This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Reviewsweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. Over the past few months, Ive been working on a piece about IVF embryos. The goal of in vitro fertilization is to create babies via a bit of lab work: Trigger the release of lots of eggs, introduce them to sperm in a lab, transfer one of the resulting embryos into a persons uterus, and cross your fingers for a healthy pregnancy. Sometimes it doesnt work. But often it does. For the article, I explored what happens to the healthy embryos that are left over. I spoke to Lisa Holligan, who had IVF in the UK around five years ago. Holligan donated her genetically abnormal embryos for scientific research. But she still has one healthy embryo frozen in storage. And she doesnt know what to do with it. Shes not the only one struggling with the decision. Leftover embryos are kept frozen in storage tanks, where they sit in little straws, invisible to the naked eye, their growth paused in a state of suspended animation. What happens next is down to personal choicebut that choice can be limited by a complex web of laws and ethical and social factors. These days, responsible IVF clinics will always talk to people about the possibility of having leftover embryos before they begin treatment. Intended parents will sign a form indicating what they would like to happen to those embryos. Typically, that means deciding early on whether they might like any embryos they dont end up using to be destroyed or donated, either to someone else trying to conceive or for research. But it can be really difficult to make these decisions before youve even started treatment. People seeking fertility treatment will usually have spent a long time trying to get pregnant. They are hoping for healthy embryos, and some cant imagine having any left overor how they might feel about them. For a lot of people, embryos are not just balls of cells. They hold the potential for life, after all. Some people see them as children, waiting to be born. Some even name their embryos, or call them their freezer babies. Others see them as the product of a long, exhausting, and expensive IVF journey. Holligan says that she initially considered donating her embryo to another person, but her husband disagreed. He saw the embryo as their child and said he wouldnt feel comfortable with giving it up to another family. I started having these thoughts about a child coming to me when theyre older, saying theyve had a terrible life, and [asking] Why didnt you have me? she told me. Holligan lives in the UK, where you can store your embryos for up to 55 years. Destroying or donating them are also options. Thats not the case in other countries. In Italy, for example, embryos cannot be destroyed or donated. Any that are frozen will remain that way forever, unless the law changes at some point. In the US, regulations vary by state. The patchwork of laws means that one state can bestow a legal status on embryos, giving them the same rights as children, while another might have no legislation in place at all. No one knows for sure how many embryos are frozen in storage tanks, but the figure is thought to be somewhere between 1 million and 10 million in the US alone. Some of these embryos have been in storage for years or decades. In some cases, the intended parents have deliberately chosen this, opting to pay hundreds of dollars per year in fees. But in other cases, clinics have lost touch with their clients. Many of these former clients have stopped paying for the storage of their embryos, but without up-to-date consent forms, clinics can be reluctant to destroy them. What if the person comes back and wants to use those embryos after all? Most clinics, if they have any hesitation or doubt or question, will err on the side of holding on to those embryos and not discarding them, says Sigal Klipstein, a reproductive endocrinologist at InVia Fertility Center in Chicago, who also chairs the ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Because its kind of like a one-way ticket. Klipstein thinks one of the reasons why some embryos end up abandoned in storage is that the people who created them cant bring themselves to destroy them. Its just very emotionally difficult for someone who has wanted so much to have a family, she tells me. Klipstein says she regularly talks to her patients about what to do with leftover embryos. Even people who make the decision with confidence can change their minds, she says. Weve all had those patients who have discarded embryos and then come back six months or a year later and said: Oh, I wish I had those embryos, she tells me. Those [embryos may have been] their best chance of pregnancy. Those who do want to discard their embryos have options. Often, the embryos will simply be exposed to air and then disposed of. But some clinics will also offer to transfer them at a time or place where a pregnancy is extremely unlikely to result. This compassionate transfer, as it is known, might be viewed as a more natural way to dispose of the embryo. But its not for everyone. Holligan has experienced multiple miscarriages and wonders if a compassionate transfer might feel similar. She wonders if it might just end up putting [her] body and mind through unnecessary stress. Ultimately, for Holligan and many others in a similar position, the choice remains a difficult one. These are very desired embryos, says Klipstein. The purpose of going through IVF was to create embryos to make babies. And [when people] have these embryos, and theyve completed their family plan, theyre in a place they couldnt have imagined. Now read the rest of The Checkup Read more from MIT Technology Review's archive Our relationship with embryos is unique, and a bit all over the place. Thats partly because we cant agree on their moral status. Are they more akin to people or property, or something in between? Who should get to decide their fate? While we get to the bottom of these sticky questions, millions of embryos are stuck in suspended animationsome of them indefinitely. It is estimated that over 12 million babies have been born through IVF. The development of the Nobel Prizewinning technology behind the procedure relied on embryo research. Some worry that donating embryos for research can be onerousand that valuable embryos are being wasted as a result. Fertility rates around the world are dropping below the levels needed to maintain stable populations. But IVF cant save us from a looming fertility crisis. Gender equality and family-friendly policies are much more likely to prove helpful. Two years ago, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a legal decision that protected the right to abortion. Since then, abortion bans have been enacted in multiple states. But in November of last year, some states voted to extend and protect access to abortion, and voters in Missouri supported overturning the state's ban. Last year, a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that embryos count as children ignited fears over access to fertility treatments in a state that had already banned abortion. The move could also have implications for the development of technologies like artificial uteruses and synthetic embryos, my colleague Antonio Regalado wrote at the time. From around the web Its not just embryos that are frozen as part of fertility treatments. Eggs, sperm, and even ovarian and testicular tissue can be stored too. A man who had immature testicular tissue removed and frozen before undergoing chemotherapy as a child 16 years ago had the tissue reimplanted in a world first, according to the team at University Hospital Brussels that performed the procedure around a month ago. The tissue was placed into the mans testicle and scrotum, and scientists will wait a year before testing to see if he is successfully producing sperm. (UZ Brussel) The Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk makes half the worlds insulin. Now it is better known as the manufacturer of the semaglutide drug Ozempic. How will the sudden shift affect the production and distribution of these medicines around the world? (Wired) The US has not done enough to prevent the spread of the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle. The response to bird flu is a national embarrassment, argues Katherine J. Wu. (The Atlantic) Elon Musk has said that if all goes well, millions of people will have brain-computer devices created by his company Neuralink implanted within 10 years. In reality, progress is slowerso far, Musk has said that three people have received the devices. My colleague Antonio Regalado predicts what we can expect from Neuralink in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

Thousands of timber-framed structures, including cultural landmarks like the Will Rogers Ranch House and notable examples of architecture such as Ray Kappes Keeler House, have been destroyed as wildfires rage through Los Angeles County, sparking urgent debates on fire-resilient design and the ethics of building in high-risk areasSource: ShutterstockA burnt-down house stands in ruins, a stark reminder of the devastation caused by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CaliforniaThe devastating wildfires sweeping through California have left a trail of destruction, claiming at least 27 lives, destroying more than 12,300 structures, and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. Entire communities across Los Angeles County and neighbouring areas have been engulfed, with fires reducing homes, businesses, and landmarks to ashes.Among the losses is the historic Will Rogers Ranch House in Pacific Palisades. Built in 1926, the clapboard residence was once a retreat for Hollywood elites and later became a public park and museum. Today, it lies in ruins after being consumed by the Palisades Fire.Its a completely devastating blow for all of us, Adrian Scott Fine, chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy, told the New York Times. Its just a touchstone. You cant hardly talk about Southern California history and the Pacific Palisades without acknowledging this cultural folk hero, Will Rogers.These are profound losses, he added. There are no other places like these that can tell these kinds of stories.The fires have also destroyed the Keeler House, a striking 1991 hillside residence in Pacific Palisades designed by Ray Kappe, founder of SCI-Arc. The architectural loss underscores the vulnerability of many Californian structures, particularly timber-framed and timber-clad buildings, to fast-moving wildfires.Source: ShutterstockThe Eaton fire burns in Sierra Madre, on the east side of Los Angeles, California, 8 January 2025Experts have long warned of such disasters, pointing to the effects of unchecked urban sprawl and, increasingly, the role of climate change. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and extreme weather patterns have created conditions that make wildfires more frequent and intense.Authors such as Mike Davis have critiqued the planning practices that allowed homes to proliferate in high-risk zones, as detailed in works like City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear. Now, these critiques are being joined by urgent discussions about climate resilience, the need for fire-resistant materials, and more sustainable urban planning to mitigate the risks of a warming planet.As firefighters continue their efforts to contain the blazes, the immediate priority remains saving lives and minimising further damage. However, the fires have already reignited debates about stricter building codes, fire-resilient design, and the ethics of continued development in wildfire-prone areas, especially as climate change exacerbates these risks.Timber, a dominant building material in many Californian homes, has proven especially vulnerable, compounding the devastation. The disaster highlights the urgent need for long-term strategies that address not only building practices but also the broader environmental factors driving the increasing frequency of such catastrophes.>> Also read:The rising toll of disasters: why the US needs coordinated national action on climate change

The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that could pave the way for a US ban of TikTok to take effect as soon as Sunday.The law, signed by President Joe Biden last year, wouldeffectively ban the app in the USif TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, doesn't sell it to a buyer deemed fit by US officials by Jan. 19. TikTok sued over the law, claiming it violated First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech for the company and TikTok's 170 million users in the US.The justices weren't persuaded by that argument. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that while TikTok is "a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community," Congress has determined that a sale is needed to "address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok's data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.""For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners' First Amendment rights," the court said.TikTok didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment.Attorney General Merrick Garland said the court's decision will allow the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from "weaponizing TikTok to undermine America's national security.""Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans' sensitive data," Garland said in a Justice Department statement.Lawyers for TikTok and the US governmentpleaded their cases in oral argumentsbefore the court late last week, pitting First Amendment perspectives against national security concerns. Based on the questions and comments made by the justices during the more than two-hour-long hearing, it appeared that they were more on board with the government's argument the case isn't about free speech and instead has to do with the dangers posed by foreign adversaries, in this case China.Read more: Downloads, Trump and VPNs: Everything to Know About the Potential TikTok BanLawmakers in both political parties have long voiced concerns that TikTok could be a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to further China's agenda.TikTok continues to deny those accusations. Ahead of votes in Congress last year,TikTok rallied its US users, calling on them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to vote down a ban. But the measure ultimately passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress.It remains unclear what will happen to TikTok both over the next few days and in the long term.Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in the DOJ's statement that the next phase of the department's efforts to break TikTok's connections to China, which will involve implementing and enforcing the law after it goes into effect on Sunday, "will be a process that plays out over time."The White Houseissued a statement Friday saying that Biden's position on TikTok hasn't changed. He still believes that TikTok should remain available to Americans, but under ownership that satisfies the government's national security concerns."Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday," the statement said.On Thursday, aBiden administration official toldABC News that the White House doesn't plan to enforce the law during the remaining days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Monday, Jan. 20. Trump, who pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he's no longer in favor of one. In late December, lawyers for Trumpfiled an amicus briefin the case. They didn't take a side but instead ask the court to delay the ban to give Trump time to come up with a "political resolution."

January 17, 20254 min readHeres How Climate Change Fueled the Los Angeles WildfiresMany factors, such as strong Santa Ana winds and urban planning decisions, played into the recent destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area. But the evidence is clear that climate change contributedBy Andrea Thompson edited by Dean VisserSmoke shrouds the sun as it rises above the Altadena Town and Country Club which was destroyed by the Eaton fire in Altadena. Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty ImagesThe horrific wildfires that ripped through parts of the Los Angeles area last week were, like many disasters of this scale, the result of a perfect storm of circumstances. Unusually strong Santa Ana winds topped off decades of decisions about land management and urban planningsetting a stage for sparks (with a still unknown origin) that ignited some of the most destructive infernos in Californias admittedly fire-prone history.But contrary to the assertions of some politicians (notably President-elect Donald Trump and his nominee for Department of Energy chief, fracking company executive Chris Wright), the scientific evidence is clear that climate change helped fuel the ferocity of these blazes. Hotter, drier conditions and increasing weather whiplash made the local vegetation much more flammable.Is there a link between climate change and the broadly increasing risk/severity of wildfire in California? Yes; that much is clear at this point, wrote climate scientist Daniel Swain on his blog, Weather West.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Unlike forest fires in other parts of the state, blazes in coastal southern California burn in grass and brush. This is an important distinction because year-to-year variations in the precipitation that falls during the winter wet season dont substantially change the abundance of plants in forests. But in areas like those hit by the latest Los Angeles fires, more winter rains mean a lot more grass and brush growth come spring.When the summer dry season begins, all of that grass and brush dries up. And as global and local temperatures rise with the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the atmosphere itself becomes thirstierso it sucks up even more moisture from the ground and vegetation through evaporation. The drier the fuel, the more readily and fiercely it will burn when any spark arises.An analysis by University of California, Los Angeles, climate scientists found that vegetation in the area where Palisades and Eaton Fires ignited was 25 percent drier than it would have been in the absences of climate change. We believe that the fires would still have been extreme without the climate change components noted above, but would have been somewhat smaller and less intense, said the analysiss authors in a press release from U.C.L.A. A separate analysis by the ClimaMeter, a group of climate scientists working to provide rapid assessments of weather extremes using climate models, also found that climate change had amplified the dry conditionswith temperatures up to five degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit) hotter and conditions up to 15 percent drier in the past few decades than in the period from 1950 to 1986.But climate change doesnt just make things worse by drying out the brush. It also contributes to what Swain and some of his colleagues call a whiplash between very wet and very dry conditions. Southern California is seeing more instances of very wet winters followed by hot, dry summers and autumns. And that is exactly what happened prior to the recent fires: the winters of 2022 2023 and 2023 2024 were unusually damp, causing more vegetation to spring up across the landscape. And then the summer and autumn of 2024 were extremely hot and dryin fact, this was the driest start to winter on record, Swain remarked last week during one of his one of his regular virtual climate and weather office hours, hosted on YouTube.In his blog post, Swain said the recent fires show that the worst climate for wildfire may in fact not be one that becomes steadily hotter and drier but instead one that increasingly lurches back and forth between episodic wet and dry extremes, yielding increasingly large swings between rapid fuel accumulation and subsequent drying (especially in grassland, shrubland and woodland environments).Another factor that adds to the risks is the fact that the dry season is stretching out, beginning earlier in the spring and lasting longer into autumn. And the longer it extends into fall, the more overlap there is with the Santa Ana wind season, which runs from October through January. Usually rain would have fallen before January, quenching the thirsty plants and tamping down the fire risk. But this year there has been negligible rain as late fall has turned into winter.The notorious Santa Ana winds are a substantial driver of fire risk in southern California. They can reach hurricane force (gusts clocked as high as 99 miles per hour last week), spreading fires so quickly that they become impossible to contain. Whipping winds carry embers out for a mile or more ahead of the fire front, igniting spot fires. The winds also make it unsafe for firefighters to fly water-dumping planes and helicopters over the fires.Although the factors that lead to these disasters are complex, it is clear that climate change is creating conditions that are ripe for wildfires. As Greta Cazzaniga, a climate scientist at the ClimaMeter and the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute in France, said in a recent press statement, the Los Angeles wildfires have shown how multiple extremes, exacerbated by climate change, can interact together to trigger an unprecedented disaster.

Switch 2's reveal: what have we learned about its next-gen potential?Nintendo's teaser gave very little away. Feature by Richard Leadbetter Technology Editor, Digital Foundry Published on Jan. 17, 2025 DF Direct Weekly arrives early - but with good cause. With Nintendo finally revealing the Switch 2, the Digital Foundry team spends a good hour discussing what we've learned from the two minute teaser and, equally, what is still to be revealed. The key question I've been thinking about is this: did we see a proper generational leap from the Mario Kart demo we saw compared to the existing Switch's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? In fact, did we see any hint of the advanced Nvidia technologies that have commanded so much of the Switch 2 discourse? I'd argue not.What the teaser did do was to confirm the multitude of hardware-based leaks we've seen over the last couple of months. Yes, Switch 2 will be significantly larger than its predecessor. The joycons do appear to attach magnetically to the main unit. There are strong hints that while the IR facilities from Switch 1 are gone, some kind of sensor allows for its successor to use its controllers like mice. Top and bottom USB-C connectors are also confirmed, opening the door to a range of external peripherals that could be mounted to the top of the machine. As well as the bigger form factor, ventilation seems to have been improved to handle the heat generated by the T239 processor.Backwards compatibility of both physical and digital Switch titles is also confirmed - presented with caveats suggesting that not all games will work. My gut feeling here is that outside of a few outliers, software compatibility won't be a problem - it's more likely to be games using Switch 1's unique hardware features that will have issues. Will games naturally run faster on Switch 2 than they do on the older model? I'd suggest that producing entirely accurate emulation of the older console would be more difficult than simply running them flat-out by running older games through the new hardware, similar to the way PS5 and Xbox Series back compat functions.Watch on YouTube0:00:00 Introduction0:01:12 Switch 2 hardware0:16:42 New Mario Kart analysis0:28:32 Only partial backwards compatibility?0:36:44 Rumoured Switch 2 clock speeds0:47:52 Supporter Q1: Can Switch 2 use transformer model DLSS?0:50:32 Supporter Q2: Can DLSS salvage Switch 2's output on 4K screens?0:52:19 Supporter Q3: Will Nintendo release performance patches for Switch 1 games on Switch 2?0:58:21 Final Switch 2 thoughts and impressionsFor those keeping track of the hardware leaks and general discourse, nothing I've mentioned so far will be 'new' as such - but the reveal of what we can assume to be a new Mario Kart game certainly is. There are clear enhancements here over what we saw in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - but with the huge caveat that all we can really discuss is a very short video clip that may or may not be representative of the wider game. Even so, the nature of the track itself was interesting: we see wider terrain with a relatively detail-rich shot panning back to show a considerable draw distance - which may well hint at a different approach for the game itself.Character rendering and environments have a similar style to Mario Kart 8 but there are some interesting embellishments. There are changes to the character models, perhaps to more closely align with the movie versions. The drivers - and indeed the karts themselves - look more expressive, including cartoon-inspired squashing and stretching animations. Also interesting is the shift to shadow maps. In Mario Kart 8, baked-in shadows combined with sparing use of the shadow maps but here, all geometry appears to sport real-time shadow maps - a significant improvement over Switch 1, but obviously more demanding on GPU resources.Is this a generational leap over the existing hardware? It's hard to come away with that impression to the point where there are good arguments that this new Mario Kart could have been designed as a cross-gen game in the style of Forza Horizon 5: good-looking on both systems, created with balance in mind for a good experience across the generations. While Switch 2 possesses ray tracing capabilities, perhaps it's a bit much to ask them to manifest in a 60fps game, but it is surprising to see so few of Nvidia's technologies in play.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. For example, DLSS has been lauded as a potential game-changer for the new console and yet there's no evidence whatsoever that it's in place in this new Mario Kart game. In fact, in common with many other Nintendo titles, the nature of the footage suggests there is no anti-aliasing at all, let alone ML-based upscaling. It's all a far cry from last year's reports of Breath of the Wild running at 4K 60fps using DLSS! In short, all we really have is a teaser for a crowd-pleasing game but hardly a next generation showcase for Nintendo's new hardware.Not quite relevant to the reveal, but certainly Switch 2-adjacent was the leak earlier this week of purported clock speeds for the T239 processor in both handheld and docked configurations. Think of this as the 'next gen' version of our 2016 story on how Nintendo downclocked Tegra X1 from default specs. The mooted specs have concerned some onlookers but they are broadly in line with what I expected - with a few caveats in place.The table below outlines the basics. Just like the Switch 1 clocks I reported on just over eight years ago now, we get CPU, GPU and memory clock speeds. When docked, we get the projected 102.4GB/s of memory bandwidth, shared between a GPU running at 1007MHz and a CPU clocked at a bafflingly low 998.4MHz. In the power constrained environment where battery life is king, things change - the GPU drops to 561MHz, while memory bandwidth reduces to 68.3GB/s. Bizarrely, however, the CPU clock increases from 998.4MHz to 1100.8MHz. Quite why this is the case is not within the leaked documentation and it's certainly enough to cast doubt on the veracity of the report.ARM A78C Eight-Core CPUNvidia Ampere 1536 Core GPUMemory ControllerBandwidthDocked998.4MHz1007.25MHz6400MHz102.4GB/sMobile1100.8MHz561MHz4266MHz68.3GB/s* Switch 2 specifications remain unconfirmed at this time.With that said, the precise nature of the frequencies - down to the decimal point - is certainly reminiscent of the developer documentation that informed our Switch 1 story, while the numbers of GPU and memory clocks are certainly plausible bearing in mind the scant information pieced together about the T239 processor. Just like its predecessor, the clocks are lower than many expected - but entirely in line with some of the limitations put in place by a chip that isn't fabricated on a modern process node.Why would handheld mode require higher clockspeeds than docked? That's completely unknown at this time, but weirdly and perversely, this actually adds to the idea that the information may be on the level. Why create eminently plausible and believable data for the GPU and memory and then fumble the ball with 'obviously wrong' CPU frequencies? You have to balance that idea up against the notion that Nintendo has some reason for doing what it's doing with the CPU clocks. Alternatively, of course, the leak may simply be incorrect.As for what this new information actually means, let's factor out the CPU for the moment and look at the GPU. A while back, I put together a video based on everything we know about the T239 chip in Switch 2. I attempted to simulate the GPU by using a downclocked RTX 2050 laptop processor, based on the same Nvidia Ampere architecture and operating with similar memory bandwidth. This chip has 2048 CUDA cores - more than the 1536 in T239 - so I ran it at just 750MHz. On balance this should be ballpark with a smaller GPU running at higher clocks, as described here. A broadly Steam Deck-like experience ensues but limited ray tracing is on the table, while DLSS is good for 1080p - and in some scenarios - 1440p upscaling.Everything we know about the T239 processor within Nintendo Switch 2, including simulated performance on broadly equivalent Nvidia hardware. We've since confirmed that the T234's deep learning accelerator is not in Switch 2.Watch on YouTubeAll of that testing remains firmly in theoretical simulation territory - and it's notable that we didn't see much of this potential in the Mario Kart footage. It's almost as if - for now, at least - Nintendo doesn't want to show its hand in terms of what the machine is capable of. By showing just a few seconds of a new Mario Kart title, it seems that the platform holder has other ideas - perhaps to remind the 64m people who bought Mario Kart 8 Deluxe what a good time they had playing it and that a sequel is on the way.So, with a teaser reveal out of the way, what happens next? All eyes are on the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct, coming on April 4th. It's a long wait for sure, just as it was between the original Switch reveal in October 2016 and the events that took place in January 2017. In the meantime, it looks as though it's weapons-free for developers and publishers to talk about the Switch 2 games they're working on, but probably not to show any footage.If I was to predict what we'll see beyond whatever surprises Nintendo may be cooking up from its first-party studios, well, I'd expect a lot of PS4 ports and PS4/PS5 cross-gen games to appear. There are rumours that the likes of Microsoft Flight Simulator may be coming, which would certainly be a challenge for this hardware, but the 2020 version ran well enough on Steam Deck and if we can disregard CPU concerns for now, typically I'd expect anything that runs on Deck to run on Switch 2 - and lower resolution aside, I managed to run Flight Sim at close to Series S settings on the Valve handheld. Perhaps expectations need to be kept in check, but based on the remarkably good Switch ports we saw across its lifecycle, I'm confident we'll continue to be surprised by Nintendo's hybrid console as we shift into the concept's second generation.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereWWE 2K25 is set to be properly revealed soon. It has been announced, 2K have shared a few screenshots, and the cover star has leaked. However, were yet to see any gameplay, and nothing new about the game has been announced. While official details will be revealed before the end of January, a huge leak suggests WWE 2K25 is getting NBAs biggest mode along with the return of a match-type from the past.Leak claims WWE 2K25 is getting NBAs The CityYouTuber and Award Winning Journalist, HipHopGamer, claims that WWE 2K25 is getting its own version of The City from NBA. HipHopGamer has interviewed the WWE 2K developers in the past, and they are said to have a lot of friends in wrestling, presumably meaning the development team.As for how wrestlings version of The City will work, HipHopGamer says in his YouTube video that WWE 2K25 will have a real universe where you can walk around in and play in. He also says you will be able to meet up with and wrestle people, meaning other players.In addition to WWEs version of The City, HipHopGamer claims WWE 2K25 is bringing back intergender matches. This would be fantastic if true, especially after 2K24 mods were removed for making intergender matches possible. Lastly, in less surprising news, its also claimed that the graphics look better, and gameplay is even more fluid.Image credit: @HipHopGamer on XIts important to stress that this is only an alleged leak rather than anything official. No doubt, it would be amazing if true, but well just have to wait and see. The idea of The City sounds good on paper, but the WWE 2K servers have largely been horrible every year, so just the idea of it functioning is hard to imagine. Its also difficult to believe the return of intergender matches seeing as they are taboo in reality for WWE, and 2K removed intergender mods from 2K24.Fortunately, we only have to wait a little bit longer for the game to properly be revealed. Roman Reigns teased an announcement on January 27th, presumed to be the cover reveal, meanwhile, the WWEGames account on X teases January 28th.In our WWE 2K24 review, we praised the stunning presentation and fun gameplay. The game had its biggest roster ever with over 200 wrestlers, and it introduced new match types to the series such as ambulance.WWE 2K24Platform(s):PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series XGenre(s):Simulation, Sports, Wrestling7VideoGamerSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Vintage decorations throughout speak to the spectrum of different eras and styles the owners wanted to embrace in the project. A Shaker-inspired bench in the dining room evokes the simplicity and grace of a church pew, while a vintage iron bed in the guest bedroom shares space with a primitive English desk and antique velvet Art Deco armchair. In the attic, an antique William IV mahogany armchair sits next to an antique English mahogany tray top tripod table stool.A chef was a former owner of the home, so the kitchen needed very little renovation. The couple kept the original cabinetry but added the vintage pendant lights made from galvanized steel and the Alvar Aalto K65 kitchen stools.The design scheme is meant to create an authentic and unpretentious atmosphere that is relaxed, layered, and intriguingly eclectic, designer Melissa Lee says. The dining room includes custom millwork, including a Shaker-inspired bench. The dining table is a slab top Brazilian oval trestle table that is surrounded by Edwardian period carved oak chairs that are upholstered in mustard velvet. The pendant above and the rug below the table are vintage.The design honors its surroundings but also incorporates the personal touches of its owners, Lee professes. Because the interiors included interactions with varying materials, Lee says attention to detail was a priority. The idea was to find harmony in blending modern forms and natural textures.The real soul of the residence is animated by the homeowners wide-ranging collection of paintings and local ceramic sculptural works that are thoughtfully integrated throughout. Beyond adding depth and personality to each room, the collection delivers an heirloom feel that the owners say was critical to making the space feel like home.

There was a time when Mark Zuckerberg didnt regard mainstream media as the enemy. He even allowed me, a card-carrying legacy media person, into his home. In April 2018, I ventured there to hear his plans to do the right thing. It was part of my years-long embed into Facebook to write a book. For the past two years, Zuckerbergs company had been roundly criticized for its failure to rein in disinformation and hate speech. Now the young founder had a plan to address this.Part of the solution, he told me, was more content moderation. He was going to hire many more humans to vet posts, even if it cost Facebook considerable capital. He would also amp up efforts to use artificial intelligence to proactively remove harmful content. It is no longer enough to give people tools to say what they want and then just let our community flag them and try to respond after the fact, he told me as we sat in his sunroom. We need to get in there more and just take a more active role. He admitted he had been slow to realize how damaging toxic content was on Facebook, but now he was committed to fixing the problem, even though it might take years. I think we're doing the right thing, he told me, Its just that we should've done it sooner.Seven years later, Zuckerberg no longer thinks more moderation is the right thing. In a five-minute Reel, he characterized his actions to support it as a regretful cave-in to government jawboning about Covid and other subjects. He announced a shift away from content moderationno more proactive takedowns and downranking of misinformation and hate speechand the end of a fact-checking program that aimed to refute lies circulating on his platforms. Fact checks by trusted sources would be replaced by community notes, a crowdsourcing approach where users provide alternate views on the veracity of posts. That technique is the exact thing that he told me in 2018 was not enough. While he admits now his changes will allow more bad stuff, he says that in 2025 it is worth it for more free expression to thrive.This is an edition of Steven Levy's Plaintext newsletter.SIGN UP for Plaintext and tap Steven's unique insights and unmatched contacts for the long view on tech.The policy shift was one of several moves that indicated that, whether or not Zuckerberg wanted to do this all along, Meta is positioning itself in sync with the new Trump administration. Youve heard the litany, which has become a meme in itself. Meta promoted its top lobbyist, former GOP operative Joel Kaplan, to chief global affairs officer; he immediately appeared on Fox News (and only Fox News) to tout the new policies. Zuckerberg also announced that Meta would move employees who write and review content from California to Texas, to help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content. He disbanded Metas DEI program. (Where is Sheryl Sandberg, who was so proud of Metas diversity effort. Sheryl? Sheryl?) And Meta changed some of its service terms specifically to allow users to degrade LGBTQ people.Now that its been a week since Metas turnaroundand my first take at Zuckerbergs speechI am particularly haunted by one aspect: He seems to have downranked the basic practice of classic journalism, characterizing it as no better than the nonreported observations from podcasters, influencers, and countless random people on his platforms. This was hinted at in his Reel when he repeatedly used the term legacy media as a pejorative: a force that, in his view, urges censorship and stifles free expression. All this time I thought the opposite!A hint of his revised version of trustworthiness comes from the shift from fact-checkers to community notes. Its true that the fact-checking process wasnt working wellin part because Zuckerberg didnt defend the checkers when ill-intentioned critics charged them with bias. Its also reasonable to expect community notes to be a useful signal that a post might be fallacious. But the power of refutation fails when participants in the conversation reject the idea that disagreements can be resolved by convincing evidence. Thats a core difference between fact-checkingwhich Zuckerberg got rid of and the community notes hes implementing. The fact-checking worldview assumes that definitive facts, arrived at via research, talking to people, and sometimes even believing your own eyes, can be conclusive. The trick is recognizing authorities who have earned public confidence by pursuing truth. Community notes welcome alternate viewsbut judging which ones are reliable is all up to you. Theres something to the canard that an antidote to bad speech is more speech. But if verifiable facts cant successfully refute easily disproven flapdoodle, were stuck in a suicidal quicksand of babel.Thats the world that Donald Trump, Zuckerbergs new role model, has consciously set about to realize. 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl once asked Trump why he insulted reporters who were just doing their job. You know why I do it? he responded. I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you. In 2021, Trump further revealed his intent to benefit from an attack on truth. If you say it enough and keep saying it, theyll start to believe you, he said during a rally. A corollary to that is if social media promotes falsehoods enough, people will believe those as well. Especially if formerly recognized authorities are discredited and demeaned.

Thank Super EarthHelldivers 2's DSS is back online with a beefy overhaul that should more permanently stop it being a friendly fire menace, as the Iluminate jump back in your sightsIt's back, and this time it shouldn't double the amount of helldiver casualties by being a bit too explodey.Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Updated on Jan. 17, 2025 Helldivers 2's Democracy Space Station is back with a vengeance, just in time for the Galactic War to shift back to the Illuminate front. And, thank Christ, Arrowhead has implemented some changes to the giant space station that should make it a little bit more effective an asset to the cause - as well as stopping it from being very lethal to friendly forces.In case you weren't around to get blasted into the stratosphere by a careless teammate, back when the DSS first arrived back in November last year, it quickly got on the bad side of a lot of players, due to its orbital barrage proving to be very good at killing helldivers, even more so than the intended target of enemies.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Now, after players beat the terminids in the last Major Order, the DSS has returned from a bit of a break with the latest MO, which turns the action back to the Illuminate front. You've got 14 attacks from the Illuminate to repel with the "repaired" station's help, and two have already been repelled, because this is Helldivers 2 and things never stop moving for a single second, ever.The official reason being given by Arrowhead for the DSS' little chill sesh is that it suffered "a system-wide breakdown during the initial Illuminate invasion", which, to be fair, we all got a bit excited then, so it'd have been easy for a floaty space thing to over-exert itself, fall over, and temporarily die. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.But, now it's been repaired, and has had some adjustments made. "The Planetary Bombardment tactical action has been taken offline, until adjustments to optimise certain undesirable externalities has been taken," Arrowhead writes in its briefing, "The Heavy Ordnance Distribution tactical action has been added, which will augment Helldiver loadouts on the orbited planet." The station also can now move more often - "six times more frequently" according to the devs.What are the early reviews of the changes like? Well, as ever with Helldivers, a bit mixed. Some like it, some think it still needs a bit of work and have conveyed that through Lamar Davis from GTA 5.Anyway, at least you're now less likely to be killed instantly when you drop, sharing the fate Arrowhead's CEO wants for any A-list actors cast in the Helldivers movie.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube792kYou probably already know this, but the Nintendo Switch 2 was officially unveiled to the world yesterday. And you've also likely noticed that we haven't stopped thinking about it since.The brief trailer coming in at two minutes and twenty-one seconds seemingly hinted at a few features while not giving away too much. We got a look at the new design, the bigger size, and what seems to be mouse functionality on the Joy-Con. But we think there's a bit more hiding in plain sight. So, the lovely Alex and Felix on our YouTube channel have jumped head-first into the trailer and pulled out the juiciest details that might be a bit less obvious.We won't touch on everything in this article, so make sure you watch the video up top for every single detail secret or otherwise we've spotted on the Switch 2.So, in the words of the chaps that's more than enough waffling, let's dive right into things!A fine finishStarting things off on a subtle note, the Switch 2's finish looks a fair bit different from the Switch 1's.It's not too easy to tell, but we suspect the Switch 2 has a more matte finish or, potentially, a powdered aluminium finish. There's a more "refined" look to it than the original Switch.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoLarger air intakesOn the current Switch, you've probably noticed two thin, long slots on the back of the console, near the bottom. These air intakes are to help keep the console cooler.Well, on the Switch 2, they've moved and they're a bit bigger, too. You'll spot them on the bottom of the new console, and they're right next to the USB-C slot.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoMicro SD card slot spotted!In a blink and you'll miss it moment, when the new kickstand is being shown off, there's a very faint outline which looks like a micro SD card slot.Not super surprising, but good to see it nonetheless!Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoIs that a microphone?Yes, the microphone may well be making a comeback. Nintendo hasn't confirmed what the little dot next to the game card slot is on the Switch 2, but it looks like the old microphone from the DS and 3DS.If it is a microphone, well, it's time to bring back Nintendogs, Nintendo.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoIR Camera 2The IR camera isn't new to the Switch consoles, so you probably spotted this during the trailer, but what may have gone unnoticed is that there's actually an IR camera on both Joy-Con.On the current Switch, the IR camera is only on the right Joy-Con, but here, there's a second one on the left Joy-Con. At least, that's what it looks like. It might just be an aesthetic thing, but that'd be a little weird.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoKeep it flatSkipping towards the end (for the juicy stuff), the new Joy-Con grip is pretty different simply to accommodate the new magnetic Joy-Con.The grips no longer cup the Joy-Con and are now flat, to allow you to detach them properly. A minor detail, and an understandable one.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoBezel-edThe last thing we'll cover here is the screen bezel. Compared to the OG Switch model, the bezel on the Switch 2 is much smaller, and closer to that of the OLED's.That makes sense bigger screen and all but the sides are perhaps a bit wider than we expected. Still, we're just happy the screen overall is bigger than the OG and even the OLED.Image: Nintendo Life / NintendoSo, those are some of the coolest little details we spotted in the Switch 2 reveal trailer. Reminder, if you want to see everything, including discussions around the magnets, the new straps, the kickstand, and the release buttons for the Joy-Con, make sure to watch the full video.Have we missed anything on the Switch 2? Or is there anything you're very excited about from the video? Let us know in the comments below. A complete guide to Switch 2 - official details, rumours, leak historySee AlsoShare:01 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNintendo Asks Wii U Owners To Refrain From Using "Unauthorised" Online ServicesUpdate: Pretendo respondsNintendo Breaks Silence On 'Switch 2' Image And Video LeaksThe "official" announcement will take place this fiscal yearRumour: 'Switch 2' Will Reportedly Be Officially Revealed This ThursdayThough software won't be the focus