With its unapologetically violent gameplay and hellfire aesthetics, Doom not only popularized first-person shooters when the franchise launched in 1993 but changed the gaming industry forever with its countless influences still felt today far beyond its genre. And despite its success, there are surprisingly few games in the core series once you discount the seemingly endless platforms the classic games have been ported to throughout the years. Fortunately, most of these games are clear winners that towered above contemporaries and have stood the test of time. With that in mind, not all Doom games are created equal, even if the gameplay and core premise has remained consistently intact for decades. Eschewing spinoffs like Ultimate Doom, Mighty Doom, or Doom RPG, here are all the mainline Doom games ranked from worst to best. 8. Final Doom (1996) This entry was very nearly left off this list entirely since some fans saw 1996’s Final Doom as a glorified spinoff—or little more than a standalone expansion of Doom II. But with its own PC and PlayStation release, along with a vocal fan base accumulated over the years, Final Doom does indeed count as its own installment in the franchise’s main line. The game also features a story that takes place after the events of Doom II, with the Doom Slayer repelling a hellish invasion of a colony on one of Jupiter’s moons before taking the fight to Hell itself. That said, Final Doom is easily the weakest game from the series’ classic era, recycling old assets instead of introducing new elements while presenting largely uninspired levels. The PS version is worse than the PC version, providing players with less than half of the original PC release and an overall weaker visual fidelity and presentation. Final Doom is best enjoyed by hardcore Doom II fans looking for something a bit different than the base game they know and love. 7. Doom 3 (2004) After a lengthy hiatus and high-profile personnel changes at developer id Software, Doom returned a decade after Doom II with 2004’s Doom 3. The game is more or less a rehash of the original game’s story where a research facility on Mars accidentally opens a portal to Hell, allowing demons to pour into our world. The game was ported to Xbox eight months after the initial PC release, received the Resurrection of Evil expansion in 2005, and was remastered with new content in 2012. Taking advantage of the advances of technical capabilities since the franchise’s heyday in the early to mid ‘90s, Doom 3 is a slower, moodier experience, favoring suspense and scares over wall-to-wall action, at least for the first half of the game. This makes Doom 3 something of an outlier in its overall gameplay and presentation, which is the most strikingly different in the wider franchise. However, the pacing for those earlier portions of the game really drags, especially for players used to the series’ penchant for just diving headfirst into the usual carnage. 6. Doom 64 (1997) When the Doom franchise made its way to the Nintendo 64 in 1997, it didn’t do so as a port of the existing games but rather as its own standalone title. Doom 64 is very much its own game, complete with an original story of the Doom Slayer being lured back into Hell by an elaborate trap set by the Mother Demon. A remaster of the game was released in 2020 for modern platforms, including original content that linked this game’s story to the revival trilogy that began in 2016. At the time of its release, players may have been experiencing franchise fatigue, not giving the game the credit it was due as more popular successors to Doom, like Quake and Unreal, took shape. To be fair, Doom 64 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, not adding much distinctly new. But it does refine the established formula with heightened atmosphere and engaging level design. Years later, fans are finally starting to recognize Doom 64 for what it really is—the last game released in the franchise’s classic era and the culmination of that initial cycle. 5. Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) People are going to look at this ranking and invariably think that a fifth place position means that Doom: The Dark Ages is a bad game. To be clear, it isn’t, The Dark Ages is a solid entry in the franchise; the series just has a list of absolute bangers that outrank it. True to its title, The Dark Ages blends the franchise’s penchant for sci-fi horror with dark fantasy as the Doom Slayer uses more medieval-inspired weapons to battle invading armies of demons across the cosmos. For sure, The Dark Ages is the biggest tonal departure within the revival trilogy, including more strategic combat and even vehicle-based levels to navigate. The gory sensibilities of Doom are still very much intact, fortunately, though the game’s insistence on having players rely on the Doom Slayer’s new shield may throw established fans off who are just looking to rip and tear. An expansion of what Doom can be without discarding the franchise’s core ethos entirely, The Dark Ages is a welcome big swing from the series that mostly connects. 4. Doom (1993) Obviously the entire franchise we’re talking about here wouldn’t exist without the original Doom released in 1993, not only serving as the series’ foundation, but a title that changed gaming forever. With all that said, when doing our best to remove nostalgia out of the equation and look at the game on its own standalone merits, that first Doom game still stands in the top half of the franchise but is narrowly edged out of the top three. The game’s premise is simple: when a dimensional portal on the moons of Mars accidentally serves as a bridge to Hell, the Doom Slayer stands alone in purging the invading demons from the research facilities with whatever weapons he can find. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! From its chugging heavy metal-inspired soundtrack to its over-the-top arsenal reducing hellish enemies to bloody pulp, Doom set the template for the franchise that has only been built upon to this day. The game spawned countless copycat titles while being ported to virtually every major gaming platform, a distinction that it continues to hold over 30 years since its initial release. Despite now having the roughest of edges, Doom holds up as one of the most straightforward and enjoyable first-person shooters of its era, both for nostalgia-minded gamers and those curious of the franchise’s roots. 3. Doom (2016) Though commercially successful, the middling response to Doom 3 and changes in the developer’s ownership had left the franchise languishing in limbo for over a decade, confined to the occasional port and remaster as id Software returned its focus to Wolfenstein. After undergoing years of various stages of development, it was 2016’s Doom that completely reinvigorated the flagship franchise, getting back to the fast-paced gameplay that the series was known for while also enjoying extensive updates for modern sensibilities. The game itself is more or less a rehash of the original story, with a human research facility on Mars descending into madness and being overrun after opening a portal to Hell. The 2016 Doom is also exactly what fans wanted after the more deliberately paced Doom 3, something that ditched the emphasis on tutorials and narrative and instead got back to gory gunplay in all its glory. Though the multiplayer aspect left some players wanting, the single-player campaign is among the franchise’s best, powered by a hard-rocking soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon. The kick in the pants that the series needed, the Doom revival lived up to the franchise’s example while bringing it deeper into the 21st century, guns blazing. 2. Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) The original Doom set a high bar for first-person shooters moving forward. But it’s a bar that the direct sequel Doom II: Hell on Earth vaulted over when it was released in 1994. Picking up from its predecessor with the Doom Slayer fighting for the fate of Earth after it is invaded by the forces of Hell, Doom II would receive a number of expansions and ports after its launch, with the latest released as recently as 2024, adding an original episode with brand-new weapons and enemies to the venerable title. Everything that the original Doom did, Doom II does noticeably better, all while expanding on the premise with new enemies, fresh weapons, and even more inventive level design. From a technical standpoint, there is no huge leap in the graphical department or sound design, but rather in the complexity and size of the levels coupled with a larger number of enemies onscreen. Indeed, Doom II almost makes the original game feel like a first draft at times given how much it refines the overall experience despite only coming out a year after the franchise began. 1. Doom Eternal (2020) After successfully relaunching the franchise for modern audiences in 2016, the Doom revival got a direct sequel in 2020 with Doom Eternal. Taking its cues from Doom II, Eternal has Earth invaded by the armies of Hell and facing near-annihilation from the all-powerful Icon of Sin with the Doom Slayer as humanity’s last, best hope for survival. The two-part DLC epilogue The Ancient Gods has the Doom Slayer travel deep into Hell to confront the Dark Lord and vanquish the demon hordes for good. Though Doom Eternal may have divided hardcore purists about its inclusion of prominent narrative elements, platforming gameplay sequences, and tutorials, it is a clear refinement of what the 2016 revival began. The combat is as frenetic and engaging as it has ever been in the franchise, the arsenal is upgraded and expanded, and the hellish aesthetics the series is known for are in excelsis here. Simply put, Doom Eternal is the apex of the franchise, leaning into what the series does best while incorporating bold flourishes to build the mythology and subtly redefine what Doom can be.

OpenAI is buying io, a hardware company founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and several other former engineers from his time there, including Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan.Ive won’t be joining OpenAI, and his design firm, LoveFrom, will continue to be independent, but they will “take over design for all of OpenAI, including its software,” in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion, Bloomberg reports.About 55 hardware engineers, software developers, and manufacturing experts will join OpenAI as part of the acquisition. That includes Cannon, Hankey, and Tan. The first devices following the acquisition are set to launch in 2026.In an interview with Bloomberg, Ive called AI hardware misfires like the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1, “very poor products,” and said that “There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products.”The first product isn’t intended to be an iPhone killer, though: “In the same way that the smartphone didn’t make the laptop go away, I don’t think our first thing is going to make the smartphone go away,” Altman told Bloomberg. “It is a totally new kind of thing.”The Wall Street Journal reports that Altman and LoveFrom have been working together for two years and have considered options like headphones and devices with cameras.The first product the team has been working on “has just completely captured our imagination,” Ive said in a video.“Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home, and I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen,” Altman said.“I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the brink of a new generation of technology that can make us our better selves,” Ive said.“We gathered together the best hardware and software engineers, the best technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers and experts in product development and manufacturing,” Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a joint post. “Many of us have worked closely for decades. The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco.”“AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world,” Altman said in a statement. “No one can do this like Jony and his team; the amount of care they put into every aspect of the process is extraordinary.”“I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment,” Ive said. “While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an important collaboration. The values and vision of Sam and the teams at OpenAI and io are a rare inspiration.”“A number of us looked at each other and said, ‘This is probably the most incredible technology of our career,’” Hankey said in an interview with Bloomberg.Update, May 21st: Added information from The Wall Street Journal.See More:

Avowed game director Carrie Patel joins Night School Studios Patel was at Obsidian Entertainment for nearly 12 years, working on The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on May 21, 2025 Former Avowed game director Carrie Patel has joined Netflix-owned Night School Studio. Announcing the news on LinkedIn, Patel gave no hint as to what project she'll be directing at the Oxenfree developer. Patel previously worked at Obsidian Entertainment for almost 12 years, most recently directing its action RPG Avowed. She joined the developer in 2013 as narrative designer, working on Pillars of Eternity and its White March expansions. Three years later, she was narrative co-lead on Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. She then became narrative designer in 2018, working on The Outer Worlds and its second expansion Murder on Eridanos. She also directed the game's first expansion Peril on Gorgon. Night School Studio became Netflix's first games acquisition in 2021. At the time, the streaming giant confirmed the developer would continue working on Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, which launched in July 2023. GamesIndustry.biz spoke to the studio following the release of the sequel, with its founder and studio director Sean Krankel discussing how Netflix has changed the developer. Earlier this year, Night School Studio reportedly cut an undisclosed number of staff. Netflix also cancelled six of its game launches to "adjust [its] portfolio" to better suit its subscribers. This included Compass Point: West, Thirsty Suitors, and Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game.

Photographer Who Scales Buildings to Get the Perfect Shot Arrested at Opening Night of His First Solo Exhibition Isaac Wright was detained for climbing the Empire State Building’s spire in 2024. The photo he took during the climb was on display at the show in New York City Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor May 21, 2025 2:01 p.m. And When We Die It Will Feel Like This (2023), one of Wright's photographs on display at the exhibition Drift / Robert Mann Gallery At the opening for his first solo gallery exhibition, photographer Isaac Wright was speaking with the crowd when a woman tapped him on his shoulder. She revealed that she was a plainclothes officer and told him he was under arrest. “I really thought it was a joke,” Wright, who is known as Drift, tells the New York Times’ The incident occurred just after 8 p.m. on May 15, the opening of Wright’s show, titled “Coming Home,” at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City. After the plainclothes officer informed him of his arrest, uniformed officers entered the exhibition and led Wright to the back of a squad car. Wright’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, tells the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Cameron Knight that the artist has been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. The charges are linked to a photograph on display at the exhibition, which Wright shot after climbing to the top of the spire of the Empire State Building in 2024. “Ansel Adams probably trespassed in his day to get a great photo; plenty of photographers did,” gallery owner Robert Mann, who has exhibited works by renowned photographers including Adams and William Eggleston, tells the Times. “But in all my years, I have never seen an artist taken out of an opening in cuffs.”Urban explorer Vitaliy Raskolov expressed a similar disbelief to Now Media’s Matt Medved, saying that over 16 years of scaling buildings and photographing his escapades, he had “never seen anything like this before.” Wright began climbing buildings in 2018 to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his years of service in the Army. When he was stationed with a battalion in Louisiana, he started acting as an “ad hoc chaplain, filling in as needs dictated,” as the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in 2022. “Part of my job was helping our soldiers reintegrate into life at home after deployment,” Wright told the publication. “Without a chaplain in the unit, many soldiers came to me for counseling and to talk about their struggles with suicide.” At the end of his service, he was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. He decided to take up photography, and he found solace in the hobby. One day, he took the stairs to the roof of a skyscraper in Texas to get a more interesting shot. “[I] just ended up sitting there for two or three hours, all by myself, taking in the view,” he tells the Times. “And this wave of catharsis and peace came over me. I was so present and alive, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what this is, but I have to keep doing it.’” The recent gallery opening wasn’t the first time Wright’s art has led to encounters with police. In late 2020, the artist, who is from Ohio, sneaked onto the rooftop of the Great American Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati.Weeks later, police shut down an interstate to arrest him in Arizona. They had been told that he was a veteran with specialized military training and PTSD, and that he might be armed. “Five to ten officers approached my vehicle with handguns and assault rifles pointed at me,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer After a judge set his bond at $400,000, Wright spent months in jail. He ultimately accepted a plea deal, agreeing to pay $5,500 in restitution and enroll in a treatment program. At that time, the artist had around 13,000 followers on Instagram. Today, he has about 225,000. Wright regularly posts and sells photos taken from the tall buildings he scales. In 2022, he donated $500,000 from his art sales to the Bail Project, which helps low-income Americans pay bail. Wright was released last week and is scheduled to return to court on June 4. The artist explains that this encounter with the law has been less harrowing than his previous arrests. “I had always been treated as some sort of dangerous weapon for what I do, even though I had never hurt anyone,” he tells the Times. “This time, the cops were very respectful. In the cop car, they even told me they liked the art.” “Coming Home” is on view at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City through June 28, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Luxury has always been a moving target – one minute defined by mechanical prowess and the next by minimalist interiors or digital interfaces. In a time of AI advancements, relentless upgrades, and short attention spans, Lexus is betting on something more timeless: emotion. Their new brand platform, The Standard of Amazing, is less a tagline and more a philosophical pivot. Developed in collaboration with creative agency Team One, the platform builds on the Japanese marque's legacy of precision (The Pursuit of Perfection) and experience-led design (Experience Amazing) while introducing a bolder, more unified purpose to make every touchpoint resonate. At its core, The Standard of Amazing is a statement of intent—not just that Lexus vehicles should deliver excellence but that they should stir an unmistakable emotional response in the driver. As Chris Graves, chief creative officer at Team One, puts it, "By re-establishing the driver at the centre, Lexus is ensuring that innovation doesn't come at the cost of emotional connection." The launch follows a strong product run. Recent models like the IS, RX, TX, and the radically reimagined GX have all injected fresh energy into the brand. That momentum gave Team One the opportunity to evolve Lexus' story. Executive creative director Jason Stinsmuehlen explains, "Lexus had come off a series of incredible years of record sales and model success… We had a unique opportunity to build upon recent product momentum and drive overall brand desire." This is about standards as much as it's about desire, though. While Experience Amazing first signalled a shift from engineering excellence to emotional engagement, it was never fully launched with a comprehensive brand campaign. This new platform finally gives it the scale and clarity to land. "We wanted to reintroduce the line with a new POV," Jason continues, "that with 'Amazing' there are no half measures… If an automobile doesn't make you feel something, it stops short of amazing." That sentiment drives the creative thinking across the campaign, from a cinematic 30-second spot titled No Such Thing to expansive OOH placements rolling out in cities like LA, New York, Chicago and Miami this summer. Directed by Johan Renck, the film blends sweeping visuals with intimate moments, portraying a series of high-standard individuals, each hard to impress, each moved by a Lexus. "Our goal was to show a swath of humanity that has almost impossible standards for themselves and for the things they own," says Jason. "A Lexus Driver is someone you must bring your A-Game to impress." The imagery is equally considered in print and outdoors. Photographer Clemens Asher was brought in to capture vehicles not just as objects but as emotional catalysts. The message is clear: Beauty is nothing without meaning, and performance is incomplete without feeling. Underpinning the visuals is a design philosophy defined by three tonal filters: Modern, Elevated, and Human. "If any choice we made missed any of those marks, we recalibrated," says Jason. From colour grading and casting to cinematography, every element was refined to ensure it landed not just aspirationally but with emotional clarity. That human-centric approach is mirrored in the product storytelling. Rather than speak only to specs, the campaign explores how each model creates a different emotional response. The RC might channel confidence, the RX comfort, and the LC pure exhilaration. Lexus' famed Takumi craftspeople and racing teams are also brought into the narrative, not as behind-the-scenes technicians but as emotional engineers. Even the smallest sensory details, like the sound of a door closing or the torque of a dial, are positioned as tools for connection. "Lexus has always considered and anticipated what people need," Jason explains. "The question is, can it serve a higher emotional function? Can a car not just unlock itself for the driver, but actually know the driver and customise itself for them?" That framing is particularly important given the campaign's target: a new generation of luxury buyers who expect more than status. These consumers seek purpose, feeling, and alignment with their values. Crucially, Lexus doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to reach them. "The happy truth is the Lexus lineup is already aimed at this generation," says Jason. "Models like the TX, GX and IS just need their stories authentically told—and the next generation is lining up to buy them." The development of The Standard of Amazing also marks a new level of collaboration between Lexus and Team One. "There has never been more fruitful collaboration across the myriad groups within Lexus and Team One," Jason says. "Our director talked directly to our clients. The lines were blurred like never before. We were on a mission." That mission isn't confined to one campaign, either. The Standard of Amazing will underpin Lexus' marketing, product launches, sales events, and digital touchpoints moving forward.

When How&How was commissioned to rebrand e-commerce platform Big Cartel, one thing was made crystal clear – the logo had to stay the same. “The idea of changing the logo was categorically vetoed in the original scope,” co-founder Cat How explains. “It’s a designer’s nightmare,” How&How creative director Chris Clayton says. “It makes you question the client’s appetite for change. And how will a new brand system fit with the old logo? But I think we also see it a massive challenge.” That’s because the team has learned – through many rebrands with different clients – that the logo probably is up for grabs. “In the past we would take it as gospel,” Cat How says. “Now we nod our heads, and smile. Because in our experience, that’s never really going to be it.” The previous Big Cartel logo The main reason clients warn designers off changing the logo is that they believe it has brand equity which they don’t want to lose. But, as Rog How explains, this is often overstated. “For a very mature brand that everyone knows, where they do genuinely have that equity, change has to be more incremental. You’d probably struggle to get Tiffany to change their turquoise. “But most of the companies we work with are either in a scrappy scale-up phase, or they’ve hit a bit of a plateau and need to unlock that next bit of growth.” There can also be personal issues in the mix – logos designed by the founder, or a family member, which come with emotional baggage. “We once had to tell a client that their logo – which had been designed by his wife – was really ugly and didn’t suit the brand at all.” In this scenario, the agency commissioned research to point out where the current logo was falling short. The point is that any brand asset – a logo, typeface, brand colours – needs to work within the broader whole. “The logo always seems like the biggest deal, but in all honesty it is just one part of the bigger brand system,” Clayton explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BC-Reel-how-agency.mp4 Any good brand positioning work will interrogate who that company is and what it stands for. It all begins with that strategic work, and most of the time, an old logo won’t work as part of a new strategy. “The logo has to represent the character of the company and if you have refined the positioning, it will usually have a knock-on effect on the logo,” Rog How explains. For its work for Big Cartel, the strategy was designed to give the company, which has been around since 2005,  a “new lease of life.” The new positioning was built around the idea “Goodbye caution” to highlight the platform as “the go-to for entrepreneurs taking the leap.” The How&How team presented the client with various routes, some of which included the old logo, some of which didn’t. The idea was to start a conversation about whether the new direction needed a new logo too. The designers were convinced it did, but they needed the client to get there themselves. “When you show people the brand evolution with the old logo, and then a new logo, nine times out of ten they agree that the new one is way better,” Rog How says. “They can see it’s been considered as part of the whole system.” How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel The new visual direction is deliberately scrappy, from its use of illustration to risograph textures and a punchy tone of voice. “The new logo needed to preserve the independent spirit that made the original so meaningful to the team,” Clayton says. “Our goal was to evolve it – not replace it – capturing the same attitude and scrappy energy that of the new brand.” Once they showed the client the hand-drawn new logo in the context of the rest of the design work, it was a no-brainer. “It was impossible to argue with,” Clayton says. “The brand felt so distinctive but all the elements lived in perfect harmony with each other.” In fact, when How&How sent the client their case study and press materials one main request came back – they wanted to make more of the logo redesign. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/05/BigCartel-7-Website-how-agency.mp4 The key to all of this, Cat How says, is trust. If you build the right relationship with a client, you gain the permission to push and challenge them, however adamantly they rule out certain things at the start. “It’s a very gradual dance,” she explains. “I think clients, and it’s not their fault, come to us thinking they know what they want. It’s our responsibility to show them what they could have, and what they don’t know they need yet. “It’s not about getting smaller and self-referencing – it’s about showing them how to take a creative leap based on emotion, and strategy, and language. How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel How&How’s new identity for Big Cartel

With President Donald Trump’s multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package at risk of stalling, House Speaker Mike Johnson and conservative Republican holdouts are heading Wednesday to the White House for the last-ditch talks to salvage the “big, beautiful bill.” Johnson, R-La., had hoped to vote as soon as Wednesday on the 1,000-page plus bill after grinding through an all-night committee hearing, a final step in the process. But debate dragged into midday. Democrats, without the votes to stop Trump’s package, are using all available tools to press their opposition and capitalize on the GOP disarray. “We believe it’s one big, ugly bill that’s going to hurt the American people,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York as he and his team testified before the committee. “Hurt children, hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, cut health care, cut nutritional assistance, explode the debt,” he said. Trump had instructed the Republican majority to quit arguing and get it done, putting his own political influence on the line. But the Republican president failed to move many skeptics during his Capitol Hill visit this week and GOP leaders struggled through the the night on crafting last-minute deals. But for every faction of the slim House majority that Johnson appeases, he is losing others. A tentative deal with GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states to boost deductions for local taxes to $40,000 alarmed the most conservative Republicans, worried it will add to the nation’s $36 trillion debt. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said he did not believe the package could pass in a House vote, but “there is a pathway forward that we can see.” “We want to deliver the president’s agenda,” he said. It’s a make-or-break moment for the president and his party in Congress. They have invested much of their political capital during the crucial first few months of Trump’s return to the White House on this legislation. If the House Republicans fall in line with the president, overcoming unified Democratic objections, the measure would next go to the Senate. “We’re doing very well. It’s very close” Trump said at the White House. A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO said. Republicans convened the House Rules Committee hearing shortly after midnight, but Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline for House passage was slipping as lawmakers prepared to depart for the holiday. At its core, the package is centered on extending the tax breaks approved during Trump’s first term in 2017, while adding new ones he campaigned on during his 2024 campaign. To make up for some of the lost revenue, the Republicans are focused on spending cuts to federal safety net programs and a massive rollback of green energy tax breaks from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. Additionally, the package tacks on $350 billion in new spending, with about $150 billion going to the Pentagon, including for the president’s new “ Golden Dome” defense shield, and the rest for Trump’s mass deportation and border security agenda. The package title carries Trump’s own words, the “ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” As Trump promised voters on the tax front, the package proposes there would be no taxes on tips for certain workers, including those in some service industries; automobile loan interest; or some overtime pay. There would be an increase to the standard income tax deduction, to $32,000 for joint filers, and a boost to the child tax credit to $2,500. There would be an enhanced deduction, of $4,000, for older adults of certain income levels, to help defray taxes on Social Security income. To cut spending, the package would impose new work requirements for many people who receive health care through Medicaid. Able-bodied adults without dependents would need to fulfill 80 hours a month on a job or in other community activities. Similarly, those who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also face new work requirements. Older Americans up to age 64, rather than 54, who are able-bodied and without dependents would need to work or engage in the community programs for 80 hours a month. Additionally, some parents of children older than 7 years old would need to fulfill the work requirements; under current law, the requirement comes after children are 18. Republicans said they want to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal programs. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated 8.6 million fewer people would have health insurance with the various changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It also said 3 million fewer people each month would have SNAP benefits. Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. GOP leaders have sped up the start date of the Medicaid work requirements from 2029 to 2027. At the same time, more moderate and centrist lawmakers are wary of the changes to Medicaid that could result in lost health care for their constituents. Others are worried the phaseout of the renewable energy tax breaks will impede businesses using them to invest in green energy projects in many states. Plus, those lawmakers from New York, California and other high-tax states want a bigger state and local tax deduction, called SALT, for their voters back home. As it stands, the bill would triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. But advocates wanted more. Under the emerging deal, the cap would increase the deduction to $40,000 with an income limit of $500,000, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private talks. The cap would phase down for incomes above that level. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade. —Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Leah Askarinam, and Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

Once upon a time, Google made smart home announcements and debuted products at a regular clip. The arms race between Google and Amazon for dominance in the voice-controlled smart home was exciting to watch. As such, the Google I/O developers’ conference was akin to my professional Super Bowl, as the search giant’s home-related announcements gained increasing prominence over the years before taking center stage at the keynote shortly before the pandemic.After watching this year's I/O keynote, I'm convinced that the smart home has become an afterthought for the tech giant. Its smart home unit, Google Nest, didn’t get a mention. While the company’s current focus on AI could end up helping the category, I’m starting to worry about the state of the Google smart home. Why I WorryIn 2016, Google used the keynote at I/O to officially enter the smart home category. It announced the original Google Home smart speaker during the show. At the time, the smart home was still a nascent category, but a certain gadget called the Amazon Echo was rapidly growing in popularity. Even then, Google didn’t outright acknowledge the competition or the smart home, as it painted the air-freshener-looking Google Home speaker as more of an entertainment device with voice control capabilities on the side. Fast forward to 2019. I was sitting in Shoreline Amphitheater as Google announced the Nest Hub Max. It wasn’t a simple entertainment device anymore. The tech giant had brought the acquired Nest team under its smart home wing and the newly dubbed Google Nest brand made a clear push for smart home dominance by again following Amazon into the emerging category of smart displays, but adding its own tricks with a camera that could follow you during video calls (a relatively unique feature at the time), facial recognition, and gesture controls. Excitement before Google I/O in 2019(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)I was excited. I had the chance to quarterback the coverage for our smart home team as Google rattled off announcement after announcement. Writing about that show was frantic, exhausting, and fun. Fast forward again to the present day. I watched the Google I/O keynote from my living room, hoping to be surprised by a smart home update, but not holding my breath. On the main stage, the smart home was indeed a ghost.Google has a stacked graveyard of abandoned products and services. Google Glass, Google Reader, countless Google messaging apps, and even the gaming service Google Stadia, which debuted in 2019, have all gone the way of the dodo. Even outside of Google I/O, the company’s announcements related to the smart home have slowed to a crawl. While Amazon continues to iterate and refine its smart home products on a semi-regular cadence, Google’s last smart speaker launched five years ago in 2020, and half a decade counts as an eternity in any field of tech. The company’s latest smart display is more recent, but not by much. It launched in 2021. Even on the software side, while updates have happened, they’ve slowed down. Again, Google is making a hard push on AI. In theory, an AI assistant like Google Gemini could be quite helpful for the smart home, but Google hasn’t added any such capabilities to the chatbot or any of its many present or future AI initiatives as of yet. Recommended by Our EditorsAll Hope Is Not LostWhile Gemini doesn’t have any functionality related to the smart home yet, a beta version of it started rolling out to Google’s smart home devices last fall. For the time being, the functionality is mostly meant to make the Google Assistant more conversational. In the near term, Google spelled out a plan to have it help you find very specific clips captured by your Nest Cam (not just pet activity, but clips of your dog digging in your garden, for instance). It could help you create routines as well, such as turning off your lights and locking your doors at bedtime. Alongside that announcement, Google launched the first new version of the Nest Learning Thermostat in nine years and a new Google TV Streamer. All hope is not lost for a new Google smart speaker or smart display, but we might have to keep waiting for a while. Google doesn’t appear to be giving up on smart home hardware, just slowing the cadence way down. The latest Nest Learning Thermostat(Credit: Google)Now, the company could be slowing the cadence to a trickle before shutting the unit down entirely, but Google has also taken active steps to facilitate wider smart home interoperability with Matter. Google was one of the initial collaborators for the Matter initiative, which aims to make all your connected devices work together seamlessly, regardless of brand and your voice assistant of choice. The Matter rollout itself has moved slowly, but Google is seemingly integrating updates to its devices as they’ve become available. On the practical side, yes, it's been a while since Google updated its smart speakers, but the Nest Audio, the Nest Hub, the Nest Hub Max, and the Nest Mini are all still available. Another reason for optimism comes from Google’s graveyard itself. I mentioned Google Glass, and unlike Google’s smart home devices, Google’s first foray into AR-enabled glasses has been long discontinued. However, Google is now working on the Android XR platform and at I/O this year teased a pair of glasses that they are working on in collaboration with Samsung in addition to the Project Moohan headset. The glasses in question even got a live demo on stage, complete with celebrity cameos. Even if Google Glass itself is dead, its legacy lives on, and its descendants are having their time in the spotlight now. (Credit: Google)Yes, Google does let some projects and initiatives fully die. I can’t imagine the company resurrecting Stadia in any form. That said, at other times, Google plays the long game, and it could be doing that right now with the smart home. Can Gemini Help the Smart Home? AI is already integrated into plenty of smart home devices. It helps robot vacuums automatically increase the suction power when they recognize a dirty spot, and it helps video doorbells notify you that a package has arrived, for instance. In theory, Gemini and AI in general could make controlling and setting up devices simpler than ever. Plans to integrate Gemini into Google Home to help you find specific clips from your security cameras and make it easier to craft routines for device automation are a step in the right direction. Moreover, I can imagine a world where you just have to look at a connected light switch or lamp with your Android XR-equipped glasses and give a command to turn it off without needing to specify which device you’d like to control. Doing so would require investment from device manufacturers and likely integration with larger smart home platforms like Matter. In other words, it might be a while before any big AI-related leap for the Google-powered smart home becomes tangible. In the meantime, I hope Google’s smart home ecosystem doesn’t falter due to neglect.

No stage, no problem. The All-American Rejects bring the mosh pit to the front lawn. Credit: TikTok composite: @ChicagoBucketList, @marissamccall, @STLGUIDE314 In a live music landscape often dominated by inflated ticket prices and impersonal stadium shows, The All-American Rejects are flipping the script. The band recently kicked off a "house party" tour, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Instead of arenas or overpriced amphitheaters, the band is offering fans a chance to host a literal house party with a live, pop-up performance from the band themselves. So far, they've played a backyard in Chicago, a bowling alley in Minneapolis, on someone's lawn in Columbia, Missouri for a bunch of college grads, and on the quad at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Fans can even apply through the link in the band’s Instagram bio to bring the show to their city.The "house party" concept leans heavily into nostalgia, which is a smart play for a band whose early 2000s singles "Dirty Little Secret" and "Move Along" helped define an era of pop-punk adolescence for millennials. But it’s not just about revisiting the past. This tour taps into something deeper: the intimate, communal energy of early DIY shows that forged lasting connections between bands and their fans. And it has landed the band on FYPs across the country. You May Also Like SEE ALSO: For fans, Ticketmaster is misery business Perhaps partly because of its online popularity, it’s not just longtime listeners showing up. These intimate shows, often held on college campuses or in public spaces, are introducing The All-American Rejects to a new generation of fans who weren’t around when the band ruled TRL, but who instantly get the appeal of a sing-along anthem in a backyard with no wristbands required.Even more remarkable? These shows are mostly free to attend. In a time when Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing has made big concert experiences unattainable for many, this feels less like a gimmick and more like a rebellion. The All-American Rejects are bringing live music directly to fans — no dynamic pricing, no service charges, no $25 parking. Mashable Trend Report: Coming Soon! Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! At a recent stop in Minneapolis, the All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter delivered a fiery, heartfelt speech that quickly went viral — a clip of the moment, posted by @marissamccall, has racked up over one million views on TikTok. Speaking to a packed crowd, Ritter captured the spirit of the house party tour with blunt honesty: "I want to thank you for coming out and giving a shit about a rock’n’roll band that supports the common man. We’re not trying to sell you finance tickets to Coachella, we’re not trying to sell you Ticketmaster fucking penalty fees, we’re not trying to sell you $25 parking. We’re just trying to sell you some songs you might have grown up with, and let you fucking let go with us in this non-denominational church of rock'n'roll." The message — part middle finger to concert bloat, part love letter to fans — struck a nerve. Online, fans praised the band for keeping things grounded, authentic, and centered on the music. In an industry increasingly ruled by algorithms, corporate markups, and VIP upgrades, Ritter’s words felt like both a rebellion and a revival.As one commenter on TikTok put it, "The HARDEST recession indicator. we are SO back." In an interview with KBIA in Missouri, Ritter explained how the idea for the tour came about: "The whole thing about this has been sort of like this weird synchronistic happenstance of reactivity. We played this random house party [in Los Angeles], and it was like, of all the shows we played in the last 10 years, it was, like, this big wake-up call to the reality of, 'Oh, this is why we started doing this.' We played in house shows. We played backyards, VFWs, and I just told my manager, 'That worked. Let’s do that.'" And they are. One lawn, quad, and bowling alley at a time. Topics Music TikTok Crystal Bell Digital Culture Editor Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities. She was formerly the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped the brand expand its coverage of extremely online fan culture and K-pop across its platforms. You can find her work in Teen Vogue, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet. She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.