In 2023, the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) released a social media and youth mental health advisory, noting that a staggering 95% of teenagers, between 13 and 17 years of age, report using social media almost constantly.People with frequent and problematic social media use can experience changes in brain structure similar to changes seen in individuals with substance use or gambling addiction, said the detailed report, citing research.Recommended VideosA radical app might offer some reprieve, by literally coaxing users into touching some grass and taking a snapshot as evidence, before the problematic apps are unlocked. The app, called Touch Grass: Reduce Screentime, is the brainchild of Rhys Kentish, a software engineer at UK-based Brightec.BrightecSet for a release on March 14, the app is now up for pre-downloads on the App Store. The apps premise is straightforward. You find out the digital dopamine apps that send you into a doom-scrolling loop, and hotlist them in the app.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe next time you want to access those apps, you go out, touch grass, and capture the deed with your phones camera. The on-board computer vision system (the same tech that also powers everything from Google Lens to self-driving cars) will then verify if you actually went out and touched grass, before the apps are unlocked.The Touch Grass app is not absolutely rigid in its take. Users will get a few skips per month, and they can customize the unlock duration to best suit their digital habits. The developer warns that the app will accept real grass only.I am eager to test this aspect, and will keep an eye on social media for all the fun hacks.App Store / AppleThe apps listing says it aims to tackle phone addiction, help users cultivate better digital habits, and find a healthy balance between mindful usage of tech and real-life experiences.Another neat part is that the app will let users purchase skip, and half the proceeds from these in-app purchases will go towards rewilding projects in the UK. Essentially, youre saving yourself from yet another digital spiral, and even if you cave in, nature gets the benefit of your slacking ways.In the meanwhile, you can head over to the Screen Time dashboard on your iPhone to keep a tab on your smartphone activity, limit usage time, enable the Downtime feature, and activate parental controls, too. A similar set of tools are available within the Digital Wellbeing dashboard for Android smartphone users, as well.The overarching idea is to keep your screen exposure in check. According to research published in the PNAS NEXUS journal earlier this year, cutting down on daily screen time worked even better than anti-depressants. It also helped users improve their self-control, social connections, spend more time in the real work, and log better sleep.Editors Recommendations

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra already has us thrilled about its distinct design and top-tier camera skills. While the Ultra wont come cheap, Xiaomi could be looking to sweeten the deal by offering free access to Google Geminis premium tier.The Xiaomi 15 Ultra, along with the other phones in the series, could join other premium Android devices that get complimentary access to Gemini Advanced, the paid tier of Googles AI chatbot. Android Authority discovered code that references Xiaomi 15 along with the other handful of Android devices that get the subscription, which is otherwise $20 a month, for free.Recommended VideosCurrently, the promotional offer is valid for the Google Pixel 9 series, Motorola Razr and Razr Plus (2024), and the Galaxy S25 series. These devices get complimentary access to Gemini Advanced, which unlocks Gemini 2.0 Pro Googles more powerful model, deep research functionality, and 2TB of Google One cloud storage.XiaomiFor those who might be compelled to buy the Xiaomi 15 Ultra for its camera, the freebie would be an added advantage. As part of the Google One storage, owners will be able to access additional AI editing features in the Google Photos app.Please enable Javascript to view this contentGoogles intent behind bundling a premium subscription with a premium phone is clear. It wishes for buyers to be enticed by the richer capabilities of the more capable AI agent, so they cant return to the free version with relatively limited skills.Beyond the basic features, we could witness Google partnering with Xiaomi for a deeper AI integration, where Geminis features also extend to Xiaomis system apps, for upscaling or editing photos and videos.We wouldnt have to wait long to learn about the details as the company has already confirmed a global announcement on March 2nd, on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025.Ahead of the launch, Xiaomi has also confirmed details about the Ultra camera, which is tuned in partnership with camera brand Leica. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra is set to feature a 200MP sensor for its telephoto camera along with a 1-inch sensor for the primary shooter.Editors Recommendations

Samuel Greengard, Contributing ReporterFebruary 25, 20255 Min ReadDenys Rudyi via Alamy StockOver the last decade, software as a service (SaaS) has reshaped the face of business. Low-cost and highly flexible applications have become the norm, and more agile and scalable IT frameworks have followed. Today, organizations large and small use powerful software that would have once been out of reach.Now, as artificial intelligence takes hold, the concept is evolving. Service as software is rapidly taking shape. It promises to add powerful capabilities. Service as software uses the core principles of both SaaS and business process outsourcing (BPO) delivery models. It blends them into a new, AI-powered framework, explains Fred Giron, senior research director at Forrester Research.Service as software, also referred to as SaaS 2.0, goes beyond layering AI atop existing applications. It centers on the concept of automating business processes through intelligent APIs and autonomous services. The framework aims to eliminate human input and involvement through AI agents that act and react to conditions based on events, behavioral changes, and feedback.The result is autonomous software. Traditional SaaS provides cloud-based tools where staff still do the work. Service as software flips that script. Instead of having staff do the work, you're making calls to an API or using software that does the work for you, says Mark Strefford, founder of TimelapseAI, a UK-based consulting firm.Related:The approach is particularly promising for handling niche, well-defined processes. This includes financial reviews, legal analysis, IT reporting, marketing and public relations reviews, and general research. Although service as software remains in its infancy -- and there are caveats about deploying it -- its likely to introduce further change to the enterprise. Giron believes that it could surpass the SaaS revolution.Beyond BotsDialing up productivity is at the foundation of any successful business. Yet, despite waves of software automation and increasingly sophisticated AI tools, manual processes still flourish within most organizations. Service as software aims to fill critical gaps by expanding the concept of cloud-based platform delivery.A growing number of vendors are stepping into the service as software space. The list includes Klarna, Moonhub, Thoughtful Automation, Crescendo AI, Converzai, Adept and Inflection AI. These firms typically provide pre-engineered agents designed to handle discreet tasks. Some include voice-enabled interfaces and interactions.Early adopters are already using these tools to tackle niche tasks that typically revolve around document processing, medical transcription, and automated invoice processing, Strefford says. These use cases frequently harness unstructured data that resides in documents, messages, images, and various types of forms and build it into structured, actionable information.Related:In other words, service as software does the work itself rather than providing tools for humans. It goes beyond simply scanning data and looking for matches or patterns. It determines what to do with the information, Strefford explains.For example, AI-driven accounting software can automatically categorize transactions, file taxes, and monitor compliance. AI-powered marketing and sales can identify leads, craft personalized messages, and autonomously schedule calls or demos with interested prospects. AI-enabled content creation can draft market research reports, legal summaries, or product descriptions based on raw data.SaaS 2.0 is possible because AI systems have advanced and converged in recent years. Although generative AI and large language models have grabbed recent headlines, machine learning and deep learning have also advanced. LLMs have enabled service as software, says Strefford, but traditional machine learning algorithms are still massively valuable, especially for predictive analytics and workflow optimization.Related:Not surprisingly, combining these separate AI components produces a sum greater than the individual parts. As Giron explains, AI continuously analyzes interactions, learns from successes and failures, and refines its performance over time. This continuous learning loop ensures that service delivery becomes more intelligent, personalized, and effective.Smarter AIA key benefit of a service as software model is that it can greatly simplify AI adoption -- while automating 50 to 70% or more of interactions, Giron says. Rather than building complex AI models in-house, an organization can turn to a pre-packaged solution that delivers pre-designed AI-driven workflows. As with conventional SaaS, updates and patches occur continuously.The result is an ability to access new features and capabilities as the service as software provider introduces them. This creates a continuous learning and optimization loop that promotes a more intelligent, personalized, and effective work model, Giron says. SaaS 2.0 also supports a strategic framework that prioritizes measurable business outcomes and performance metrics.Nevertheless, human oversight remains vital -- at least for now. Strefford promotes a three-tiered model, particularly as organizations become acquainted with the space and launch pilot projects. He recommends fully automating low-risk tasks; using human-AI collaboration for medium-risk activities; and maintaining human-led processes for high-value or high-risk operations.It all comes down to trust, Strefford states. You have to understand what the possible costs and repercussions are if a system makes an incorrect prediction or takes an incorrect action? Not surprisingly, these considerations vary by organization and industry, and business and IT leaders should factor in regulatory requirements, board confidence, geopolitical events, and overall risk tolerance.CIOs and IT leaders should start small and iterate, experts say. As an organization gains confidence and trust, it can expand the autonomy of a SaaS 2.0 component. More AI initiatives have failed from starting too big than too small, Strefford notes. Consequently, its critical to understand the entire workflow, build in oversight and protections, establish measurement and validation tools, and stay focused on outcomes.A few factors can make or break an initiative, Giron says. Data quality and the ability to integrate across systems is crucial. A framework for standardization is critical. This includes cleaning, standardizing, and preparing legacy data. Data labeling and annotation can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive task. It can demand specialized expertise and tools, he says. At the same time, its important to identify and address potential biases in data and focus on security and regulatory risks.Over the next few years, Giron says that service as software will reach into contact centers, IT services, human resources, supply chain, and other operational domains where service quality and cost efficiency matter. The business world, he says, will fully embrace SaaS 2.0. It will lead to managed services that arent merely offshored or outsourced but, instead, are continuously optimized, AI-infused, and laser-focused on business results.About the AuthorSamuel GreengardContributing ReporterSamuel Greengard writes about business, technology, and cybersecurity for numerous magazines and websites. He is author of the books "The Internet of Things" and "Virtual Reality" (MIT Press).See more from Samuel GreengardNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

To the best of my knowledge, I am not a robot. And yet, like other humans who spend too much time on the internet, Im routinely asked to prove this fact by clicking on crosswalks and motorcycles in photos, deciphering distorted numbers and letters, and checking little white boxes that affirm my non-robot status. These so-called captchas, or completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart, are supposed to help prevent spam and data scraping, although it now appears that bots are better at solving them than humans. Go figure. Thankfully, the difference between humans and machines in the real world is much easier to discern, at least for now. One of the more robust differentiators involves our unique skill sets. While machines tend to excel at things adults find difficultplaying world-champion-level chess, say, or multiplying really big numbersthey find it difficult (or impossible) to accomplish the stuff a five-year-old can do with ease, such as catching a ball or walking around a room without bumping into things. This discrepancy between the relative ease of teaching a machine abstract thinking and the difficulty of teaching it basic sensory, social, and motor skills is whats known as Moravecs paradox. Named after an observation the roboticist Hans Moravec made back in the late 1980s, the paradox states that whats hard for humans (math, logic, scientific reasoning) is easy for machines, and whats hard for machines (tying shoelaces, reading emotions, having a conversation) is easy for humans. In her latest book, Robots and the People Who Love Them: Holding On to Our Humanity in an Age of Social Robots, science writer Eve Herold argues that thanks to new approaches in machine learning and continued advances in AI, were finally starting to unravel this paradox. As a result, a new era of personal and social robots is about to unfold, she saysone that will force us to reimagine the nature of everything from friendship and love to work, health care, and home life. Robots and the People Who Love Them: Holding On to Our Humanity in an Age of Social RobotsEve HeroldST. MARTINS PRESS, 2024 To give readers a sense of what this brave new world of social robots will look like, Herold points us toward Pepper, a doe-eyed humanoid robot thats made by the Japanese company SoftBank. Robots like Pepper will soon make themselves indispensable because of their unique, highly personalized relationships with us, Herold writes, before describing with press-release-like zeal how this chest-high companion can effortlessly read our expressions and emotional states and respond appropriately in its own childlike voice. If Pepper sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because it was relentlessly hyped as the worlds first emotional robot in the years following its 2014 introduction. That abruptly stopped in 2021, however, when SoftBank pulled the plug on Pepper production because of lack of demand andprobably not unrelatedlythe $2,000 androids general incompetence. Books can obviously take a long time to write, and a lot can change while youre writing them. But its hard to reconcile this particular oversight with the fact that Pepper was canned some three years before the books publication. Positioning a defunct product that nobody seems to have liked or bought as part of some vanguard for a new social-robot revolution doesnt inspire confidence. Herold might respond by pointing out that her books focus is less on the robots themselves than on what we humans will bring to the new social relationships we forge with them. Fair enough. But while she dutifully unpacks our penchant for anthropomorphizing and walks readers through some rudimentary research on deep learning and the uncanny valley, Herolds conclusions about human nature and psychology often seem either oversimplified or divorced from the evidence she provides. For someone who says that the only way to write about the future is with a high degree of humility, there are also an unusually large number of deeply questionable assertions (So far, the trust weve placed in algorithms has been, on balance, well placed ) and sweeping predictions (Theres no doubt some version of a companion robot will be coming soon to homes throughout the industrialized world). Early on in the book, Herold reminds readers that science writing that attempts to envision the future often says much more about the time it was written than it says about the future world. In this respect, Robots and the People Who Love Them is indeed quite revealing. Among other things, the book reflects the way we tend to reduce discussions of technological impacts into binary terms (Itll be amazing/Itll be terrible); the shrugging acquiescence with which we seem to regard undesirable outcomes; the readiness of science and technology writers to succumb to industry hype; and the disturbing extent to which the logic and values of machines (speed, efficiency) have already been adopted by humans. Its probably not one of Herolds intended takeaways, but if the book demonstrates anything, its not that robots are becoming more like us; its that were becoming more like them. Vox ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking MachinesSarah A. BellMIT PRESS, 2024 For a more rigorous look at one of the pillars of human social expressionand, specifically, how weve tried to transfer it to machinesSarah A. Bells Vox ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking Machines offers a compelling and insightful history of voice synthesis during the 20th century. Bell, a writer and professor at Michigan Technological University, is interested in how we try to digitally reproduce different expressions of human embodiment, be it speech, emotions, or visual identities. As she points out early on in the book, understanding this process often means understanding the ways in which engineers (almost universally male ones) have decided to measure and quantify aspects of our bodies. The story begins at the epicenter for many of the centurys most important technological breakthroughs: Bell Labs. By the 1930s, researchers there were already thinking about human speech as a type of signal or, as the head of the acoustics research department put it years later, specialized acoustic code. One of those engineers, Homer Dudley, likened the tongue to a telegraph tapper, seeing it as merely an instrument inside our mouths that modulated the carrier wave emanating from the glottis. In the same way that Morse code broke down writing into parts for later reassembly, Dudley believed, speech soundsand everything else that makes up the richness of human vocal expressioncould similarly be compressed, or reduced to pulses. According to Bell, researchers like Dudley laid the groundwork for pretty much all the voice synthesis work that has come since, embedding their assumptions about the mechanical nature of the human voice in all the technologies that would follow. One of the first and most famous examples of Dudleys work was the Voder, or Voice Demonstrator. Debuting at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York, it was basically a small voice organ that was operated by Voderettes, women who went through a year of training to master all the speech sounds the machine could make by manipulating 10 keys, a wrist plate, and a pedal. Debuting at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York, the Voder was a small voice organ operated by Voderettes, women trained to master the machines speech soundsCOLLECTIONS OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY The talking-machine demonstrations, although highly choreographed, were a hit with visitors and the pressso much so that people seemed willing to attribute far more understanding and autonomy to the Voder than was warranted. Even though the Voderette was in full view during the entire demonstration, the press usually mentioned the woman responsible for making the sounds only in passing, if at all. Instead, the Voder was anthropomorphized and granted a high degree of agency. He hasnt any mouth, lungs, or larynxbut he talks a blue streak, wrote Popular Science. From the Voder and Elektro the Moto-Man to Speak & Spell and Perfect Paul to Alexa and Siri, Vox ex Machina showcases both the products of voice synthesis and the underlying technologies that made them possible. Its a fascinating tour, particularly when Bell focuses on the ways in which the publics reaction to these talking machines presaged its reaction to the thinking ones that would emerge decades later. While the practice of describing humans with machine metaphors and machines with human metaphors dates back centuries, the ability of machines to simulate human speech (however poorly) gave machinic personification a new inflection, writes Bell. In other words, the more machines could speak and think, the more we started to think of ourselves as machines. Indeed, one cant help but see striking parallels to whats happening with todays artificial intelligencespecifically, our willingness to reduce or minimize what makes us human to better conform to whatever intelligent attribute a product may be demonstrating. Sam Altmans response to the fact that LLMs are just really good word calculators? i am a stochastic parrot, and so r u. Forget about losing jobs to automation. Remarkably, the reality is that humans steal the jobs of robots. The Voder may have been one of the first crude attempts at speech synthesis, but the disconnect between the way it worked (with a lot of human training and labor) and the way the public and press perceived it (as a more or less autonomous machine with its own voice) foreshadowed a problem we still face today. In Waiting for Robots: The Hired Hands of Automation, Antonio A. Casilli argues that despite claims to the contrary, human input remains a crucial component of all modern automation and artificial-intelligence tools, regardless of their sophistication. The difference is that instead of this role being obviousas was the case with the Voderettesits now hidden, and usually on purpose. Waiting for Robots: The Hired Hands of AutomationAntonio A. CasilliUNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2024 Casilli is a sociology professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris who studies the unseen and unacknowledged digital labor that undergirds many of todays social media platforms, microtask sites, and on-demand services. Rather than viewing automation and AI as destroyers of human jobs, he makes a convincing case that they merely result in the further atomization of work, fracturing it into smaller, more meaningless, more demeaning tasks for many of us. Forget about losing jobs to automation, he writes. Remarkably, the reality is that humans steal the jobs of robots. Whether its Amazons Mechanical Turk, a service for recruiting hundreds of thousands of micro-taskers to perform video-filtering and image-tagging tasks that machines cant do, or the perpetual human supervision and reinforcement required for automated learning and AI training, Casilli gives readers plenty of examples of how human labor (much of it coming from Asian, Latin American, and African countries) props upor, in some cases, pretends to actually beintelligent systems and products. Ultimately, Casilli is less concerned that robots will replace white-collar workers, and more worried that thousands of lower-paid or unpaid digital workers will. As he points out, we are already unwittingly being recruited by companies to collectively perform millions of hours of free work every year. Take the aforementioned captchas: Google, which owns and deploys one of the most popular versions of the service (ReCAPTCHA and No CAPTCHA), has been using this digital labor for more than a decade. The results help detect house numbers to improve Google Street View, digitize texts for Google Books, and train its computer vision algorithms to detect locations and reconstruct scenes, enhancing Google Images and improving the performance of Waymos self-driving cars. The irony here is that a service that is supposed to distinguish humans from robots is actually making humans work to produce more robots, Casilli writes. While all the hype and hyperbole surrounding todays AI tools can feel unprecedented, Casilli reminds readers that such rhetoric isnt really new at all. Robots, automation, and various intelligent systems have been just on the verge of taking over all aspects of our work lives and cultural output for decades now. In the end, artificial intelligence is a technological process that isnt actually artificial, he says. Peer behind the curtains of smooth and seamless efficiency, and its humans all the way down. Bryan Gardiner is a writer based in Oakland, California.

Home Depot beat Wall Street revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter of 2024.The retailer said, however, that customers are still putting off major renovation projects.That's due to higher interest rates in recent years, its CEO and CFO said.Home Depot beat Wall Street estimates in the fourth quarter of 2024, but said that customers were still putting off bigger home improvement projects amid higher interest rates.Revenue climbed 14% compared to the same period in 2023. On a comparable sales basis, a metric that strips out new store openings and other one-off events, revenue was up by 0.8% globally and 1.3% in the US.The Atlanta-headquartered firm reported revenue of $39.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2024. Analysts had forecast revenue of $39.2 billion.CEO Ted Decker put the company's better-than-expected revenue down to "greater engagement" in home improvement spending. However, he noted that Home Depot was seeing "ongoing pressure" on business related to larger-scale home renovations."A higher interest rate environment" had "impacted home improvement demand," Decker added.In an interview with CNBC, CFO Richard McPhail said the company expects demand to return as higher rates become the "new normal.""Home improvement always persists, and so the question, I think, will be around the mindset of whether long-term rates have gotten to a new normal," McPhail said.The Federal Reserve's key interest rate, which sets a general baseline for all US interest rates, reached 5.5% between July 2023 and August 2024. Though it has been cut to 4.5% in recent months, it remains elevated compared to the near-zero rates seen in the US since the 2008 financial crisis.While Home Depot reported marginally better-than-expected revenues, its 2025 forecasts fell short of investor expectations. The company said it expected sales growth of 2.8% and comparable sales growth of 1%, compared to analyst forecasts of 3.3% and 1.9% growth, respectively.Shares dropped in premarket trading on lower-than-expected growth forecasts. They fell as much as 3.8% but recovered a little, and as of around 7:30 a.m. ET, they were set to open down around 0.6%.Home Depot said it expects an operating margin of roughly 33% in 2025. The home improvement retailer also announced plans to open 13 new stores.

Tesla's European sales plunged in January, falling 45% compared with the same month in 2024.The decline came despite a rise in EV sales in Europe, with Tesla falling behind China's SAIC Motor.Elon Musk has waded into European politics in recent months, backing far right-wing German party AfD.Tesla sales in Europe plunged in January, falling 45% compared with the same month last year, while overall sales of electric vehicles increased.Elon Musk's automaker sold 9,945 vehicles last month in the European Union and UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, figures from European Automotive Manufacturers' Association showed. There were 18,161 sales in January 2024.In December Tesla sold 44,697 vehicles across the same markets. Tesla had a 1% market share in January, down from 1.8% in the same month last year. That decline put it behind China's SAIC Motor, whose sales grew 37% to nearly 17,000 vehicles in January under brands including MG. The company had a 2.3% market share, up from 1.7%. It sells petrol and hybrid cars as well as EVs. Chinese EV giant BYD also outsold Tesla in the UK for the first time in January, according to separate industry data, as China's EV makers continue to put Musk's company under pressure.Tesla, which recorded its first annual fall in sales last year, is changing over assembly lines at its factory near Berlin as it prepares to start building the revamped Model Y this year.Overall sales of battery electric vehicles jumped 34% to 124,341 in Europe last month, giving the category a 15% market share, up from 10.9% in January 2024.Tesla's declines follow Musk's decision to wade into European politics in recent months, and he endorsed Germany's far-right AfD party ahead of last Sunday's elections.The AfD won the second-highest share in the election, but seems unlikely to form part of the next government.The billionaire spoke virtually at campaign events for the anti-immigrant and anti-European Union party. AfD leader Alice Weidel said Musk called to congratulate her after the party's historic election performance.Musk's involvement in European politics has sparked public backlash, protests, and isolated acts of vandalism.Last month, activists projected an image of a controversial gesture the Tesla CEO made at an event marking President Donald Trump's inauguration, which some interpreted as a fascist salute,Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In early February, Texas health officials reported that measles was spreading among an insular religious community in Gaines County, Texas, where nearly 14 percent of schoolchildren have an exemption (granted in some states for reasons of conscience, including for religious beliefs) from the required childhood vaccinations. The disease has since been detected in a bordering New Mexico county. And this week, the case count grew to at least 99 people. Last year, the US saw 285 measles cases nationwide the fourth-highest total since 2000. The outbreak has escalated and will likely soon exceed 100 cases, just as the USs foremost vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has ascended as its top health care official.Kennedy promises to probe the safety of childhood vaccines, and in his first actions as the new US Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, Kennedy has already put vaccine advisory meetings on indefinite hold. He has helped cultivate a culture of skepticism toward medical science as the most prominent voice promoting a debunked link between childhood vaccinations and autism and other health issues a view that corresponds to the re-emergence of measles over the past decade.Kennedy is no longer an outside agitator but the government official ultimately responsible for squashing public health threats in the US. So far, he has not commented on the Texas outbreak. But what happens next will be the first big test case for how Kennedy will lead the US health department during an active public health emergency. How would the response to an outbreak normally look? When there is a disease outbreak that requires government action (i.e., not your standard sniffles), local governments are the first responders. County officials are typically the first to receive reports of a disease spreading and they will start ramping up testing and other kinds of surveillance to assess the situation. That was what happened in Texas: One Gaines County school district reported the first measles to their local community in late January. Within a week, the Texas state government stepped up once the outbreak had climbed to six cases, and began providing support for the local response. Thats also typical: While local authorities are on the front line, the state provides technical expertise, they may offer funding for communication and interventions (such as vaccine drive-throughs), and they otherwise serve as the top authority on how the response should be handled. The feds usually stay in the background with an outbreak the size of the current measles occurrence. They can offer expert or laboratory support, for example. But otherwise, they are supporting players, unless the outbreak poses a unique threat to the rest of the nation or becomes a large multi-state crisis. For now, the current outbreak is limited to a small geographical region, and the states appear well aligned on how to respond. But it is possible that further spread could demand federal officials get more involved a development that would be worth watching closely, given its new leadership.The good news: So far, RFK Jr.s HHS isnt complicating the response.The outbreak was already underway before Kennedy was confirmed and, though its easy to forget after the pandemic, local authorities are taking the lead as they should. Texas health officials and their counterparts in New Mexico, now that cases have begun to spread there have set up mobile vaccination and testing sites, encouraging unvaccinated people to get their shots now. Because local officials are among the community they serve, they may be considered more trustworthy (and in turn they can ultimately be more effective).If those efforts are allowed to continue unencumbered, that will be a hopeful sign that the RFK-led health department will not actively sabotage public health efforts when there is an acute crisis underway. After some observers pointed out that the CDC measles tracker had not been with the new outbreak, the web page was refreshed on Friday with a pledge to continue updating it every Friday. So far, there is no sign that local officials have requested support from the federal government and been denied it.Not exactly. Such outbreaks are still relatively rare and, when they do occur, they usually stay localized. But America is trending in the wrong direction when it comes to this ancient disease, which can cause painful skin rashes and be deadly for young unvaccinated children.The US declared measles eliminated in 2000. But it has regained a foothold as vaccination rates have dropped. In 2019, there was the largest outbreak in decades when more than 1,200 people became ill, mostly in New York. Now nearly 100 individuals are sick along the border of Texas and New Mexico larger than any outbreak last year and it is still only February.Nationally, the measles vaccination rate has slipped just below the 95 percent target that experts say is necessary to maintain population-level immunity. In some states, the situation is more dire: 14 states had vaccination rates below 90 percent for the 20232024 school year, per the health policy think tank KFF. But in individual communities, rates can slip even lower, creating the right conditions for an outbreak to explode; measles, after all, is one of the most contagious diseases known to man. In the Gaines County school district most affected by the outbreak, the vaccination rate is under 50 percent.The vast majority of Americans still believe the measles vaccine is safe and effective, and its benefits outweigh any risks. But as our collective faith in science deteriorates, vaccination rates are also declining.See More:

Germany had a major election last weekend, one that left its center-left ruling party, the Social Democratic Party ruling party in the dust, and the conservative Christian Democratic Union ascendant once again. The countrys likely next leader, Friedrich Merz, took to the airwaves after the results were announced and proclaimed that it was time for not just a new Germany, but for a new Europe.How much Europe should rely on the United States is an issue that has loomed over European politics since President Donald Trump took power just over a month ago, bringing his isolationist America First vision with him. In his post-race remarks, Merz told German voters, It is clear that the Americans, at any case the Americans in this administration, do not care much about the fate of Europe and that he plans to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the US.And hes not the only European leader talking about instituting a seismic shift in US-European relations. Frances President Emmanuel Macron recently wrote, Europeans must invest better, more, and together in their security and defenseboth for today and for the future.Meanwhile, the UKs Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, We have to recognize the new era that we are in, not cling hopelessly to the comforts of the past. Its time for us to take responsibility for our security for our continent. The leaders remarks are evidence of a changed mindset among Europes leaders one that advocates for a Europe that looks out for its own, on its own. To understand where this is coming from, and what it all means, I reached out to the University of Texas at Austins professor Zeynep Somer-Topcu, who focuses on European politics. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.Whats behind the push for a new type of self-sufficiency in Europe?President Trumps comments from last week on Ukraine and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy created an explosion in Europe. [Among other things, Trump appeared to back Russias vision for the end of the war, and said some unpleasant things about Zelenskyy.] European leaders are very concerned. They realize that they may be alone in defending Ukraine, and they need to do that at all costs, given what the Russian threat to them would be if Ukraine falls. Thats why Merz is saying Germany needs to lead when it comes to defense, and how it is time for Germany (which does not have its own nuclear weapons) to explore nuclear cooperation with France and the UK, which do have their own nuclear arsenal, in order to replace the American nuclear protection that has been guaranteed until Trumps administration.Thats the defense side, but theres an economic side as well. Trumps discussion about potential tariffs creates big economic risks especially because Europes economy is already not doing super well. A more inward-looking US means that Europe needs to come together and be more independent economically and defensively. And Merz is definitely hoping that he, and Germany, can lead in this effort.Is the vision Merz paints feasible? There are a bunch of moving parts.The European Union needs to come together, and thats been a challenge. The nations of the European Union have mostly been able to agree on issues like agriculture, fishing, and economic policies. However, when it comes to defense and military, the European Union member countries have been very reluctant over the past several decades to create a common military or defense system. Nothing will change unless individual countries actually come together and push for more European Union integration on these issues. There are so many different member countries in the European Union with diverging interests. Hungary has completely different policies toward Russia than France or Germany. It will be really hard to unite behind a common EU defense policy at this point, given the differences. The other wildcard is where the UK stands on all this the United Kingdom now being outside the European Union. When they were part of the EU, the UK was one of the biggest countries in terms of the European Unions budget, and in terms of defense spending. I dont think that well see the UK push to regain EU membership, but closer cooperation when it comes to defense and security is something that Europe needs, to the point where you might not even see it happen within the European Union framework, but in closer ties between the UK, France, and Germany.Though the UK traditionally has been a very close ally of the US, recently, the UK government has been moving a bit closer to the European Union and Europe more generally. They want a separate UK-EU security pact to cover security, defense and foreign policy cooperation, but also more cooperation economically as well, because they realized, if the US is looking inward, that likely also means the US is moving away from the UK as well. And that viewpoint is spreading: Public opinion in the UK is very much against the US right now. A lot depends on whats going to happen within Germany, which faces two big challenges against this Merz plan to become more independent.One, Merzs party didnt win an outright majority in last weekends elections. That means he needs to work with another party to make things happen. That really limits the abilities of European countries to take any action, regardless of what Germanys leader says that they should do. The second thing that limits them internally is a constitutional amendment that restricts Germanys annual structural deficits. That limits the governments ability to respond flexibly to economic downturns, but also, to engage in the kind of defense spending required for Germany to become independent defensively. The problem for Merz is Germany requires a two thirds parliamentary majority for any kind of constitutional change, and Merzs likely coalition is very short of that. To get around this, Merz has suggested trying to change the constitution now. This current parliament that has been in power since 2021 is going to go on until late March. Hes hoping that current lawmakers have the numbers to make the change, so when the new parliament comes, Germany can actually start spending more on defense.RelatedGermanys rightward swing, explainedIt sounds like youre saying theres a lot of ways any attempt to unify Europe could go awry. Say this effort fails and the EU cant come together. What happens then?I see the glass as half full. I do think the EU will find a way, as the threats made by President Trump become even more real, whether the tariffs come in, or Russia wins the war and controls Ukrainian territory. All those things are going to change the dynamics in Europe, and force countries to overcome these challenges that Ive been talking about.In times of crisis, alliances can come together very quickly.What does a world in which Europe is more interconnected than ever, but less connected to the US mean for the rest of the world?The European Union, in terms of its economic power, is on par with the US and China. The EU could have an opportunity to really lead, particularly in less developed regions now that USAID, of course, is stripped of its funding. The EU could emerge from this more powerful. This piece originally ran in the Today, Explained newsletter. For more stories like this, sign up here.See More:

After last week's tease in Call of Duty Black Ops 6, a new countdown confirms Tony Hawk's Pro Skater news is less than a week away here's all we knowTech11:26, 25 Feb 2025Tony Hawk Pro-Skater 3 launched in 2001(Image: Activision)Call of Duty Black Ops 6 fans jumping into last week's Season 2 Reloaded update got a little nostalgic surprise last week as the Grind map teased a return from the Hawkman himself, Tony Hawk.The map features a sign that says "03.04.25" in one of the skate shops, and while it's less of a tease and more of a confirmation, Activision has doubled down this week as it updated the Tony Hawk game website to feature a countdown.Thankfully, internet sleuths have found what appears to be confirmation that it's a remaster/remake of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 titles something we already expected, but now know for certain.Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 let you hang off of vehicles(Image: Activision)At the time of writing, there's just under a week left for the countdown, which currently has a progress bar at around 50% completion.With reports the game could be revealed and 'shadow dropped' during an Xbox event, fans are certainly excited, but as for what the project could be, we've only had leaks to go on so far.While we imagine the date March 4 (3.4.25 in American formatting) was chosen because it involves a 3 and a 4, one user on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit has found an additional clue.Within the countdown code, the phrase 'thps-3-4-countdown' can be seen, but it may have been removed as we can't find it now which may confirm that it is, in fact, true.Hawk himself dropped an 'eyes' emoji in response to CharlieIntel's post on X (formerly Twitter) about the project, which the official Xbox account responded to with another 'eyes' emoji.It's likely a tacit admission that the reports are on the money, and that we'll get something Tony Hawk related. After all, latest Call of Duty update lets you use a skateboard as a melee weapon.The news follows on from professional skater Tyshawn Jones appearing on the Breakfast Club podcast and pointing out he's in an upcoming remaster that hasn't been announced yet - oops."Im in a Tony Hawk coming out, thats cool, Jones revealed. They got a new one they remastering so thats about to come out, I was in the last one.The last we saw of the Tony Hawk series was a pairing of the first two games remade for PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2020 before coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch in 2021.Article continues belowAs for the third and fourth entries, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is considered by many as the pinnacle of the series, bridging the gap between console generations when it launched in 2001.The fourth instalment, which launched a year later, introduced a more laid-back career mode and even Jango Fett from Star Wars as an unlockable character.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

We've finally seen the Nintendo Switch 2, but there's plenty we still don't know here's everything we do, including the latest leaks for the console's price, game lineup, and that all-important release dateTech11:20, 25 Feb 2025This is the Switch 2Nintendo finally revealed the Nintendo Switch 2 in January, but didn't give us a great deal to go on. We know it'll be a hybrid system again, with a dock, and that the controllers will be magnetic now.We've also heard that they'll fix the major issue of Joy-Con drift that plagued the first console, and it's reportedly significantly more powerful than its predecessor, too, but we've been piecing together all the leaks to work out when we'll be playing it, what we'll be playing on it, and how much it'll cost.With Nintendo promising we'll get a Switch 2 Nintendo Direct on April 2, we still have just over a month to wait, so we've rounded up all we know about the Switch 2 so far, including leaks and rumours, to help you stay informed about the follow-up to one of gaming's most successful consoles.Starting with what we do know, the Switch 2 will follow the template from the first console. It's a hybrid system that can be a handheld or docked to become a home console, and the controllers are detachable again only this time, they're magnetic.Joy-Con will be magnetic nowA patent suggests that the new controllers can be used as mice, too, lining up with what we saw in the trailer, and they can be attached upside down. Given there's a new USB-C port on the top, we're wondering if this will mean some wild peripherals that can be attached.The screen is larger than the first console's, but we're not sure if it'll have an OLED panel yet (but leaks have suggested it might). Here's hoping, though after the Switch OLED Edition it'd be tough to go back to LCD.We've heard plenty of dates thrown around, with some expecting Nintendo to drop the console immediately after the Nintendo Direct on April 2 which seems foolhardy.Earlier this week, one former Nintendo employee suggested the console will target a June launch.Theyre going to want the system to be out before the end of the summer. I would say at the start of the summer, at the end of the school year, so you have kids talking about what theyre excited for, they said.As for pricing, it seems likely the system will cost more than its predecessor, but less than PS5 or Xbox Series X. The most common price mentioned is $400, which at the current exchange rate is 317 expect it to be more like 400.The Switch 2 could output 4K while it's dockedWe loved the Switch 1, but toward the latter end of its life cycle it became a haven for indies while we played our 'big' games on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.We've heard that the system will mark a sizeable power jump, and while reports it'll match PS4 Pro levels of power feel a little optimistic, one rumour suggests the Switch 2 will be more powerful than the Steam Deck. Given Valve's console can run the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring, that's no mean feat.We've also heard it'll output 4K visuals using AI upscaling, meaning games can still fit on its relatively small cartridges. We've got a full explainer of the technology here.The CPU is also expected to have more headroom, and we expect there to be more RAM, too.This is what the Switch 2 will look likeWe've already heard that one AAA third-party game could be making the jump, while other reports suggest Assassin's Creed: Mirage, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater Delta could come to Switch 2.We're expecting Microsoft of all companies to be a big supporter of the Switch 2. Flight Sim has been tipped for a release, as well as DOOM: The Dark Ages.It'll be backward compatible with your existing Switch library, while Take-Two and EA have already thrown their weight behind the Switch 2, meaning we could be inching closer to full ports of the likes of NBA 2K and EA FC that are closer to their PlayStation and Xbox counterparts.Aside from older games and third-party ports, we know there will be Switch 2 exclusives you won't be able to play anywhere else. Expect the usual heavy-hitters like Zelda, Mario, Pokemon and more.Article continues belowIn the initial reveal, Nintendo showcased a new Mario Kart, so there's a good chance we'll see that during the console's full reveal.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.