Nintendo will again attend Gamescom after taking a year off in 2024, and that should mean huge news for anyone picking up a Switch 2 at launch–here's whyTech22:00, 20 May 2025Bananza is visually impressive, with plenty of chaos on screen at once(Image: Nintendo)While the Nintendo Switch 2 seemingly won't see any reviews for the console (or Mario Kart World) until after pre-orders have shipped, we're still absolutely desperate to get our hands on the hybrid system.Part of that is down to its selection of games, which include everything from the aforementioned Mario Kart to Donkey Kong: Bananza and ports of Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Wild Hearts S.‌The idea of taking all of those on the go is certainly a tantalising prospect, but Nintendo has been relatively quiet about its first-party offerings for the new system. Now, though, we think we're about to see that change.‌Content cannot be displayed without consentPosting on X (formerly Twitter), Nintendo's German account said, "Mark your calendar in red: Nintendo will be back at @gamescom in 2025."Nintendo skipped Gamescom 2024, likely because it was busy working on Switch 2 before its initial reveal in January 2025.Article continues belowSo, why is this a big deal? As Nintendo's post suggests, Gamescom runs from August 20 to 24, and is the world's largest gaming convention in terms of footfall (seriously, it's massive).Mario Kart World is Nintendo's big Switch 2 launch title(Image: Nintendo)That means it's almost three months after the Switch 2 launches, by which point we'll have played Mario Kart World, as well as Donkey Kong Bananza which is tipped for July.‌So, there's every chance Nintendo will be going big on Metroid Prime 4, which is still without a release date, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and Kirby Air Riders. But what else?Nintendo has traditionally held a June showcase, and it's likely that whatever it showcases there will be what it rolls into Cologne with in August.Given we're still waiting on a new 3D Mario title, could that end up being their focus? Time will tell, but Nintendo gearing up for a Gamescom appearance is an exciting prospect, especially if you've managed to pick up a Switch 2 by then.Article continues belowFor more on Nintendo Switch 2, be sure to check out our favourite Switch 1 games, as well as our most-wanted Switch 2 ports.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

There are no heroes in Libby v. Fecteau, a decision about an anti-trans lawmaker that the Supreme Court handed down on Tuesday. With only two justices publicly dissenting, the Court handed down a brief order temporarily lifting sanctions against that lawmaker.The lawmaker at the heart of the case, Maine Republican Rep. Laurel Libby, was sanctioned by her colleagues for posting an unblurred picture of a transgender high school athlete, along with the student’s name and the name of her school, in order to protest against including transgender girls in women’s sports. The sanction those colleagues imposed on her could not possibly be constitutional: They effectively stripped her of her right to vote on legislation as a member of Maine’s House of Representatives, stripping Libby’s constituents of their representation in the state House. And Libby’s fellow lawmakers likely also violated her First Amendment rights in the process. As a legal matter, Libby closely resembles Bond v. Floyd (1966), a case brought by a Georgia state lawmaker who was not allowed to take his seat in the state legislature — ostensibly because his colleagues objected to his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond held that the First Amendment “requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy.”To be sure, no moral comparisons can be drawn between the plaintiffs in Bond and Libby. Bond involved Rep. Julian Bond, a Black man and a prominent civil rights activist who was elected to the Georgia legislature just as Jim Crow was beginning to lose its grip on the South. Libby, by contrast, arises out of Libby’s decision to bully a high school student.But the First Amendment protects offensive speech just as surely as it protects speech that is now widely viewed as prescient and wise. Indeed, nearly all First Amendment cases arise out of speech that someone in a position of power deemed offensive — why else would they have tried to censure or ban that speech?After Libby posted the picture of the high school student on Facebook, Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau asked her to take it down due to concerns “that publicizing the student’s identity would threaten the student’s health and safety.” When Libby refused, the state House passed a resolution formally censuring her — which, under the Maine House’s rules, meant that Libby “may not be allowed to vote or speak” on the House floor until she apologizes for the conduct that resulted in her censure. Libby refuses to apologize, which means that her constituents effectively do not have representation in the state House, at least with respect to bills that receive a vote on the floor.The Supreme Court’s order in the Libby case is very brief and does not explain why the justices decided to reinstate Libby’s floor privileges. Notably, however, none of the justices defended the state legislature’s decision to strip Libby of her voting rights.The Court’s order includes a single line noting that Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, but Sotomayor did not explain why. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, meanwhile, penned a brief dissenting opinion which largely criticizes her colleagues for overusing the Court’s “shadow docket” — a mix of emergency motions and other matters that the Court decides without full briefing and oral argument. It was on this docket that Libby was heard.As Jackson notes, the Court used to be exceedingly reluctant to rule in favor of parties that seek shadow docket relief — she quotes Justice Potter Stewart’s 1968 warning that such relief “should be used sparingly and only in the most critical and exigent circumstances.” And Jackson, who emerged as the Court’s most outspoken opponent of the shadow docket after she became a justice in 2022, is right that the Court’s practices have changed dramatically in recent years. Prior to the first Trump administration, Supreme Court decisions on the shadow docket were exceedingly rare outside of death penalty cases, where the justices often had to act right away to prevent an execution from moving forward before they could review the case.But, regardless of whether the justices should have acted as quickly as they did — or, as Jackson suggests, waited until the lower courts had fully considered this case before stepping in — there’s little doubt that Libby should have prevailed eventually. Libby’s constituents have a right to representation, regardless what views their representative holds.And, if lawmakers were allowed to strip their colleagues of their voting rights at will, there’s no guarantee that another legislature would not use that power to target elected officials who, like Bond, can more easily claim the moral high ground than Libby.See More:

With seemingly no limit to the demand for artificial intelligence, everyone in the energy, AI, and climate fields is justifiably worried. Will there be enough clean electricity to power AI and enough water to cool the data centers that support this technology? These are important questions with serious implications for communities, the economy, and the environment.  This story is a part of MIT Technology Review’s series “Power Hungry: AI and our energy future,” on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial-intelligence revolution. But the question about AI’s energy usage portends even bigger issues about what we need to do in addressing climate change for the next several decades. If we can’t work out how to handle this, we won’t be able to handle broader electrification of the economy, and the climate risks we face will increase. Innovation in IT got us to this point. Graphics processing units (GPUs) that power the computing behind AI have fallen in cost by 99% since 2006. There was similar concern about the energy use of data centers in the early 2010s, with wild projections of growth in electricity demand. But gains in computing power and energy efficiency not only proved these projections wrong but enabled a 550% increase in global computing capability from 2010 to 2018 with only minimal increases in energy use.  In the late 2010s, however, the trends that had saved us began to break. As the accuracy of AI models dramatically improved, the electricity needed for data centers also started increasing faster; they now account for 4.4% of total demand, up  from 1.9% in 2018. Data centers consume more than 10% of the electricity supply in six US states. In Virginia, which has emerged as a hub of data center activity, that figure is 25%. Projections about the future demand for energy to power AI are uncertain and range widely, but in one study, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that data centers could represent 6% to 12% of total US electricity use by 2028. Communities and companies will notice this type of rapid growth in electricity demand. It will put pressure on energy prices and on ecosystems. The projections have resulted in calls to build lots of new fossil-fired power plants or bring older ones out of retirement. In many parts of the US, the demand will likely result in a surge of natural-gas-powered plants. It’s a daunting situation. Yet when we zoom out, the projected electricity use from AI is still pretty small. The US generated about 4,300 billion kilowatt-hours last year. We’ll likely need another 1,000 billion to 1,200 billion or more in the next decade—a 24% to 29% increase. Almost half the additional electricity demand will be from electrified vehicles. Another 30% is expected to be from electrified technologies in buildings and industry. Innovation in vehicle and building electrification also advanced in the last decade, and this shift will be good news for the climate, for communities, and for energy costs. The remaining 22% of new electricity demand is estimated to come from AI and data centers. While it represents a smaller piece of the pie, it’s the most urgent one. Because of their rapid growth and geographic concentration, data centers are the electrification challenge we face right now—the small stuff we have to figure out before we’re able to do the big stuff like vehicles and buildings. We also need to understand what the energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with AI are buying us. While the impacts from producing semiconductors and powering AI data centers are important, they are likely small compared with the positive or negative effects AI may have on applications such as the electricity grid, the transportation system, buildings and factories, or consumer behavior. Companies could use AI to develop new materials or batteries that would better integrate renewable energy into the grid. But they could also use AI to make it easier to find more fossil fuels. The claims about potential benefits for the climate are exciting, but they need to be continuously verified and will need support to be realized. This isn’t the first time we’ve faced challenges coping with growth in electricity demand. In the 1960s, US electricity demand was growing at more than 7% per year. In the 1970s that growth was nearly 5%, and in the 1980s and 1990s it was more than 2% per year. Then, starting in 2005, we basically had a decade and a half of flat electricity growth. Most projections for the next decade put our expected growth in electricity demand at around 2% again—but this time we’ll have to do things differently.  To manage these new energy demands, we need a “Grid New Deal” that leverages public and private capital to rebuild the electricity system for AI with enough capacity and intelligence for decarbonization. New clean energy supplies, investment in transmission and distribution, and strategies for virtual demand management can cut emissions, lower prices, and increase resilience. Data centers bringing clean electricity and distribution system upgrades could be given a fast lane to connect to the grid. Infrastructure banks could fund new transmission lines or pay to upgrade existing ones. Direct investment or tax incentives could encourage clean computing standards, workforce development in the clean energy sector, and open data transparency from data center operators about their energy use so that communities can understand and measure the impacts. In 2022, the White House released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights that provided principles to protect the public’s rights, opportunities, and access to critical resources from being restricted by AI systems. To the AI Bill of Rights, we humbly offer a climate amendment, because ethical AI must be climate-safe AI. It’s a starting point to ensure that the growth of AI works for everyone—that it doesn’t raise people’s energy bills, adds more clean power to the grid than it uses, increases investment in the power system’s infrastructure, and benefits communities while driving innovation. By grounding the conversation about AI and energy in context about what is needed to tackle climate change, we can deliver better outcomes for communities, ecosystems, and the economy. The growth of electricity demand for AI and data centers is a test case for how society will respond to the demands and challenges of broader electrification. If we get this wrong, the likelihood of meeting our climate targets will be extremely low. This is what we mean when we say the energy and climate impacts from data centers are small, but they are also huge. Costa Samaras is the Trustee Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University. Emma Strubell is the Raj Reddy Assistant Professor in the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Ramayya Krishnan is dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the William W. and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University.

Is chronic complaining your brain’s default setting? It might be time to hit pause and reset. Here ... More are three ways to help you make the shift.getty We all need to let things out sometimes. Sharing what’s bothering you, whether it’s a stressful day, a frustrating interaction or just feeling off, is a healthy way to process emotions. Venting is a helpful way to release what’s bothering you and feel heard. However, sometimes, without realizing it, venting can cross the line into something more persistent: chronic complaining. This happens when expressing frustration becomes less about finding relief and more of a default response to life’s challenges. If you find yourself running through an endless list of grievances or turning most conversations into a space to air what’s wrong, it might be time to pause and reflect. The difference between venting and chronic complaining lies in the intention and impact. Venting is temporary and it helps you feel lighter, gain perspective and eventually move forward. Chronic complaining, on the other hand, tends to be repetitive and draining. It focuses on problems without seeking solutions, often leaving you (and others) feeling stuck or emotionally worn out. Over time, this constant focus on the negative can start to rewire your brain, making it harder to access more balanced or hopeful thoughts. If you notice this pattern in yourself, the good news is that it can be changed. Here are three ways to begin breaking the cycle. 1. Notice What You’re Feeling Chronic complaining can often mask deeper emotions like frustration, fear or loneliness. You might say things like “Nothing ever works out for me” or “People just don’t get it,” but underneath those words could be a sense of sadness, anxiety or even feeling unseen. Over time, it can turn into a habit that your brain keeps revisiting because it feels familiar or temporarily relieving. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. A 2016 study on adolescents with depression and social anxiety found that those who struggled to identify and manage their emotions also engaged more in “repetitive negative thinking,” such as constant worry or rumination. These mental loops often stem from emotional confusion or suppression. This pattern can keep you stuck in a cycle of negativity, especially when emotions go unrecognized or unprocessed. The same can happen with complaining, wherein the short-term relief of complaining only ends up reinforcing a sense of powerlessness in the long run. Breaking this kind of habit may not always seem straightforward and that’s okay. You will not go from reactive to reflective overnight. However, you can be more mindful of when it happens next and when you feel the urge to complain, try and throw in a “pattern interrupt.” A pattern interrupt is a simple technique used to break an automatic or habitual behavior or thought pattern. When you’re stuck in a certain routine, like complaining without really thinking about it, it can act as a mental “pause button” that stops the loop and gives you a chance to respond differently. For instance, if you notice you’re about to complain rather than vent, you could take a deep breath and ask yourself “What am I really feeling?” or physically change your environment (stand up, stretch or walk away). This brief interruption disrupts your usual automatic reaction and helps you create a new, healthier habit instead. In essence, you consciously catch yourself in the moment 2. Turn Complaints Into Curiosity Once you’ve paused and noticed what’s happening internally, the next step is to reframe the situation you’ve been thinking about. Instead of slipping into “Why is this happening to me?” ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” or “Is there another way to look at this?” This shift is known as cognitive reappraisal, a well-researched emotion regulation strategy that involves changing the way you interpret a situation to alter its emotional impact. Research comparing reappraisal and acceptance found that reappraisal led to a greater reduction in negative emotions as well as a significant increase in positive emotions during and after emotional challenges (e.g., watching sad films). It was especially effective in helping people recover emotionally. In contrast, acceptance was found to be less cognitively demanding but slower in emotional impact. So, the next time you’re about to complain, pause and ask what story you are repeating to yourself and how you can change the way you view it. Complaining often reinforces negative thinking patterns, making it harder to move forward. In contrast, approaching challenges with curiosity encourages openness and learning, which helps you break free from those cycles. Reframing the way you view a situation helps build resilience and empowers you to respond to difficulties in a more constructive way. 3. Focus On What You Can Control When life feels overwhelming or unfair, it’s natural to focus on everything that’s going wrong. However, chronic complaining trains your brain to exaggerate the negative. Over time, it becomes a mental habit, so much so that your brain stops looking for solutions altogether. Instead of helping you process or problem-solve, complaining keeps you stuck in a loop where change feels out of reach. The truth is that not everything may be under your control. But what matters is recognizing what is. Research shows that people under stress are more likely to give up, but only when the situation feels uncontrollable. When participants believed they could take meaningful action, they kept going, even under pressure. This highlights how it’s not the stress itself that breaks you, but the sense of helplessness that there’s nothing you can do about it. This is why reclaiming even a small sense of control can improve your emotional state and restore your motivation. People who focus on the controllable aspects of a situation tend to experience less anxiety and greater drive because their energy is directed toward solutions instead of spiraling into helplessness. The next time you catch yourself complaining, try asking, “What part of this can I influence?” Maybe you can’t change someone else’s behavior or fix an entire system overnight, but you can change how you respond, how you communicate or how much time and energy you invest in the situation. For example, instead of saying, “My boss never listens,” try shifting to, “I can prepare my points clearly and ask for a specific time to talk.” This not only shifts your mindset but also helps you feel more capable and in charge. Focusing on what’s in your control means choosing where to place your power. Over time, this shift reduces frustration and builds confidence, helping you break the cycle of habitual complaining. Choosing Mindful Emotional Expression It’s important to remember that breaking the habit of chronic complaining doesn’t mean you should suppress your need to vent or stop expressing emotions when they arise. Sharing your feelings is a vital part of processing experiences, finding support and relieving stress. At the same time, it helps to be mindful of when venting shifts into a repetitive pattern that traps your brain in negativity. Chronic complaining can exaggerate problems to the point where it clouds your ability to see solutions or maintain perspective. When this happens, it can drain your energy and leave you feeling stuck, even when change is possible. By learning to notice these patterns and gently interrupting them, you create room for healthier habits that help you respond in more empowering ways and ultimately make you more resilient. This mindful awareness can help you regain emotional freedom so you can face life’s challenges with greater clarity and hope. Do you feel in control of your life, or do external forces rule you? Take this science-backed test to find out: Locus Of Control Scale

Peter Green Chilled, a major distributor of chilled and fresh products to British supermarkets, has reportedly fallen victim to a ransomware attack orchestrated by an as-yet unnamed cyber criminal operation, becoming the latest organisation in the British retail sector to be affected by a security incident. Established as a haulage company working with Somerset dairy suppliers 60 years ago, Peter Green has grown into a little-known but well-established player in the nation’s cold chain – temperature-controlled warehousing and transport – sector, supplying the likes of Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco among others. It is also a supplier of IT services including transport and warehouse management systems (T/WMS), electronic data interchange (EDI), stock and temperature control systems, and vehicle tracking and monitoring. According to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Wake up to money programme – which was first to report the story – the attack appears to have begun on the evening of Wednesday 14 May and has left the organisation unable to accept new orders. A spokesperson for Peter Green told the programme it was not in a position to be able to discuss the incident further. However, one of the organisation’s customers, The Black Farmer founder Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, said that almost a week into the incident, he had been offered no solution for how Peter Green was going to get stock he had already delivered to its warehouses out to retailers. “If they’re not delivered in the next couple of days, because they’re fresh products, they have to be thrown away,” said Emmanuel-Jones. “For a small business it is pretty devastating. To make matters even worse is that we’ve just also got a delivery that’s come in from Sweden that is stuck at a port because Peter Green is not taking in any other stock from any suppliers, so we have to try to find some way of getting it to the supermarkets.” Emmanuel-Jones told the radio programme that his business could stand to lose up to £100,000, losses that would be hard for a small organisation to bear. Computer Weekly reached out to Peter Green Chilled but found its email addresses non-responsive. Absent further information from Peter Green, at the time of writing, any links to the ongoing DragonForce/Scattered Spider incidents affecting Marks and Spencer (M&S) and Co-op are unproven and merely speculative. However, David Mound, senior penetration tester at third-party risk specialist SecurityScorecard, said the firm’s team was closely monitoring the “emerging pattern” of cyber attacks impacting food retailers. He said that in drawing other household names into the fray, the developing Peter Green incident highlighted the fragility of interconnected digital supply chains, and was creating a cascading effect throughout the retail sector. “These incidents reflect a growing trend among cyber criminal groups to exploit sectors where time sensitivity and perishability heighten pressure to restore operations, increasing the likelihood of ransom payments,” said Mound. “In food retail, even short-term disruption can lead to spoilage, logistical bottlenecks and loss of consumer trust. “Attackers are no longer just targeting data; they’re targeting urgency,” he said. “In environments where product expiration and just-in-time delivery are business-critical, threat actors understand that every hour offline amplifies the pressure to pay. “Many critical logistics and IT providers are insufficiently risk-tiered or assessed,” added Mound. “There is an urgent need for sector-wide collaboration on third-party risk intelligence and resilience standards. “SecurityScorecard urges all organisations in the food and retail sectors to re-evaluate their third-party risk posture and ensure suppliers are assessed not only for compliance, but for operational resilience under duress.” Timeline: UK retail cyber attacks 22 April 2025: A cyber attack at M&S has caused significant disruption to customers, leaving them unable to make contactless payments or use click-and-collect services. 24 April: M&S is still unable to provide contactless payment or click-and-collect services amid a cyber attack that it says has forced it to move a number of processes offline to safeguard its customers, staff and business. 25 April: M&S shuts down online sales as it works to contain and mitigate a severe cyber attack on its systems. 29 April: The infamous Scattered Spider hacking collective may have been behind the ongoing cyber attack on M&S that has crippled systems at the retailer and left its ecommerce operation in disarray. 30 April: A developing cyber incident at Co-op has forced the retailer to pull the plug on some of its IT systems as it works to contain the attack. 1 May: Co-op tells staff to stop using their VPNs and be wary that their communications channels may be being monitored, as a cyber attack on the organisation continues to develop. 1 May: Harrods confirms it is the latest UK retailer to experience a cyber attack, shutting off a number of systems in an attempt to lessen the impact. 2 May: The National Cyber Security Centre confirms it is providing assistance to M&S, Co-op and Harrods as concerns grow among UK retailers. 7 May: No end is yet in sight for UK retailers subjected to apparent ransomware attacks. 13 May: M&S is instructing all of its customers to change their account passwords after a significant amount of data was stolen in a DragonForce ransomware attack. 14 May: Google’s threat intel analysts are aware of a number of in-progress cyber attacks against US retailers linked to the same Scattered Spider gang that supposedly attacked M&S and Co-op in the UK.

close House passes bill targeting revenge porn and AI-generated deepfakes Texas high school student Elliston Berry joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the House’s passage of a new bill that criminalizes the sharing of non-consensual intimate images, including content created with artificial intelligence. Parents love capturing their kids’ big moments, from first steps to birthday candles. But a new study out of the U.K. shows many of those treasured images may be scanned, analyzed and turned into data by cloud storage services, and nearly half of parents don’t even realize it.A survey of 2,019 U.K. parents, conducted by Perspectus Global and commissioned by Swiss privacy tech company Proton, found that 48% of parents were unaware providers like Google Photos, Apple iCloud, Amazon Photos and Dropbox can access and analyze the photos they upload.TEENS ARE NOW USING AI CHATBOTS TO CREATE AND SPREAD NUDE IMAGES OF CLASSMATES, ALARMING EDUCATION EXPERTS First lady Melania Trump, joined by President Donald Trump, delivers remarks before President Trump signed the Take it Down Act into law in the Rose Garden of the White House May 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)These companies use artificial intelligence to sort images into albums, recognize faces and locations and suggest memories. While convenient, the same technology can also have more dangerous uses, like deepfake videos.Professor Carsten Maple, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Warwick, warns that, with as few as 20 photos, AI tools can create a convincing digital clone of a person, including deepfake videos. These tools don’t need a high-resolution scan or video footage, just a handful of everyday pictures in the cloud."Parents are unwittingly opening their children up to possible exploitation by criminals who want to use their data for their own purposes," Maple told the Edinburgh Evening News. He added that even mundane photos, like a child at school or in the backyard, can reveal names and locations. Fifty-three percent of parents surveyed had no idea this was possible.PROTECTING YOUR DAUGHTER FROM DEEPFAKES AND ONLINE ABUSE President Donald Trump invited first lady Melania Trump to sign the new anti-revenge porn act she helped usher through to the finish line during a signing ceremony at the White House's Rose Garden Monday afternoon. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Over half of parents, 56%, have automatic photo uploads enabled, meaning their phones constantly send new images to the cloud without ever having to tap "upload."WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?Even without deepfakes, data collection is extensive. Only 43% of parents knew cloud services collect metadata like time, date and location, and just 36% surveyed were aware that these companies analyze the contents of photos too.Concern is catching up to convenience. Nearly three in four parents (72%) surveyed said photo privacy is important, and 69% acknowledged the risks of digital footprints left by storing family photos online.  First lady Melania Trump walks to a meeting to urge passage of the Take It Down Act by the U.S. Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, March 3, 2025.  (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)Though the study was conducted in the U.K., its findings apply globally. American families use the same technology platforms and face the same questions: Where are kids’ photos going? Who is looking at them? And what could they be turned into?In the age of AI, a family photo isn’t just a memory, it’s also data which can be scanned, stored, sold and, increasingly, manipulated into deepfakes.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Perspectus Global did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.Jasmine is a writer at Fox News Digital and a military spouse based in New Orleans. Stories can be sent to jasmine.baehr@fox.com

All images courtesy of Constance Jaeggi, shared with permission Constance Jaeggi Illuminates the Resilient Women of the Charrería in ‘Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home’ May 20, 2025 PhotographySocial Issues Kate Mothes Growing up in Switzerland, Constance Jaeggi’s journey from a suburban area of central Europe to the rural grasslands of Texas was guided by what she describes as an “unexplainable fascination” with horses. She moved to the U.S. to pursue a competitive riding career and attend university, eventually becoming a rancher and essentially revolving her entire life around the gentle giants. “Throughout college, I was spending all my weekends and free time on horseback,” Jaeggi tells Colossal. Over time, she was drawn to exploring horse culture through visual means, picking up a camera and documenting the animals, people, and landscapes around her. “I was curious about the age-old human-horse relationship and how that impacts humans’ relationship with horses today,” she adds. “Photography was a way to lean into that curiosity and express myself differently.” While attending rodeos and traveling throughout the western community, Jaeggi became acquainted with the custom of escaramuza. It’s the only female event of the Mexican national sport charrería, and the activity combines equestrian and livestock competitions like roping and working with cattle. Escaramuza, which translates to “skirmish,” was inspired by the women soldiers, or soldaderas, of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century and contemporary narratives like “La Adelita.” Teams traditionally consist of 16 women, with eight competing at a time for a maximum of eight minutes. Carrying out elaborately choreographed dances in vibrant, traditional, handmade Mexican dresses, escaramuzas ride sidesaddle and are judged on their synchronicity, precision, garments, and elegance. “When the Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, approached me about creating a photo exhibition on the escaramuza tradition, I knew very little about it other than the beauty of the dresses and elegant performance aspect of it,” Jaeggi says. “As I started researching, I was captivated by the history of the tradition, the gender dynamics within charrería, how those are evolving, and the stories of the contemporary riders I spoke to.” The oral histories of the women she met form the foundation for Jaeggi’s ongoing series, Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home, which is on view now at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. “I wasn’t initially sure how, but I knew I needed to bring their voices back into the work somehow,” the artist says. Jaeggi chronicled teams in Illinois, Colorado, Texas, Washington, Idaho, Georgia, California, Oregon, Iowa, and Arizona, interviewing riders as she went. During the journey, she met two poets, ire’ne lara silva and Angelina Sáenz, whose poems accompany the images and take inspiration from the women’s stories. “Poetry felt like a good way to really emphasize some of the strong themes that came out of my conversations with the riders, and Angelina and ire’ne were in a good position to understand and relate to the cultural background of these women,” Jaeggi says. Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home centers portraits of Mexican-American women in full regalia, highlighting colorful, coordinated dresses and their iconic wide-brimmed sombreros. Jaeggi portrays empowered, strong, and resilient individuals who balance numerous responsibilities. “A lot of the women I met are full time students or have full time jobs—sometimes multiple jobs—and are raising children,” Jaeggi says. The sport is also dangerous. Competitors perform intense and complicated maneuvers, criss-crossing one another at high speed, which riding side-saddle makes even more challenging because the person only has control of one side of the horse. “There is a narrative around immigration and the role it plays in the development of the sport in the U.S.,” Jaeggi says, sharing that as she spoke to these women, learning about their work and lives, many shared experiences of “not feeling Mexican enough when traveling to Mexico but not feeling American enough at home either.” And as a gendered event governed by strict charrería rules, many experience frustration at the rigidity of the dress code they’re required to adhere to, which is not the case for male charros. Exacaramuza, the Poetics of Home continues in Chicago through August 23. Find more on Jaeggi’s website and Instagram. Previous articleNext article

With New York State officials set to award up to three downstate casino licenses in New York City by the end of 2025, more than a dozen proposals across the boroughs have emerged to vie for the prize. Earlier this week, Related Companies and Wynn Resorts, pushing a casino scheme as part of the westward extension of Hudson Yards, have officially withdrawn from the race, citing local opposition to the project. Instead, Related Companies will focus on building luxury housing above the Western Rail Yard site, targeting the construction of 4,000 residences overlooking the Hudson River. Wynn Resorts will exit the project entirely, Michel Weaver, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement. “The recent rezoning process has made it clear to us that there are uses for our capital more accretive to our shareholders, such as investment in our existing and upcoming developments and stock buybacks, than investing in an area in which we, or any casino operator, will face years of persistent opposition despite our willingness to employ 5,000 New Yorkers,” said Weaver. The pairt’s vision for the undeveloped rail yards, dubbed Hudson Yards West, was denounced by both the Friends of the Highline and Manhattan Community Board 4, an advisory committee for development in the neighborhoods surrounding Hudson Yards. Hudson Yards West’s viability had hinged on a controversial augmentation to its zoning, which would have drastically reduced the number of residential units in favor of commercial use and the aforementioned casino program. Though the rezoning proposal had been advanced to City Council by the City Planning Commission, it appears that councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents the lower west side of Manhattan, was unlikely to approve the scheme. “I am highly skeptical of any alterations to the existing zoning regulations and the potential reduction of housing units,” Bottcher said previously, in a statement. Hudson Yards West would have included a 5.6 acre park named Hudson Green. (Courtesy Related Companies and Wynn Resorts) The initial concept for Hudson Yards West was master planned by SOM in collaboration with Hollander Design and Sasaki. It included a public park, in addition to housing and office space. How much the master plan will be revised going forward remains to be seen. Other casinos bids include Citi Field, backed by Steve Cohen and Hard Rock; a Times Square bid from SL Green, Caesars, and Roc Nation; an 11th Avenue site developed by Silverstein Properties; a proposal at Freedom Plaza by Mohegan and Soloviev Group; a Coney Island scheme from Legends Entertainment and the Chickasaw Nation; an extension of the existing Aqueduct Racetrack; and Bally’s takeover of a former Trump golf course in the Bronx. Formal bids for a casino license are due by June 27, with the winning proposals announced by the end of the year.

Google’s family of “open” AI models, Gemma, is growing. During Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday, Google took the wraps off Gemma 3n, a model designed to run “smoothly” on phones, laptops, and tablets. Available in preview starting Tuesday, Gemma 3n can handle audio, text, images, and videos, according to Google. Models efficient enough to run offline and without the need for computing in the cloud have gained steam in the AI community in recent years. Not only are they cheaper to use than large models, but they preserve privacy by eliminating the need to transfer data to a remote data center. During a keynote at I/O, Gemma Product Manager Gus Martins said that Gemma 3n can run on devices with less than 2GB of RAM. “Gemma 3n shares the same architecture as Gemini Nano, and is and is engineered for incredible performance,” he added. In addition to Gemma 3n, Google is releasing MedGemma through its Health AI Developer Foundations program. According to the company, MedGemma is its most capable open model for analyzing health-related text and images. “MedGemma [is] our […] collection of open models for multimodal [health] text and image understanding,” Martins said. “MedGemma works great across a range of image and text applications, so that developers […] can adapt the models for their own health apps.” Also on the horizon is SignGemma, an open model to translate sign language into spoken-language text. Google says that SignGemma will enable developers to create new apps and integrations for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW “SignGemma is a new family of models trained to translate sign language to spoken-language text, but it’s best at American Sign Language and English,” Martins said. “It’s the most capable sign language understanding model ever, and we can’t wait for you — developers and deaf and hard-of-hearing communities — to take this foundation and build with it.” Worth noting is that Gemma has been criticized for its custom, non-standard licensing terms, which some developers say have made using the models commercially a risky proposition. That hasn’t dissuaded developers from downloading Gemma models tens of millions of times collectively, however. Updated 2:40 p.m. Pacific: Added several quotes from Gemma Product Manager Gus Martins. Topics

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)When Onimusha: Warlords launched for Switch all the way back in 2019, we had optimistically assumed that its sequel would be right around the corner. How naïve. A bit of patience has been required, but now, more than six years later, Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny has finally been given the same remaster treatment. We can’t be too mad at the long wait, mind you; with Capcom looking to fully revive the series with Onimusha: Way of the Sword in 2026, now might be the best time to remind players of what could well be the best entry. In terms of what’s new with the Switch remaster, you can look to the original for a pretty solid benchmark. Visuals have been given a nice boost, and while there are no enhancements here akin to what the Resident Evil franchise has enjoyed in the past, the bump up to HD is still pretty nice. Certain areas can look a little muddy in handheld mode, but it’s a fine-looking game for the most part, bolstered by strong art design. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) One area that did stick out to us, however, was the aspect ratio. By default, the game is presented at a widescreen 16:9 display, but you can switch this to the original 4:3 display via the options menu. We opted for the latter for most of our playthrough, since widescreen mode cuts off a huge chunk of the environment and action by simply zooming in to fill the space. It’s not like the game takes any cues from the HD port of the Resident Evil remake by panning the camera as you move to compensate for the missing content; for a lot of shots, it’s just gone. If you can stomach the black bars on the sides, stick to 4:3. Gameplay has received a revamp, with ‘modern’ movement mapped to the analogue stick, and the traditional ‘tank controls’ mapped to the D-pad. It would’ve been nice to have the option to switch these for the purists out there, but with only two control configurations available, the only thing you’re going to be altering is which analogue stick can be clicked to initiate a quick turn. Not the end of the world, but a bit more customisation would be welcome. The modern controls feel pretty good for the most part. Since we’re still dealing with fixed camera angles, there are brief moments where holding in one direction will result in protagonist Jubei jerking to the left or right as you recalibrate your movement with a sudden camera change. Tank controls simply have you pushing ‘up’ to move forward, so these don’t suffer from the same problem, but there’s no doubt that they feel generally more cumbersome in comparison. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) To illustrate the gameplay and visuals a bit better, Onimusha 2 feels like a stepping stone between the rigid limitations of classic Resident Evil and the more free-flow setup of Devil May Cry, despite the latter launching a year prior to Onimusha 2. There are no sweeping camera movements here, which is a shame since the game's fixed angles felt dated back in 2002, but the gameplay certainly feels more agile and responsive than anything you’d find in those early RE games. The story itself stars Jubei Yagyu, who takes over from Samanosuke as the only surviving member of a clan wiped out by the evil Nobunaga Oda. We’ll be honest, Jubei is kind of a boring protagonist with a typically gruff voice, but his lack of wit is compensated for by the surrounding cast, including the charmingly boisterous Ekei Ankokuji and the delightfully flamboyant demon Gogandantess. Gameplay is a mix of sword-fighting action and light puzzle solving. Jubei can wield several unique weapons as you proceed through the story, starting with a basic samurai sword before grabbing a spear, a hammer, and more. You can lock onto enemies, strafe around them, and use a slick mix of offensive and defensive actions accordingly, including the ability to kick your enemies backwards and stab them with a sharp thrust. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Defeating enemies once again results in their souls drifting upwards into the air, by which point you can absorb them with your gauntlet. This lets you regain lost health, add power to your magic meter, and upgrade your equipment at various shrines dotted around the world. Onimusha 2 dips its toe into RPG mechanics, but it’s light enough that those who aren’t particularly fond of such things need not worry. It’s very much a case of choosing which weapon to upgrade, holding down ‘A’ to spend your currency, and away you go. Crucially, you’re not necessarily punished for not bothering with it too much. Overall, Onimusha 2 feels like a significant improvement over its predecessor, with deeper combat mechanics, more varied environments, excellent boss encounters, and engaging puzzles (including Sudoku!). The music is also worth highlighting, too, taking inspiration from the feudal setting to bolster its authenticity while providing a bunch of catchy tunes you’ll be humming long after the credits roll. Neat little extras are also loaded into the remaster. If you’ve played through Onimusha 2 multiple times, you might ‘enjoy’ the new Hell difficulty setting, which sees Jubei die with just a single hit – brutal stuff. On the flip side, an Easy mode has also been added if you prefer to enjoy the story without much hassle. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Fun yet throwaway minigames, including The Man in Black, Team Oni, and Puzzle Phantom Realm, are now available from the start via the main menu, and the original’s Gallery mode has been included once again with revamped, HD assets to enjoy whenever you like. Finally, extra costumes for the main game are available, but these look kinda goofy in our opinion. If you own the first title on Switch, however, you can opt to wear Samonosuke’s outfit, which will always look badass. Conclusion Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny is a strong, worthy successor to the original that is now at its absolute best on Switch. Some of it feels dated by modern standards, with fixed camera angles that arguably should have been ditched back in 2002, but it still feels incredibly fun regardless. The remaster adds in a bunch of quality-of-life updates and extras that both longtime fans and newcomers will appreciate, but ultimately, this is a faithful revival of one of the PS2's very best games. Now the patient wait for Onimusha 3 begins. Still an excellent sequel more than 20 years onLots of great characters, even if Jubei isn't the most engaging protagonistGameplay is slick, with plenty of depthNeat little extras bolster the overall package nicelyHell Mode should prove a worthy challenge for veterans 16:9 widescreen mode just cuts off the top and bottom of the screenFixed camera angles felt dated back in 2002Minigames are fun but ultimately throwaway Great 8/10