Elon Musk is contemplating decommissioning SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, responding to President Donald Trump's apparent intent to terminate government subsidies and contracts with the billionaire's companies. It looks like the feud between the former allies has quickly turned vicious.SpaceX's CEO initially announced that the company would retire its Dragon spacecraft in an X post on Thursday, with Musk sharing a screenshot of a post published on Trump's Truth Social account earlier in the day."The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," said Trump in the screenshotted post. "I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!" You May Also Like "In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk wrote on X.SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft are a family of vehicles designed to carry passengers and cargo. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has previously relied upon them to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Mere hours prior to Musk's announcement, SpaceX posted on X that it was preparing to launch a Dragon next Tuesday.For a few hours, it seemed reasonable to assume that this launch would now not go ahead. However, Musk then appeared to quickly walk back his decision. Responding to an X user advising him to "cool off and take a step back for a couple days," the billionaire subsequently stated that Dragon will not be decommissioned after all.It's unclear whether Musk's initial announcement was sincere, or whether his apparent about-face might be sarcastic. Musk has a history of making flippant comments online with no apparent regard to their consequences. What is clear is that Musk and Trump's relationship is well past the honeymoon phase, and now looks much more like an ugly divorce.If Trump does terminate government contracts with Musk's companies, it would deal a significant blow to the billionaire. According to a Washington Post investigation, NASA has invested over $15 billion in SpaceX alone. When put together with Musk's other companies such as EV automaker Tesla, his various businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits. 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! Musk and Trump go through messy public breakup Credit: Roberto Schmidt / AFP via Getty Images Musk's relationship with Trump has significantly deteriorated in recent days. The billionaire announced that he was leaving his position as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) last Wednesday, just one day after he criticised Trump's tax bill as undermining its work. The split was presented as amicable at the time, with Trump presenting Musk with a golden key and words of praise. However, their love affair has quickly turned sour.Musk continued to lambast Trump's bill after his departure from DOGE, arguing that it will increase government debt by trillions of dollars. Strongly disagreeing with the president's characterisation of the proposed legislation as a "Big Beautiful Bill," Musk labelled it a "disgusting abomination" and has been calling for lawmakers to crush it.For his part, Trump has claimed that Musk is simply throwing a tantrum because the bill supposedly cut an alleged "EV mandate." The president stated on Thursday that he had asked the billionaire to leave his administration, and that Musk had been "wearing thin.""I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" Trump claimed. Despite Trump's assertions, he did not abolish any EV mandate as there has never been any U.S. law which makes switching to an electric car mandatory. However, Trump has taken several anti-EV measures since his inauguration, including abolishing incentives encouraging EV adoption, pausing $3 billion in funding for a U.S. charging network, and introducing a $250 annual fee for EV users in his recent tax bill. Related Stories Trump's claim about Musk is an interesting contrast to his statements in March, when he praised the billionaire for not complaining about the supposed end of the non-existent EV mandate. The president made the comments while he and Musk co-hosted a Tesla ad on the White House lawn in an effort to boost the company's cratering stock prices.Tesla's struggling share value has now fallen again amidst Musk's feud with Trump, plummeting more than 14 percent on Thursday to wipe out over $150 billion in value."I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago," Trump wrote on Thursday.Meanwhile, Musk went all-in attacking Trump on Thursday, claiming that the president is linked to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sharing posts calling for him to be impeached. Musk has also hit out at Trump's tariffs on international trade, predicting that they will "cause a recession in the second half of the year.""Without me, Trump would have lost the election," Musk alleged on X. "Such ingratitude."

Billionaire Elon Musk has countered president Donald Trump's threat to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," in spectacular fashion: by threatening to cut off the United States' access to outer space."In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately," Musk tweeted.But it didn't take him long to blink. A few hours later — and after the publication of this story — Musk reversed course, agreeing to "cool off" and saying that "we won't decommission Dragon."That's not surprising. As executives at SpaceX no doubt desperately tried to explain to him after the dustup, the company would be in terrible danger without all the money it gets from NASA.And if Musk were to make good on his threat, the United States' space program could experience a setback of epic proportions. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has quickly become the de facto method for NASA astronauts to travel to the International Space Station.In other words, the threat could prevent American astronauts from visiting the space station — especially considering that the only other American option, Boeing's Starliner, is likely still years away from becoming a viable alternative, if ever.It was a significant escalation in a major falling out between the world's most powerful man and its richest one. The pair have been openly feuding about Trump's so-called "big, beautiful bill," culminating in threats and personal attacks.The collateral damage of the feud could be enormous, particularly for the US space program.Ars Technica's Eric Berger suggested that Trump ripping up Musk's government contracts "would both end the International Space Station and simultaneously provide no way to safely deorbit it.""This just gets better and better," Musk replied in a laughing emoji-laden tweet. "Go ahead, make my day…"The news comes after the Trump administration abruptly pulled its nominee for the NASA administrator role, Jared Isaacman.Isaacman, who was hand-picked by Musk, has been to space twice with the help of SpaceX.The news greatly angered Musk, causing him to go on a crusade against Trump's tax bill.Musk's latest threats to decommission SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft could put the Trump administration and NASA in an extremely unfortunate position. Apart from Boeing's much-maligned Starliner, which has yet to complete a successful crewed mission to the ISS, the only alternative to send astronauts to the space station is Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.While the station's days are already numbered — NASA recently awarded SpaceX a contract to decommission the orbital lab in 2030 — continuing operations could prove extremely difficult without Dragon.But whether Musk will make good on his threat remains to be seen, especially considering the billionaire has a lengthy track record of making empty promises.Apart from vowing to decommission Dragon, Musk also attempted to smear Trump's name by arguing that he's "in the Epstein files.""This is the real reason they have not been made public," he tweeted. "Have a nice day, DJT!"Musk is clearly out for blood, even officially calling for Trump to be impeached and replaced by his vice president JD Vance.Who will emerge victorious is anybody's guess. If there's one certainty, it won't be NASA. The agency is expected to be hit by brutal cuts that could lay waste to dozens of space missions.Share This Article

Published June 2, 2025 10:00am EDT close 'CyberGuy' warns of cyberscams costing Americans billions a year Tech expert Kurt Knutsson joins "Fox & Friends" to warn of new cyberscams and give tips on how to avoid them. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Given the number of phishing scams we have all faced over the past decade, most of us have developed a basic skill to spot and avoid obvious phishing emails or SMS messages. Cybercriminals are aware of this, and they have evolved their tactics by shifting to more complex and convincing schemes designed to bypass skepticism and lure victims.Their goal remains the same: to trick you into handing over sensitive information, especially credit card data. One of the latest examples is the rise in subscription scam campaigns. Scammers are creating incredibly convincing websites selling everything from shoes and clothes to electronics, tricking people into signing up for monthly subscriptions and willingly providing their credit card information. Facebook is being used as the primary platform to promote these new and sophisticated scams. A woman shopping online (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)What you need to knowBitdefender researchers have uncovered a massive and highly coordinated subscription scam campaign involving more than 200 active websites designed to look like real online stores. These sites, often promoted through Facebook ads, sell everything from clothes and electronics to beauty products, but the real goal is to trick users into signing up for recurring payments, often without realizing it.One of the most common lures is the "mystery box" scam, where you are promised a surprise package at a bargain price. These offers are made to look fun and harmless, but behind the scenes you are giving away personal and credit card information while unknowingly agreeing to hidden subscription terms, often written in tiny fine print.The scam doesn’t stop there. Once you’re convinced and reach the checkout page, scammers often layer in a second scam, like loyalty cards or VIP memberships that further lock you into payments. It’s all designed to confuse you, overwhelm you with supposed perks and make the scam feel like a good deal.Researchers found that many of these websites share a single Cyprus address, possibly tied to offshore entities linked to the Paradise Papers. Despite being spread across different categories and brand names, the sites often use the same layouts, AI agents and payment structures, all pointing to a centralized fraud network.Scammers frequently rotate the brands they impersonate and have started moving beyond mystery boxes, now peddling low-quality products, counterfeit goods, fake investment schemes, dubious supplements and more. To avoid automatic detection, they employ several tactics. These include running multiple versions of an ad, with only one of which is actually malicious while the others display harmless product images, uploading ad images from platforms like Google Drive so they can be swapped out later and cropping visuals to alter recognizable patterns. Listing fake products (Bitdefender) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)The scam is expandingWhat started with simple "mystery box" scams has grown into a sprawling, coordinated campaign. These scams now feature fake surveys, tiered "VIP" memberships and deceptive credit systems that make the purchase process intentionally confusing. Users are promised deep discounts or access to exclusive deals, but in reality they’re just being locked into recurring payments.Many of the scam websites trace back to the same physical address in Cyprus, pointing to what appears to be a centralized operation. Researchers also found links to entities mentioned in the Paradise Papers, suggesting these fraudsters are hiding behind offshore infrastructure.And it’s not just mystery boxes anymore. The same scam format is being used to sell low-quality goods, fake supplements and even bogus investment opportunities. With high-quality site design, aggressive advertising and increasingly sophisticated tactics, subscription scams are becoming the new face of online fraud. A person shopping online (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)10 proactive measures to take to protect your dataEven as scammers become more sophisticated, there are practical steps you can take right now to protect your personal and financial information from subscription fraud and other online threats. Here are ten proactive measures to help keep your data safe:1) Always read the fine print: One of the simplest yet most effective ways to protect yourself from subscription scams is to slow down and read the fine print, especially on checkout pages. Scammers often hide recurring payment terms in small or lightly colored text that’s easy to miss. What seems like a one-time purchase could actually sign you up for a biweekly or monthly charge. Taking just a moment to scan for hidden terms before hitting "Pay" can help you avoid weeks of silent billing.2) Avoid mystery box or VIP-style deals: These offers often prey on curiosity and the promise of surprise or luxury for a low fee. In reality, the "mystery" is the trap: you might receive nothing or a low-quality item while being unknowingly enrolled in a recurring subscription. Scammers use the illusion of exclusivity or urgency to pressure quick decisions.3) Don’t trust ads blindly on social media: Facebook, Instagram and other platforms are a hotbed for these scams, with criminals running paid ads that mimic well-known brands or influencers. These ads often link to professional-looking but fake storefronts. If you’re interested in a deal you see online, don’t click through immediately. Instead, look up the brand or offer in a separate tab and check if it exists outside social media.4) Investigate before you buy: Before purchasing from any unfamiliar site, take a few quick steps to verify its legitimacy. Search the brand's name alongside words like "scam" or "reviews" to see what others have experienced. Look up the company's physical address and check if it actually exists using tools like Google Maps. Make sure the website uses HTTPS, review the site's contact information and cross-check reviews on trusted third-party sites like the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Reports.5) Use strong antivirus software: Adding a strong antivirus program to your devices can provide an extra layer of defense against fraudulent websites and phishing attempts. Strong antivirus software warns you about suspicious links, blocks malicious ads and scans downloads for malware. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.6) Invest in personal data removal services: Scammers often rely on leaked or publicly available personal information to target victims with convincing subscription scams. Investing in a personal data removal service can help minimize your digital footprint by removing your information from data broker databases and reducing the chances of being targeted in future campaigns. Regularly monitoring and cleaning up your online presence makes it harder for fraudsters to exploit your data for financial gain. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web.7) Be cautious with payment methods: Use secure payment options like credit cards, which often offer better fraud protection than wire transfers, gift cards or cryptocurrency.8) Limit personal information shared on social media: Scammers often gather details from public profiles to craft convincing scams. Review your privacy settings and only share necessary information.9) Use strong, unique passwords and enable multifactor authentication: Create strong, unique passwords for each of your online accounts, especially those tied to your finances or shopping. Enable multifactor authentication wherever possible, as this adds an extra layer of security and makes it harder for scammers to access your accounts, even if your password is compromised. Also, consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 here.10) Keep your devices and software updated: Regularly update your operating system, browsers and apps. Security updates often patch vulnerabilities that scammers exploit to gain access to your information or install malicious software.Kurt’s key takeawayWhile the rise of subscription scams and deceptive ads is concerning, it’s especially troubling that platforms like Facebook continue to allow these fraudulent ads to run unchecked. Facebook has repeatedly failed to adequately vet or prevent these malicious campaigns from reaching vulnerable individuals. The platform’s ad approval system should be more proactive in spotting and blocking ads promoting scams, particularly those that impersonate well-known brands or content creators. How do you feel about Facebook’s role in allowing scam ads to circulate? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

While there’s more than one way to format Unity C# code, agreeing on a consistent code style for your project enables your team to develop a clean, readable, and scalable codebase. In this blog, we provide some guidelines and examples you can use to develop and maintain your own code style guide.Please note that these are only recommendations based on those provided by Microsoft. This is your chance to get inspired and decide what works best for your team.Ideally, a Unity project should feel like it’s been developed by a single author, no matter how many developers actually work on it. A style guide can help unify your approach for creating a more cohesive codebase.It’s a good idea to follow industry standards wherever possible and browse through existing style guides as a starting point for creating your own. In partnership with internal and external Unity experts, we released a new e-book, Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales for inspiration, based on Microsoft’s comprehensive C# style.The Google C# style guide is another great resource for defining guidelines around naming, formatting, and commenting conventions. Again, there is no right or wrong method, but we chose to follow Microsoft standards for our own guide.Our e-book, along with an example C# file, are available for free. Both resources focus on the most common coding conventions you’ll encounter while developing in Unity. These are all, essentially, a subset of the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines, which include an extensive number of best practices beyond what we cover in this post.We recommend customizing the guidelines provided in our style guide to suit your team’s preferences. These preferences should be prioritized over our suggestions and the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines if they’re in conflict.The development of a style guide requires an upfront investment but will pay dividends later. For example, managing a single set of standards can reduce the time developers spend on ramping up if they move onto another project.Of course, consistency is key. If you follow these suggestions and need to modify your style guide in the future, a few find-and-replace operations can quickly migrate your codebase.Concentrate on creating a pragmatic style guide that fits your needs by covering the majority of day-to-day use cases. Don’t overengineer it by attempting to account for every single edge case from the start. The guide will evolve organically over time as your team iterates on it from project to project.Most style guides include basic formatting rules. Meanwhile, specific naming conventions, policy on use of namespaces, and strategies for classes are somewhat abstract areas that can be refined over time.Let’s look at some common formatting and naming conventions you might consider for your style guide.The two common indentation styles in C# are the Allman style, which places the opening curly braces on a new line (also known as the BSD style from BSD Unix), and the K&R style, or “one true brace style,” which keeps the opening brace on the same line as the previous header.In an effort to improve readability, we picked the Allman style for our guide, based on the Microsoft Framework Design guidelines: Whatever style you choose, ensure that every programmer on your team follows it.A guide should also indicate whether braces from nested multiline statements should be included. While removing braces in the following example won’t throw an error, it can be confusing to read. That’s why our guide recommends applying braces for clarity, even if they are optional.Something as simple as horizontal spacing can enhance your code’s appearance onscreen. While your personal formatting preferences can vary, here are a few recommendations from our style guide to improve overall readability:Add spaces to decrease code density:The extra whitespace can give a sense of visual separation between parts of a lineUse a single space after a comma, between function arguments.Don’t add a space after the parenthesis and function arguments.Don’t use spaces between a function name and parenthesis.Avoid spaces inside brackets.Use a single space before flow control conditions: Add a space between the flow comparison operator and the parentheses.Use a single space before and after comparison operators.Variables typically represent a state, so try to attribute clear and descriptive nouns to their names. You can then prefix booleans with a verbfor variables that must indicate a true or false value. Often they are the answer to a question such as, is the player running? Is the game over? Prefix them with a verb to clarify their meaning. This is often paired with a description or condition, e.g., isPlayerDead, isWalking, hasDamageMultiplier, etc.Since methods perform actions, a good rule of thumb is to start their names with a verb and add context as needed, e.g., GetDirection, FindTarget, and so on, based on the return type. If the method has a bool return type, it can also be framed as a question.Much like boolean variables themselves, prefix methods with a verb if they return a true-false condition. This phrases them in the form of a question, e.g., IsGameOver, HasStartedTurn.Several conventions exist for naming events and event handles. In our style guide, we name the event with a verb phrase,similar to a method. Choose a name that communicates the state change accurately.Use the present or past participle to indicate events “before” or “after.” For instance, specify OpeningDoor for an event before opening a door and DoorOpened for an event afterward.We also recommend that you don’t abbreviate names. While saving a few characters can feel like a productivity gain in the short term, what is obvious to you now might not be in a year’s time to another teammate. Your variable names should reveal their intent and be easy to pronounce. Single letter variables are fine for loops and math expressions, but otherwise, you should avoid abbreviations. Clarity is more important than any time saved from omitting a few vowels.At the same time, use one variable declaration per line; it’s less compact, but also less error prone and enhances readability. Avoid redundant names. If your class is called Player, you don’t need to create member variables called PlayerScore or PlayerTarget. Trim them down to Score or Target.In addition, avoid too many prefixes or special encoding.A practice highlighted in our guide is to prefix private member variables with an underscore (_) to differentiate them from local variables. Some style guides use prefixes for private member variables (m_), constants (k_), or static variables (s_), so the name reveals more about the variable.However, it’s good practice to prefix interface names with a capital “I” and follow this with an adjective that describes the functionality. You can even prefix the event raising method (in the subject) with “On”: The subject that invokes the event usually does so from a method prefixed with “On,” e.g., OnOpeningDoor or OnDoorOpened.Camel case and Pascal case are common standards in use, compared to Snake or Kebab case, or Hungarian notations. Our guide recommends Pascal case for public fields, enums, classes, and methods, and Camel case for private variables, as this is common practice in Unity.There are many additional rules to consider outside of what’s covered here. The example guide and our new e-book, Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales, provide many more tips for better organization.The concept of clean code aims to make development more scalable by conforming to a set of production standards. A style guide should remove most of the guesswork developers would otherwise have regarding the conventions they should follow. Ultimately, this guide should help your team establish a consensus around your codebase to grow your project into a commercial-scale production.Just how comprehensive your style guide should be depends on your situation. It’s up to your team to decide if they want their guide to set rules for more abstract, intangible concepts. This could include rules for using namespaces, breaking down classes, or implementing directives like the #region directive (or not). While #region can help you collapse and hide sections of code in C# files, making large files more manageable, it’s also an example of something that many developers consider to be code smells or anti-patterns. Therefore, you might want to avoid setting strict standards for these aspects of code styling. Not everything needs to be outlined in the guide – sometimes it’s enough to simply discuss and make decisions as a team.When we talked to the experts who helped create our guide, their main piece of advice was code readability above all else. Here are some pointers on how to achieve that:Use fewer arguments: Arguments can increase the complexity of your method. By reducing their number, you make methods easier to read and test.Avoid excessive overloading: You can generate an endless permutation of method overloads. Select the few that reflect how you’ll call the method, and then implement those. If you do overload a method, prevent confusion by making sure that each method signature has a distinct number of arguments.Avoid side effects: A method only needs to do what its name advertises. Avoid modifying anything outside of its scope. Pass in arguments by value instead of reference when possible. So when sending back results via the out or ref keyword, verify that’s the one thing you intend the method to accomplish. Though side effects are useful for certain tasks, they can lead to unintended consequences. Write a method without side effects to cut down on unexpected behavior.We hope that this blog helps you kick off the development of your own style guide. Learn more from our example C# file and brand new e-book where you can review our suggested rules and customize them to your team’s preferences.The specifics of individual rules are less important than having everyone agree to follow them consistently. When in doubt, rely on your team’s own evolving guide to settle any style disagreements. After all, this is a group effort.

While Kojima Productions might be adding the finishing touches on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach leading up to the title’s June 26 release date, director Hideo Kojima has also started talking about the studio’s next project – Physint. In an interview with Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar), Kojima spoke about how he came up with the idea for Physint when he was unwell during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kojima explained that the idea to work on Physint after Death Stranding 2: On the Beach occurred to him because he believed that his fans want him to make a game like something in the Metal Gear franchise. “Of course, I have lots of new ideas that I want to create,” Kojima said. “But when I became sick during the pandemic, I realised that a lot of people wanted me to make something like Metal Gear. That’s when I had the idea for a new espionage game. I reflected, and thought the idea was good.” Kojima also spoke about discussing the concept of Physint with Sony, and the company agreeing. “We explored many options, and we agreed on doing Physint,” he said. However, it is worth noting that Physint is still likely quite some time away. The game was officially announced back in February 2024. During the announcement, Kojima had said that the title will blend various aspects of games and film together, which likely means that Physint will be more similar than not to older Metal Gear titles. “I cannot tell you so much now, but we plan to bring together cutting-edge technology and talent from around the world to create [Physint],” Kojima said. “Of course, it is an interactive game, but it is also a movie at the same time, in terms of look, story, theme, casting, acting, fashion, and sound. With this title, we hope to transcend the barriers between film and video games.” Kojima’s asistant, Ayako Terashima, has also revealed earlier this month that Physint will take “another five or six years” before it comes out. In discussing his decision to work on an espionage-based game, Kojima spoke about wanting to work on something new after leaving Konami, which he did with Death Stranding. However, the pull for him to create a new game in the vein of Metal Gear was too strong owing to fans of Kojima’s titles from all over the world. “And since [the release of Death Stranding], there have been a lot of new ideas,” Kojima said back in 2024. “But in the last eight years, every day on social media, from users all around the world, people have been asking me to create another Metal Gear and stuff like that.” “Having said that, if the users desire it so much, I thought I should change my priorities a bit. I still want to do new things, but I decided to make an action-espionage game.” Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be the next major title by the studio, after which, work is expected to begin on Physint as well as horror title OD.

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 7. With its season 2 finale, The Last of Us, the show takes viewers back to Seattle, delivering an epic final episode that ends Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) arc of the story, for now, and sets up Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever). Ellie and Dina’s (Isabela Merced) journey has only gotten more and more dangerous with violence between the W.L.F. and Seraphites continuing to ramp up. Now that Jesse (Young Mazino) and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) are in the picture, the stakes are even higher to make sure that everyone makes it back to Jackson alive. But just because more of her chosen family is in danger doesn’t mean that Ellie will give up the hunt for Abby so easily. Here’s everything that goes down in the season 2 finale of The Last of Us. Ellie’s Return The episode begins with Dina and Jesse back in the theater. Jesse is tending to Dina’s wound and realizes he has to push the arrow through her leg to avoid further damage to her arteries. Even though tensions are high, it’s clear that the two still care about each other, even if their feelings are no longer romantic. Not long after Jesse sends Dina off to rest, Ellie returns, and immediately starts looking for Dina. She finds her resting in the dressing room, and the two share a tender moment taking care of each other. Ellie checks on Dina’s wound and Dina starts to dress Ellie’s scrapes and bruises. Dina reassures Ellie that the baby is okay and asks Ellie what happened after they got separated. Ellie tells her that she found Nora, but only got two words from her to indicate where Abby is “whale” and “wheel.”  Ellie also confesses that she left Nora to die and succumb to the Cordyceps infection, and that it was easier to hurt her than she thought it was going to be. Dina tries to reassure Ellie that maybe Nora got what she deserved – Nora was the one who held Ellie down and forced her to watch Joel die after all. But Ellie isn’t so sure. She tells Dina about Salt Lake City and what she learned about that day from Nora, that Abby’s father was among the Fireflies that Joel killed. Dina is surprised by this and seems to be realizing that maybe they aren’t so different from Abby and her crew after all. She tells Ellie that they need to go home. Finding Tommy The next morning, Jesse and Ellie head off into Seattle to try and find Tommy. Jesse asks Ellie what’s up with Dina after she declined a drink the night before and insisted that she can’t die. He guesses that she’s pregnant, and Ellie accidentally confirms it, not realizing that Jesse is just guessing. This makes Jesse’s desire to go back to Jackson even stronger, and tells Ellie that now he can’t die for her revenge quest either. As the rain starts to pour, Ellie and Jesse seek refuge in a parking garage, only to nearly be caught in the crossfire between the W.L.F. and the Seraphites. The W.L.F. chase a young Seraphite into the garage, stripping him down and dragging him off. Ellie wants to intervene, stop the W.L.F. from killing the kid, but Jesse holds her back because he doesn’t want to die for a war they have no stake in.  They make it to Jesse and Tommy’s rendezvous point, a bookstore, but Tommy is nowhere to be found. Ellie picks up a children’s book to give to Dina while they wait and tries to have a heart to heart with Jesse about her and Dina’s feelings for each other. Jesse tells Ellie that he fell for a girl who came through Jackson a while back, but that he let her go to fulfill his duty to Jackson. He emphasizes the fact that he was taught to put other people first, and this sets Ellie off. But their argument is interrupted by chatter on the walkie talkie. The W.L.F. are talking about a sniper that sounds an awful lot like Tommy. The Search for Abby Ellie and Jesse go to higher ground to find a way to where Tommy might be, but Ellie gets distracted when she sees the aquarium in the distance. She sees a ferris wheel and realizes that that is likely what Nora was talking about. Jesse insists that they need to go save Tommy from the W.L.F., but Ellie argues that he’d want her to follow this lead. She becomes singularly focused, pushing Jesse to let her follow this lead. Jesse tells her that he voted no back in Jackson because he could see the selfishness in Ellie’s plan, and that it wasn’t for the good of the community. Ellie fights back, saying that Jesse isn’t morally superior just because he puts others first. He let a kid die earlier because he wasn’t in their community. She tells him that she had to watch her community beaten to death in front of her, and that Jesse would do the same if he was in her shoes. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The two part ways, and Ellie makes her way to the aquarium on her own, nearly dying by both the stormy weather and a group of zealous Seraphites along the way. But despite all of the dangers she encounters in her path, she makes it to the aquarium, finding not Abby, but Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer) instead. The two are arguing about whether or not to go after Abby, wherever she’s gone, and don’t notice that Ellie’s there until it’s too late. She tries to get them to point to Abby’s location on the map, as Joel has done before, but Owen reaches for a gun under the table. Ellie reacts, shooting him in the neck. The bullet goes through him and nicks Mel’s neck accidentally. Ellie panics, rushing to Mel’s side as she gives Ellie instructions to try and save her unborn child. Ellie is clearly shaken, sitting there holding her knife as Mel bleeds out. Tommy and Jesse eventually rush in, taking in the carnage. Tommy holds Ellie and tries to comfort her while Jesse is visibly shaken, as though he knows that this could be him and Dina if they stay in Seattle much longer. What Are the W.L.F. Planning? Meanwhile, the W.L.F. seem to be using the cover of the rainstorm to plan an assault on the Seraphites. On top of planning this, Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) is also looking for Abby, confessing to Sergeant Park that he’s been planning for her to take over the W.L.F. after him. He seems ready to die for his crusade against the Seraphites and wants someone he can trust to lead the army after his death.  It’s fortuitous for Ellie that Isaac is planning this raid. On her way to the Aquarium, she gets caught by a group of Seraphites that are ready to hang and gut her like a fish, until they hear alarm bells from their village. Anyone who is familiar with The Last of Us Part II knows that this attack on the Seraphites plays a big role in Abby’s story and will likely be featured more in-depth next season. Theater Showdown Jesse, Tommy, and Ellie make it back to the theater in one piece, the W.L.F. and Seraphites presumably too distracted by their conflict to pay them much mind. Tommy and Jesse start planning the journey back to Jackson, agreeing to leave as soon as the rain lets up enough to transport Dina safely. Tommy tries to reassure Ellie that Owen and Mel made their choice when they helped Abby kill Joel, and leaves for the lobby to pack. Ellie still doesn’t seem quite ready to leave Seattle with Abby still out there, but has seemed to finally realize how much danger she’s putting the others in by staying.  She and Jesse have a heart to heart and Ellie actually apologizes to Jesse for leaving him behind. Jesse accepts her apology, saying that he knows that she would “set the world on fire” to save him too. Their heartfelt moment is unfortunately short-lived, as they both hear a violent commotion out in the lobby. They rush through the doors, and Jesse is immediately shot dead. Realizing that Abby has found them, she tosses her gun to the side and puts her hands in the air. She pleads with Abby to let Tommy go, not wanting to watch Abby kill another person she loves. Abby tells Ellie that she wasted the second chance she gave her and the screen cuts to black as we hear a gunshot in the background. We’ll likely have to wait until next season to see who fired the gun and who or what was shot. Seattle Day One: Abby Edition The episode ends by going back in time a few days. We see Abby wake up to news that Isaac wants to meet with her. She walks around what appears to be a W.L.F. base of some sort, and the final shot of the episode includes Abby looking out into an old stadium that has now been fashioned into a home.  In The Last of Us Part II, this is where players pick up Abby’s story again and get to control her as a true protagonist of the game. The game follows her over the course of the same three days that we’ve been following Ellie in Seattle, and her arc and perspective are just as important to this story as Ellie’s are. Abby has been a controversial character in the games, but hopefully viewers will keep an open mind as the show transitions to Abby’s side of the story next season.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More We’re seeing AI evolve fast. It’s no longer just about building a single, super-smart model. The real power, and the exciting frontier, lies in getting multiple specialized AI agents to work together. Think of them as a team of expert colleagues, each with their own skills — one analyzes data, another interacts with customers, a third manages logistics, and so on. Getting this team to collaborate seamlessly, as envisioned by various industry discussions and enabled by modern platforms, is where the magic happens. But let’s be real: Coordinating a bunch of independent, sometimes quirky, AI agents is hard. It’s not just building cool individual agents; it’s the messy middle bit — the orchestration — that can make or break the system. When you have agents that are relying on each other, acting asynchronously and potentially failing independently, you’re not just building software; you’re conducting a complex orchestra. This is where solid architectural blueprints come in. We need patterns designed for reliability and scale right from the start. The knotty problem of agent collaboration Why is orchestrating multi-agent systems such a challenge? Well, for starters: They’re independent: Unlike functions being called in a program, agents often have their own internal loops, goals and states. They don’t just wait patiently for instructions. Communication gets complicated: It’s not just Agent A talking to Agent B. Agent A might broadcast info Agent C and D care about, while Agent B is waiting for a signal from E before telling F something. They need to have a shared brain (state): How do they all agree on the “truth” of what’s happening? If Agent A updates a record, how does Agent B know about it reliably and quickly? Stale or conflicting information is a killer. Failure is inevitable: An agent crashes. A message gets lost. An external service call times out. When one part of the system falls over, you don’t want the whole thing grinding to a halt or, worse, doing the wrong thing. Consistency can be difficult: How do you ensure that a complex, multi-step process involving several agents actually reaches a valid final state? This isn’t easy when operations are distributed and asynchronous. Simply put, the combinatorial complexity explodes as you add more agents and interactions. Without a solid plan, debugging becomes a nightmare, and the system feels fragile. Picking your orchestration playbook How you decide agents coordinate their work is perhaps the most fundamental architectural choice. Here are a few frameworks: The conductor (hierarchical): This is like a traditional symphony orchestra. You have a main orchestrator (the conductor) that dictates the flow, tells specific agents (musicians) when to perform their piece, and brings it all together. This allows for: Clear workflows, execution that is easy to trace, straightforward control; it is simpler for smaller or less dynamic systems. Watch out for: The conductor can become a bottleneck or a single point of failure. This scenario is less flexible if you need agents to react dynamically or work without constant oversight. The jazz ensemble (federated/decentralized): Here, agents coordinate more directly with each other based on shared signals or rules, much like musicians in a jazz band improvising based on cues from each other and a common theme. There might be shared resources or event streams, but no central boss micro-managing every note. This allows for: Resilience (if one musician stops, the others can often continue), scalability, adaptability to changing conditions, more emergent behaviors. What to consider: It can be harder to understand the overall flow, debugging is tricky (“Why did that agent do that then?”) and ensuring global consistency requires careful design. Many real-world multi-agent systems (MAS) end up being a hybrid — perhaps a high-level orchestrator sets the stage; then groups of agents within that structure coordinate decentrally. For agents to collaborate effectively, they often need a shared view of the world, or at least the parts relevant to their task. This could be the current status of a customer order, a shared knowledge base of product information or the collective progress towards a goal. Keeping this “collective brain” consistent and accessible across distributed agents is tough. Architectural patterns we lean on: The central library (centralized knowledge base): A single, authoritative place (like a database or a dedicated knowledge service) where all shared information lives. Agents check books out (read) and return them (write). Pro: Single source of truth, easier to enforce consistency. Con: Can get hammered with requests, potentially slowing things down or becoming a choke point. Must be seriously robust and scalable. Distributed notes (distributed cache): Agents keep local copies of frequently needed info for speed, backed by the central library. Pro: Faster reads. Con: How do you know if your copy is up-to-date? Cache invalidation and consistency become significant architectural puzzles. Shouting updates (message passing): Instead of agents constantly asking the library, the library (or other agents) shouts out “Hey, this piece of info changed!” via messages. Agents listen for updates they care about and update their own notes. Pro: Agents are decoupled, which is good for event-driven patterns. Con: Ensuring everyone gets the message and handles it correctly adds complexity. What if a message is lost? The right choice depends on how critical up-to-the-second consistency is, versus how much performance you need. Building for when stuff goes wrong (error handling and recovery) It’s not if an agent fails, it’s when. Your architecture needs to anticipate this. Think about: Watchdogs (supervision): This means having components whose job it is to simply watch other agents. If an agent goes quiet or starts acting weird, the watchdog can try restarting it or alerting the system. Try again, but be smart (retries and idempotency): If an agent’s action fails, it should often just try again. But, this only works if the action is idempotent. That means doing it five times has the exact same result as doing it once (like setting a value, not incrementing it). If actions aren’t idempotent, retries can cause chaos. Cleaning up messes (compensation): If Agent A did something successfully, but Agent B (a later step in the process) failed, you might need to “undo” Agent A’s work. Patterns like Sagas help coordinate these multi-step, compensable workflows. Knowing where you were (workflow state): Keeping a persistent log of the overall process helps. If the system goes down mid-workflow, it can pick up from the last known good step rather than starting over. Building firewalls (circuit breakers and bulkheads): These patterns prevent a failure in one agent or service from overloading or crashing others, containing the damage. Making sure the job gets done right (consistent task execution) Even with individual agent reliability, you need confidence that the entire collaborative task finishes correctly. Consider: Atomic-ish operations: While true ACID transactions are hard with distributed agents, you can design workflows to behave as close to atomically as possible using patterns like Sagas. The unchanging logbook (event sourcing): Record every significant action and state change as an event in an immutable log. This gives you a perfect history, makes state reconstruction easy, and is great for auditing and debugging. Agreeing on reality (consensus): For critical decisions, you might need agents to agree before proceeding. This can involve simple voting mechanisms or more complex distributed consensus algorithms if trust or coordination is particularly challenging. Checking the work (validation): Build steps into your workflow to validate the output or state after an agent completes its task. If something looks wrong, trigger a reconciliation or correction process. The best architecture needs the right foundation. The post office (message queues/brokers like Kafka or RabbitMQ): This is absolutely essential for decoupling agents. They send messages to the queue; agents interested in those messages pick them up. This enables asynchronous communication, handles traffic spikes and is key for resilient distributed systems. The shared filing cabinet (knowledge stores/databases): This is where your shared state lives. Choose the right type (relational, NoSQL, graph) based on your data structure and access patterns. This must be performant and highly available. The X-ray machine (observability platforms): Logs, metrics, tracing – you need these. Debugging distributed systems is notoriously hard. Being able to see exactly what every agent was doing, when and how they were interacting is non-negotiable. The directory (agent registry): How do agents find each other or discover the services they need? A central registry helps manage this complexity. The playground (containerization and orchestration like Kubernetes): This is how you actually deploy, manage and scale all those individual agent instances reliably. How do agents chat? (Communication protocol choices) The way agents talk impacts everything from performance to how tightly coupled they are. Your standard phone call (REST/HTTP): This is simple, works everywhere and good for basic request/response. But it can feel a bit chatty and can be less efficient for high volume or complex data structures. The structured conference call (gRPC): This uses efficient data formats, supports different call types including streaming and is type-safe. It is great for performance but requires defining service contracts. The bulletin board (message queues — protocols like AMQP, MQTT): Agents post messages to topics; other agents subscribe to topics they care about. This is asynchronous, highly scalable and completely decouples senders from receivers. Direct line (RPC — less common): Agents call functions directly on other agents. This is fast, but creates very tight coupling — agent need to know exactly who they’re calling and where they are. Choose the protocol that fits the interaction pattern. Is it a direct request? A broadcast event? A stream of data? Putting it all together Building reliable, scalable multi-agent systems isn’t about finding a magic bullet; it’s about making smart architectural choices based on your specific needs. Will you lean more hierarchical for control or federated for resilience? How will you manage that crucial shared state? What’s your plan for when (not if) an agent goes down? What infrastructure pieces are non-negotiable? It’s complex, yes, but by focusing on these architectural blueprints — orchestrating interactions, managing shared knowledge, planning for failure, ensuring consistency and building on a solid infrastructure foundation — you can tame the complexity and build the robust, intelligent systems that will drive the next wave of enterprise AI. Nikhil Gupta is the AI product management leader/staff product manager at Atlassian. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More We’re seeing AI evolve fast. It’s no longer just about building a single, super-smart model. The real power, and the exciting frontier, lies in getting multiple specialized AI agents to work together. Think of them as a team of expert colleagues, each with their own skills — one analyzes data, another interacts with customers, a third manages logistics, and so on. Getting this team to collaborate seamlessly, as envisioned by various industry discussions and enabled by modern platforms, is where the magic happens. But let’s be real: Coordinating a bunch of independent, sometimes quirky, AI agents is hard. It’s not just building cool individual agents; it’s the messy middle bit — the orchestration — that can make or break the system. When you have agents that are relying on each other, acting asynchronously and potentially failing independently, you’re not just building software; you’re conducting a complex orchestra. This is where solid architectural blueprints come in. We need patterns designed for reliability and scale right from the start. The knotty problem of agent collaboration Why is orchestrating multi-agent systems such a challenge? Well, for starters: They’re independent: Unlike functions being called in a program, agents often have their own internal loops, goals and states. They don’t just wait patiently for instructions. Communication gets complicated: It’s not just Agent A talking to Agent B. Agent A might broadcast info Agent C and D care about, while Agent B is waiting for a signal from E before telling F something. They need to have a shared brain (state): How do they all agree on the “truth” of what’s happening? If Agent A updates a record, how does Agent B know about it reliably and quickly? Stale or conflicting information is a killer. Failure is inevitable: An agent crashes. A message gets lost. An external service call times out. When one part of the system falls over, you don’t want the whole thing grinding to a halt or, worse, doing the wrong thing. Consistency can be difficult: How do you ensure that a complex, multi-step process involving several agents actually reaches a valid final state? This isn’t easy when operations are distributed and asynchronous. Simply put, the combinatorial complexity explodes as you add more agents and interactions. Without a solid plan, debugging becomes a nightmare, and the system feels fragile. Picking your orchestration playbook How you decide agents coordinate their work is perhaps the most fundamental architectural choice. Here are a few frameworks: The conductor (hierarchical): This is like a traditional symphony orchestra. You have a main orchestrator (the conductor) that dictates the flow, tells specific agents (musicians) when to perform their piece, and brings it all together. This allows for: Clear workflows, execution that is easy to trace, straightforward control; it is simpler for smaller or less dynamic systems. Watch out for: The conductor can become a bottleneck or a single point of failure. This scenario is less flexible if you need agents to react dynamically or work without constant oversight. The jazz ensemble (federated/decentralized): Here, agents coordinate more directly with each other based on shared signals or rules, much like musicians in a jazz band improvising based on cues from each other and a common theme. There might be shared resources or event streams, but no central boss micro-managing every note. This allows for: Resilience (if one musician stops, the others can often continue), scalability, adaptability to changing conditions, more emergent behaviors. What to consider: It can be harder to understand the overall flow, debugging is tricky (“Why did that agent do that then?”) and ensuring global consistency requires careful design. Many real-world multi-agent systems (MAS) end up being a hybrid — perhaps a high-level orchestrator sets the stage; then groups of agents within that structure coordinate decentrally. For agents to collaborate effectively, they often need a shared view of the world, or at least the parts relevant to their task. This could be the current status of a customer order, a shared knowledge base of product information or the collective progress towards a goal. Keeping this “collective brain” consistent and accessible across distributed agents is tough. Architectural patterns we lean on: The central library (centralized knowledge base): A single, authoritative place (like a database or a dedicated knowledge service) where all shared information lives. Agents check books out (read) and return them (write). Pro: Single source of truth, easier to enforce consistency. Con: Can get hammered with requests, potentially slowing things down or becoming a choke point. Must be seriously robust and scalable. Distributed notes (distributed cache): Agents keep local copies of frequently needed info for speed, backed by the central library. Pro: Faster reads. Con: How do you know if your copy is up-to-date? Cache invalidation and consistency become significant architectural puzzles. Shouting updates (message passing): Instead of agents constantly asking the library, the library (or other agents) shouts out “Hey, this piece of info changed!” via messages. Agents listen for updates they care about and update their own notes. Pro: Agents are decoupled, which is good for event-driven patterns. Con: Ensuring everyone gets the message and handles it correctly adds complexity. What if a message is lost? The right choice depends on how critical up-to-the-second consistency is, versus how much performance you need. Building for when stuff goes wrong (error handling and recovery) It’s not if an agent fails, it’s when. Your architecture needs to anticipate this. Think about: Watchdogs (supervision): This means having components whose job it is to simply watch other agents. If an agent goes quiet or starts acting weird, the watchdog can try restarting it or alerting the system. Try again, but be smart (retries and idempotency): If an agent’s action fails, it should often just try again. But, this only works if the action is idempotent. That means doing it five times has the exact same result as doing it once (like setting a value, not incrementing it). If actions aren’t idempotent, retries can cause chaos. Cleaning up messes (compensation): If Agent A did something successfully, but Agent B (a later step in the process) failed, you might need to “undo” Agent A’s work. Patterns like Sagas help coordinate these multi-step, compensable workflows. Knowing where you were (workflow state): Keeping a persistent log of the overall process helps. If the system goes down mid-workflow, it can pick up from the last known good step rather than starting over. Building firewalls (circuit breakers and bulkheads): These patterns prevent a failure in one agent or service from overloading or crashing others, containing the damage. Making sure the job gets done right (consistent task execution) Even with individual agent reliability, you need confidence that the entire collaborative task finishes correctly. Consider: Atomic-ish operations: While true ACID transactions are hard with distributed agents, you can design workflows to behave as close to atomically as possible using patterns like Sagas. The unchanging logbook (event sourcing): Record every significant action and state change as an event in an immutable log. This gives you a perfect history, makes state reconstruction easy, and is great for auditing and debugging. Agreeing on reality (consensus): For critical decisions, you might need agents to agree before proceeding. This can involve simple voting mechanisms or more complex distributed consensus algorithms if trust or coordination is particularly challenging. Checking the work (validation): Build steps into your workflow to validate the output or state after an agent completes its task. If something looks wrong, trigger a reconciliation or correction process. The best architecture needs the right foundation. The post office (message queues/brokers like Kafka or RabbitMQ): This is absolutely essential for decoupling agents. They send messages to the queue; agents interested in those messages pick them up. This enables asynchronous communication, handles traffic spikes and is key for resilient distributed systems. The shared filing cabinet (knowledge stores/databases): This is where your shared state lives. Choose the right type (relational, NoSQL, graph) based on your data structure and access patterns. This must be performant and highly available. The X-ray machine (observability platforms): Logs, metrics, tracing – you need these. Debugging distributed systems is notoriously hard. Being able to see exactly what every agent was doing, when and how they were interacting is non-negotiable. The directory (agent registry): How do agents find each other or discover the services they need? A central registry helps manage this complexity. The playground (containerization and orchestration like Kubernetes): This is how you actually deploy, manage and scale all those individual agent instances reliably. How do agents chat? (Communication protocol choices) The way agents talk impacts everything from performance to how tightly coupled they are. Your standard phone call (REST/HTTP): This is simple, works everywhere and good for basic request/response. But it can feel a bit chatty and can be less efficient for high volume or complex data structures. The structured conference call (gRPC): This uses efficient data formats, supports different call types including streaming and is type-safe. It is great for performance but requires defining service contracts. The bulletin board (message queues — protocols like AMQP, MQTT): Agents post messages to topics; other agents subscribe to topics they care about. This is asynchronous, highly scalable and completely decouples senders from receivers. Direct line (RPC — less common): Agents call functions directly on other agents. This is fast, but creates very tight coupling — agent need to know exactly who they’re calling and where they are. Choose the protocol that fits the interaction pattern. Is it a direct request? A broadcast event? A stream of data? Putting it all together Building reliable, scalable multi-agent systems isn’t about finding a magic bullet; it’s about making smart architectural choices based on your specific needs. Will you lean more hierarchical for control or federated for resilience? How will you manage that crucial shared state? What’s your plan for when (not if) an agent goes down? What infrastructure pieces are non-negotiable? It’s complex, yes, but by focusing on these architectural blueprints — orchestrating interactions, managing shared knowledge, planning for failure, ensuring consistency and building on a solid infrastructure foundation — you can tame the complexity and build the robust, intelligent systems that will drive the next wave of enterprise AI. Nikhil Gupta is the AI product management leader/staff product manager at Atlassian. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

What just happened? The Hanover Administrative Court has issued a ruling that sharpens digital privacy protections in Germany. The decision requires websites to offer users a clear, easy, and genuine choice on cookie consent. Manipulative consent banners that push users toward accepting cookies are not just unfair – they violate German and European data protection laws. Lower Saxony Data Protection Officer Denis Lehmkemper has won a legal battle in his push for fairer digital privacy practices in Germany. The Hanover Administrative Court ruled that websites must display a clearly visible "reject all" button on cookie banners if they offer an "accept all" option. The recently unsealed March 19 decision aims to curb manipulative designs that pressure users into consenting to cookies and reinforces the principle that users deserve a clear, genuine choice. The case that led to this landmark decision centered on NOZ (Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung), a major media company in Lower Saxony. Lehmkemper's office ordered NOZ to redesign its cookie banner, arguing it failed to obtain valid, informed, and voluntary user consent before placing cookies and processing personal data. NOZ challenged the order, insisting its consent process was effective, did not involve personal data processing, and that cookie compliance was outside the data protection authority's jurisdiction. After reviewing the case, the court sided with the data protection authority. Judges ruled that NOZ's cookie banner made rejecting cookies significantly harder than accepting them. Users faced repeated consent prompts, and the banner's language – such as the headline "optimal user experience" and the "accept and close" button – misled users. It omitted any mention of the word "consent," and buried information about third-party partners and cross-border data transfers behind scrolling. The court concluded that NOZ failed to obtain the informed, voluntary, and unambiguous consent required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It ruled that consent secured through manipulative design is invalid, violating both the Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act and the GDPR. // Related Stories The judgment reinforces that websites must not nudge users into agreeing to cookies or make refusal unnecessarily difficult. Instead, the option to reject all must be as prominent and accessible as "accept all." Lehmkemper welcomed the court's ruling, hoping it would set a precedent for other website operators. He acknowledged that many find cookie banners frustrating but emphasized their importance in safeguarding online privacy. The decision should prompt more providers to adopt consent solutions that comply with data protection standards. Recent audits by data protection authorities, such as the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, found many websites still use cookie banners that fall short of legal standards, often making it easier to accept cookies than to reject them. The Hanover court's ruling should push website operators to improve consent mechanisms and uphold online privacy rights.

doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,141 Many thanks to MoonlitSeer for the more accurate screenshots taken from Twitter. You can cross-reference these with his account on there for yourself. I won't be linking to it here, since it's (rightfully so) a banned source. Apparently also, Twitter now only shows a selection of follows, so the original screenshot from Reddit may well still be accurate, but this one is at least more verifiable currently.   Savinowned Member Oct 25, 2017 1,493 Nashville, TN That's a bummer. Do we have any history of him saying sketchy stuff? I loved the last rematch beta and was excited to play the upcoming one next weekend   MoonlitSeer Fallen Guardian Member Jun 9, 2023 1,977 I'll just add that I was in the process of cross-referencing these with the prior post when the topic was locked. I personally checked all of the ones listed here and can verify they are accurate as of about 30 minutes prior from the time of this post.   Rosebud Two Pieces Member Apr 16, 2018 51,258 .   OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,141 MoonlitSeer said: I'll just add that I was in the process of cross-referencing these with the prior post when the topic was locked. I personally checked all of the ones listed here and can verify they are accurate as of about 30 minutes from the time of this post. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Appreciate you! ❤️  CaptainFreud Banned Aug 19, 2022 8 User banned (permanent): Troll account Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests.   skillzilla81 "This guy are sick" The Fallen Oct 25, 2017 11,316 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Good for you.  Nocturne Member Oct 25, 2017 2,217 thanks for the heads-up. know a couple people who sounded interested in this game who'd probably wanna know about something like this.   Firmus_Anguis AVALANCHE Member Oct 30, 2017 8,491 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... That's all you got? Ya'll are getting so incredibly predictable. Just report and move on, people. Incoming permaban.  Qwark Member Oct 27, 2017 10,251 Incredibly disappointing. Another one to avoid.   DanDanderson Member May 7, 2024 298 As a general note, this is not only the creative director but also a co-founder of the studio. MoonlitSeer said: I'll just add that I was in the process of cross-referencing these with the prior post when the topic was locked. I personally checked all of the ones listed here and can verify they are accurate as of about 30 minutes prior from the time of this post. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Same. The original screenshot is accurate. You don't see all followers on Twitter, and the ones you do see change - it's not a static list. He does follow all the people in the original screenshot including RadioGenoa and Grummz.  Bricks "This guy are sick" Member Nov 6, 2017 746 Well, I got Sifu for free from the Epic Games Store, so... that's fine, I guess? Who am I kidding, I'll never have time to play it anyway.   JoeInky Member Oct 25, 2017 4,075 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ok and? There are 100s of games released every day, why are people like you constantly so bothered about the idea that people might skip one of those games for ideological reasons?  Eevea Member Sep 23, 2022 485 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not a "purity test", it's a decency test. When it comes to the matter of real people's lives, it's not an "opinion", it's not "politics". Just because you can overlook shitty people doesn't mean everyone has that luxury.  Buttonbasher Member Dec 4, 2017 5,752 Thanks for the heads up. Will avoid.   GTOAkira Member Sep 1, 2018 13,401 Not afraid to defend my country lmao Following that first account is enough to show what kind of person he is.  DrScruffleton Member Oct 26, 2017 14,889 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Messages: 8 Joined: 2022  OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,141 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... the irony of having your pronouns under your name and saying dumb shit like this. go back to r/reseterainaction you rat  Sande Member Oct 25, 2017 7,176 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Congrats for not caring...? Like yeah, there's all kinds of people working in games but not all of them broadcast where they stand like this. And this is in a leadership position.  Zigludo Member Aug 17, 2020 59 CaptainFreud said: Unless he's actively reposting and sharing anti-trans or genocidal rhetoric, I really don't care. News flash: the people that make the games you play have a variety of backgrounds and won't always ace your purity tests. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Nice alt account you got there.   METAL GEAR REX Member Jun 11, 2023 2,550 Edit: I regret ever asking questions on here.   Last edited: 10 minutes ago TheCat Member Dec 20, 2023 917 Eevea said: It's not a "purity test", it's a decency test. When it comes to the matter of real people's lives, it's not an "opinion", it's not "politics". Just because you can overlook shitty people doesn't mean everyone has that luxury. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Aren't you literally playing the new Doom Game? You know who sees your money, right?  Fat4all Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot Member Oct 25, 2017 107,533 here turns out Twitter is a shit website that doesn't accurately show followers, who knew   JoeInky Member Oct 25, 2017 4,075 doops. said: the irony of having your pronouns under your name and saying dumb shit like this. go back to r/reseterainaction you rat Click to expand... Click to shrink... I genuinely believe some people set up their pronouns just to mock the concept and not because they want people to respect their identity, like that guy who got banned in one of the offtopic threads with an LGBT flag avatar spouting a bunch of bigoted shit  Kudo Member Oct 25, 2017 4,300 Wait, following? Am I missing something here?   RomanceDawn Teacher of Superheroines Member Oct 29, 2017 1,240 Los Angeles I know some of the martial artists who worked on this game. Good people who completely align themselves with much of this board. The world isn't so black and white. In all that you love you will find something you hate, and in all that you hate you will find something you love.  Fat4all Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot Member Oct 25, 2017 107,533 here love all the folks coming out of the woodwork to defend following anti-trans bigots very organized  Eevea Member Sep 23, 2022 485 TheCat said: Aren't you literally playing the new Doom Game? You know who sees your money, right? Click to expand... Click to shrink... As far as I know, Hugo Martin is not a bigot.  MoonlitSeer Fallen Guardian Member Jun 9, 2023 1,977 DanDanderson said: As a general note, this is not only the creative director but also a co-founder of the studio. Same. The original screenshot is accurate. You don't see all followers on Twitter, and the ones you do see change - it's not a static list. He does follow all the people in the original screenshot including RadioGenoa and Grummz. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yea, and you can also follow the account to verify who they follow by visiting, since it will show on those pages. For example: You can see here he follows Grummz (taken just now).  Ultrapop Member Aug 19, 2022 206 R’lyeh Fat4all said: love all the folks coming out of the woodwork to defend following anti-trans bigots very organized Click to expand... Click to shrink... Funny how bigots always get the benefit of the doubt, huh?  Kyuuji The Favonius Fox Member Nov 8, 2017 38,393 Rowling's twitter feed is just wall to wall the vilest transphobia, and has been for years. If you didn't want to see it, you wouldn't be following her.   JoeInky Member Oct 25, 2017 4,075 The three genres of dismissive posts in these types of threads: "And yet you participate in society" "What about the poor workers at the studio who aren't bigots? It's not fair on them to skip the game just because of a little thing like this!" "The game looks great! Anyone else looking forward to it too?"  sillyGecko Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 DanDanderson said: Same. The original screenshot is accurate. You don't see all followers on Twitter, and the ones you do see change - it's not a static list. He does follow all the people in the original screenshot including RadioGenoa and Grummz. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Are you sure? I refreshed it multiple times and it was always the same, didn't see grummz and what not. Either way the current list are people I saw and aren't great of course Edit: Saw the picture up above, very strange how the following list doesn't show everyone  Last edited: 5 minutes ago Fat4all Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot Member Oct 25, 2017 107,533 here Kyuuji said: Rowling's twitter feed is just wall to wall the vilest transphobia, and has been for years. If you didn't want to see it, you wouldn't be following her. Click to expand... Click to shrink... 💯   Fat4all Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot Member Oct 25, 2017 107,533 here sillyGecko said: Are you sure? I refreshed it multiple times and it was always the same, didn't see grummz and what not. Either way the current list are people I saw and aren't great of course Click to expand... Click to shrink... scroll up   EvilBoris Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest Verified Oct 29, 2017 18,082 Is it possible to follow these people just so you can see what dumb shit they are saying and be involved in refuting their awful views? Lots of people follow Elon Mush and Donald Trump and hate them. Personally I wouldn't , I'd rather not see it, but I know other people feel more strongly about that. Or is this person agreeing with them in public?  thirtypercent Member Oct 18, 2018 746 Rosebud said: I draw the line at Thomas Mahler Click to expand... Click to shrink... When not even the worst person on a list already makes you instabarf all over the place ....  Friendly Bear Member Jan 11, 2019 3,955 I Don’t Care Where (Just Far) That's really disappointing. Really disappointing. I'm not surprised anymore when someone is revealed as Chud or Chud adjacent, but it still disappoints me. I don't expect everyone to share my opinions, but I think it's reasonable to be critical of someone who is a fan of omega bigots. EvilBoris said: Is it possible to follow these people just so you can see what dumb shit they are saying and be involved in refuting their awful views? Lots of people follow Elon Mush and Donald Trump and hate them. Personally I wouldn't , I'd rather not see it, but I know other people feel more strongly about that. Or is this person agreeing with them in public? Click to expand... Click to shrink... I mean, it's possible. But that list seems pretty deliberate.  sillyGecko Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 EvilBoris said: Is it possible to follow these people just so you can see what dumb shit they are saying and be involved in refuting their awful views? Lots of people follow Elon Mush and Donald Trump and hate them. Personally I wouldn't , I'd rather not see it, but I know other people feel more strongly about that. Or is this person agreeing with them in public? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Also possible, it's why a lot of people used to have "likes arent an endorsement" in their bio when they would like something to bookmark it for later. Hard to say   Kudo Member Oct 25, 2017 4,300 I guess it is suspicious, following Trump etc. I'd understand for "news" but Grummz and Rowling tweets are wild.   Fat4all Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot Member Oct 25, 2017 107,533 here Ultrapop said: Funny how bigots always get the benefit of the doubt, huh? Click to expand... Click to shrink... gotta bend over backwards so far their heads touch the ground   BabyDontHurtMe Member Dec 9, 2018 30,854 New Jersey There are plenty of games that aren't made by dipshits so it's good to know which games that are. It's not that complicated why these threads exist, especially in this day and age. If you don't care then more power to you, but that's not the point of these threads lol   Gotchaforce Member Oct 31, 2017 6,634 I really want to play Sifu (I love martial arts games) but I'm also happy to not support shitheads.   CandySTX Member Mar 17, 2018 1,988 Scotland Can't un-buy Sifu years ago, but can certainly avoid them in the future. Thanks for the heads up.  niccoolnic Member Nov 20, 2020 1,240 Salt Lake City, UT We're still doing "is a follow an endorsement" deflections in 2025 huh? Yeah fuck this guy.  Adulfzen Member Oct 29, 2017 3,955 Eevea said: As far as I know, Hugo Martin is not a bigot. Click to expand... Click to shrink... ID Tech is owned by Microsoft and Microsoft (which includes Xbox) is officially part of the BDS list https://bdsmovement.net/microsoft Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel's illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft's complicity in Israel's apartheid and genocide is well documented, exposing its strong ties to the Israeli military, its collaboration with Israeli government ministries, and its involvement in the Israeli prison system, which is notorious for systematic torture and abuse of Palestinians. Microsoft knowingly provides Israel with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), that is deployed to facilitate grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), as well as genocide. In light of the International Court of Justice's legally-binding rulings to prevent Israel's plausible genocide in Gaza, as well as its July 19 Advisory Opinion affirming Israel's illegal occupation and apartheid system, Microsoft has failed its corporate obligation to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Microsoft, as well as its boards of directors and executives, may face criminal liability for this complicity. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Hugo Martin being a bigot would be irrelevant in this case if you care about the genocide.  OP OP doops. Member Jun 3, 2020 5,141 EvilBoris said: Is it possible to follow these people just so you can see what dumb shit they are saying and be involved in refuting their awful views? Lots of people follow Elon Mush and Donald Trump and hate them. Personally I wouldn't , I'd rather not see it, but I know other people feel more strongly about that. Or is this person agreeing with them in public? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Given that several of these accounts post offensive shit to stir up hate and bigotry for the sake of it (Radio Genoa, JK Rowling), you can't really give Jordan the benefit of the doubt here. I mean following JK Rowling alone negates this take either way. Who the FUCK wants to hear what she has to say with all the shit she's said and done?? You only do that if you already agree with her.  ALXJ REFANTAZIO SWEEP Uncle Works at Nintendo Member Feb 16, 2021 1,212 yikes... i was looking forward to consider this because some friends will play, now i'll honestly try to change their minds. there's no reason to follow that amount of trash...   EvilBoris Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest Verified Oct 29, 2017 18,082 doops. said: Given that several of these accounts post offensive shit to stir up hate and bigotry for the sake of it (Radio Genoa, JK Rowling), you can't really give Jordan the benefit of the doubt here. I mean following JK Rowling alone negates this take either way. Who the FUCK wants to hear what she has to say with all the shit she's said and done?? Click to expand... Click to shrink... I can't say I understand it , it's all horrid and hateful. I deleted my twitter account because it's all so upsetting.  HellofaMouse Member Oct 27, 2017 8,412 i mean its too late for sifu, that game sold 99% of the copies its gonna sell. but noted for the soccer game, not that i was planning to buy it..