, finding the few materials with the desired properties still requires the screening of millions of candidates.Today, in a paper published in Nature (opens in new tab), we share MatterGen, a generative AI tool that tackles materials discovery from a different angle. Instead of screening the candidates, it directly generates novel materials given prompts of the design requirements for an application. It can generate materials with desired chemistry, mechanical, electronic, or magnetic properties, as well as combinations of different constraints. MatterGen enables a new paradigm of generative AI-assistedmaterials design that allows for efficient exploration of materials, going beyond the limited set of known ones.Figure 1: Schematic representation of screening and generative approaches to materials designA novel diffusion architectureMatterGen is a diffusion model that operates on the 3D geometry of materials. Much like an image diffusion model generates pictures from a text prompt by modifying the color of pixels from a noisy image, MatterGen generates proposed structures by adjusting the positions, elements, and periodic lattice from a random structure. The diffusion architecture is specifically designed for materials to handle specialties like periodicity and 3D geometry.Figure 2: Schematic representation of MatterGen: a diffusion model to generate novel and stable materials. MatterGen can be fine-tuned to generate materials under different design requirements such as specific chemistry, crystal symmetry, or materials properties.The base model of MatterGen achieves state-of-the-art performance in generating novel, stable, diverse materials (Figure 3). It is trained on 608,000 stable materials from the Materials Project (opens in new tab) (MP) and Alexandria (opens in new tab) (Alex) databases. The performance improvement can be attributed to both the architecture advancements, as well asthe quality and size of our training data.Figure 3: Performance of MatterGen and other methods in the generation of stable, unique, and novel structures. The training dataset for each method is indicated in parentheses. The purple bar highlights performance improvements due to MatterGens architecture alone, while the teal bar highlights performance improvements that come also from the larger training dataset.MatterGen can be fine-tuned with a labelled dataset to generate novel materials given any desired conditions. We demonstrate examples of generating novel materials given a targets chemistry and symmetry, as well as electronic, magnetic, and mechanical property constraints (Figure 2). Outperforming screeningFigure 4: Performance of MatterGen (teal) and traditional screening (yellow) in finding novel, stable, and unique structures that satisfy the design requirement of having bulk modulus greater than 400 GPa.The key advantage of MatterGen over screening is its ability to access the full space of unknown materials. In Figure 4, we show that MatterGen continues to generate more novel candidate materials with high bulk modulus above 400 GPa, for example, which are hard to compress. In contrast, screening baseline saturates due to exhausting known candidates.Spotlight: Blog postMedFuzz: Exploring the robustness of LLMs on medical challenge problemsMedfuzz tests LLMs by breaking benchmark assumptions, exposing vulnerabilities to bolster real-world accuracy.Read moreOpens in a new tab Handling compositional disorderFigure 5: Illustration of compositional disorder. Left: a perfect crystal without compositional disorder and with a repeating unit cell (black dashed). Right: crystal with compositional disorder, where each site has 50% probability of yellow and teal atoms.Compositional disorder (Figure 5) is a commonly observed phenomenon where different atoms can randomly swap their crystallographic sites in a synthesized material. Recently (opens in new tab), the community has been exploring what it means for a material to be novel in the context of computationally designed materials, as widely employed algorithms will not distinguish between pairs of structures where the only difference is a permutation of similar elements in their respective sites.We provide an initial solution to this issue by introducing a new structure matching algorithm that considers compositional disorder. The algorithm assesses whether a pair of structures can be identified as ordered approximations of the same underlying compositionally disordered structure. This provides a new definition of novelty and uniqueness, which we adopt in our computational evaluation metrics. We also make our algorithm publicly available (opens in new tab) as part of our evaluation package.Experimental lab verificationFigure 6: Experimental validation of the proposed compound, TaCr2O6In addition to our extensive computational evaluation, we have validated MatterGens capabilities through experimental synthesis. In collaboration with the team led by Prof Li Wenjie from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (opens in new tab) (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we have synthesized a novel material, TaCr2O6, whose structure was generated by MatterGen after conditioning the model on a bulk modulus value of 200 GPa. The synthesized materials structure aligns with the one proposed by MatterGen, with the caveat of compositional disorder between Ta and Cr. Additionally, we experimentally measure a bulk modulus of 169 GPa against the 200 GPa given as design specification, with a relative error below 20%, very close from an experimental perspective. If similar results can be translated to other domains, it will have a profound impact on the design of batteries, fuel cells, and more. AI emulator and generator flywheelMatterGen presents a new opportunity for AI accelerated materials design, complementing our AI emulator MatterSim. MatterSim follows the fifth paradigm of scientific discovery, significantly accelerating the speed of material properties simulations. MatterGen in turn accelerates the speed of exploring new material candidates with property guided generation. MatterGen and MatterSim can work together as a flywheel to speed up both the simulation and exploration of novel materials.Making MatterGen availableWe believe the best way to make an impact in materials design is to make our model available to the public. We release the source code of MatterGen (opens in new tab) under the MIT license, together with the training and fine-tuning data. We welcome the community to use and build on top of our model.MatterGen represents a new paradigm of materials design enabled by generative AI technology. It explores a significantly larger space of materials than screening-based methods. It is also more efficient by guiding materials exploration with prompts. Similar to how generative AI has impacted drug discovery (opens in new tab), it will have profound impact on how we design materials in broad domains including batteries, magnets, and fuel cells.We plan to continue our work with external collaborators to further develop and validate the technology. At the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), were dedicated to the exploration of tools with the potential to advance discovery of novel, mission-enabling materials. Thats why we are interested in understanding the impact that MatterGen could have on materials discovery, said Christopher Stiles, a computational materials scientists leading multiple materials discovery efforts at APL.AcknowledgementThis work is the result of highly collaborative team efforts at Microsoft Research AI for Science. The full authors include: Claudio Zeni, Robert Pinsler, Daniel Zgner, Andrew Fowler, Matthew Horton, Xiang Fu, Zilong Wang, Aliaksandra Shysheya, Jonathan Crabb, Shoko Ueda, Roberto Sordillo, Lixin Sun, Jake Smith, Bichlien Nguyen, Hannes Schulz, Sarah Lewis, Chin-Wei Huang, Ziheng Lu, Yichi Zhou, Han Yang, Hongxia Hao, Jielan Li, Chunlei Yang, Wenjie Li, Ryota Tomioka, Tian Xie.Opens in a new tab

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Nature, Published online: 16 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08628-5XXX.

Argyria is caused by a buildup of silver in the body, which discolors the skin.