A group of GeoGuessr map creators have pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the Esports World Cup 2025, calling the tournament "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." The protestors say the blackout will hold until the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, cancels its planned Last Chance Wildcard tournament at the EWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 21 to 27. GeoGuessr is a browser game where players try to pinpoint locations using only Google Street View images, and it relies on community mapmakers to stay relevant. The blackout, which began on May 21, includes "dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps," according to a statement the group shared on Reddit. The removed maps have been played tens of millions of times. One of the largest GeoGuessr communities, Plonk It, has also removed its Map Directory and shared the mapping community's open letter. That statement reads in full as follows: We, the creators of a considerable share of GeoGuessr’s most popular maps, have decided to make our maps unplayable in protest of GeoGuessr AB’s decision to host a World Championship wildcard tourney at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh. The EWC is a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record. Groups targeted by the government include women, LGBTQ people, apostates and atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers in the Kafala system, religious minorities, and many others. The subjugation of these groups is extensive and pervasive. Members of these groups are routinely subjected to discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions. These severe human rights violations are well-documented and indisputable. By participating in the EWC, GeoGuessr is contributing to that sportswashing agenda, which is designed to take attention away from Saudi Arabia's human rights violations. The GeoGuessr community is diverse and includes many members of groups that would be harshly persecuted were they to live in Saudi Arabia. In solidarity with those currently residing in Saudi Arabia while being subject to oppression, as well as members of the community who would feel and be unsafe attending the tournament in Riyadh, we have decided to black out our maps by replacing all their previous locations with random garbage locations, rendering them unplayable. This blackout includes dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps. It will continue until we see action from GeoGuessr; specifically, we demand that GeoGuessr cancels its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and commits to not hosting any events there as long as it continues its oppressive regime. You don't play games with human rights. Thank you for reading. The GeoGuessr mapping community We've hit up GeoGuessr AB for a comment on the blackout and will update this story as we hear back. The EWC is a huge, multi-game event owned and operated by the Saudi government and held in the country's capital city. It's an evolution of the Gamers8 tournament and this year marks the second EWC-branded competition; it's due to take place in July and August with a total prize pool of $38 million, split among 24 games. Franchises participating in the 2025 event include Rocket League, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Dota 2, Valorant, Street Fighter 6, EA Sports FC and PUBG. It's difficult to compete in esports without running into Savvy Games Group, the video game arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Alongside hosting the EWC, Savvy has financial stakes in Nexon (10.2 percent ownership), Electronic Arts (9 percent), Embracer Group (8.3 percent), Nintendo (7.5 percent), Capcom (5 percent) and Take-Two Interactive (6.8 percent as of 2023). Savvy also runs ESL FACEIT Group, which contains the Electronic Sports League, a longstanding and significant esports event company. The New York Times reported last year that the Saudi government plans to invest $38 billion in the video game industry by 2030. Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long documented the abuses of the Saudi government. HRW describes Saudi Arabia's human rights record as "abysmal," and specifically calls out the PIF as a reputational whitewashing tool. Saudi authorities have been accused of sportswashing in traditional sports as well, specifically through the country's ownership of LIV Golf and Newcastle United FC. In February, Riot Games — the operator of League of Legends, Valorant and Teamfight Tactics, and arguably the largest name in esports — signed a three-year deal with the Esports World Cup Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Riot defended the partnership, arguing that the resulting financial boon for players and the esports industry outweighed other concerns. "We know some of you may not feel great about our decision to partner with the EWC in this way, and we respect that," Riot's statement read. Though corporate support for the EWC remains strong, the GeoGuessr mapping community isn't alone in rejecting this year's tournament. Street Fighter 6 player Christopher Hancock, who plays as ChrisCCH for FlyQuest, recently declined his spot at EWC 2025. In a social media statement, Hancock said, "I gave this decision a lot of thought and ultimately decided that, due to the nature in which the event is funded and managed, I do not feel comfortable participating in it." He added that the partnership between the Capcom Pro Tour and the EWC effectively forced him to work with the Saudi-backed group. "Choosing to not participate in any EWC qualifiers would effectively mean retirement from competing," Hancock said. "I find it regrettable that this event has become so deeply embedded in the [fighting game community], but I have not yet made a decision on whether I will stop competing in events associated to it altogether." Alongside the GeoGuessr map blackout, the community protest added one new, short challenge to the game called How to Run A Dictatorship. It takes players through five locations around Riyadh, documenting the alleged government-sanctioned torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and oppression of women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and political dissenters occurring in these places. The challenge takes just a few minutes, so feel free to experience it yourself.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/geoguessr-community-maps-go-dark-in-protest-of-ewc-ties-to-human-rights-abuses-221037118.html?src=rss

The AJ’s special LGBTQ+ issue – out tomorrow – explores thought-provoking discussions about queer culture, about whose voices are heard, about who gets to occupy space – and where, says Emily Booth The AJ’s going Out. And, really, you can’t miss it, given our amazingly colourful cover for this month's issue (photography by Wilson Hennessy, laser cuts by Luka Rocyn, art direction by the AJ’s ever-talented Maria Rodriguez). Indeed, our special edition (out tomorrow, 22 May) has been a whole team effort, led by our brilliant colleagues Gino Spocchia, Rob Wilson and Fran Williams, with a mission to explore, spotlight and, most importantly, celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s rich contribution to architecture. The magazine lands just in time for Pride month, though we’re conscious that the issues raised within these pages go far beyond a single point in the diary. Advertisement We’ve endeavoured to share a wide range of voices through profiles, interviews, features, photographs and opinion pieces – while being acutely aware we can’t reflect every person, practice or project from such a diverse community. Source: Wilson HennessyBehind the scenes for the cover shoot Within the pages are thought-provoking discussions about queer culture, about whose voices are heard, who gets to occupy space – and where. Space is political, and that feels especially so at present. The RCA’s Gem Barton, who leads the Architecture LGBT+ Academic Champions Network (ACN), has a striking take: ‘To queer is to disrupt. To queer is to stretch, bend, reimagine and reject inherited structures that no longer serve us — if they ever did.’ Despite progress in LGBTQ+ visibility it can still sometimes feel like hard-won inclusivity has fallen behind. There are not, for example, many large practices led by an outwardly LGBTQ+ individual. Even today, coming out can be hard. So, from Gino’s excellent pieces featuring the community’s champions and leaders, looking at why we need LGBTQ+ housing, and even taking a deep dive into nightclub design; and from a special Sketchbook offering, to a detailed diary of upcoming events: we hope that the profession finds much affirmation and inspiration as the AJ goes Out. The May edition of the AJ will be published tomorrow. Subscribers will be able to read the digital edition here, or copies of the printed magazine will be available to buy here. An AJ subscription is better value – click here to view our packages.  Architecture LGBT+ 2025-05-21 Emily Booth comment and share TagsArchitecture LGBT+

At Unity, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are employee-led networks that foster an inclusive workplace by providing support around shared identities or life experiences that have historically been marginalized or underrepresented in the workforce. The purpose of ERGs is to champion an inclusive culture by modeling our company values of empathy, respect, and opportunity, and to build a sense of belonging. Membership in ERGs is open to all employees, regardless of whether they self-identify with the target demographic; allies are welcomed and encouraged to join in creating a culture of inclusion. Today we have a total of nine ERGs, nearly half of which were launched in 2022. Continue reading for a look back at all that our ERGs accomplished in the past year and to learn more about what each represents.The Access ERG was launched earlier this year and is a group that resonates with many people at Unity. The group hosted multiple meetings with guest speakers, covering various topics such as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) literacy, guide dogs, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Leaders have also raised awareness and donations for nonprofits outside of Unity that are doing important work for communities with disabilities and neurodiversity.Employee feedback: “This is the most wonderful [update]. Thank you so, so much for researching, advocating, and sharing [recording transcripts].”In 2023, the Access ERG aims to normalize accessibility so that all team members with disabilities or neurological divergences have equal opportunities and rewarding careers. Seemingly small things, like having transcripts automatically enabled for Zoom meetings or introductions with visual descriptions, can make a big difference for someone with an auditory or visual impairment, respectively. They also plan on aligning with our accessibility council, focused on Unity’s product accessibility, to ensure that employees with disabilities are core stakeholders.The Asian ERG spent the past year recruiting new members through its monthly community meetings and also built an excellent event lineup. The group kicked off the year with a bang by putting together a video that featured Unity employees from around the world who each shared how Lunar New Year is celebrated in their respective cultures. Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is observed in North America during the month of May, so the Asian ERG organized four virtual events to raise awareness, including a Stop AAPI Hate presentation by Dr. Russell Jeung. In October, members gathered locally in offices with the Hindu and Sikh community to paint Diya lamps, and to taste locally sourced traditional food and sweets in celebration of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.In 2023, the Asian ERG leadership team aims to drive internal engagement and continue to grow community membership, as well as to continue collaborations with other ERGs such as the LGBTQ+ and Muslim groups by co-presenting discussions and events that tackle intersectional issues. The group also wishes to build partnerships with other companies and non-profit organizations, so as to create volunteer and networking opportunities for Unity’s Asian community. Finally, they are passionate about helping members develop and grow internally and are looking into ways to provide resources that can help guide the Asian diaspora in navigating their careers and to implement a mentorship program to promote a culture of learning.B-United, Unity’s Black ERG, has grown extensively over the past year. The group celebrated several amazing events for Black History Month in February (U.S. and Canada) and October (United Kingdom), and continued to honor Black culture throughout the year. An event that stands out was a fireside chat featuring one of Unity’s Black board members, whose story was impactful to hear for all who attended. The company was also able to send several B-United members to AFROTECH, which offered a unique chance to see and network alongside Black professionals across many areas of the tech industry. The conference was also the first time many of our group members met in person, since the ERG was established during the pandemic in 2020.In 2023, B-United plans to continue the momentum they’ve built and provide even more employees with opportunities to get involved. Creating psychological safety for our Black employees is essential for them to be able to thrive at Unity. This ERG can help be another space outside of someone’s immediate team for community building and career support.The mission of the Caregivers ERG is to partner with Unity to advance understanding and inclusion for employees who find themselves frequently in a caregiving role, be it for children, parents, or for other meaningful relationships in their lives. Founded this year, the group hosted a virtual volunteer event in partnership with our Social Impact team to send care packages to children in hospitals this holiday season. Balancing the care of others with impactful, meaningful work can be taxing for employees, and this ERG is dedicated to bringing resources, policies, and appreciation to its community so that, as a company, Unity is better able to retain, support, and provide equal opportunities for caregiving employees.Employee feedback: “I want to thank everyone for joining the kick off meetings this week. It’s really nice to meet new people at Unity and feel less alone.”Unity currently offers a variety of benefits for caregivers including family planning support and a flexible return to work program in the US and parental leave. In 2023, the Caregivers ERG intends to provide resources to make the return to work easier for employees who take leave for caregiving and to make flexible schedules a top priority.ComUnidad, Unity’s Latinx ERG, saw great improvements in its membership numbers, overall engagement, and group structure in 2022. The community grew to over 200 total members and attributes this growth to the time spent building a solid leadership structure and foundation to support the functions of the group. Growing its leadership team from four to nine this year allowed them to engage more with Unity’s Latinx community through events and community gatherings and to avoid leader burnout. Most notably, the group had a strong showing during Latinx Heritage Month (observed in the U.S. from September 15–October 15) when it hosted five events and increased its overall event engagement by more than 10%.In 2023, ComUnidad plans to continue its efforts to grow membership by offering more incentives for new Latinx employees and allies to join the ERG. This includes plans to provide more professional development opportunities and in-person events.What a busy year it has been for the LGBTQ+ ERG: The group organized more than a dozen events, many of which were in collaboration with other ERGs, such as a short film screening with the Asian ERG and Queer Icons trivia with the Latinx ERG. The team also hosted workshops on being an ally, a talk about the history of Drag Kings, a fireside chat with its executive sponsors, and launched a book club. In June, the group created a collective video to show what Pride really means to members of the community within Unity.Employee feedback: “I want to say how pleased and grateful I was to see [a] company-wide post specifically call out the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of companies tend to [take a much more vague] ‘Pride for everyone!’ approach – the acknowledgement of Pride's history is much appreciated, so thank you ”One of the LGBTQ+ ERG’s biggest goals for 2023 is to improve the sense of community for its members, as well as to offer opportunities for personal and professional growth. Group leaders are proud to have increased membership by over 12% in 2022, especially after a focus on gaining more global representation, but recognize there is still work to be done.The Muslim ERG is the first of its kind at Unity and a unique one in the tech industry, too. Through spreading awareness about issues that impact the community and Islamic culture, the group aims to set up frameworks that ensure that Muslim employees can practice their beliefs with respect and comfort. Leadership has collaborated with other ERGs, such as the Asian and Women ERGs, on issues that affect the intersectional communities. They’ve also hosted celebrations for Ramadan and Eid, including three successful fundraisers (tied to the internal employee match program) and informational sessions about Ramadan and how to be “in it together” for all. The fundraisers centered around food drives for war-torn countries and rebuilding education infrastructure in disaster-stricken nations due to global warming. As part of its end-of-year festivities, the Muslim ERG hosted baklava cooking and arabic calligraphy workshops to bring a bit of the Arabic culture to the diverse workspaces of Unity, and to make members feel more connected during the holidays.In 2023, there is great opportunity for this ERG to make an impact on Muslim employees and to create more allies and intersectional collaborations. The group’s leaders aim to work with internal teams to support onboarding of new employees who have been hired in or are relocating from Muslim-majority countries by introducing buddy systems, as well as to create inclusive workplaces globally for current employees. Together, the Muslim ERG looks forward to another good year for inclusion and diversity at Unity.The Service Members ERG is designed for veterans and military families, and chose a name and logo that would appeal to Unity’s global employee base. Members of the ERG believe service members and their families have unique skill sets and experiences to offer. Formed over the summer of 2022, the group hosted its first open workshop, led by a U.S. Army combat veteran, on how to cultivate a resilient mindset in an ever-changing world in September. To close the year, they hosted a children’s toy drive through Toys for Tots, which is run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve.In 2023, the Service Members ERG would like to grow its member base and bring more allies into the fold. With the new acquisition of ironSource, and the majority of its employees having served in the Israeli Defense Force, we believe there are many peers who would be interested in connecting with and learning from this community.What a year it has been. The Women ERG started off 2022 by introducing its first executive sponsors, who aim to build a continuous partnership in order to realize desired objectives and key results for women at Unity. The highlight of the year was, of course, the group’s impressive lineup of events during Women’s History Month in March, which included an influential Unity Women Panel, a showstopper that inspired all who tuned in and was supported by women leaders within the company. Another focus area for the ERG this year was to provide support for professional development, which led to the launch of its Peer Mentor program. Finally, the Women ERG announced the rollout of its Ambassador program, which is designed to provide additional support for events for employees in both virtual and in-person settings, and even found time to volunteer.As it looks to 2023, the Women ERG wants to support its members as best they can and iterate and improve processes. The leadership team is excited to show members all that they have prepared in an effort to bring more focused events and to increase engagement among women at Unity.We look forward to continuing to foster inclusion and diversity at Unity through these and more employee initiatives and extend a huge thank you to all who participated in ERG programming – both internally and externally – throughout 2022. Cheers to all that we can continue to accomplish in 2023!If you are interested in learning more about Unity’s Inclusion programs, check out our Inclusion & Diversity page. You can watch videos produced by our ERGs on our LinkedIn Life page or read through our Faces of Unity blogs, highlighting individual ERG leaders.

Last month, the UK’s highest court unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law. The court sided with campaign group For Women Scotland, which brought a case against the Scottish Government, arguing that sex-based protections should only apply to people that are born female. While the judgement does not remove trans people’s protection from discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act, among the outcomes of the ruling are bans on trans women from using women’s toilets and trans men using men’s toilets. All public buildings must provide single-sex toilet facilities following the ruling.Advertisement Writing in an open letter addressed to LGBTQ+ architects, planners, engineers and others, which was shared exclusively with the AJ, the UK’s largest built environment institutions said they acknowledged concerns raised over the court’s decision. The professional membership bodies also made promises to create an inclusive built environment in the letter, which reiterated ‘protections and provisions’ that ‘remain firmly in place’ despite the ruling. The six bodies said: ‘We acknowledge the recent Supreme Court judgment, and we need time to fully consider its implications [but] Our determination to foster an inclusive sector remains unchanged’. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Queerscapes (@_queerscapes) The response comes after the LGBTQ+ and trans-founded platform Queerscapes argued in a letter dated 18 April that its members were ‘deeply concerned and worried’ by the gender ruling. Queerscapes, at the same time, called for the professional bodies to show ‘clarity and courage’ on the issue. Writing in the open letter, the group said: ‘The recent UK Supreme Court ruling, redefining “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 as “biological sex,” has left many of us fearful.Advertisement ‘The ruling opens the door to exclusion’ ‘While legal protections for trans people under “gender reassignment” remain, the ruling opens the door to exclusion — from spaces, services, and workplaces — at a time when hate and hostility are already rising. ‘Our institutions must act decisively to support the trans and gender-diverse professionals in our sector.’ The letter in response to Queerscapes was signed by the RIBA, the Chartered Institute of Building, Institution of Civil Engineers, The Landscape Institute, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Royal Town Planning Institute. The RIBA and joint bodies admitted in their letter that they were unable to publish data on trans and gender-diverse members until they are ‘confident that its collection and publication will not put any member at risk’. This was in response to Queerscapes calling for action following a 2022 memorandum on inclusion and diversity. Other commitments made in 2022 on EDI included improving understanding of gender transition from education into employment, and training on EDI. This was part of a 45-point action plan agreed by the six bodies. Letter in response to Queerscapes Thank you for your letter dated 18 April. In 2022, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and its associated action plan as a demonstration of our collective commitment to creating a built environment sector that is inclusive and supportive of our entire membership. We are dedicated to ensuring that all members, regardless of their personal characteristics, thrive in this environment. We acknowledge the recent Supreme Court judgment, and we need time to fully consider its implications. Our determination to foster an inclusive sector remains unchanged. The MoU is set to expire this summer, and we expect all original signatories to re-sign, alongside welcoming new signatories, to further cement our commitment to supporting all our members. Consistent and robust data collection is the bedrock of our commitment. Since signing the MoU, we have agreed a consistent set of data collection practices, which include gathering data on trans and gender-diverse individuals. We intend to publish this data; however, we are currently working on improving our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to ensure that the data we collect can be stored safely and accurately. We will share the data once we are confident that its collection and publication will not put any member at risk. Additionally, we have provisions and protections in place for members and staff that ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect. These policies remain firmly in place. At this time, we do not offer member services or benefits based on gender identity, and we have no plans to introduce such services. However, in terms of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), we are committed to promoting the use of the Inclusive Design Overlay across our membership and beyond. This framework is designed to ensure that spaces are inclusive and welcoming for all, including trans individuals. We recognise that some members and built environment professionals may be feeling increased levels of vulnerability and concern. Please be assured that we remain steadfast in our commitment to creating inclusive professions and, by extension, inclusive places and spaces. Discrimination of any kind has no place in society, and we will continue to do our part in eradicating it. Thank you again for reaching out. Members of the professional institutions with additional questions or concerns are encouraged to get in touch with their respective organisation. Yours sincerely, Chartered Institute of Building Institution of Civil Engineers The Landscape Institute Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Royal Town Planning Institute

Sales at Target fell more than expected in the first quarter and the retailer warned they will slip for all of 2025 year as its customers, worried over the impact of tariffs and the economy, pull back on spending.Target also said that customer boycotts have also done some damage. The company scaled back many diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in January after they came under attack by conservative activists and the White House. Target’s retreat created another backlash, with more customers angered by the retailer’s reduction of LGBTQ+-themed merchandise for Pride Month in June of 2023.Shares fell more than 4% before the opening bell Wednesday.Sales fell 2.8% to $23.85 billion in the quarter, and that was short of the $24.23 billion Wall Street expected, according to FactSet. Sales are also down from the $24.53 billion the company reported during the same period last year.Target said Wednesday that it now expects a low-single digit decline in sales for 2025, and earnings per share, which excludes the gains from the litigation settlements in the first quarter, to be anywhere from $7 to $9.For the year, analysts expect earnings per share of $8.34 on sales of $106.7 billion.Comparable store sales, those from established stores and online channels, fell 3.8%. That includes a 5.7% drop in store sales and a 4.7% increase in online sales. That reverses a comparable store sales increase of 1.5% in the previous quarter.The number of transactions across online and physical stores fell 2.4%, and the average ticket dropped 1.4%. Target said Tuesday that it couldn’t reliably estimate the individual impact of each of the factors that were hurting its business.Target is setting up a new office to be led by Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke would focus on making faster decisions to help accelerate sales growth. Current Chief Strategy and Growth Officer Christina Hennington will move into a strategic adviser role.Target is also intensifying efforts to entice customers who are nervous about the economy and inflation. The retailer says it is offering 10,000 new items starting at $1 — with the majority under $20.“I want to be clear,” Target CEO Brian Cornell told reporters on a call Tuesday. “We’re not satisfied with these results, so we’re moving with urgency to navigate through this period of volatility … We’ve got to drive traffic back into our stores or visits to our site.”Out of 35 merchandise categories including discretionary and essentials that the company tracks, it’s gaining or maintaining market share in only 15, the company said.Target rival Walmart reported strong quarterly sales last week. The nation’s largest retailer said it’s already raised prices on some items due to tariffs and that more price hikes are on the way this summer when the back-to-school shopping season goes into high gear. For example, car seats made in China that currently sell for $350 at Walmart will likely cost customers another $100, executives said.Target didn’t offer specifics on tariffs’ impact on prices, but said that it was looking at different ways to offset those costs.“We look at competition,” Cornell told reporters. “We make adjustments literally each and every week, so we’re constantly adjusting pricing. Some are going up. Some will be reduced.”President Donald Trump’s threatened 145% import taxes on Chinese goods were reduced to 30% in a deal announced May 12, with some of the higher tariffs on pause for 90 days.Yet Americans were already pulling back on spending as they grow increasingly uneasy over the state of the U.S. economy. Companies including toy manufacturer Mattel, toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker and consumer products giant Procter & Gamble have announced higher prices or plans to raise prices because of the trade war kicked of by the U.S.Walmart was able to dodge some of the tariff damage other retailers are suffering because groceries account for about 60% of its U.S. business. Target is more reliant on discretionary items like clothing and accessories, with less than a quarter of its sales coming from groceries.Target has reduced the number of its store-label products sourced from China to 30% now from 60% in 2017. The company is on its way to reducing that number to 25% by the end of next year, the company said. Target is shifting sourcing to Guatemala and Honduras and is looking to sourcing in the U.S.Target is being pressured on other fronts as well.The company in January said it would phase out a handful of DEI initiatives, including a program designed to help Black employees advance their careers and promote Black-owned businesses. Conservative activists and President Donald Trump have sought to dismantle DEI policies in the federal government, schools, and at private businesses.The pastor of a Georgia megachurch who led a nationwide 40-day boycott of Target stores in response called last month for a continuation of that effort.The Rev. Jamal Bryant is seeking a reinvigorated commitment from Target on diversity, and he wants more support from Target for Black-owned banks and businesses.Target earned $1.04 billion, or $2.27 per share, for the period ended May 3. That compares with $942 million, or $2.03 per share, in the year-ago period.Target operates nearly 2,000 stores nationwide and employs more than 400,000 people. —Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Business Writer

One of the most momentous developments of the new Trump era is how major billionaires in the tech industry — frequently known as the broligarchs — have thrown their weight behind the president. During the 2024 election, they offered high-profile support and made big donations; after the inauguration, they announced new company policies that aligned them with President Donald Trump’s regressive cultural ideologies. Elon Musk had already turned Twitter into a right-wing echo chamber since purchasing it in 2022, and spent several chaotic months earlier this year as Trump’s government efficiency henchman. Jeff Bezos has revamped the Washington Post’s editorial section to build support for “personal liberties and free markets.” Mark Zuckerberg decided to get rid of fact-checkers at Meta. It was a massive show of power that revealed how possible it is for these wealthy men to remake our culture in their own image, transforming how we speak to each other and what we know to be true. Using that power on Trump’s behalf seems to have paid mixed dividends for Silicon Valley, but it nonetheless makes clear how important it is to understand their worldview and their vision for the future. Which is why it is striking to note that Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg share a favorite author: Iain M. Banks, the Scottish science fiction writer best known for his Culture series. Banks is an odd choice for a bunch of tech billionaires. The author, who died in 2013, was a socialist and avowed hater of the super-rich.“The Culture series is certainly, in terms of more modern science fiction, one of my absolute favorites,” Bezos told GeekWire in 2018, adding, “there’s a utopian element to it that I find very attractive.” Bezos has attempted twice to adapt the series for TV at Amazon, once in 2018 and again in February. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg picked the Culture novel Player of Games for his book club in 2015. Banks is an odd choice for a bunch of tech billionaires. The author, who died in 2013, was a socialist and avowed hater of the super-rich.The most avowed Culture fan among the broligarchs, however, is Musk. Musk has named Space X drone ships after the starships in the Culture books. His original name for the neuralink — a computer chip that can be implanted in human brains, pioneered by his neurotechnology company — was the neural lace, a piece of telepathic technology that Banks came up with in the Culture books. In 2018, Musk declared himself “a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks.” (It’s worth noting that in 2018, Musk was under fire for union busting but had not yet waded so far into national politics or declared public war against the “woke mind virus.”)Plenty of us like and even identify with pieces of pop culture whose politics we don’t entirely agree with, like the libertarian Little House on the Prairie books or the Christian Chronicles of Narnia. Still, the Banks Culture series, which consists of 10 books released between 1987 and 2012, is not politically coded so much as it is downright didactic. “The Culture is hippy commies with hyper-weapons and a deep distrust of both Marketolatry and Greedism,” Banks said in an interview with Strange Horizons in 2010, in a line that’s only barely more explicit than the books themselves.The Culture series takes place in a post-scarcity galactic society known only as the Culture, which strictly values empathy, pluralism, and social cooperation. Most of the volumes of the series see the Culture navigating an altercation with another civilization, usually one with a much less progressive ethos, and figuring out how to handle the resulting tension. Does the Culture intervene in the affairs of another planet to, for instance, stop the spread of a theocratic empire? What does it do about civilizations where slavery is legal?The politics of these books are not subtle, and they are also not compatible with the existence of billionaires. So it’s worth thinking about why the broligarchs have so consistently cited a socialist author as an inspiration. What do they find tantalizing about Banks’ work? Are they missing the point altogether? Nearly every aspect of the Culture seems to be diametrically opposed to the worldview of the tech right.Banks takes as his starting principle for the Culture the idea that a space-faring civilization will have to be socialist to be effective. In the hostile environment of the vacuum of space, he argues, you will need to be able to count on the collective. Banks further reasons that each spaceship or planet in the Culture will have to be reasonably self-sufficient to survive. At the same time, the Culture is stringently non-hierarchical and non-individualistic. There is no money and no want; therefore, there can’t be any billionaires or any economic inequality. There are no laws and almost no crime. This is not a world in which supremely wealthy people who use their power to influence the social fabric make sense. “Succinctly; socialism within, anarchy without,” Banks concluded in a 1994 Usenet post in which he lays out his full theory of the Culture. In the Culture, should someone commit an action that most people agreed was unacceptable, everyone responds with social shaming rather than the rule of law: They stop inviting the person in question to parties. In other words, like a group of proper leftists, they deal with misbehavior by social cancellation, that great threat against which the broligarchs have declared war.Even work-life balance in the Culture exists in opposition to the ethos of Silicon Valley. The Culture’s citizens have invented vastly powerful AIs that take care of governance for them. This delegation frees up the Culture citizens themselves to indulge in what Banks describes as “the things that really mattered in life, such as sports, games, romance, studying dead languages, barbarian societies and impossible problems, and climbing high mountains without the aid of a safety harness.” Those who are burdened with too much ambition to be content in such a soft life take on (unpaid) jobs managing the Culture’s relationships with other civilizations, mostly for the prestige and the adrenaline rush of it all. This vision appears to have influenced Musk’s idea of a future in which AI has rendered work “optional,” so that “if you want to do a job that’s kinda like a hobby, you can do a job.” Musk allows that there would need to be “universal high income” for this plan to work, but outlines no ideas as to how such an ambitious policy could take effect. In the meantime, in our own world, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla are all infamous for requiring employees to work abusively long hours. Elon Musk is one of the most ardent fans of Iain M. Banks’s Culture series. Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesFinally, and perhaps most discordantly given the broligarchs’ current gender politics, the Culture is genderfluid. Anyone can change gender just by thinking about it, and most people do at least once in their lives, a state of affairs Banks argues is responsible for its strict regime of gender equality. Meanwhile, Musk is notoriously anti-trans, Zuckerberg has been leaning into the retrograde gender ideologies of the manosphere as he tweaks Meta’s policies to allow more hate speech, particularly toward LGBTQ+ people, and Amazon has removed LGBTQ+ rights support from its website.But it’s not just that the Culture holds the inverse of the ideology these men stand for. The most detestable villain in Banks’s series is Joiler Veppers, a wealthy man in a civilization less evolved than the Culture, who uses his riches to purchase and influence media outlets, undercut labor unions, and rape his indentured servants. Veppers’s money comes from a family fortune built in the computer game industry, and he compounds that fortune by investing in the servers to a series of virtual reality hellscapes, where unfortunates are horribly tortured for all eternity.If you want to know how Banks views capitalist tech billionaires, you don’t have to hunt very hard. In the Culture series, a capitalist tech billionaire is the literal devil, only he couldn’t be bothered to build hell himself. So why are the broligarchs so into the Culture books?So what’s the appeal of the Culture series if you actually are a capitalist tech billionaire? Probably the tech itself.If politics offer the Culture books their intellectual framing, the tech is what gives them their zing, their spectacle. Throughout the series, Banks lovingly describes spaceships and AIs (and lots of spaceships that are also AIs), and artificial planets and gizmos and gadgets. Generally, at the end of the book, the Culture uses one of those gizmos in an inventive way to win a big, explosive space war. Read through this light, the Culture’s technological prowess offers the brute force that backs up its warm and fuzzy ideology. The Culture can afford to be idealistic and worry about its moral culpability because it has better technology than all the other civilizations it faces off with, which means it will nearly always win in a fight.If you think of yourself as a titan of industry who is making that technology for your own culture — who is providing the brute force that allows for wishy-washy moralizing — there is a certain easy comfort that comes with this alignment. You know you are on the correct side of history because you’re on the side that is building the strongest and most advanced technology. Yet within the larger metaphor Banks is building, the relationship between politics and strength is supposed to be the other way around. The Culture is not good because they are strong. Their strength is a metaphor for their goodness. They have the best technology because that shows that they are rational, that they value intelligence, that they are motivated to give their citizens the best possible quality of life. The Culture is not good because they are strong. Their strength is a metaphor for their goodness.To avoid this idea when reading Banks, you would have to be exquisitely attuned to the pleasurable spectacle of technology and the power that tech offers its users, and then ignore everything else. In that case, what the broligarchs’ love of the Culture series reveals is that they see the world through the lens of power and spectacle first and foremost, and have no particular problem evading the work’s deeper meaning. That’s why this group has a propensity for big, pointless stunts, like trips to almost-space and carting a kitchen sink through Twitter headquarters and threatening to punch one another in a public fight. It’s as though they feel entitled to their power because their favorite book taught them that the side with the best tech always wins, and the most important thing you can do with that tech is put on a show. They seem not to have read deeply enough to understand what the book was really trying to say: that the most important thing powerful people can do is use their power to make the world freer, fairer, and more pleasurable for everyone else.See More:

Unity has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023, which highlights businesses at the forefront of their respective industries. Unity ranked number one for AR and VR innovators, with Fast Company citing our work integrating data with digital twins on projects with the Vancouver Airport Authority and Orlando Economic Partnership.“We’re humbled to be recognized by Fast Company with this honor at a time when the world is in the early stages of a substantial transformation from 2D to 3D,” said John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity. “Content specifically is moving from mostly 2D to 3D, from mostly not real-time to real-time, and from mostly linear to deeply interactive, and I believe that between now and the end of the decade, VR and AR will be fairly pervasive. At the heart of all revolutionary and connective AR and VR experiences is great content, and that’s exactly what our platform enables creators to do as they unleash their creativity and bring their vision to life in gaming and beyond.”“At the heart of all revolutionary and connective AR and VR experiences is great content, and that’s exactly what our platform enables creators to do as they unleash their creativity and bring their vision to life in gaming and beyond.”Added Lynette DuJohn, VP, Innovation and Chief Information Officer at Vancouver Airport Authority, “We are grateful to have partners like Unity, who, from the start, aligned with our bold vision to rethink what digital transformation means for an airport by creating YVR’s Digital Twin platform to solve challenges in aviation and beyond.”Continue reading for four case studies that demonstrate how Unity and our customers are leading the way with innovative applications of AR and VR.Fetal Heart VR, created by Unity developers in Poland, is a fully calibrated simulation platform for training in fetal cardiac scanning. Designed to aid doctors in the study of beating fetal hearts, the most recent version includes normal fetal heart anatomy and various congenital heart diseases. Through VR training, MWU Software’s goal is to reduce the potential stress and panic experienced when a congenital heart disease is encountered during fetal screening scans.The Czech VR film Darkening was a Unity for Humanity grant winner last year. In the animated, immersive film, audiences are taken through a virtual world of experiences that address depression and ways to cope with it. Director and protagonist Ondřej Moravec knows that the stigma behind depression needs to change and, through this film, is using his story to raise awareness of mental health issues.Augment Therapy, another Unity for Humanity grant winner, uses AR to help patients of all ages who are undergoing rehabilitative care get used to moving their bodies again. The app was designed by a physical therapist with health care providers in mind and features engaging games like pickleball and surfing that are played through movement (not wearables).At the Tribeca Festival in 2022, our very own Antonia Forster, senior XR technical specialist, showcased the LGBTQ+ VR Museum that she and her cocreator Thomas Terkildsen built using Unity. Antonia put in countless hours on top of her full-time job to bring this critical project to life – which resulted in the project winning Tribeca’s New Voices award. Read more about it in this blog post.Subscribe to the Unity Blog newsletter to stay up to date on the latest innovations from Unity, including success stories from our amazing developer community.

Among the persistent mysteries of the 2024 election is the roots of the modern political gender gap, particularly among young people. Though their final vote choices were a bit more nuanced than some pre-election polls suggested, young men and women, aged 18 to 29, had the largest divergence in their vote among the age groups. Gen Z men supported Donald Trump by 14 percentage points; Gen Z women supported Kamala Harris by 17 points, per one post-election analysis.Those dynamics, particularly the aggressive rightward shift of young men, have raised some interesting questions: What was driving this divide? Was something in particular moving young men to the right while pushing young women to the left? Could it be the manosphere, economics, or old-school sexism?Or could it be something else, like the apparent resurgence of organized religion?As I’ve reported, the rapid decline of religiosity within the United States has been slowing down over recent years. Particularly since the pandemic, data shows Gen Z is no longer continuing the rapid decline in religious affiliation, particularly Christianity, that started with previous generations. If anything, religious belief has seen a small revival with that youngest cohort.That shift suggests a curious dynamic at play among America’s youth. As Gen Z has been getting more politically polarized along gendered lines, so too has their religious affiliation. Those trends suggest that modern politics and religious beliefs may be having a bit of self-reinforcing effect on each other: As young men find faith and religious belonging, their politics are drifting to the right too, in turn reinforcing their existing beliefs.The opposite seems to be true with young women: Religious customs are not jibing with their political and social beliefs, pushing them out of churches, and reinforcing that drift away from some organized religions.Those religious trends matter. As religious and political beliefs of young men and women move away from each other, it stands to complicate not just electoral choices, but the future of family life, dating, and social belonging.The religious gender gap is changing The last 10 years have seen American Christianity bottom out. After a steady decline in Christian religiosity since the 1990s, Christian belief began to stabilize at around 60 percent of the American adult population — still a historic low point — sometime around the turn of the 2020s.A key contributor to this slow-down appears to be Gen Z. After years of successive generations losing their religion, Gen Z seemed to get as irreligious as it could be. Now, what we’ve seen since 2020 is a kind of dead cat bounce: a slightly higher level of Christian religious affiliation among the youngest adults. Among the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, the share who identify as Christian has increased since 2023, from 45 percent to 51, per the Pew Research Center. And overall, Gen Z seems to be more Christian than past trend lines predicted they should be: at 46 percent compared to a projected 41 percent. At the heart of that halt and slight reversal is a dual dynamic: Young women are leaving religious congregations, while young men’s religious identification and practice rises. These changes come across in a few ways. First, the gender gap in religious participation has not just evaporated in recent years, but reversed. The religious researcher and data scientist Ryan Burge has found in his analysis of survey data from the Cooperative Election Study that while women used to attend religious services more regularly than men, the reverse is now happening. Among the cohort born in the 1990s and 2000, it’s men who are now outpacing women in weekly attendance.Looking at other reference points suggests something similar. Young women are more likely than young men to say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life research. Young women are now as likely as young men to say religion is “not that important” to them — a significant development since women have traditionally been more fervent believers. And the religious gender gap among the youngest cohort appears to be narrowing in other ways, too: Regardless of which religion they identify with, young women and young men report about the same rates of daily prayer. For older generations, women greatly outpace men in praying daily.Is religion making men more conservative? We could still stand to get better data about what is happening. It could be that young men simply remain as religious as older generations of men are (while women lose religion), or that men are getting more religious in general, or that men are particularly loyal to organized religion. Some data suggest young women remain religious or spiritual but just don’t identify with organized churches in the same way men do. But the religious gender gap still appears to be changing among Gen Z.But is politics driving these changes in religious behavior and belief? Or is religion driving stronger political beliefs? The data is a little less definitive here, but two things seem to bear out: According to AEI’s Survey Center, young women who are leaving churches report doing so because their congregations’ beliefs are more conservative than the beliefs they hold. Churches are out of step with where most young women are. Additionally, young Christian women who remain in their churches are still more likely to be liberal and hold progressive beliefs than young Christian men. Even as they remain Christians, they are becoming more politically liberal.Underlying all of this is the fact that Gen Z women are more likely to identify as feminists, as LGBTQ, and as supportive of abortion rights. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, young Christian women are 13 points more likely than young men to say that abortion should be legal. They are 18 points more likely to support gay marriage and 26 points more likely to accept LGBTQ people.As the researcher Daniel A. Cox of the AEI’s Survey Center points out, these are all shifts from what young Christians believed 10 years ago. “The gender gap in views of abortion has since quadrupled,” he notes in a recent analysis, but when it comes to views on homosexuality and gay marriage, it seems like young men have moved right. “Young Christian women have hardly changed their views over the last decade, while young men have become less supportive.”On a range of other views of government, political parties, and ideology in general, what’s happening with non-religious young people is also happening among believers. Young Christian women are much more liberal, and more likely to be Democrats, than young Christian men. Cox notes that it might not be religion making these political views so different but the degree to which young Christian women have more connections and exposure to diverse communities and are consuming different kinds of media. Religious young men seem to be stuck in more homogenous environments, both in the digital and in the real world, he suggests.Still, while we can confidently say young women are becoming more liberal and less religious in that process, we can’t say the same for men. Religion may or may not be making young men more conservative, but it does seem likely that their conservative religious and political beliefs are at least keeping young men in churches. It appears to be slowing down their drift away from organized religion.All of which stands to complicate the future of not just Gen Z’s social and cultural bonds to each other but also those of future generations. It’s the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, that is narrowing religious gender gaps while widening political ones. That poses issues for their social, romantic, and familial futures. Gen Z already reports struggles with socializing, dating, maintaining healthy relationships, and combating loneliness. Marriage rates continue to fall. So as young men and women drift away from each other, it’s hard to see how prospective partners breach these divides. And these dynamics may very well end up having electoral effects.See More:

Why The Fuck Are Democrats Helping Build MAGA’s Censorship Machine With KOSA? from the what-are-we-even-doing-here? dept Wed, May 14th 2025 10:57am - Mike Masnick The Trump administration is methodically implementing every element of Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 censorship playbook, and Democratic leadership’s response is… to help them? Earlier today, Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal joined MAGA Republicans to reintroduce the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) — a bill that Heritage itself has proudly proclaimed as central to its strategy of censoring progressive content around LGBTQ issues and abortion. The new bill appears to be effectively identical to last year’s version. It raises a huge question of… what the fuck are they thinking? The press release touts its “bipartisan” nature, with Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Richard Blumenthal sponsoring the bill, alongside Marsha Blackburn and John Thune. Last year, when Heritage Foundation declared its desire to use KOSA to censor LGBTQ content and announced it would leverage the bill to remove pro-abortion content if Trump won, perhaps some could dismiss it as empty rhetoric. But now? The Trump administration is systematically implementing every element of Heritage’s Project 2025 censorship playbook. There’s no more room for wishful thinking about how KOSA might be used. And yet, Democrats seem to act as if none of that is happening, and we can just assume good faith in how KOSA will be implemented and enforced by an FTC that has loudly proclaimed its willingness to conduct partisan, culture war witch hunts on behalf of Project 2025’s goals. Yes, we expect Richard Blumenthal to reflexively support any anti-internet bill. But Chuck Schumer? After everything we’ve seen, how can Democratic leadership still pretend there’s any good faith here? Trump is already using every available tool to wage his censorial culture wars. Heritage has explicitly laid out how they’ll use KOSA to silence progressive voices. What possible justification could there be for Democrats to hand them an even more powerful weapon? Even some Republicans recognize the danger here. Senator Rand Paul has consistently maintained that censoring the internet won’t help children. And last year, House GOP members actually stopped the bill after realizing it was a censorship tool that could be used against their own speech. But now that Trump has won (and the GOP acts as though there will never be another free election), that objection may evaporate. The bill’s lead sponsor, Marsha Blackburn, was already openly stating last year that her support for KOSA was about using it to censor LGBTQ content. That was before Trump’s victory made Heritage’s censorship plans a reality. So here we are: Heritage Foundation explicitly laid out their plans to weaponize KOSA against progressive speech. Marsha Blackburn openly admitted it’s about censoring LGBTQ content. The Trump administration is systematically implementing every element of Project 2025’s censorship agenda. And the FTC stands ready to enforce it all. Yet Democratic leadership isn’t just standing idle — they’re actively helping to build the machinery of censorship that will be used against their own constituents. Either Schumer and Blumenthal are catastrophically naive, or they’ve simply decided that appearing “bipartisan” matters more than protecting vulnerable communities from state-sponsored censorship. The real question isn’t what they’re thinking. It’s whether they’re thinking at all.

Some software updates pack in a number of features and changes, while others fundamentally overhaul the experience of using the device in question. iOS 18.5 is neither: This is a minor update, but that's to be expected. WWDC is next month, where Apple will almost assuredly announce iOS 19.But iOS 18.5 isn't an empty update. Once you install it on your iPhone, you will notice some changes—and some of the changes you don't notice are the most important of all. Here's everything that's new in the latest iOS update:An easy way to disable contact photos in MailWith iOS 18.2, Apple upgraded the Mail app. For some, the changes made the Mail app more organized and efficient to use. For others, it was bloated and confusing. Contact photos didn't help. The idea is that if you have a contact photo for a sender, it'll appear in the left side of the message in your inbox. However, if you don't have such a photo, Mail will use an image from Apple's stock library. Taste is subjective, but, frankly, these stock icons just don't look good. Luckily, you can disable them, but you'd never know that unless you're someone who loves diving through your Settings app. iOS 18.5 fixes that with an easy option right in the Mail app itself. Lifehacker's Khamosh Pathak explained the change in more depth here. It just got more difficult to bypass Screen Time settingsApple's Screen Time feature is a great tool for parents—and, I can only image, a pain for kids. Parents can set a passcode to lock Screen Time settings, and ensure that kids can't access aspects of their iPhone their parents don't want them to. Of course, passcodes are an infamously futile restriction, as savvy kids will always figure out how to break in. While Apple's isn't reinventing the passcode wheel with iOS 18.5, it is making Screen Time a bit more secure. Once you update, you'll receive a notification whenever the Screen Time passcode is used on a child's device. That won't stop your kids from figuring out your Screen Time passcode, but it will nip their fun in the bud pretty quickly.I imagine the kids will figure out some workaround to this feature in the future. But, for now, you have an additional tool to help ensure the restrictions stay in place. A new "Pride Harmony" wallpaper Credit: Apple In anticipation of Pride Month, Apple is rolling out a new "Pride Harmony" wallpaper for its various devices. The wallpaper features colors of the rainbow that adjust their positions as you move, lock, or unlock your iPhone or iPad. Apple also has a new Pride Edition Sport Band, which features a similar color scheme. Apple says its goal with the Pride Harmony design is to "celebrate the strength and beauty of LGBTQ+ communities around the world." It's easy to be cynical about corporate pride, but considering the times we live in, it's cool to see Apple continuing to be as openly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community as it has been in recent years. (Tim Cook's donations aside.)"Buy with iPhone" now available on third-party devicesWhen you buy something on the Apple TV's TV app (say that three times fast), you have the option to approve that purchase with your iPhone. With iOS 18.5, that feature is coming to the TV app on non-Apple devices. That way, you don't need to make the purchase on the TV app of another Apple device before being able to watch on your third-party device. Carrier-provided satellite features are now available on the iPhone 13 seriesSince 2023, Apple has officially supported satellite communications for all iPhones starting with the 14 series. If you're out without cell services, you can connect to a satellite to reach out to the authorities for help—or even just text a friend. Following this latest update, however, iPhone 13 users will be able to take advantage of satellite features as well. Apple Vision Pro app gets a bug fixThe update also fixes an issue with the Apple Vision Pro app, where the app may sometimes display a black screen. Security updatesiOS 18.5's sleeper feature is the security boost it provides your iPhone. In all, the update patches over 30 bugs. Luckily, Apple isn't aware of any exploits for these vulnerabilities, which means hackers have likely not used these flaws to target iPhone users. That said, the safest course of action is to update your iPhone as soon as possible, in case someone does figure out how to use these flaws against you. Plus, there are some non-hacking vulnerabilities here you should patch. FaceTime's mute button, for example, might not actually work, which should be more than enough reason to update to iOS 18.5. (Be careful when talking smack while on a FaceTime call.)You can see the full list of updates here.