Pre-orders are now live.In case you missed it, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered was released on the Switch at the end of last year.A new physical retail version has now surfaced, and it's being distributed by Aspyr - the same team behind the modern re-release. This will be priced at $29.99 USD or you can grab a deluxe edition for $49.99. Pre-orders are now live on Amazon, with a release scheduled to take place in June 2025.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube796kCapcom last week confirmed the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 would be arriving on the Switch and multiple other platforms in May 2025.Ahead of the launch of this new collection, the first batch of previews and impressions have gone live. Starting with fighting game enthusiast Maximillian Dood, who went hands-on with select titles including Capcom vs. SNK 2, Project Justice and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper during a Capcom event. Here's his summary:"So far from the few ones we played, they all ran really good, but because I had the most experience with something like a Capcom vs. SNK 2 that one to me felt especially refined because of that experience, and I have good news that it feels wonderful."Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube796kWatch on YouTube Digital Trends mentioned how this new collection was a delightful mix:"If you love video game history, Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is the kind of package youll want to own when it launches this year. Its a snapshot of a delightfully experimental era for fighting games, one that the Dreamcast played a major role in. If youre anything like me, with a hunger for oddball games, theres a good chance youll find your next favorite fighting game here."Destin also enjoyed his "first look" preview:"If it's feeling this good now, I'm pretty optimistic with how good it's going to be at launch...this a great collection...getting to play Capcom vs. SNK was realy, really fun."Restart also enjoyed reliving Capcom's earlier games with this latest collection:"I recently had a hands-on preview with Capcom Fighting Collection 2, and I'm pleased to report that, much like the previous compilations the studio has released (Capcom Fighting Collection and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics), this new release comes filled to the brim with quality-of-life changes that maintain the sanctity of the original titles while modernizing the packages to meet our current standards. These games play exactly as you might remember them, and if you never did, it will be easier than ever to jump into them and understand the love they've accrued over the decades." Pre-orders now liveWill you be picking up this collection on Switch? Let us know in the comments.Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesNintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch Games... and the Switch 2!Nintendo Talks About Future Switch Support Ahead Of Switch 2 Launch"We would like to continue releasing new titles""Nintendo Is Probably The Easiest To Scam" - Devs Discuss The Current State Of The eShopThe rise of "eSlop"PlatinumGames Wipes Several Games From Its Website's PortfolioIncluding Star Fox Zero and 'Project G.G.'

Apple and Google have pulled as many as 20 apps from their respective app stores after security researchers found the apps were carrying data-stealing malware for almost a year.Security researchers at Kaspersky said the malware, dubbed SparkCat, has been active since March 2024. Initially, the researchers found the malicious framework within a food delivery app used in the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia but later found the malware on 19 other, unrelated apps, which they say were cumulatively downloaded more than 242,000 times through Googles Play Store.Using code thats designed to capture text visible on the users display known as optical character recognition (OCR) researchers found the malware scanned the image galleries on victims devices for keywords to find recovery phrases for cryptocurrency wallets across various languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.By using the malware to capture a victims recovery phrases, attackers could gain complete control over a victims wallet and steal their funds, the researchers found.The malware could also enable the extraction of personal information from screenshots, such as messages and passwords, the researchers said.Upon receiving the report from the researchers, Apple pulled the compromised apps from the App Store last week, followed by Google.All of the identified apps have been removed from Google Play, and the developers have been banned, Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez told TechCrunch.Googles spokesperson also confirmed that Android users were protected from known versions of this malware through the in-built Google Play Protect security feature.Apple did not respond to requests for comment.Kaspersky spokesperson Rosemarie Gonzales told TechCrunch that while the reported apps were pulled from the official app stores, the companys telemetry data suggested that the malware was also available from other websites and non-official app stores.

By Greg Wehner Fox News Published February 10, 2025 9:52pm EST close Debris from SpaceX Starship streaks through the sky SpaceX's Starship exploded during an unmanned test flight. Debris from the explosion streaked through the sky, leaving people on the ground amazed and confused. (Greg Munch /TMX) The European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday that its Euclid space telescope has detected a rare bright halo of light around a nearby galaxy.Known as an Einstein ring, the halo was captured in photos encircling a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away, which is considered close by cosmic standards. A single light-year is measured at 5.8 trillion miles.While astronomers have known about the galaxy where the phenomenon was captured for over a century, they were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring,Euclid blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 1, 2023, to begin a six-year mission to explore the dark universe.GIANT STELLAR NURSERY REVEALED IN NEW IMAGES FROM ESA'S SPACE TELESCOPE A sea of colorful stars and galaxies appear to swim in the vast blackness of space around a hazy halo at center stage. In the middle of the image, the fuzzy-looking bulb of light in a warm shade of yellow extends around a small bright spot, nestled within a thin light circle that appears to be drawn closely around it. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)But before the space telescope could begin its survey of the universe, scientists had to ensure everything onboard was working properly. During the early phase of testing, which took place in September 2023, Euclid sent images back to Earth.The ESA said the images were deliberately out of focus, but in one of the images, Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri saw what he believed was a very special phenomenon and decided to look at it a bit closer."I look at the data from Euclid as it comes in," Bruno said in a press release from the ESA. "Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing."For most of the population out there, an Einstein Ring is an "extremely rare phenomenon," the ESA said. A thin ring of a perfect circular shape and a piercingly bright white disc in its middle are the protagonists of this image. They stand out against a uniformly colored background of a hazy dark gray. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)When a distant galaxy is observed through a telescope, the light from that galaxy may encounter another galaxy on its way to the telescope. When that happens, the foreground galaxy acts like a magnifying glass, and gravity causes the traveling light rays to bend. When light rays bend, scientists call that gravitational lensing, according to the ESA.When the background galaxy, lensing galaxy and telescope are in perfect alignment, the image appears as a ring, also known as an Einstein Ring.The galaxy, called NGC 6506, is about 590 million light-years away, and this is the first time the ring of light around its center has ever been detected."All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically," Conor ORiordan of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said. "This one is particularly special, because its so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful."POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST SUPERNOVA EVER SEEN The text paragraph explains the principle behind the Einstein rings. (ESA)Einstein rings are based on physicist Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity, which predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so they focus the light like giant lenses, ESA said. The phenomenon allows scientists to sometimes see the light from distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden."I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884," Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid project scientist, said. "The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities."Over the course of the mission, scientists expect Euclid will reveal more about the role of gravity in the Universe, as well as the nature of dark energy and dark matter.Euclid will map over a third of the sky and observe billions of galaxies as far as 10 billion light-years away, ESA said. In doing so, scientists expect Euclid to find around 100,000 more strong lenses, though finding one so cosmically close to home and so spectacular, ESA added, "is astonishing.""Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data we've never had before," ORiordan said.The Associated Press contributed to this report. Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.

A good prompt-a-thon can be worth its weight in gold.gettyIn todays column, I explore the ongoing and expanding use of prompt-a-thon hackathons that serve to enhance both the core fundamentals and advanced techniques underlying prompt engineering and aid users in enhancing said vital skills. I also directly share some of my personal experiences organizing and facilitating prompt-a-thons. In brief, a well-devised and well-executed prompt-a-thon can be a highly effective means of helping users become more proficient at the best practices of prompting and suitably leveraging generative AI and large language models (LLMs).Lets talk about it.This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here).Prompt Engineering As A Learned SkillReaders might recall that I previously posted an in-depth depiction of over fifty prompt engineering techniques and methods, see the link here. There is no doubt that undertaking proficient prompt engineering is a learned skill. That being said, sure, you can always do a lot with seat-of-the-pants prompting too. But the top-notch prompt engineers know that seriously learning a wide array of researched and proven prompting techniques is the best way to get the most out of generative AI and likely garner you some good bucks for your skilled deeds.There are numerous classes covering prompt engineering.Some of the courses are online and involve an automated system that walks you through various steps. Some classes consist of prerecorded videos along with hands-on exercises. Human-led courses are still actively underway, at times done remotely and in other cases occurring in a physical classroom.One special way of garnering prompt engineering skills consists of participating in a prompt-a-thon.When I tell people about prompt-a-thons, their first reaction is often one of modest surprise. What is a prompt-a-thon, they ask curiously, and why would someone attend one?MORE FOR YOUIt is very straightforward, as you will soon learn.Prompt-A-Thon DefinedFirst, Im sure youve indubitably heard about or maybe attended a hackathon.Those are events or activities whereby people come together to write programs to do something in particular for the theme or goal of the hacking endeavor. It is quite common nowadays. Attending can be fun since you get to interact in a place and time to accomplish a usually reasonably sensible mini-project. Lots of satisfaction and personal networking arise. Fond memories are collected.A prompt-a-thon is essentially the same notion, though instead of writing programs you make use of prompts while using generative AI apps. No programming is usually required. It is all about how to best compose prompts. There are good prompts and lousy prompts. There are prompting techniques that research has shown will tip the AI in a direction that can get you better answers.The usual prompt-a-thon does several things all at once.It provides a forum for people to learn about prompt engineering and actively do so in a hands-on mode. A key takeaway is that you end up being able to write more effective and efficient prompts. A secondary or maybe equal footing goal is that you typically focus on some specific realm to hone your proficiency, such as using generative AI for medical uses, financial uses, legal uses, and so on. A third goal is the camaraderie of those you meet and potentially establish collegial friendships that will last throughout your career.Based On A Chosen DomainI would estimate that most of the prompt-a-thons that I know of or have been involved in are usually focused on a chosen domain.Heres how that works.Suppose a prompt-a-thon is put together that entails the healthcare domain. The activity will be a day or two days in length and focus on how to best compose and use prompts when it comes to the healthcare realm. Attendees are going to be professionals in healthcare. They know that AI is coming to their desks soon and want to be ahead of the game. Or they are already experiencing generative AI in the workplace and want to do a better job at leveraging AI.Sometimes a hack-a-thon is undertaken by a company and solely attended by its employees. No outsiders allowed. In other cases, a prompt-a-thon is put on widely and attracts people from all walks of life who are interested in the specific domain.If you use a publicly offered prompt-a-thon, make sure to look beforehand at how they have structured the event. How hands-on will it truly be (sometimes it is all talk, little or no walk)? Who else will likely be attending? Will the instructor be flexible and accommodating or rigid and act as though a schedule must be strictly kept? Are there any hidden fees besides a base registration fee? And so on.Do your due diligence.Recommendation On StructurePrompt-a-thons vary in how they approach the prompt engineering activities that will take place.My preference is that the course be explicitly planned and contain at least these five elements:(1) Overarching Prompting Goals: A list of the specific goals that the prompt-a-thon is designed to meet -- laid out so it is readily apparent where the session will be heading throughout the endeavor.(2) Use Of Mini-Project Cards: Various prepared mini-projects that can be used by the attendees should be made available, though not as a lock-in necessarily. In other words, the mini-projects suggest what kinds of focus attendees ought to have but they arent limited to just the ones provided. If participants dont have something else in mind, they are welcome to use the provided depictions.(3) Curated Datasets Available: The organizer should provide ready-to-go datasets that can be used during the prompt-a-thon. This will be wise since otherwise much of the time could be inadvertently consumed by finding and wrangling with data. The exception would be if the course is about prompts that entail finding and refining data, in which case the curated datasets might not be as crucial.(4) Team And Individual Efforts: I prefer that, if possible, there be team exercises. Ive found that when attendees interact with each other, the experience gets magnified. Im not saying there shouldnt also be individual-only activities, nor am I saying that if team setup is limited you shouldnt attend. All Im suggesting is that teamwork and prompting are synergistic.(5) Plenty Of Materials And Mentoring: There should be workbooks and guides provided to the attendees. Ive attended a prompt-a-thon where the instructor did everything verbally and on the fly. I dont recommend that approach and urge that in-hand materials be provided. Also, some courses have a facilitator who is not an expert in prompting and just tells the attendees to do this or that as based on the guidebook. Sad face. I believe there ought to be an instructor who serves in a mentoring capacity.Not all prompt-a-thons will have those five elements. Dont assume that they do. There are ad hoc prompt-a-thons, which, if you know thats what you are getting into, well, fine, but otherwise my suggestion is to ensure that the activity is planned and hopefully will get carried out according to the plan.Example In HealthcareTo illustrate how a prompt-a-thon often proceeds, assume that there is a healthcare-oriented prompt-a-thon coming up that catches your eye (this is going to be roughly the same as if it was a finance one, legal one, etc.).Lets start with the stated goal of the prompt-a-thon:This prompt-a-thon is for healthcare practitioners who are using or going to use generative AI while on the job in a healthcare practice. You will learn to devise suitable prompts to generate medical summaries and patient notices. Ins and outs will be covered. You will be doing prompting during the prompt-a-thon to make use of the best practices described. Teams of participants will be assembled to undertake a healthcare mini-project. Open time will be available to pursue your specific interests related to the specific needs of the healthcare organization that you are employed by.The organizer noted too that data will be available:Curated datasets of fake healthcare data will be provided for use during the prompt-a-thon. The data will be highly realistic and similar to the nature of data you would find in actual practice. The prompting will encompass dealing with data that is at times fragmented, contains errors, and has other real-world issues.A sample mini-project in this context might be this:Mini-project Card: Doctor and Patient Communications. You are to create and then test out prompts that will use the curated dataset to generate summaries of doctor-patient transcripts. The aim is to devise proficient prompts that produce patient summaries of a kind that reduce medical jargon and provide clarity for the patient. An additional aim is to provide summaries for the medical doctor that contain needed medical jargon and retain the essence of the interactions but that provides a condensed version to minimize the time required by the doctor to sufficiently grasp what the medical session entailed.As an aside, for my coverage on how to use generative AI to generate summaries, including a medical healthcare example, see the link here.Prompt-A-Thon As Startup InstigatorA few final comments and then Ill wrap up.Think further for a moment about traditional hackathons.There is a general expectation that if you attend a hackathon, it is usually due to a keen interest in potentially doing a startup business. You go there with a kernel of an idea and hope to find programmers who can turn this into a quick prototype. Or you are a programmer who doesnt have a clear idea of what to develop but wants to find others who have business ideas, and you can apply your software development acumen to building.That isnt quite the same for prompt-a-thons.In my experience, most prompt-a-thons involve people who want to know more about prompting and see what else they can get generative AI to accomplish. This might lead to some startup ideas, possibly. This is rarer, but still possible.Remember too that another growing use of generative AI is to have the AI generate code. In that sense, if you were to attend a hackathon and from scratch develop code for a startup prototype, you can potentially do the same via the use of prompting. Make sure to check beforehand if the prompt-a-thon is supportive of that angle. If they arent, it would be an uphill battle to try and turn the endeavor in that direction.Lets close things with a mindful quote. Acclaimed American author, Vernon Howard, famously said this: Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.Go into a prompt-a-thon with your eyes wide open and your mind primed to learn. I can almost guarantee youll get something useful out of the experience and pat yourself on the back for having successfully undertaken a prompt-a-thon.

OpenAIs logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of images of Sam Altman, left, and Elon Musk.Muhammed Selim KorkutataAnadolu/Getty ImagesBy Matt O'Brien / APUpdated: February 10, 2025 10:30 PM EST | Originally published: February 10, 2025 9:00 PM ESTA group of investors led by Elon Musk is offering about $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI, escalating a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found a decade ago.Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musks attorney Marc Toberoff.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the unsolicited bid on Musks social platform X, saying, no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022.Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startups direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab that would benefit the public good by safely building better-than-human AI. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, Toberoff has said.The sudden success of ChatGPT two years ago brought worldwide fame and a new revenue stream to OpenAI and also heightened the internal battles over the future of the organization and the advanced AI it was trying to develop. Its nonprofit board fired Altman in late 2023. He came back days later with a new board.Now a fast-growing business still controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission, OpenAI last year announced plans to formally change its corporate structure. But such changes are complicated. Tax law requires money or assets donated to a tax-exempt organization to remain within the charitable sector.If the initial organization becomes a for-profit, generally, a conversion is needed where the for-profit pays the fair market value of the assets to another charitable organization. Even if the nonprofit OpenAI continues to exist in some way, some experts argue it would have to be paid fair market value for any assets that get transferred to its for-profit subsidiaries.Lawyers for OpenAI and Musk faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed Musks request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hasnt yet ruled on Musks request but in the courtroom said it was a stretch for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesnt intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition.But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldnt stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. Well find out. Hell sit on the stand, she said.Along with Musk and xAI, others backing the bid announced Monday include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management and Eight Partners VC.Toberoff said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAIs current board are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.Musks attorney also shared a letter he sent in early January to the attorneys general of California, where OpenAI operates, and Delaware, where it is incorporated.Since both state offices must ensure any such transactional process relating to OpenAIs charitable assets provides at least fair market value to protect the publics beneficial interest, we assume you will provide a process for competitive bidding to actually determine that fair market value, Toberoff wrote, asking for more information on the terms and timing of that bidding process.OpenAI and TIME have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access TIMEs archives.More Must-Reads from TIMEInside Elon Musks War on WashingtonIntroducing the 2025 ClosersColman Domingo Leads With Radical LoveWhy, Exactly, Is Alcohol So Bad for You?The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder11 New Books to Read in FebruaryHow to Get Better at Doing Things AloneColumn: Trumps Trans Military Ban Betrays Our TroopsContact us at letters@time.com

HuluFor most of the last few years, Ben Stiller has been content to stay behind the camera and focus on directing and executive producing Severance for Apple TV+. But now, Stiller may be set to headline his first TV series since The Ben Stiller Show in 1992.Deadline is reporting that Stiller has signed on to star in The Band, a new comedy/drama that will focus on the music industry. Stiller will have the leading role as Oscar, a Simon Cowell-like character who is described as a talent mogul beset by scandal who is tasked with forming a new act in order to save his career and perhaps his soul. The band in question is said to be a boy band, much like One Direction, which was formed by Cowell.Recommended VideosBecause The Band is still in development, HBO hasnt placed a series order yet. So there is still a chance that the project wont be aired. But signing Stiller as both a star and an executive producer through his production studio Red Hour Films can be taken as a sign that HBO is serious about seeing this project through to fruition.Please enable Javascript to view this contentSarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers the team behind TBS comedy series Search Party co-created The Band and they will serve as executive producers and showrunners. Media Res, which produces The Morning Show and Severance for Apple TV+ with Red Hour, will also produce The Band.At the moment, Stiller is the only actor known to be attached to The Band. If the show goes forward, it will be available on HBO and Max at some point in the future.Editors Recommendations

Apple has released a fresh software update for iPhones and iPads to plug a critical flaw that could allow bad actors to extract data even from a locked device. The company says if granted physical access, an attacker could break past the safety of USB Restricted Mode on the target iPhone or iPad.The aforementioned guardrail prevents USB accessories from pulling data from an iPhone that has been sitting in a locked state for over an hour. It seems there was an authorization flaw within Apples Accessibility framework that could allow an attacker to disable the USB Restricted Mode safety net.Recommended VideosUpdate your iPhones.. again, says Bill Marxzak, the security expert who discovered the vulnerability, which Apple confirms to have been exploited. The iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1 updates are now rolling out globally, and you can install them by following this path: Settings > General > Software update.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe vulnerability was reported by an expert hailing from Citizen Lab at The University of Torontos Munk School. And it seems the weakness has been exploited in the wild, but the specific details have not been revealed in typical Apple fashion.Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals, Apple says in its release notes. Following is a list of devices that are eligible for the update:iPhone XS and lateriPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and lateriPad Air 3rd generation and lateriPad 7th generation and lateriPad mini 5th generation and laterUpdate your iPhones.. again! iOS 18.3.1 out today with a fix for an ITW USB restricted mode bypass (via Accessibility) https://t.co/jcrsab7RGu pic.twitter.com/ER42QQcsLj Bill Marczak (@billmarczak) February 10, 2025Apple introduced USB Restricted Mode roughly seven years ago. This feature fundamentally blocks an external USB device from establishing a data connection with an iPhone. It also serves as a crucial line of defense against devices such as those offered by Cellebrite, which are often used by law enforcement agencies to brute-force their way into a locked iPhone and extract data.In November, Apple strengthened the safety guardrails with an inactivity reboot system that was quietly introduced with the iOS 18.1 update. Essentially, it assesses the inactivity status of a device by inserting an automatic reboot protocol for iPhones that have not been unlocked in a while.That rebooting is the key to the security magic. As soon as in iPhone restarts, it enters a Before First Unlock (BFU) state, which encrypts files stored on the device. Only after the device is unlocked, a decryption key is generated, which eventually allows access to the local data.Even Cellebrite, which has long been a favorite of law enforcement agencies for cracking open locked devices, warns investigators that if they seize a device, they should keep it powered on so that meaningful data extraction is possible.Editors Recommendations

Wounded Russian troops are being sent to North Korean medical facilities, per a Russian official.Moscow's ambassador to Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, said the deal involved "hundreds" of troops.War analysts said it could give North Korea an opportunity to learn even more from the Ukraine war.Russia is sending soldiers who were wounded in the Ukraine war to recuperate in North Korea, its ambassador to Pyongyang told state media.The comment from Alexander Matsegora, Moscow's diplomat to North Korea for over a decade, was part of a wide-ranging interview about cross-border relations that state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on Monday."A clear example of such a brotherly attitude is the rehabilitation of hundreds of wounded soldiers of the SVO in Korean sanatoriums and hospitals," he said. "SVO" is an abbreviation used by the Kremlin to describe the war in Ukraine as a "special military operation."Matsegora said North Korea had refused compensation from Moscow."Everything related to staying in the DPRK, all this was absolutely free," he said.Matsegora said there was a "warm attitude toward Russians" in North Korea and mentioned several joint student and internship programs in the works between the two countries.His remarks are yet another sign of how the strengthening alliance between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is playing out on the war front and beyond.Kim is estimated to have sent about 11,000 to 12,000 of his elite troops to fight against Ukraine, prompting concerns in the West that Pyongyang's involvement would help its soldiers gain valuable combat experience.Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote that Russia sending wounded troops to North Korea could boost what Pyongyang can learn."The arrival of combat-experienced Russian soldiers, particularly if they include officers or non-commissioned officers, to North Korea may allow the Russian military to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while ostensibly recuperating," they wrote.Matsegora also told state media that professors from Pyongyang would be stationed in major Russian cities such as Moscow, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok for a "long period of time." There, they would teach the Korean language and teach joint classes, he said.ISW analysts said this indicates that Russia hopes to set the stage for further North Korean assistance in the war, or at least for help with its sanctioned wartime economy."The Kremlin may be setting informational conditions to justify an influx of North Korean citizens arriving in Russia to join either the Russian workforce or the Russian military," the ISW analysts wrote.Matsegora's comments also come as Russia's Federal Security Service reported that the number of North Koreans entering Russia for work in 2024 had surged to over 13,000 crossings. That's a 12-fold increase compared to 2023.Still, the exponential jump could also be due to a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, over 21,000 North Koreans were recorded traveling to Russia for work.Seoul's National Intelligence Service said on Sunday that many of the North Korean workers sent to Russia last year were dispatched to construction sites.Per the South Korean agency, the move has helped to fill a worker shortage in Russia as the Kremlin's push to recruit more soldiers is draining the country's young workforce.The NIS further accused Pyongyang and Moscow of using student visas to "dispatch workers without the international community's knowledge."The international community imposes a wide range of sanctions on North Korea, while the West has been actively trying to sanction key Russian sectors such as energy, finance, and defense due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Some Meta workers impacted by Monday's job cuts were surprised since they said they had strong track records.Meta's layoffs targeted 5% of low performers. Some higher-rated staff said they were "blindsided."Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing to streamline the company's workforce.Several Meta employees who said they received positive performance ratings in their mid-year reviews last year had their jobs cut Monday, as the company let go of nearly 4,000 workers in its latest round of job reductions.Business Insider spoke to eight terminated employees, who said they received "At or Above Expectations" ratings the middle tier in Meta's three-level mid-year review system in their 2024 assessments. These employees said they were surprised to learn their ratings had been downgraded to "Meets Most," one of the lower tiers in Meta's year-end performance system that refers to meeting most, but not all, expectations and could make them eligible for Monday's cuts. They asked to be anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss internal company matters.The job cuts stem from Meta's push to let go of roughly 5% of its lowest-performing employees, according to internal guidance sent to managers in January. While Meta framed these cuts as targeting underperforming workers, internal guidance sent last month by Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people experience, and viewed by BI, allowed managers to include employees from higher performance tiers if they couldn't meet their reduction targets from lower-rated employees alone.Some employees said they were caught off guard by their inclusion in the cuts, as this guidance had previously only been shared with managers, not with the broader workforce."When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators of the last six months of performance problems," one affected employee told BI.Meta began its year-end performance review process for 2024 in December, although most employees wouldn't learn their final ratings until the coming weeks.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing to streamline Meta's workforce as the company pours billions into artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The cuts could become an annual event as Meta aims to regularly trim what it considers its lowest performers. Meanwhile, Meta plans to ramp up the hiring of machine learning engineers to work on AI.Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.Meta downgraded some employees' ratingsMultiple employees told BI that they felt frustrated that Meta had publicly framed the layoffs as targeting consistently low performers when some of those affected had previously received strong performance reviews.In posts on Workplace, Meta's internal communications platform, several laid-off employees shared their performance histories, according to screenshots viewed by BI. One employee who said they were "unexpectedly" terminated posted documentation showing they had consistently met or exceeded expectations for four years before being downgraded to "Meets Most" in late 2024. Another employee reported being cut shortly after returning from parental leave, despite receiving an "At or Above Expectations" rating in early 2024."I am super confused how I got terminated," they wrote. "I still think this is an error."The sudden downgrade in performance ratings left many employees feeling misrepresented by Meta's public stance on the layoffs. Some employees worried that being branded as a "low performer" publicly could harm future employment prospects."The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they're cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs," another employee told BI. "People need to know we're not underperformers.""I would certainly challenge Meta's narrative about cutting only low performers," another affected employee said. "I have a really, really difficult time believing I was a low performer based on past feedback I was given by my manager."Another employee said their manager had given them no indication that their job was at risk."We were told by leadership that if we would be impacted by this then we would already be expecting it, based on conversations our managers should have been having with us in our weekly one-on-ones," one former employee said. "But I was completely blindsided by this. My manager had been telling me that I have been doing great and did not provide any areas to be worked on. My manager even said that I would be fine and not impacted."Likewise, another worker who received an "Exceeds Expectations" rating in their mid-year review said they were surprised to be "dropped two ratings" to "Meets Most" without explanation."We are not even able to see the feedback that our manager wrote for us," they said.If you're a current or former Meta employee, or have an insight to share about the company, contact Pranav Dixit from a nonwork device securely on Signal at or email him at .Reach Jyoti Mann via email at or via Signal at jyotimann.11. Get in touch with Hugh Langley at hlangley@businessinsider.com or reach him on Signal at hughlangley.01