The upper-stage Starship spacecraft during a static fire test ahead of Starship Flight 9. Image: SpaceX SpaceX's Starship Flight 9 launch might have slipped once again, suggests a fresh navigational warning notice from the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The warning covers hazardous operations in the Indian Ocean and warns mariners about space debris from May 27th to June 4th. A May 26th launch date falls within the range of aviator notices sent by the FAA for flights over the Turks and Caicos Islands, which start from May 22nd and end on May 31st. Additionally, in a release sent to the media yesterday, the FAA confirmed that SpaceX cannot launch Starship Flight 9 until the space agency either deems it safe for the rocket to fly again or closes the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation. Elon Musk Confident SpaceX Can Launch Starship Flight 9 Next Week Over the past couple of days, a flurry of new information for SpaceX's Starship Flight 9 has come to light. For starters, the FAA has approved SpaceX's launch license modifications for Starship Flight 9. These medications include allowing SpaceX to launch up to 25 missions from its Texas facilities instead of the earlier five launches. More crucially, the launch license also appears to suggest that SpaceX might not catch the Super Heavy booster with the launch tower on Starship Flight 9. The regulator notes in the license that SpaceX is "authorized to conduct" from its Boca Chica launch site to the "Gulf of America and Indian Ocean locations specified in its application." Notably, the section removes "SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Complex" from the destination locations in its Flight 9 license, strengthening the argument that SpaceX might skip the tower catch this time. Starship Flight 9 will be the first flight in the test program that reuses a first-stage Super Heavy booster. This booster first flew on Starship Flight 7, and SpaceX could have skipped the tower catch to fully evaluate a reusable rocket's performance before risking potential damage to its launch infrastructure. The upper-stage Starship spacecraft during a static fire test ahead of Starship Flight 9. Image: SpaceX Along with the launch license, the FAA's mailed statement was careful to note that "SpaceX may not launch until the FAA either closes the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation or makes a return to flight determination." The agency adds that SpaceX submitted its mishap report on May 14th. Along with Flight 9 being dependent on Flight 8's investigation, a navigational warning notice from the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency suggests that Flight 9 could occur close to the end of this month. It lists warnings for space debris in the Indian Ocean starting from May 27th to June 4th, indicating that Starship Flight 9 could fly on May 27th at the earliest. However, May 27th clashes with Elon Musk's latest statements, where he suggests that Starship Flight 9 could occur next week. In an X post, Musk shared that "Just before the Starship flight next week, I will give a company talk explaining the Mars game plan in Starbase, Texas, that will also be live-streamed on X." Yet, even though Musk is confident about a launch next week, SpaceX might ship the mission's Super Heavy booster to its production facilities from the launch site. Footage from local media reveals that SpaceX's booster transport vehicle returned to the site earlier today and transferred the booster from the launch pad to SpaceX's production facilities. Deal of the Day

Stellar Blade studio says it is "closely discussing the region lock issue" with PlayStation New statement also disputes DRM will impact framerate. Image credit: Shift Up News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on May 17, 2025 Developer Shift Up said it was "closely discussing the region lock issue" with Sony after it became apparent yesterday, Friday 16th May, that Stellar Blade Steam's release on 11th June has been blocked in over 120 countries without explanation. In a brief statement posted to social media, the developer stressed it was doing its "BEST" to resolve "most of" the issue as soon as possible and would come back to players "as soon as [it] has more to share". Stellar Blade - PC Features Trailer | PC Games.Watch on YouTube After players also discovered that Denuvo has been incorporated in the PC version of Stellar Blade, much to the annoyance of some, the studio also took the opportunity to provide a chart to demonstrate DRM had been "hard-tuned to maintain the same average frame rate, with even higher minimum frames in some cases". "Mods are fully supported without any restrictions. PSN connecting entirely optional and NEVER required. Both the PC and PS5 versions offer the same content. We will make sure that early buyers are never at a disadvantage through future updates," the studio stressed. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Helldivers 2 was review-bombed last year following a PSN requirement, which led to the game being pulled from sale in 177 countries. The company quickly u-turned its decision following the backlash. It would appear Stellar Blade is experiencing a similar issue, although Shift Up has stated a PSN account is only optional and not required. We gave Stellar Blade four stars out of five in Eurogamer's Stellar Blade review, writing: "Stellar Blade has a fair bit of weirdness, but its killer tunes and vibey, flow-state combat - plus a transformative hard mode - are enough to leave you entranced."

Last week, Epic Games resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. This followed a court ruling that stated Apple wasn’t allowed to charge a 27% commission on payments conducted through external payment services on the U.S. App Store. However, when it submitted the new version of Fortnite for app review, Epic Games didn’t hear back for quite some time. Tonight, Epic Games shared a letter that it says it received yesterday from Apple. This follows this mornings announcement that Apple had ‘blocked’ the launch of the new Fortnite update globally, which wasn’t necessarily the case. Instead, Apple simply didn’t want to touch the US version of Fortnite. Epic Games had bundled the two versions together, and Apple had then suggested that Epic Games submit the US and EU versions separately. In the letter shared, Apple stated the following: As you are well aware, Apple has previously denied requests to reinstate the Epic Games developer account, and we have informed you that Apple will not revisit that decision until after the U.S. litigation between the parties concludes. In our view, the same reasoning extends to returning Fortnite to the U.S. storefront of the App Store regardless of which Epic-related entity submits the app. If Epic believes that there is some factual or legal development that warrants further consideration of this position, please let us know in writing. In the meantime, Apple has determined not to take action on the Fortnite app submission until after the Ninth Circuit rules on our pending request for a partial stay of the new injunction. You can read the letter in full here. In short, Apple doesn’t want to take action until everything is fully settled involving the dispute. As a result of this, Epic Games has asked the courts to force Apple to allow Fortnite to relaunch on the U.S. App Store under the new rules. My favorite Apple accessory recommendations: Follow Michael: X/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Epic has filed a "second motion to enforce injunction," asking the US District Court for the Northern District of California to force Apple to do a timely review of its Fortnite app and to approve its submission if it's compliant. The company recently accused Apple of blocking Fortnite's return to the App Store in both the US and the EU. Epic submitted the app for approval after winning its case against the iPhone-maker. Specifically, after the court ordered Apple to stop collecting commissions on purchases that weren't paid through the App Store and to allow external payment links in-app.  After Epic said that Apple was blocking Fortnite's return to the App Store, the tech giant wrote a letter addressed to the video game developer. In it, Apple said it will not take action on Epic's submission "until after the Ninth Circuit rules on [its] pending request for a partial stay of the new injunction." It told Epic to resubmit the app to the EU storefront separately from its US submission. Apple, of course, filed an appeal against the court's order to stop charging commissions for payments made outside the App Store. It also filed an emergency motion to put a pause on the order prohibiting it from charging commissions, telling the court that it will cost the company "substantial sums annually." In a post on X, Epic said that Apple's suggestion to submit two different versions of Fortnite for review is in violation of its own guideline that prohibits developers from submitting multiple versions of the same app. "That’s not the standard Apple holds other developers to and it’s blocking us from releasing our update in the EU and US," it wrote. Epic also asserted that its submission didn't break any rules this time. Apple's denial, the video game developer claimed in its filing, is a "blatant retaliation against Epic for challenging Apple’s anticompetitive behavior and exposing its lies to the Court, culminating in the Injunction and the Contempt Order."  Yesterday afternoon, Apple broke its week-long silence on the status of our app review with a letter saying they will not act on the Fortnite app submission until the Ninth Circuit Court rules on the partial stay. We believe this violates the Court’s Injunction and we have filed…— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) May 17, 2025 This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-wants-the-court-to-compel-apple-to-approve-fortnites-return-to-the-us-app-store-123054703.html?src=rss

Project Files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/129176604 . This is the 29th part of the tutorial series, where we are going to implement a Real Time Strategy game using Unreal Engine and C++. In this episode, We are going to create a player state and add an AbilitySystemComponent to the player state and integrate the ResourceAttributeSet we implemented yesterday to handle resource counters for Wood, Food, Stone and Gold. Full C++ RTS Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou5_PYxEdjNbAgbVRn-daOga . Unreal Strategy game with Blueprints series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou4Eulmi8YIfzHiNZEzfbSMk ► 👇 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 // 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐀 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧! https://www.patreon.com/codelikeme ►Patrons will have access to project files of all the stuff I do in the channel and other extra benefits Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClb6Jh9EBV7a_Nm52Ipll_Q/join Like my facebook page for more content : https://www.facebook.com/gamedevelopersclub/ Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/CodeLikeMe2 Follow me on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/codelikeme #CodeLikeMe #unrealengine #ue5 #ue4 #indiegamedev

N=1 From birth to gene-edited in 6 months: Custom therapy breaks speed limits The N-of-1 accomplishment provides a template for swift, personalized genetic therapies. Beth Mole – May 16, 2025 2:00 pm | 58 Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, MD, PhD, and Penn Medicine’s Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, visiting KJ Credit: CHOP Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, MD, PhD, and Penn Medicine’s Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, visiting KJ Credit: CHOP Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more News broke yesterday that researchers in Philadelphia appear to have successfully treated a 6-month-old baby boy, called KJ, with a personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy. The treatment corrects an ultra-rare mutation in KJ that breaks a liver enzyme. That enzyme is required to convert ammonia, a byproduct of metabolism, to urea, a waste product released in urine. Without treatment, ammonia would build up to dangerous levels in KJ—and he would have a 50 percent chance of dying in infancy. While the gene-editing treatment isn't a complete cure, and long-term success is still uncertain, KJ's condition has improved and stabilized. And the treatment's positive results appear to be a first for personalizing gene editing. Now, who doesn't love a good story about a seemingly miraculous medical treatment saving a cute, chubby-cheeked baby? But, this story delivers more than an adorable bundle of joy; the big triumph is the striking timeline of the treatment's development—and the fact that it provides a template for how to treat other babies with ultra-rare mutations. Breakneck breakthrough The gene editing technology used for KJ is not exactly new, nor is the delivery system. CRISPR has already proven to be a successful gene therapy. What's stunning is the speed. KJ's mutation was identified within days of his birth. Within weeks, researchers were growing cells in petri dishes that carried genetic sequences copied from KJ. In month two, they used those cells to train molecular gene-editing machinery to target and correct KJ's mutation—a spot in the DNA coding for the liver enzyme where there's a T (thymine) instead of a C (cytosine). At the beginning of the third month, researchers had created genetically engineered mice that carry KJ's specific mutation, too. In the boy's fourth month, researchers were meeting with the Food and Drug Administration to discuss regulatory approval for a clinical trial—a trial where KJ would be the only participant. They were also working with the institutional review board (IRB) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to go over the clinical protocol, safety, and ethical aspects of the treatment. The researchers described the unprecedented speed of the oversight steps as being "through alternative procedures." In month five, they started toxicology testing in mice. In the mice, the experimental therapy corrected KJ's mutation, replacing the errant A-T base pair with the correct G-C pair in the animals' cells. The first dose provided a 42 percent whole-liver corrective rate in the animals. At the start of KJ's sixth month, the researchers had results from safety testing in monkeys: Their customized base-editing therapy, delivered as mRNA via a lipid nanoparticle, did not produce any toxic effects in the monkeys. A clinical-grade batch of the treatment was readied. In month seven, further testing of the treatment found acceptably low-levels of off-target genetic changes. The researchers submitted the FDA paperwork for approval of an "investigational new drug," or IND, for KJ. The FDA approved it in a week. The researchers then started KJ on an immune-suppressing treatment to make sure his immune system wouldn't react to the gene-editing therapy. Then, when KJ was still just 6 months old, he got a first low dose of his custom gene-editing therapy. “Transformational” After the treatment, he was able to start eating more protein, which would have otherwise caused his ammonia levels to skyrocket. But he couldn’t be weaned off of the drug treatment used to keep his ammonia levels down (nitrogen scavenging medication). With no safety concerns seen after the first dose, KJ has since gotten two more doses of the gene therapy and is now on reduced nitrogen scavenging medication. With more protein in his diet, he has moved from the 9th percentile in weight to 35th or 40th percentile. He's now about 9 and a half months old, and his doctors are preparing to allow him to go home from the hospital for the first time. Though he will have to be closely monitored and may still at some point need a liver transplant, his family and doctors are celebrating the improvements so far. In the past, the development of such a treatment would have taken years. But the swift and diligent response to KJ's condition led to timely treatment. The timeline and steps provide a guide for development of other customized gene therapies. KJ's treatment was presented this week at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting in New Orleans. It was also simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In an accompanying editorial, Peter Marks—a former top regulator at the FDA—called KJ's  treatment a "platform technology" that could be used as a template for treating millions of others with rare genetic conditions. "The development of gene-editing products to address N-of-1 disorders with the use of mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles represents one of the most obvious opportunities for the application of a platform-technology approach that could be transformational," he wrote. In all, KJ's treatment "shows the potential strength of the application of cutting-edge science and technology with a forward-leaning regulatory approach to safely expedite the development and availability of life-saving medicines," Marks wrote. KJ's doctors agree. “Years and years of progress in gene editing and collaboration between researchers and clinicians made this moment possible, and while KJ is just one patient, we hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient’s needs," said Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, a pediatrician and gene therapy expert at CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania, who treated KJ. Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 58 Comments

To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Microsoft has announced a major accessibility upgrade for PowerPoint on Mac: users can now generate captions for embedded videos directly within the app using speech recognition. This development builds upon previous accessibility enhancements from Microsoft. For instance, the company expanded SRT file support in PowerPoint back in January, making it easier for users across platforms to import professionally created or self-made caption files for videos in their slides. Peter Wu, a Principal Software Engineer on the PowerPoint team, emphasized the need, noting that captions are essential for the 5% of the world's population who are deaf or hard of hearing, and that 50% of Americans actually prefer watching videos with captions most of the time. Here is how Microsoft says the new generation feature works: Open a new or existing presentation in PowerPoint on your Mac device and embed a video. Select the video, then select Playback > Edit Captions. You can also find the Edit Captions button in the context menu that appears when you right-click on the video, or in the Accessibility tab that appears when Accessibility Assistant is open. Select the Generate Captions from: dropdown menu under the Closed Captions pane on the right side of your presentation, then select the language spoken in the video. When the captions are done generating, they will appear in the Closed Captions pane. Select a text cue to view that part of the video. Compare the spoken dialogue with the text cue and edit if needed. Translate captions into additional languages by selecting the Translate to: dropdown menu, then selecting the language you want to translate them into. NOTE: The translated captions will appear in the Closed Captions pane when translation is done. Select to see the list of all captions tracks for the video. From here, insert more tracks, remove a track, and/or reorder the tracks. If you have a favorite app or service for captioning videos that can save the captions as a WebVTT or SRT file, insert the file into your presentation by selecting Insert Captions from File in the Closed Captions pane. NOTE: You can select multiple files at once. Once generated, these captions are not just slapped on and forgotten. Users can review and edit them for accuracy or clarity, apply formatting like bold or italics, and even translate them into other languages. The system also supports adding speaker names or describing non-dialogue sounds, like "[phone ringing]". Microsoft also points out that presenting using PowerPoint Live in Teams allows each participant to select their preferred captions track independently. This caption generation feature is currently rolling out to PowerPoint for Mac Beta Channel users running Version 16.98 (Build 25050401) or later. As is typical with beta features, it might take a bit for everyone in the channel to see it. Speaking of accessibility, Google also, in celebration of yesterday's Global Accessibility Awareness Day, announced a slate of new AI-driven features for Android and Chrome. These included advancements like Gemini-powered image descriptions in TalkBack and more expressive real-time captions.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace. SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 17 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: She's got gameThe words are sports-related. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words are popular women's sports teams.NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Basketball Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for May 17StormFeverWingsDreamBasketballMercuryLibertyLynxLooking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands. Topics Strands

After xAI’s chatbot Grok spent a few hours on Wednesday telling every X user that would listen that the claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious, the company has blamed the behavior on an “unauthorized modification” to Grok’s code. Wednesday’s hours-long outburst saw Grok insert discussion of alleged white genocide in South Africa into various responses on X, no matter the topic. Grok discussed white farmers’ deaths in reply to a video of a cat drinking water, related the song “Kill the Boer” to a question about Spongebob Squarepants, and broke down the issue in full patois. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman got in on the action, poking fun at the rival chatbot’s public breakdown. In a statement on X the company said that someone had modified the AI bot’s system prompt, “which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic.” That modification “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” and the company says it has “conducted a thorough investigation” and is implementing new measures to improve “transparency and reliability.” We want to update you on an incident that happened with our Grok response bot on X yesterday.What happened:On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X. This change, which directed Grok to provide a…— xAI (@xai) May 16, 2025 Those measures include publishing Grok’s system level prompts publicly on GitHub, launching a 24/7 monitoring team to catch issues like this more quickly, and adding “additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the prompt without review.” xAI has had this problem before. The company blamed an unnamed ex-OpenAI employee in February for pushing a change to Grok’s prompts that saw the chatbot disregard any sources that accused Elon Musk or Donald Trump of spreading misinformation. At the time xAI’s head of engineering, Igor Babuschkin, said the employee had been able to make the change “without asking anyone at the company for confirmation.”

Bungie admits Marathon includes artwork used without permission "We are conducting a thorough review." Image credit: Bungie News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on May 16, 2025 Bungie has admitted that an external artist's work has been used within upcoming game Marathon without consent. The issue came to light yesterday following recent playable alpha tests of Marathon, from which an artist recognised their designs had been used. "The Marathon alpha released recently and its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017," artist Fern Hook wrote on social media. "Bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language i have refined for the last decade, but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Responding via its less-visible Marathon Dev Team social media account, Bungie wrote that it had "immediately investigated" Hook's claim and found that, yes, a former artist at the company had swiped the designs. "This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred," Bungie wrote. "We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to [Hook] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist. "As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission," Bungie continued, stating - if it needed to be said - that the developer does not endorse plagiarism. "To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions," the publisher concluded. This isn't the first time Bungie has faced claims of using artists' work without permission - with multiple instances coming to light regarding designs for Destiny 2. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "I don't have the resources nor the energy to spare to pursue this legally but I have lost count of the number of times a major company has deemed it easier to pay a designer to imitate or steal my work than to write me an email," Hook concluded. "In 10 years I have never made a consistent income from this work and I am tired of designers from huge companies moodboarding and parasitising my designs while I struggle to make a living." Bungie's Marathon reboot is set to launch for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 23rd September. We recently got a solid look at the upcoming sci-fi shooter - here's everything about Marathon you need to know.