Bill Gatess memoir of his early years recounts the swirl of factors leading to the birth of Microsoft and the rise of personal computing.

going with the flow Let us spray: River dolphins launch pee streams into air It's unclear why river dolphins do this, but it might serve some kind of social function. Jennifer Ouellette Feb 3, 2025 3:14 pm | 0 Credit: Claryana Arajo-Wang / Botos do Cerrado Research Project / CetAsia Research Group Credit: Claryana Arajo-Wang / Botos do Cerrado Research Project / CetAsia Research Group Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAccording to Amazonian folklore, the area's male river dolphins are shapeshifters (encantade), transforming at night into handsome young men who seduce and impregnate human women. The legend's origins may lie in the fact that dolphins have rather human-like genitalia. A group of Canadian biologists didn't spot any suspicious shapeshifting behavior over the four years they spent monitoring a dolphin population in central Brazil, but they did document 36 cases of another human-like behavior: what appears to be some sort of cetacean pissing contest.Specifically, the male dolphins rolled over onto their backs, displayed their male members, and launched a stream of urine as high as 3 feet into the air. This usually occurred when other males were around, who seemed fascinated in turn by the arching streams of pee, even chasing after them with their snouts. It's possibly a form of chemical sensory communication and not merely a need to relieve themselves, according to the biologists, who described their findings in a paper published in the journal Behavioral Processes. As co-author Claryana Arajo-Wang of CetAsia Research Group in Ontario, Canada, told New Scientist, We were really shocked, as it was something we had never seen before.Spraying urine is common behavior in many animal species, used to mark territory, defend against predators, communicate with other members of one's species, or as a means of mate selection, since it has been suggested that the chemicals in the urine carry useful information about physical health or social dominance.The behavior is much rarer among aquatic species, although the authors note that male African cichlids expel pulses of urine to mark territory and in certain reproductive contexts. In the narrow-closed crayfish, a marked decrease in male aggression has been observed when one crayfish detects the other's urine, "suggesting that urine may aid individual recognition while also carrying information about the sender's aggressive propensity," the authors wrote. It has been suggested that urine might indicate a readiness to mate in certain cetaceans, although evidence for this is scarce.So naturally Arajo-Wang et al. were surprised to see so many instances of "aerial urination" while conducting their land-based surveys in the Tocantins River from 2014 to 2018, recording nearly 219 hours of dolphin activity. Sometimes it was just a single male dolphin launching his stream (the "urinator"), but two-thirds of the occurrences involved at least one other male dolphin (the "receivers") lurking nearby and sometimes positioning themselves directly under the urine stream. The urine releases lasted about 11 seconds on average, with one second being the shortest duration and 41 seconds being the longest.It's possible this is a form of chemical communication. While dolphins lack a strong sense of smell or taste, there is evidence that they can detect some odorants and secretions in both air and water, per the authors, including the urine and feces of their fellow dolphinsnamely bottlenose dolphins, who use their tongues to identify fellow dolphins through the taste of their urine. Another possibility is that the urine hitting the water serves as an acoustical signal, given how sensitive dolphins are to sound. Or maybe the male dolphins just like to admire their own urine streams.DOI: Behavior Processes, 2025. 10.1016/j.beproc.2025.105149 (About DOIs). Amazon river dolphins may send messages with aerial streams of urine. Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 0 Comments

Bracing for impact Tariffs may soon spike cost of cars, household goods, consumer tech A little pain: Trump finally admits tariffs heap costs on Americans. Ashley Belanger Feb 3, 2025 2:31 pm | 97 Canadian and American flags are seen at the US/Canada border March 1, 2017, in Pittsburg, New Hampshire. Credit: DON EMMERT / Staff | AFP Canadian and American flags are seen at the US/Canada border March 1, 2017, in Pittsburg, New Hampshire. Credit: DON EMMERT / Staff | AFP Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOver the weekend, President Trump issued executive orders heaping significant additional tariffs on America's biggest trading partners, Canada, China, and Mexico.To justify the tariffs"a 25 percent additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent additional tariff on imports from China"Trump claimed that all partners were allowing drugs and immigrants to illegally enter the US. Declaring a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump's orders seemed bent on "downplaying" the potential economic impact on Americans, AP News reported.But very quickly, the trade policy sparked inflation fears, with industry associations representing major US firms from many sectors warning of potentially derailed supply chains and spiked consumer costs of cars, groceries, consumer technology, and more. Perhaps the biggest pain will be felt by car buyers already frustrated by high prices if car prices go up by $3,000, as Bloomberg reported. And as Trump eyes expanding tariffs to the European Union next, January research from the Consumer Technology Association showed that imposing similar tariffs on all countries would increase the cost of laptops by as much as 68 percent, game consoles by up to 58 percent, and smartphones perhaps by 37 percent.With tariffs scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, Mexico moved fast to negotiate a one-month pause on Monday, ABC News reported. In exchange, Mexico promised to "reinforce" the US-Mexico border with 10,000 National Guard troops.The pause buys Mexico a little time to convince the Trump administrationincluding Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and potentially Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnickto strike a "permanent" trade deal, ABC News reported. If those talks fall through, though, Mexico has indicated it will retaliate with both tariff and non-tariff measures, ABC News reported.Even in the best-case scenario where no countries retaliate, the average household income in 2025 could drop by about $1,170 if this week's new tariffs remain in place, an analysis from the Budget Lab at Yale forecast. With retaliation, average income could decrease by $1,245.Canada has already threatened to retaliate by imposing 35 percent tariffs on US goods, although that could change, depending on the outcome of a meeting this afternoon between Trump and outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Currently, there's seemingly tension between the Trump administration and Trudeau, however.On Saturday, Trudeau called Trump's rationale for imposing tariffs on Canadawhich Trudeau noted is responsible for less than 1 percent of drugs flowing into the US"the flimsiest pretext possible," NBC News reported.This morning, the director of the White House's National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, reportedly criticized Canada's response on CNBC. While Mexico is viewed as being "very, very serious" about Trump's tariffs threat, "Canadians appear to have misunderstood the plain language of the executive order and they're interpreting it as a trade war," Hassett said.On the campaign trail, Trump promised to lower prices of groceries, cars, gas, housing, and other goods, AP News noted. But on Sunday, Trump clearly warned reporters while boarding Air Force One that tariffs could have the opposite effect, ABC News reported, and could significantly worsen inflation the longer the trade policy stands."We may have short term, some, a little pain, and people understand that, but, long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world," Trump said.Online shoppers, car buyers brace for tariffsIn addition to imposing new tariffs on these countries, Trump's executive orders also took aim at their access to the "de minimus" exemption that allows businesses, including online retailers, to send shipments below $800 into the US without being taxed. That move could likely spike costs for Americans using popular Chinese retail platforms like Temu or Shein.Before leaving office, Joe Biden had threatened in Septemberto alter the "de minimus" rule, accusing platforms like Temu or Shein of flooding the US with "huge volumes of low-value products such as textiles and apparel" and making "it increasingly difficult to target and block illegal or unsafe shipments." Following the same logic, it seems that Trump wants to exclude Canada, China, and potentially Mexico from the duty-free exemption to make it easier to identify illegal drug shipments.Temu and Shein did not respond to Ars' request to comment. But both platforms in September told Ars that losing the duty-free exemption wouldn't slow their growth. And both platforms have shifted business to keep more inventory in the US, CNBC reported.Canada is retaliating, auto industry will sufferWhile China has yet to retaliate to defend such retailers, for Canada, the tariffs are considered so intolerable that the country immediately ordered tariffs on beverages, cosmetics, and paper products flowing from the US, AP News reported. Next up will be "passenger vehicles, trucks, steel and aluminum products, certain fruits and vegetables, beef, pork, dairy products, aerospace products, and more."If the trade wars further complicate auto industry trade in particular, it could hurt US consumers. Carmakers globally saw stocks fall on expectations that Trump's tariffs will have a "profound impact" on the entire auto industry, CNBC reported. And if tariffs expand into the EU, an Oxford Economics analysis suggested, the cost of European cars in the US market would likely increase while availability decreases, perhaps crippling a core EU market and limiting Americans' choice in vehicles.EU car companies are already bracing for potential disruptions. A spokesperson for Germany-based BMW told CNBC that tariffs "hinder free trade, slow down innovation, and set a negative spiral in motion. In the end, they are detrimental to customers, making products more expensive and less innovative." A Volkswagen spokesperson confirmed the company was "counting on constructive talks between the trading partners to ensure planning security and economic stability and to avoid a trade conflict."Right now, Canada's auto industry appears most spooked by the impending trade war, with the president of Canadas Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, Flavio Volpe, warning that Canada's auto sector could "shut down within a week," Bloomberg reported."At 25 percent, absolutely nobody in our business is profitable by a long shot," Volpe said.According to Bloomberg, nearly one-quarter of the 16 million cars sold in the US each year will be hit with duties, adding about $60 billion in industry costs. Seemingly the primary wallet drain will be car components that cross the US-Canada and US-Mexico borders "as many as eight times during production" and, should negotiations fail, could be getting hit with tariffs both ways. Tesla, for example, relies on a small parts manufacturer in Canada, Laval Tool, to create the molds for its Cybertruck. It already costs up to $500,000 per mold, Bloomberg noted, and since many of the mold components are sourced from Canada currently, that cost could go up at a time when Cybertruck sales already aren't great, InsideEVs reported.Tariffs necessaryWilliam Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former US trade official, told AP News that Trump's new tariffs on raw materials disrupting the auto industry and others don't seem to "make much economic sense.""Historically, most of our tariffs on raw materials have been low because we want to get cheaper materials so our manufacturers will be competitive ... Now, whats he talking about? Hes talking about tariffs on raw materials," Reinsch said. "I dont get the economics of it."But Trump has maintained that tariffs are necessary to push business into the US while protecting national security. Industry experts have warned that hoping Trump's tariffs will pressure carmakers to source all car components within the US is a "tough ask," as shifting production could take years. Trump seems unlikely to back down any time soon, instead asking already cash-strapped Americans to be patient with any rising costs potentially harming businesses and consumers."We can play the game all they want," Trump said.But to countries threatening the US with tariffs in response to Trump's orders, it likely doesn't feel like a game. According to AP News, the Ministry of Commerce in China plans to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization for the "wrongful practices of the US."Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 97 Comments

Sunset in San Diego, California, during an exceptionally warm JanuaryKevin Carter/Getty ImagesJanuary has surprised climate scientists by setting a new global temperature record, in an early indication that 2025 could see more severe warming than first thought.It was the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the 1850 to 1900 average, beating the previous record set a year earlier, when temperatures were 1.7C above pre-industrial levels.It is a surprise start to a year when global temperatures were expected to start falling.

Rice fields are a major source of methane emissionsThirawatana Phaisalratana/iStockphoto/Getty ImagesA new variety of rice created by simple crossbreeding could reduce the crops emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by nearly three-quarters.Rice growing is responsible for around 12 per cent of anthropogenic release of methane, a gas that has a warming effect 25 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. AdvertisementThe emissions come from soil microbes in the flooded paddy fields where rice is grown. These organisms break down chemicals known as root exudates released by the plants, producing nutrients that the plants can use, but also making methane in the process.To learn more about factors affecting the production of methane from rice roots, Anna Schnrer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and her colleagues grew two strains of rice in a laboratory: a Japanese cultivar called Nipponbare with average methane emissions and a genetically modified strain with low methane emissions called SUSIBA2.SUSIBA2 produced less fumarate, a root exudate known to be a key driver of methane emissions, than Nipponbare. But when both strains were treated with oxantel, a chemical that inhibits the breakdown of fumarate by bacteria, the SUSIBA2 strain still produced less methane. This meant there must be another factor causing the difference between the varieties. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterIt turned out that the SUSIBA2 crop was secreting high levels of ethanol, which also seemed to be suppressing methane emissions.The team then turned to traditional breeding techniques to produce a new rice strain by crossing a high-yield elite variety with the Heijing cultivar, a strain that produces low fumarate and high ethanol.Over two years of field trials in China, the new strain produced crop yields of more than 8 tonnes per hectare, compared with the global average of just over 4 tonnes, and it emitted 70 per cent less methane than the elite variety it was bred from.Johannes le Coutre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, says the study is an example of well-executed research into the culprits behind the crops greenhouse gas emissions.The core point of the study is they dont use hard-core gene engineering or editing technologies or transgenic approaches, says le Coutre. They use traditional crossbreeding in order to create new rice lines which lower the synthesis of methane.Journal reference:Molecular Plant DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2025.01.008Topics:

Donald Trump's most recent tariffs on China put Apple's profitability at risk, analysts say.Apple previously avoided similar tariffs in 2019 after discussions between Cook and Trump.Mexico, Canada, and China are planning retaliatory measures that could additionally hurt sales.Apple CEO Tim Cook is finding himself staring down China tariffs again, six years after narrowly avoiding them during Donald Trump's first term.President Trump is imposing tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China that he says are meant to push them to do more to stop fentanyl, an addictive synthetic opioid, from entering the US. So far, it's prompted each country to announce potential countermeasures, with Mexico and Canada promising retaliatory moves.Tech analysts' eyes are now on Cook to see whether he can successfully extricate Apple from the levies like he managed to with Trump's China tariffs in 2019."We're dealing with a new political and market landscape, and similar exemptions aren't guaranteed," Jacob Bourne, tech analyst at EMARKETER, a Business Insider sister company, said.Apple makes about 95% of its most popular products in China, Forbes previously reported. Trump's added 10% tariff on the country's imports to the US would mean the cost could fall on consumers or the company itself, analysts told BI.It's unclear if Cook is already pursuing a workaround for Apple, but Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said Apple's exploration of US manufacturing "could be a part of a deal for an exemption."The last time China was hit with Trump tariffs, Apple managed to protect iPhones and MacBooks. Reuters reported that Cook cited competition with South Korea's Samsung in previous discussions with Trump. Kerwin says, "We'll see" if Cook can make another good case to Trump in 2025.Apple's global visibility and the "challenging geopolitical climate" leaves it open to potential retaliatory tariffs from countries where it does business, said Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co.China, specifically, poses a threat when it comes to manufacturing and revenue, as the region is a key market for Apple's sales. The iPhone maker has lost ground there to local smartphone companies in recent years."A prolonged tariff-driven conflict could impact Apple sales outside the US," Luria said.Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.Over the past five years, Apple has mostly avoided increasing iPhone prices in the US (apart from a $100 bump on Pro Max models in 2023)."We don't expect the pricing lever to get pulled in the short-term," Kerwin said.As for Cook, he told analysts that Apple is "monitoring the situation" during its first-quart fiscal year 2025 earnings call Thursday.

Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, is officially an employee of the US federal government.The White House confirmed his employment on Monday. He will not receive a paycheck.Musk is a "special government employee," a role that's not supposed to last for more than 130 days.Elon Musk is officially an employee of the United States federal government.A White House spokesman confirmed to Business Insider on Monday that the Tesla and SpaceX founder is a "special government employee" and will not receive a paycheck for his service.The government has historically used the "special government employee" classification for temporary workers who bring a particular expertise but do not intend to be employed permanently.Special government employees are not subject to the ethics and conflicts of interest rules that government employees typically encounter. Musk's companies, particularly Tesla and SpaceX, have benefited significantly from government contracts.According to federal law, special government employees cannot serve for more than 130 days in a 365-day period. Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" is also part of the federal government President Donald Trump's signed an executive order on his first day in office renaming the United States Digital Service to the "United States DOGE Service."In recent days, Musk and his DOGE team have taken aim at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), with Musk calling for the agency to be shuttered.On Monday, employees were told that the building would be closed and staffers would be required to work from home, spurring outcry from Democratic lawmakers.

Things that, just a few years ago, would have been thought impossible in the American system of government are now happening.Donald Trump is asserting the presidents power to remake the executive branch as he sees fit empowering Elon Musk to push aside civil servants, wind down entire agencies, and generally strike terror into the federal workforce. Musks effort seems to be willfully heedless of laws against firing certain employees and spending requirements from Congress, and outside experts have argued that much of what he is doing seems blatantly illegal. He is doing it anyway.At the same time, the longtime professionalized independence of the US Department of Justice in conducting criminal investigations and prosecutions is being shattered. Trumps team has already fired dozens of prosecutors and top FBI officials who worked on the cases against Trump or January 6, 2021, rioters, and is laying the groundwork for an even more widespread purge of FBI employees who worked on the January 6 probes. Entirely unrelated prosecutions of Trumps political allies are also being dropped or wound down.Meanwhile, companies are not only prostrating themselves at Trumps feet, theyre giving him massive payoffs. Meta paid $25 million to settle Trumps lawsuit over the companys suspension of his accounts, the bulk of which will fund Trumps presidential library. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is mulling its own settlement in Trumps nuisance lawsuit complaining about how 60 Minutes edited an interview of Kamala Harris last year.Both seem blatantly motivated by these companies fear that the president will turn the powers of the federal government against them for political payback. And initial actions from Trumps Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief suggest they have good reason to fear this.The common theme is that Trump is crashing through institutional and legal guardrails preventing the centralization of power in the presidency and the corrupt weaponization of government.Those of placid temperaments, or those exhausted by years of anti-Trump panic and threats to democracy warnings, may be inclined to dismiss these as no big deal. But just try to put yourself into the mindset of a few years ago, to realize how shocking all of these things would have been.We are still very near the beginning of this story and we have no idea how it will end. But there are two crucial questions going forward. First, what will Trumps team do with their increased presidential power? Second, will they eventually hit a wall, doing things that are too extreme for the courts or Congress or the public to accept?Elon Musk has assumed vast powersThe story that has most shocked Washington since Trump was sworn in has been the incredible power wielded by Elon Musk.Musk has reportedly become a special government employee, though his formal role remains unknown. But various allies and former employees of his have been installed at several government offices, including the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, and the US Digital Service (now renamed the US DOGE Service). It has become clear that Musk is in charge of a vast effort to purge and reshape the federal workforce.A key source of Musks power is that he appears to have gained the ability to place career civil servants who resist his demands on administrative leave. This is what happened to a top Treasury Department official and to security officials at USAID, the US foreign aid agency, when they resisted his teams demands for systems access. Musks allies have also ordered civil servants working on DEI initiatives be placed on administrative leave, and his fork in the road email offered paid administrative leave to federal employees who agreed to resign later this year.Previous presidents have not used administrative leave in this way in part because it may be illegal. But thats not holding up Musk, who seems to be using this as a hack to bulldoze past government employees who stand in his way you defy him, and youre gone. (Career bureaucrats dont get to violate lawful orders from the President of the United States, Vice President JD Vance said in an X post Monday morning.)Musks team has also gained control of the Treasury Departments systems that disperse government salaries, payments, and grants. Previously, this has been controlled by professionalized civil servants who simply make the payments theyve been instructed to. Musk, though, seems to want the power to freeze payments he doesnt like.Most dramatically, Musk asserted that USAID will be shut down, even though it was established by a law passed by Congress. Musk claimed that, after talking it over with Trump, the president agreed that we should shut it down. (I actually checked with him a few times, Musk said.)How is he getting away with doing all this? The answer is, simply, that Trump wants him to. A Washington Post report Monday cited sources close to the president claiming Trump is not closely monitoring Musks moves but that Trump views Musk as doing the task he assigned him. So as long as Musk seems to be acting with the presidents blessing, so long as he can place civil servants on leave willy-nilly, and so long as lawsuits and judges dont manage to rein him in, he will have immense leeway to operate as he sees fit.The Justice Departments independence is being shatteredLess surprising, but still quite concerning and consequential, is the purge underway at the US Department of Justice, which seems to keep getting bigger.More than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two federal cases against Trump were fired last week.More than a dozen other prosecutors who had worked on federal prosecutions of January 6 rioters were fired late last week.Several FBI executives or field office heads were told to resign or be fired late last week.Over the weekend, FBI officials sent out a questionnaire to thousands of FBI personnel asking them to detail any involvement in January 6 rioter cases. The questionnaire seems to herald a potentially much more vast purge of FBI employees, since thousands are believed to have been involved in such cases.Its worth noting that Trump isnt only retaliating against those who investigated him personally. He seems to want to retaliate against anyone who held his supporters accountable for breaking the law and storming the Capitol in an illegal attempt to keep him in power. (And of course, he already issued an incredibly wide-ranging pardon of those rioters, even violent ones who attacked police.)Meanwhile, Trumps DOJ moved to shut down an investigation into one Republican member of Congress, and a prosecution of a former member. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) was being probed over his finances, but prosecutors on the case suddenly withdrew last week, in whats likely a wind-down of the case. And false statements charges against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) were dropped last week too.All of this is happening before Trumps appointees to head the DOJ and FBI Pam Bondi and Kash Patel are even confirmed. Patel promised with a straight face during his confirmation hearing that hed work to protect FBI employees from political prosecution (despite years of saying otherwise).Clearly, though, Trump has no intention of letting the longstanding independence of the DOJ and FBI in criminal investigations continue to exist. The question going forward is how aggressive his appointees will be at trying to fulfill Trumps long-held desire that his critics and opponents be prosecuted.Corporations are paying off the president to escape political paybackMeanwhile, the corporate worlds accommodation to Trump, evident at his inauguration, has taken on a troubling new dimension.Back in 2021, Trump sued Meta because it had suspended his accounts after the January 6 riots. Last week, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle the suit, of which $22 million will go to a fund for Trumps presidential library. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump had mentioned the lawsuit during a dinner with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after the election last November, signaling it had to be resolved if Zuckerberg wanted a better relationship with his administration.Similarly, during the campaign, Trump sued Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, alleging 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview of Harris to help her campaign and hurt his. Brendan Carr, his new chief of the FCC, has asked CBS News for an unedited transcript of Harriss answer.Trumps lawsuit is widely believed to be groundless, but Paramount shareholders fear that the Trump administration will interfere with a planned sale of the company unless they appease him. So they are now engaged in settlement talks too.Overall, both of these look like companies responding to shakedowns by the president. Meta has already agreed to pay him off (or, pay his library fund off) to avoid political payback, and Paramount may do the same. All this smacks of practices in corrupt kleptocracies, where payoffs of top officials are necessary for businesses to operate without government crackdowns. How much worse will it get?What comes next?Its worth pausing to note that all this has unfolded in just two weeks, with much of it happening in just the past few days.Trumps team appears to be on a very clear mission to centralize power in the presidency taking it away from career civil servants, Congress, and the courts to the extent they can so Trump will actually be able to wield government power as he sees fit.That would mean hell be far better able to impose policies that career civil servants (and his own appointees) believed would be disastrous, corrupt, or illegal. Hell also be far better able to weaponize the government against his enemies, like hes always wanted.Theres a lot we still dont know about just what Musk is trying to do, or how wide-ranging exactly the DOJ and FBI purge will end up being. But the more limited the pushback against them ends up being, the more empowered the ideologues on Trumps team will feel.So one major question is: Will there eventually be real pushback? Will Musks efforts and the various purges get bogged down in legal challenges? Will the FBI workforce push back against attempts to fire their fellow agents for doing their jobs? Will congressional Republicans and swing-vote senators decide they actually didnt sign up for this? Will there be a major public backlash? Last weeks debacle over an order that seemed to freeze all federal grants shows there is a limit to how far the Trump administration will go after a judge put a hold on the order, Trumps team rescinded it and claimed it was never meant to be so broad. But Trumps team continued to charge ahead on other fronts. And unless the courts stop them, they will likely keep doing so.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: Politics

Xbox fans and PC owners only have two games confirmed for this week, but they're big ones while another leak suggests sports fans will be well looked after, too

If you recognise what game this is from, youre officially cool (Digital Eclipse)An important but extremely obscure role-playing remake has managed to beat the likes of God Of War and Spider-Man 2 at this years Grammys.While video game music had received nods at the Grammy Awards before, it was only in 2023 when a dedicated video game category was introduced, to properly acknowledge the contributions of gaming composers.Assassins Creed Valhalla composer Stephanie Economou took home the first win thanks to the Dawn Of Ragnark expansion, with the 2024 award going to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab.But if you suspected the winner was decided on brand recognition over the actual music, this year proves that theory wrong, since despite several big name nominees, the award went to the most obscure game on the list.The 2025 Grammys took place last night, with the nominees for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media including:Thats two games each from Sony and Ubisoft, and yet they lost to the fifth game on the list: the 2024 remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord by Digital Eclipse.The original Wizardy released in 1981 and while many younger gamers have likely never heard of it, this is the origin point of all modern role-playing video games, and its influences can be felt across the whole genre in both the West and Japan.The remake received an entirely new soundtrack courtesy of Winifred Phillips, a veteran of the industry whose work includes the original 2005 God Of War and the LittleBigPlanet games.More TrendingThis isnt the only award the Wizardy remakes soundtrack has won, but its certainly the most prestigious. The soundtrack is freely available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and YouTube if you fancy giving it a listen.If youre wondering why the nominations list includes games from 2023, thats because the Grammys only took into consideration releases from September 16, 2023 to August 30, 2024.This explains why the nominees are very different compared to the games listed for best soundtrack at The Game Awards 2024 this past December. As a reminder, those games were:Of those five, only Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (which won) and Stellar Blade launched within the eligibility period, but based on the nominees for 2023 and 2024, the Grammys dont appear interested in games made outside the West. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a bunch of awards already; it doesnt need a Grammy too (Square Enix)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.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy