Pixar has been delighting audiences with its house animation style and world-building for three decades, and the Disney-owned animation studio is showing no signs of slowing down. And unlike Andy, they haven’t aged out of playing with their toys.  At the Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival, Pixar dropped a series of announcements, teasers, and special previews of their upcoming slate, including the much-anticipated first-look at Toy Story 5.  Den of Geek attended a private screening, with remarks from Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, in early June ahead of the festival. During the presentation to the press, Docter hinted at the company putting its focus and energy to its theatrical slate, a notable change after recent releases like Dream Productions, set in the Inside Out universe, and the original Win or Lose debuted in early 2025. It’s a telling sign for Disney’s shifting approach to Disney+. The studio’s latest film, Elio, hit theaters on June 20th. “Our hope is that we can somehow tap into the things that people remember about the communal experience of seeing things together,” Docter said. “It’s different than sitting at home on your computer watching something [compared to] when you sit with other human beings in the dark and watch the flickering light on the screen. There’s something kind of magic about that.”  Pixar is aiming to be back on a timeline of three films every two years, with Toy Story 5 and an original story titled Hoppers releasing in 2026, and another original, Gatto, hitting theaters in 2027.  Docter boldly stated that Pixar is “standing on one of the strongest slates we’ve ever had.” While bullish for a studio that has had an unprecedented run of success in the world of animated features, the early footage we saw leaves plenty of room for optimism. Is Pixar so back? Here’s what we learned from the presentation and footage…  Toy Story 5 – June 19, 2026  Woody, Buzz, Jesse and the gang will all be returning for the fifth feature film in one of Pixar’s most beloved franchises. Docter confirmed Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack will reprise their respective roles. Written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who has worked on all of the films, and co-directed by McKenna Harris, Toy Story 5 catches up to our modern, tech-oriented world, and how that affects children’s interests. Bonnie, now eight, is given a brand new, shiny tablet, called a Lily Pad. The new tech allows Bonnie to stay connected and chat with all of her friends, slowly detaching her from her old toys. But just like all the other toys, Lily can talk, and she’s quite sneaky. Lily believes Bonnie needs to get rid of her old, childish toys completely. Feeling Bonnie slipping away, the toys call Woody for back up, but after not seeing Buzz for some time, the two go back to their old ways of constantly butting heads.  “With some films, you’ll struggle to find new things to talk about. And you know, this is [Toy Story 5]. We still are finding new aspects of what it is to be a toy… There’s more of a spotlight on Jesse, so there’s that’s a whole nother facet to it as well. And she’s just such a rich, wonderful character to see on screen,” Docter says. Pixar screened the opening scene for press, which saw a fresh pallet of new Buzz Lightyear figures washed up in a shipping container on a remote island. Think Toy Story meets Cast Away as the Lightyears band together to concoct a way to get home, wherever that might be, in an unexpectedly gripping start to the fifth installment. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! HOPPERS – © 2025 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. Hoppers – March 6, 2026  Preceding Toy Story 5 and kicking off 2026 for Pixar will be an all-new story, Hoppers.  The film follows Mabel (Piper Curda), a college student and nature enthusiast as she fights to save a beloved glade near her childhood home from a highway project that will bulldoze through it– brought forth by the greedy mayor voiced by Jon Hamm. With little support from those around her, Mabel enlists the help of “hoppers,” a clever group of scientists who’ve found a way to “hop” their minds into robots. When Mabel hops into the body of a beaver, she sets off to get other animals to return to the glade, hopefully halting construction. The animals take her to meet their rather conflict-avoidant leader, King George (Bobby Moynihan), and she soon learns that the animal world is a lot more complex than she had thought.  The footage screened saw Jon Hamm’s mayor abducted by beavers in a slapstick scene that corroborated Docter’s excitement for the project. Like Pixar’s highest highs, Hoppers appears to be charming and big-hearted, and it certainly won’t hurt merchandise sales at the Disney parks with the adorably designed animals in this film. Docter compared Hoppers to Mission Impossible meets Planet Earth. We’re locked in.  GATTO – © 2025 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. Gatto – Summer 2027  In maybe the most creatively intriguing announcement, a new film titled Gatto is in production from the team behind Luca. Gatto will employ the same classic Pixar animation-style, but with a painterly twist to match the artistic vibe of Venice. The art direction shown in short clips was stunning and unique spin on Pixar’s house style. The film is set in Venice, Italy, a destination popular for its stunning architecture and romantic ambience, that some only dream of visiting one day. It’s not so ideal, however, for Nero, the protagonist of the upcoming Pixar-original film, Gato. Nero is a black cat, who people turn the other way from because they fear he’s bad luck. With no other options, Nero turns to the seedier side of the stray cat scene in Venice, where he soon finds himself in hot water with Rocco, a cat mob boss. The heart of the film is Nero’s love for music, and his budding friendship with a street musician named Maya, who is also an outsider.

Anthropic has unveiled a custom collection of Claude AI models designed for US national security customers. The announcement represents a potential milestone in the application of AI within classified government environments. The ‘Claude Gov’ models have already been deployed by agencies operating at the highest levels of US national security, with access strictly limited to those working within such classified environments. Anthropic says these Claude Gov models emerged from extensive collaboration with government customers to address real-world operational requirements. Despite being tailored for national security applications, Anthropic maintains that these models underwent the same rigorous safety testing as other Claude models in their portfolio. Specialised AI capabilities for national security The specialised models deliver improved performance across several critical areas for government operations. They feature enhanced handling of classified materials, with fewer instances where the AI refuses to engage with sensitive information—a common frustration in secure environments. Additional improvements include better comprehension of documents within intelligence and defence contexts, enhanced proficiency in languages crucial to national security operations, and superior interpretation of complex cybersecurity data for intelligence analysis. However, this announcement arrives amid ongoing debates about AI regulation in the US. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently expressed concerns about proposed legislation that would grant a decade-long freeze on state regulation of AI. Balancing innovation with regulation In a guest essay published in The New York Times this week, Amodei advocated for transparency rules rather than regulatory moratoriums. He detailed internal evaluations revealing concerning behaviours in advanced AI models, including an instance where Anthropic’s newest model threatened to expose a user’s private emails unless a shutdown plan was cancelled. Amodei compared AI safety testing to wind tunnel trials for aircraft designed to expose defects before public release, emphasising that safety teams must detect and block risks proactively. Anthropic has positioned itself as an advocate for responsible AI development. Under its Responsible Scaling Policy, the company already shares details about testing methods, risk-mitigation steps, and release criteria—practices Amodei believes should become standard across the industry. He suggests that formalising similar practices industry-wide would enable both the public and legislators to monitor capability improvements and determine whether additional regulatory action becomes necessary. Implications of AI in national security The deployment of advanced models within national security contexts raises important questions about the role of AI in intelligence gathering, strategic planning, and defence operations. Amodei has expressed support for export controls on advanced chips and the military adoption of trusted systems to counter rivals like China, indicating Anthropic’s awareness of the geopolitical implications of AI technology. The Claude Gov models could potentially serve numerous applications for national security, from strategic planning and operational support to intelligence analysis and threat assessment—all within the framework of Anthropic’s stated commitment to responsible AI development. Regulatory landscape As Anthropic rolls out these specialised models for government use, the broader regulatory environment for AI remains in flux. The Senate is currently considering language that would institute a moratorium on state-level AI regulation, with hearings planned before voting on the broader technology measure. Amodei has suggested that states could adopt narrow disclosure rules that defer to a future federal framework, with a supremacy clause eventually preempting state measures to preserve uniformity without halting near-term local action. This approach would allow for some immediate regulatory protection while working toward a comprehensive national standard. As these technologies become more deeply integrated into national security operations, questions of safety, oversight, and appropriate use will remain at the forefront of both policy discussions and public debate. For Anthropic, the challenge will be maintaining its commitment to responsible AI development while meeting the specialised needs of government customers for crtitical applications such as national security. (Image credit: Anthropic) See also: Reddit sues Anthropic over AI data scraping Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here. The post Anthropic launches Claude AI models for US national security appeared first on AI News.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. China blocks Apple-Alibaba AI venture in retaliation for the US trade war Hamid Ganji Neowin @HamidGanji_ · Jun 5, 2025 05:28 EDT iPhones sold in China, Apple's second biggest market, still lack AI features. While Apple tried to solve the issue by forming an AI venture with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, the move has faced setbacks from China's regulator, presumably to get back at the US trade war under the Trump administration. According to a new report by Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, Apple and Alibaba have been working on their AI venture over the past few months, hoping to bring some AI features to iPhones sold in China. However, the Cyberspace Administration of China hasn't approved the collaboration. "Apple's rollout of artificial intelligence services in China with Alibaba is being held up by a Beijing regulator, as the tech partnership becomes the latest casualty of Donald Trump's trade war. The tech giants have been working together to launch Apple Intelligence, the iPhone-maker's suite of AI services, for Chinese users. The system would be supported by Alibaba's latest models." Every new iPhone sold worldwide has built-in ChatGPT as a result of the Apple and OpenAI partnership. Since OpenAI has no official presence in China, Apple must partner with local tech companies like Alibaba to offer AI capabilities on iPhones sold in the country. The move could help Apple navigate China's regulatory restrictions, but it's now stalled due to the US-China trade war. The Cyberspace Administration of China doesn't publicly confirm whether halting the Apple-Alibaba AI venture is a response to the US trade war. Still, sources claim this is China's response to the recent tariff clash with the US. China also has a pretty solid record of retaliating against the US reciprocal tariffs. However, the Apple and Alibaba AI partnership also has some opponents in the US. Lawmakers and government officials in Washington have raised concerns about the AI deal. They fear that this collaboration could significantly bolster China's AI capabilities. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

A Deadly Disease Is Eating Away at Caribbean Corals and Wreaking Havoc on Reefs. Could Probiotics Be the Solution? New research suggests the probiotic McH1-7 could help stop the spread of stony coral tissue loss disease among wild corals near Fort Lauderdale, Florida Scientists determined the most effective method of halting the disease was covering a coral colony with a weighted plastic bag, then injecting a seawater solution that contains the probiotic. They left the colony covered for two hours to allow the probiotic bacteria to colonize the coral. Hunter Noren Probiotics can be good for human health. Now, new research suggests they might also help protect coral reefs. A bacterial probiotic helped slow the advance of stony coral tissue loss disease—a fast-spreading and deadly condition—among wild corals in Florida, researchers report today in a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The probiotic may be a good alternative to antibiotics like amoxicillin, which temporarily curb the spread of the disease but must be reapplied frequently. In addition, scientists fear stony coral tissue loss disease may one day become resistant to these antibiotic treatments—just as “superbugs” that infect humans are building resistance to our own drugs. Antibiotics are meant to kill microorganisms, but probiotics are beneficial living microbes. The idea is that a probiotic can be incorporated into corals’ natural microbiomes, ideally offering them longer-lasting protection. First discovered in Florida in 2014, stony coral tissue loss disease attacks the soft tissue of more than 30 different species of coral. Without treatment, the disease eventually kills the corals, and their soft tissue falls off, revealing the white calcium carbonate skeleton below. In just weeks or months, it can devastate a whole colony. Stony coral tissue loss disease can be spread by fish that eat coral, as well as by boaters and divers who do not disinfect their gear. The condition has since expanded its range beyond Florida to reefs throughout the Caribbean. Several years ago, researchers looking at the great star coral (Montastraea cavernosa) discovered a probiotic called Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain McH1-7. Laboratory tests showed McH1-7 stopped or slowed the progression of stony coral tissue loss disease in infected corals. It also helped prevent the disease from spreading to healthy corals. But that was in the lab. Would McH1-7 be similarly effective in the ocean? Researchers were eager to find out, so they set up an experiment on a shallow reef off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. Study co-author Kelly Pitts, a research technician with the Smithsonian Marine Station, applies a paste containing the probiotic directly onto the disease lesion of an infected coral. Hunter Noren Experimenting with wild corals For the study, the scientists focused on 40 great star coral colonies that were showing symptoms of stony coral tissue loss disease. In one experimental condition, the researchers made a paste that contained McH1-7 and applied it directly onto the disease lesions. For comparison, they also applied the same paste, minus the probiotic, to some corals. In another condition, they covered infected coral colonies with weighted plastic bags, then filled the bags with seawater solutions made with and without McH1-7. They left the corals covered for two hours. “This created a little mini-aquarium that kept the probiotics around each coral colony,” says study co-author Valerie Paul, head scientist at the Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida, in a statement. The scientists completed all the treatments within the first 4.5 months of the project. Then, they returned periodically to gather tissue and mucus samples from the corals to measure changes to their microbiomes. Over the next 2.5 years, they took photos from a variety of different angles, which they then used to create 3D models that could track the disease’s progression. In the end, the results suggest covering the corals with plastic bags filled with the probiotic seawater solution was the most effective method. More than two years post-treatment, the colonies that received the probiotic bag had lost just 7 percent of their tissue, while colonies in the control bag condition faced 35 percent tissue loss. Scientists applied a probiotic paste directly to disease lesions on some corals. Kelly Pitts The probiotic paste, by contrast, appears to have made the situation worse: The corals that had the probiotic paste applied directly to their lesions lost more tissue than those treated with the control paste, which did not contain McH1-7. “We do not really know what is going on with the probiotic paste treatment,” Paul tells Smithsonian magazine in an email. But she has a few theories. It’s possible the high concentrations of McH1-7 contributed to localized hypoxia, or low-oxygen conditions that further harmed the already stressed corals, she says. Or, the probiotic could have changed the microbiome at the lesion site in some negative way. Another possibility is that McH1-7 produces antibiotics or other substances that were harmful at high concentrations. Amanda Alker, a marine microbiologist at the University of Rhode Island who was not involved with the study, wonders if this finding suggests McH1-7 is beneficial at specific dosages—a question future laboratory research might be able to answer, she tells Smithsonian magazine in an email. She’s also curious to know which specific molecular components of the probiotic are responsible for the increased tissue loss when applied as a paste. More broadly, Alker would like to see additional experiments validating the bag treatment method, but she says this “inventive” technique seems promising. “Their approach is a safer solution than antibiotic treatment methods that have been deployed to combat [stony coral tissue loss disease] in the field so far,” she says. “Further, this is a practical solution that could be implemented widely because it doesn’t require highly specialized equipment and has the ability to be used with any type of microbial solution.” Looking ahead to save reefs Probiotics are likely not a silver bullet for protecting corals. For one, researchers still don’t know exactly what causes stony coral tissue loss disease, which makes it difficult to determine how or why the probiotic works, Paul says. In addition, since the disease has spread to many different parts of the Caribbean, it might be challenging to use the bag treatment technique on all affected colonies. “We would need to develop better methods of deploying the probiotic through time release formulations or other ways to scale up treatments,” Paul says. “Right now, having divers swim around underwater with weighted bags is not a very scalable method.” The researchers have also conducted similar experiments on infected corals located farther south, in the Florida Keys. However, these tests have produced mixed results, probably because of regional differences in stony coral tissue loss disease. This is another hurdle scientists will likely need to overcome if they hope to expand the use of probiotics. “We probably need to develop different probiotics for different coral species and different regions of the Caribbean,” Paul says. Researchers returned to gather samples of tissues and mucus to see how the corals' microbiomes had changed. Hunter Noren Even so, scientists are heartened by the results of the experiments conducted near Fort Lauderdale. With more research, the findings suggest probiotics could be a promising tool for combatting the disease elsewhere. “Coral probiotics is a challenging field, because there are hundreds of different types of bacteria that associate with corals, and there are limitless experiments that need to be performed,” Amy Apprill, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the research, tells Smithsonian magazine in an email. “These researchers made a major advance with their study by demonstrating the utility of whole colony treatment as well as the specific probiotic tested.” Apprill adds that, while antibiotics have been widely used to control stony coral tissue loss disease, scientists haven’t conducted much research to see how these treatments are affecting the plants and creatures that live nearby. “Using a naturally occurring bacterium for disease treatment may result in lessened impacts to other members of the coral reef ecosystem,” she says. Amid rising ocean temperatures, scientists expect to find even more diseased coral colonies in the future. Warmer waters may also allow other pathogens to thrive and proliferate. Against that backdrop, Apprill adds, probiotics and the different methods of applying them will be “major allies” in the fight to save coral reefs. Paul is also optimistic. Through research and field studies, she’s confident researchers will be able to develop interventions that can “help corals better survive changing environments and respond better to diseases and bleaching,” she says. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

When George R.R. Martin crafted the world of Westeros back in the 90s, he probably didn’t think his words would go on to spawn graphic novels, TV shows, action figures, video games, and more. Moreover, I doubt the author expected his works to be adapted into a mobile-friendly action-RPG built to prioritize predatory microtransactions over the rich lore he’d spent decades perfecting. Yet in 2025, we have Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, a visually striking open-world exploration game that looks compelling in motion, but hones in more on menus and currency than fantasy adventure. And, as you push deeper into its sizable campaign to uncover a plethora of in-game currencies and progress-halting hurdles, the neo-medieval jaunt starts to feel more like a lesson in asset management than a thoughtful RPG. Kingsroad takes place during season four of the HBO TV series, putting you in the fur-lined boots of a northern-born bastard of House Tyre. With your father sickly and your inheritance caught up in the strict succession rules of the realm, the only hope for the safety of your people is to borrow, beg, and steal your way into the hearts of the lords and ladies of Westeros. Naturally, things aren’t as simple as just asking, and you’ll have to go round the houses (literally) to solve land disputes, find missing soldiers, and knock together the heads of vassal-house warriors on your way to earning your flowers. Alongside a cavalcade of curious NPCs, there are also White Walkers, mythical beasts, and traitorous Boltons to butt heads with. Thankfully, Westeros’ misfortune makes for an enticing landing pad for you to start from. PlayBefore you dive into the cobbled streets and open roads of Westeros, though, you’ll first need to pick a combat archetype to play as: a brutish Sellsword, a skilful Knight, or a nimble Assassin. Fuelled by my love of Brienne of Tarth and Dungeons & Dragons’ Barbarian class, I opted for the axe-wielding Sellsword, whose heavy strikes can easily wind gaggles of enemy forces. Indecisive? Good news: Kingsroad does allow you to switch between archetypes at any time, and your inventory is shared across your three possible characters, so you can boost your alts with your main’s hard-earned loot. That said, I was disappointed to find that once you finalise a character, you can’t delete them and start that class over, or change their name, a feature that bit me in the butt when testing how unsightly I could make my Knight. With your combat destiny chosen, Kingsroad’s decently impressive character creator lets you use a mixture of face-contorting sliders and colour-pickers to specialise your plucky hero. It doesn’t have the depth of something like Dragon’s Dogma 2 (although that’s an admittedly high bar), but I am glad I was able to bestow my characters with an identity that felt personal to me – which is to say moody, and tastefully adorned with smudgy eyeliner and edgy facial scars. You'll explore an impressively recreated map of Westeros.“Kingsroad wastes no time teaching you the basics of its combat and platforming with a tight but comprehensive tutorial, which takes you beyond the wall and back again. That’s where you’ll meet the first of many familiar faces for any fans of the show, as Jon Snow and Samwell Tarley do a decent job of filling in the narrative gaps for those in need of a season four recap. While the digital renditions of these well-known characters aren’t the most flattering, their conversations felt thoughtfully written and helped to establish my lowborn place within the setting. Soon enough, though, Kingsroad lets go of your hand and allows you to roam free across the countryside, providing a choice of campaign quests and side missions to follow, as well as plenty of points of interest to chase on your map. The open world of Kingsroad gave me the freedom to explore this (mostly) faithfully reimagined Westeros, and I enjoyed riding across snowy plateaus and uncovering the secrets of curious stone architecture nestled on the horizon. But the initial exhilaration of high fantasy galavanting wore off quickly as the edges of developer Netmarble’s fantasy panopticon started to show. For every delicate snowflake at Castle Black or butterfly dancing in Winterfell, there were plenty more low-poly fruit trees, bouncy grass patches, and possessed weapons to pick at the sheen. I admire the sheer scale of the open world Kingsroad is offering, but it’s lacking the visual consistency to make it realistic and immersive. As I soon noticed those cracks in the facade, Kingsroad started to feel like a game full of pulled punches, despite how promising it seemed at a distance.This lack of polish extends to your movement on both foot and horseback – ice skating would be the most fitting comparison. When exploring the frosty reaches of the North, this sensation is strangely fitting. However, it became wholly frustrating when it persisted while charting the sunny coastal areas near Highgarden, especially when attempting to complete the occasional platforming puzzles dotted around the icon-covered map. Typically, I was only one slip away from falling down an unscalable hillside, or worse, into a camp of fierce opponents with no way out. Up close, the animations also err on the eerie side in cutscenes. My character would often deliver a wide-eyed death stare, and I couldn't take them seriously as they’d burn holes in the townsfolk’s skulls as they explained their heart wrenching tragedies.Memorable characters surface as uncanny valley clones of themselves.“Speaking of the citizens of Westeros, their heads and eyes wobble around like strange marionettes during conversations, which dampens the atmosphere considerably. It’s a shame, because their dialogue does a great job of affirming the grim, corrupt cloud that hangs over the continent as winter approaches. I felt particularly bad laughing when an old lady thanked me for saving her daughter from being eaten by Ramsay Bolton’s dogs. Unfortunately, the most egregious offenders are often Kingsroad’s recreations of characters from the show. Memorable players, like Nymeria Sand and Varys, surface as uncanny valley clones of their likenesses. I’ll be seeing yassifed Cersei in my nightmares for many moons to come…Beyond exploration, the bulk of your time in Kingsroad is split between investing in complex resource management systems at your homestead and completing multi-stage quests and battles out in the world. As such, you can find a plethora of challenges that boost both of these areas, like dungeon crawls, bandit camps, occupied villages, and giant mythical beasts, all of which reward you handsomely for spilling blood by the gallon. How efficiently you blend your time between these two aspects is integral to maintaining a solid pace within the grind-heavy progression system – alas, a lack of technical balance makes succeeding in this endeavour profoundly painful.Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Gameplay ScreenshotsThe trouble begins with the combat, which is a total mixed bag. While your actions feel pleasantly grounded, and rugged blows always arrive with flashy particle-heavy animations, the process begins to feel overfamiliar fast. Despite the solid variety of moves available – light, heavy, and special attacks, as well as decent dodge and parry options – inaccurate hit boxes consistently hampered my attempts at strategy. Occasionally, I would need to use my head a little and skulk around an area to remove edge threats, though those tactical moments arrived few and far between. It says something unflattering that Kingsroad feels almost identical at 60 hours as it did at 20. You can specialise and upgrade your moveset in combat with traits and skill trees, too, but they do little to impact how the combat feels in motion. Kingsroad gives the impression of having useful Traits by putting options like learning to parry and crafting arrows up at the top of the trees, but as you work your way down, many of the lower options offer small percentage-based improvements to defense and attack that barely make a dent. So as your sparkly slashes lose their lustre, you’re often left cycling through the same few enemies and combos until the battle is won. It seems as though the architecture of a solid combat system is there, but much like the rest of Kingsroad, it’s all facade with no foundation. What hampers the fun most are the frequent and appropriately-named Momentum roadblocks.“Still, what hampers the fun of Kingsroad most of all are the frequently appearing and appropriately-named Momentum roadblocks. Similar to Destiny’s Gear Score, Kingsroad tallies up the quality of all your equipment, accessories, and skills into one neat number called your Momentum Score. These pesky little digits are the cruel gatekeepers of story content, forcing you to scour the map for dull side objectives that can juice the numbers and shuffle you towards the next episode. While I’m more than happy to invest in grind-heavy games like World of Warcraft Classic and no stranger to mobile-minded progress gating, the Momentum system in Kingsroad is a particularly brutish arbiter that doesn’t allow you to get crafty or punch above your weight by taking on more challenging enemies. Instead, imposing forces appear with a skull icon over their head, their damage and health ratings untouchably high. But as soon as you inch over the Momentum line, the fight shifts dramatically in your favour. This black and white process neutralises any sense of gamesmanship, and frequently forced me into hours of toil to get back to the story I was, for the most part, enjoying. Sarah's favourite fantasy jauntsSee AllWhen you’re ready to take some time out from the combat, you can invest more in the slower-paced aspects of Kingsroad, namely the tedious Estate Management side game. As the last remaining heir to Lord Tyre, his homestead, Renan’s Rest, becomes your project. As is to be expected, helping this dilapidated village flourish rewards you with the tools necessary to beef up your arsenal, and gives you a place to spend all those resources you’ve been hoarding by completing missions – though the process of cleaning up this town is about as much fun as cleaning your actual room.While the jeweller and the forge are convenient additions that allow you to craft wearable items, the most valuable activity is embarking on gacha-based Artefact Expeditions. You’ll spend resources to hire workers and send them into the wild to find more resources, as well as historical items called Relics you can then leverage to further bolster your Momentum. Similar to other gacha game systems, you’re guaranteed a high-quality item after a set amount of runs, but a standard expedition takes eight actual hours to complete, which is a frustrating turnaround when not every run guarantees a good haul. That is, unless you’re willing to pay real money to speed things up. The Story Continues - Live Service UpdatesPlayWhile it took me roughly 60 hours to complete the story missions that were available at Game of Thrones: Kingsroad’s 1.0 launch (in part thanks to the benefit of the Ultimate Founder’s Pack code we were provided for this review), once you finish up, it doesn’t really “end” and you can seek out the plethora of side quests and repeatable combat challenges across the map. While there isn’t an official roadmap for what’s on the horizon, Netmarble announced during its 1.0 release Dev Note that the team will continue to add content and make technical improvements as time goes on. Alongside the Battle Pass, there are also timed Events that offer additional goalposts and ask you to complete a series of challenges to earn further rewards. Continued support is always good, and here’s hoping things like the floaty movement and inconsistent animations might eventually get the polish they need, but I’m skeptical that much can be done to fix Kingsroad’s biggest issues without a complete rework of its economy and progression. For example, the new quests that were already added post-launch should’ve been enticing, but instead they pushed the finish line absurdly far out of sight – by my rough estimate, I would need to play more than twice what I already have just to reach the Momentum Score required to take them on (without spending any money), and that’s despite the fact that this new content seems to follow the exact same loop of mission types already used across the rest of the campaign. Thanks, but I’m good.That brings us to the elephant in the room. Almost every activity in Kingsroad can be expedited with the use of cold hard cash, which translates to Iron Bank Marks in-game. Of course, you can pay to complete an aforementioned expedition early, or buy higher-rarity expedition wagons by the dozen that don’t take time to complete. Stuck behind a Momentum block? Just purchase Gold to speedrun your jewellery maker’s upgrades and smelt higher-rated necklaces and rings to jolt your score. Typically, you can only fast travel by making your way to a special signpost first, and there’s a copper fee for each warp – but you can fast travel from anywhere for free if you pay for the premium option. Behind nearly every aggravating system in Kingsroad is a far more user-friendly one, but only if you’re willing to cough up the dough. It seems intent to toe the line between being intentionally frustrating and passably functional, subtly egging you on to pay up rather than sit through the repetitive, time-consuming activities necessary to proceed. While it’s to be expected that there will be premium aspects in a free-to-play game available on mobile devices (in addition to Steam), the overwhelming flood of paid subscriptions, resource packs, and confounding currencies feels like a heartbreaking affront to Game of Thrones fans, like myself, who have been begging for a fully-fledged Westeros RPG similar to this. Across the 60 hours I’ve played so far, I’ve felt guilty for slashing down innocent defectors and filled with joy for feeding the starving smallfolk. It's clear Netmarble wants you to feel like you’re making a difference in this world, but it’s also just as keen to remind you that you can make a difference quicker if you’re willing to enter your credit card details first. It’s sad to see so much effort put into the underlying concept of a Game of Thrones adventure like this only for it to be tarnished by microtransactions and the repetitive gameplay loops that enable them.

Jesse Armstrong loves to pull fictional stories out of reality. His universally acclaimed TV show Succession, for instance, was inspired by real-life media dynasties like the Murdochs and the Hearsts. Similarly, his newest film Mountainhead centers upon characters that share key traits with the tech world’s most powerful leaders: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and others.Mountainhead, which releases on HBO on May 31 at 8 p.m. ET, portrays four top tech executives who retreat to a Utah hideaway as the AI deepfake tools newly released by one of their companies wreak havoc across the world. As the believable deepfakes inflame hatred on social media and real-world violence, the comfortably-appointed quartet mulls a global governmental takeover, intergalactic conquest and immortality, before interpersonal conflict derails their plans.Armstrong tells TIME in a Zoom interview that he first became interested in writing a story about tech titans after reading books like Michael Lewis’ Going Infinite (about Sam Bankman-Fried) and Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, as well as journalistic profiles of Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and others. He then built the story around the interplay between four character archetypes—the father, the dynamo, the usurper, and the hanger-on—and conducted extensive research so that his fictional executives reflected real ones. His characters, he says, aren’t one-to-one matches, but “Frankenstein monsters with limbs sewn together.” These characters are deeply flawed and destructive, to say the least. Armstrong says he did not intend for the film to be a wholly negative depiction of tech leaders and AI development. “I do try to take myself out of it, but obviously my sense of what this tech does and could do infuses the piece. Maybe I do have some anxieties,” he says. Armstrong contends that the film is more so channeling fears that AI leaders themselves have warned about. “If somebody who knows the technology better than anyone in the world thinks there's a 1/5th chance that it's going to wipe out humanity—and they're some of the optimists—I think that's legitimately quite unnerving,” he says. Here’s how each of the characters in Mountainhead resembles real-world tech leaders. This article contains spoilers. Venis (Cory Michael Smith) is the dynamo.Cory Michael Smith in Mountainhead Macall Polay—HBOVenis is Armstrong’s “dynamo”: the richest man in the world, who has gained his wealth from his social media platform Traam and its 4 billion users. Venis is ambitious, juvenile, and self-centered, even questioning whether other people are as real as him and his friends. Venis’ first obvious comp is Elon Musk, the richest man in the real world. Like Musk, Venis is obsessed with going to outer space and with using his enormous war chest to build hyperscale data centers to create powerful anti-woke AI systems. Venis also has a strange relationship with his child, essentially using it as a prop to help him through his own emotional turmoil. Throughout the movie, others caution Venis to shut down his deepfake AI tools which have led to military conflict and the desecration of holy sites across the world. Venis rebuffs them and says that people just need to adapt to technological changes and focus on the cool art being made. This argument is similar to those made by Sam Altman, who has argued that OpenAI needs to unveil ChatGPT and other cutting-edge tools as fast as possible in order to show the public the power of the technology. Like Mark Zuckerberg, Venis presides over a massively popular social media platform that some have accused of ignoring harms in favor of growth. Just as Amnesty International accused Meta of having “substantially contributed” to human rights violations perpetrated against Myanmar’s Rohingya ethnic group, Venis complains of the UN being “up his ass for starting a race war.”Randall (Steve Carell) is the father.Steve Carell in Mountainhead Macall Polay—HBOThe group’s eldest member is Randall, an investor and technologist who resembles Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel in his lofty philosophizing and quest for immortality. Like Andreessen, Randall is a staunch accelerationist who believes that U.S. companies need to develop AI as fast as possible in order to both prevent the Chinese from controlling the technology, and to ostensibly ignite a new American utopia in which productivity, happiness, and health flourish. Randall’s power comes from the fact that he was Venis’ first investor, just as Thiel was an early investor in Facebook. While Andreessen pens manifestos about technological advancement, Randall paints his mission in grandiose, historical terms, using anti-democratic, sci-fi-inflected language that resembles that of the philosopher Curtis Yarvin, who has been funded and promoted by Thiel over his career. Randall’s justification of murder through utilitarian and Kantian lenses calls to mind Sam Bankman-Fried’s extensive philosophizing, which included a declaration that he would roll the dice on killing everyone on earth if there was a 51% chance he would create a second earth. Bankman-Fried’s approach—in embracing risk and harm in order to reap massive rewards—led him to be convicted of massive financial fraud. Randall is also obsessed with longevity just like Thiel, who has railed for years against the “inevitability of death” and yearns for “super-duper medical treatments” that would render him immortal. Jeff (Ramy Youssef) is the usurper.Ramy Youssef in Mountainhead Macall Polay—HBOJeff is a technologist who often serves as the movie’s conscience, slinging criticisms about the other characters. But he’s also deeply embedded within their world, and he needs their resources, particularly Venis’ access to computing power, to thrive. In the end, Jeff sells out his values for his own survival and well-being. AI skeptics have lobbed similar criticisms at the leaders of the main AI labs, including Altman—who started OpenAI as a nonprofit before attempting to restructure the company—as well as Demis Hassabis and Dario Amodei. Hassabis is the CEO of Google Deepmind and a winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; a rare scientist surrounded by businessmen and technologists. In order to try to achieve his AI dreams of curing disease and halting global warning, Hassabis enlisted with Google, inking a contract in 2014 in which he prohibited Google from using his technology for military applications. But that clause has since disappeared, and the AI systems developed under Hassabis are being sold, via Google, to militaries like Israel’s. Another parallel can be drawn between Jeff and Amodei, an AI researcher who defected from OpenAI after becoming worried that the company was cutting back its safety measures, and then formed his own company, Anthropic. Amodei has urged governments to create AI guardrails and has warned about the potentially catastrophic effects of the AI industry’s race dynamics. But some have criticized Anthropic for operating similarly to OpenAI, prioritizing scale in a way that exacerbates competitive pressures. Souper (Jason Schwartzman) is the hanger-on. Jason Schwartzman in Mountainhead Macall Polay—HBOEvery quartet needs its Turtle or its Ringo; a clear fourth wheel to serve as a punching bag for the rest of the group’s alpha males. Mountainhead’s hanger-on is Souper, thus named because he has soup kitchen money compared to the rest (hundreds of millions as opposed to billions of dollars). In order to prove his worth, he’s fixated on getting funding for a meditation startup that he hopes will eventually become an “everything app.” No tech exec would want to be compared to Souper, who has a clear inferiority complex. But plenty of tech leaders have emphasized the importance of meditation and mindfulness—including Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who often goes on meditation retreats. Armstrong, in his interview, declined to answer specific questions about his characters’ inspirations, but conceded that some of the speculations were in the right ballpark. “For people who know the area well, it's a little bit of a fun house mirror in that you see something and are convinced that it's them,” he says. “I think all of those people featured in my research. There's bits of Andreessen and David Sacks and some of those philosopher types. It’s a good parlor game to choose your Frankenstein limbs.”

Fifteen Iranian students and researchers sued the Trump administration for completely halting student visa interviews while it determines whether to vet all visa applicants’ social media accounts.The suit, filed against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Virginia federal court, claims that the pause on student visa interviews violates the Administrative Procedures Act, a law prohibiting capricious rule-making. The complaint is currently sealed. In an email, Curtis Morrison and Hamdi Masri, lawyers for the students, noted that the State Department has required visa applicants to disclose their social media handles since May 2019. Visa applicants from certain Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, are already subject to “extensive social media vetting,” Masri said, adding that Trump seemed to want to “ensure students entering align with his political values.”The students and researchers who brought the suit against Rubio were admitted to universities across the country — including Yale, Ohio State, and the University of South Florida — for graduate programs in computer science, engineering, finance, and other disciplines. Per their attorneys, each of the students had already attended visa interviews, but all of their applications are currently “awaiting national security vetting.” Some of the students were interviewed over a year ago.The pause on student visa interviews is part of the Trump administration’s multi-pronged attack on universities and international students. On Wednesday, Rubio said the State Department would start working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese Students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” On May 22nd, DHS rescinded Harvard’s access to a federal database used to track foreign students’ enrollment, putting nearly 6,800 people enrolled at Harvard at risk of immediate deportation until a federal judge intervened.Rubio has also suspended the visas of international students involved in pro-Palestine protests on campus. More recently, the State Department restricted visas of “foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States,” i.e., regulators who enforce the European Union’s Digital Services Act.See More:

The anti-aging supplement industry is valued at many billions of dollars, with North America offering the largest market worldwide. Through clever marketing, many such supplements have promised consumers everything from halting to reversing the aging process — often without clear scientific evidence to back it up.However, recent findings from a long-term randomized controlled study have put a widely used and potent supplement into the anti-aging spotlight: Vitamin D.A sub-study from the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (or VITAL Trial), published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and led by researchers at Mass General Brigham and the Medical College of Georgia, has revealed that long-term Vitamin D supplementation may actually slow aging on a cellular level. This adds even more promise to Vitamin D’s already impressive list of health benefits.There's More to Vitamin D Roughly a quarter of Americans take Vitamin D supplements daily — and for good reason. While this fat-soluble vitamin is best known for maintaining bone health by helping regulate calcium and phosphorus, its role in the body extends far beyond that. Vitamin D also supports immune function, regulates inflammation, and influences cell growth to name a few.That said, getting enough Vitamin D naturally can be challenging. It’s found mainly in fatty animal products like fish, red meat, and eggs. Our skin can also synthesize it through sun exposure — which isn’t always a reliable source due to lifestyle, geography, or sunscreen use. This is why many people end up deficient.With the latest findings from the VITAL Trial, the benefits of adequate Vitamin D supplementation may now include not just stronger bones and better immunity but also support for healthy aging.Read More: What's the Difference Between Vitamin D2 and D3?Vitamin D Prevented Aging on Cellular Level“VITAL is the first large-scale and long-term randomized trial to show that vitamin D supplements protect telomeres and preserve telomere length,” said JoAnn Manson, principal investigator of VITAL and chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in a press statement.Telomeres — repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes — protect genetic material during cell division. As we age, telomeres naturally shorten, a process linked to increased risk of age-related diseases and general cellular aging.While earlier small-scale studies offered mixed results, the VITAL Telomere sub-study stands out due to its size and rigor. It followed 1,054 participants aged 50 and older over four years, comparing those who took 2,000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily (a high dosage usually recommended for those with deficiency) with those who took a placebo. Telomere length was measured at the start, at two years, and at four years.The results? Vitamin D3 supplementation significantly slowed telomere shortening — effectively preserving the equivalent of close to three years of cellular aging compared to the placebo group.Why Aging Research Matters“Our findings suggest that targeted vitamin D supplementation may be a promising strategy to counter a biological aging process, although further research is warranted,” said study’s first author Haidong Zhu, a molecular geneticist at the Medical College of Georgia in the news release.Aging research often gets lumped in with science fiction-like efforts to stop aging or live forever, but its real goal is far more grounded: to improve health across the lifespan. Instead of chasing immortality, scientists aim to extend the health span — the number of years people live free of chronic disease and disability.By uncovering interventions like Vitamin D that can support healthier aging, researchers hope to help more people enjoy a higher quality of life well into their later years, without resorting to expensive or unproven treatments.This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Cleveland Clinic: Vitamin D DeficiencyNational Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements: Vitamin D Fact Sheet for Health ProfessionalsHaving worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.

May 23, 20257 min readWhat FDA’s Planned Limits on COVID Vaccinations Mean for HealthDespite the fact that vaccines against COVID have already undergone strict safety reviews and that people continue to die from the disease, Trump’s FDA is moving to reduce access to annual COVID boosters for healthy AmericansBy Stephanie Armour & KFF Health News aire images/Getty ImagesLarry Saltzman has blood cancer. He’s also a retired doctor, so he knows getting covid-19 could be dangerous for him — his underlying illness puts him at high risk of serious complications and death. To avoid getting sick, he stays away from large gatherings, and he’s comforted knowing healthy people who get boosters protect him by reducing his exposure to the virus.Until now, that is.Vaccine opponents and skeptics in charge of federal health agencies — starting at the top with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are restricting access to covid shots that were a signature accomplishment of President Donald Trump’s first term and cost taxpayers about $13 billion to develop, produce, and distribute. The agencies are narrowing vaccination recommendations, pushing drugmakers to perform costly clinical studies, and taking other steps that will result in fewer people getting protection from a virus that still kills hundreds each week in the U.S.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.“There are hundreds of thousands of people who rely on these vaccines,” said Saltzman, 71, of Sacramento, California. “For people who are immunocompromised, if there aren’t enough people vaccinated, we lose the ring that’s protecting us. We’re totally vulnerable.”The Trump administration on May 20 rolled out tougher approval requirements for covid shots, described as a covid-19 “vaccination regulatory framework,” that could leave millions of Americans who want boosters unable to get them.The FDA will encourage new clinical trials on the widely used vaccines before approving them for children and healthy adults. The requirements could cost drugmakers tens of millions of dollars and are likely to leave boosters largely out of reach for hundreds of millions of Americans this fall.Under the new guidance, vaccines will be available for high-risk individuals and seniors. But the FDA will encourage drugmakers to commit to conducting post-marketing clinical trials in healthy adults when the agency approves covid vaccines for those populations.For the past five years, the shots have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone 6 months and older. They have been available each fall after being updated to reflect circulating strains of the virus, and the vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials.Vinay Prasad, who leads the FDA’s division overseeing vaccines, cited “distrust of the American public” as he announced the new guidelines at a May 20 briefing.“We have launched down this multiyear campaign of booster after booster after booster,” he said, adding that “we do not have gold-standard science to support this for average-risk, low-risk Americans.”The details were outlined in a May 20 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, written by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. He and Prasad later followed up with the briefing, which appeared the same day on YouTube.The added limits on access aren’t the result of any recent data showing there are new health risks from the covid vaccines. Instead, they reflect a different regulatory stance from Kennedy, who has a history of anti-vaccine activism, and Makary, who has questioned the safety data on covid mRNA shots.Announcing a major regulatory change in a medical journal and YouTube video is a highly unusual approach that still leaves many questions about implementation unanswered. It remains unclear when the changes will go into effect or whether there will be any public comment period. The changes were announced by the administration before an FDA advisory committee meeting on May 22 to consider the 2026 covid vaccine formula.It’s a sharp reversal from the first Trump administration, which launched Operation Warp Speed — the effort that led to the development of the covid shots. Trump called the vaccines the “gold standard” and a “monumental national achievement.”Concerns About Higher TransmissionThe announcement is rattling some patient advocacy groups, doctors, nursing home leaders, and researchers who worry about the ramifications. They say higher-risk individuals will be more likely to get covid if people who aren’t at risk don’t get boosters that can help reduce transmission. And they say the FDA’s restrictions go too far, because they don’t provide exceptions for healthy individuals who work in high-risk settings, such as hospitals, who may want a covid booster for protection.The limits will also make it harder to get insurance coverage for the vaccines. And the FDA’s new stance could also increase vaccine hesitancy by undermining confidence in covid vaccines that have already been subject to rigorous safety review, said Kate Broderick, chief innovation officer at Maravai Life Sciences, which makes mRNA products for use in vaccine development.“For the public, it raises questions,” she said. “If someone has concerns, I’d like them to know that of all the vaccines, the ones with the most understood safety profile are probably covid-19 vaccines. There is an incredible body of data and over 10 billion doses given.”Some doctors and epidemiologists say it could leave healthy people especially vulnerable if more virulent strains of covid emerge and they can’t access covid shots.“It’s not based on science,” said Rob Davidson, an emergency room doctor in Michigan and executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, which works to expand health care access. “It’s what we were all worried would happen. It risks peoples’ lives.”Current federal regulators say there is no high-quality evidence showing that vaccinating healthy people, including health workers who are near or around immunocompromised people, provides an additional benefit.“It is possible, actually, that such approvals and strategies provide false reassurance and lead to increased harms,” Prasad said.The covid vaccines underwent clinical trials to assess safety, and they have been subject to ongoing surveillance and monitoring since they obtained emergency use authorization from the FDA amid the pandemic. Heart issues and allergic reactions can occur but are rare, according to the CDC.On a separate track, the FDA on May 21 posted letters sent in April to makers of the mRNA covid vaccines to add information about possible heart injury on warning labels, a move that one former agency official described as overkill. The action came after the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a panel of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, held a hearing on alleged adverse events associated with covid vaccines.Limiting boosters to healthy people goes against guidance from some medical groups.“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and the best way to protect children,” Sean O’Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in an email. “Young children under 5 continue to be at the highest risk, with that risk decreasing as they get older.”Unsupported Claims About mRNA VaccinesThe covid booster clampdown is supported by many adherents of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which casts suspicion on traditional medicine. Some opponents of covid mRNA vaccines say without evidence that the shots cause “turbo” cancer, are genetic bioweapons, and cause more heart damage than the covid virus.There is no evidence the shots lead to rapid and aggressive cancers. Cancer rates decreased an average of 1.7% per year for men and 1.3% for women from 2018 to 2022, according to the National Institutes of Health. The covid vaccines debuted in 2021.Federal regulators say narrowing who can get the boosters will align the U.S. with policies of European nations. But other countries have vastly different economic structures for health care and approaches to preventive care. Many European countries, for example, don’t recommend flu shots for the entire population. The U.S. does in part because of the financial drain attributed to lost productivity when people are sick.They also want more information. “I think there’s a void of data,” Makary told CBS News on April 29. “And I think rather than allow that void to be filled with opinions, I’d like to see some good data.”A massive five-year study on covid vaccine safety by the Global Vaccine Data Network, involving millions of people, was underway, with about a year left before completion. The Trump administration terminated funding for the project as part of cuts directed by the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, and work on the study has stopped for now.There are a multitude of studies, however, on the vaccines’ effectiveness in preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death.Limiting boosters for healthy people can be risky, some doctors say, because people don’t always know when they fall into higher-risk categories, such as individuals who are prediabetic or have high blood pressure. The covid vaccine restrictions could deter them from getting boosted, and they might experience worse complications from the virus as a result. For example, about 40% of people with hepatitis C are unaware of their condition, according to a study published in 2023.The number of people getting covid vaccines has already dropped significantly since the height of the crisis. More than half of the more than 258 million adults in the U.S. had gotten a covid vaccination as of May 2021, according to the CDC. In each of the past two seasons, less than 25% of Americans received boosters, CDC data shows.While deaths from the virus have dropped, covid remains a risk, especially when cases peak in December and January. Weekly covid deaths topped 2,580 as recently as January 2024, according to CDC data.Some high-risk individuals are worried that the new restrictions are just the first salvo in halting all access to mRNA shots. “The HHS motivation really is hidden, and it’s to dismiss all mRNA technology,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota.Officials at the NIH have told scientists to remove references to mRNA in grant applications. HHS also announced plans in May to develop new vaccines without mRNA technology, which uses messenger RNA to instruct cells to make proteins that trigger an immune response.Rose Keller, 23, is concerned about future access to covid shots. She would be eligible under the current announcement — she has cystic fibrosis, a progressive genetic condition that makes the mucus in her lungs thick and sticky, so covid could land her in the hospital. But she is concerned the Trump administration may go further and restrict access to the vaccines as part of a broader opposition to mRNA technology.“I’ve had every booster that’s available to me,” said Keller, a government employee in Augusta, Maine. “It’s a real worry if I don’t have the protection of a covid booster.”KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

The U.S. Treasury said on Thursday it is phasing out the penny and will soon stop putting new one-cent coins into circulation. The U.S. Mint, which produces the coins, made its final order of penny blanks and will stop producing them—after over two centuries—when those run out, reported The Associated Press. (The penny was first issued in 1793, when it featured a woman.) Like many things these days, it turns out the cost of making a penny is a lot more expensive than it used to be—over 20% more in 2024, to be precise, according to the Treasury. Blame it on higher costs of production and materials, but either way, the U.S. lost more than $85 million making the penny last year, per The Wall Street Journal. Halting production is expected to save taxpayers $56 million annually. The decision isn’t surprising—killing the penny has had bipartisan support in recent years. Back in February, President Donald Trump said he ordered the U.S. Mint to halt penny production. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency also targeted the penny, posting on X that it costs more than 3 cents to make each one, for a cost of over $179 million to U.S. taxpayers in fiscal 2023. Don’t worry, you can still use your pennies for now, but be prepared to round up to a nickel, since eventually businesses will run out of them. However, a look at the numbers also shows that nickels cost even more money to produce at 13.8 cents each, or 11 cents for production costs plus 2.8 cents for administrative and distribution, based on the most recent fiscal year, per CNN.