The U.K. government wants to move full steam ahead on big plans to use and build AI across the country, but not everyone is marching to the beat of its drum. On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released a “silent album”, in protest of planned changes to copyright law — changes the artists say […]
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Ofcom, the U.K.’s internet safety regulator, has published another new draft guidance as it continues to implement the Online Safety Act (OSA) — the latest set of recommendations aim to support in-scope firms to meet legal obligations to protect women and girls from online threats like harassment and bullying, misogyny, and intimate image abuse. The […]
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Despelote is heading to Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 1. Despelote is a super stylish soccer game that's secretly about life in the Ecuadorian city of Quito in 2001, and it comes from local developers Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, and published by Panic.
You play as 8-year-old Julián, and spend your time kicking the ball, meeting people and exploring life during Ecuador's economic recovery just ahead of the unifying 2002 World Cup. The in-game city comprises actual photographs of places around Quito, but the backgrounds are covered in a layer of high-contrast grit, while people and the soccer ball stand out as stark line drawings. The audio was recorded on location, too, and the result is a game that looks and sounds like a soothing memory.
Despelote was announced in 2023 and originally due to land in 2024, but it now has a firm date of May 1. It's already picked up a handful of accolades, including four nominations at the 2025 Independent Games Festival. There's a demo on Steam, if you're intrigued.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/slice-of-life-soccer-game-despelote-kicks-off-on-may-1-234256915.html?src=rss©
COVID-19 vaccines cut the risk of long COVID by between 57–73 percent in kids and teens, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open. And there's more good news: A second study published today in the journal offered more data that the now-annual shots are not linked to sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death in young athletes—a claim that gained traction on social media and among anti-vaccine groups during the acute phase of the pandemic.
Together, the studies bolster current recommendations that children and teens should stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, which are estimated to have prevented more than 3 million deaths and more than 18 million hospitalizations in the first two years of their use. So far, the recommendations for kids have largely gone unheeded; only 14 percent of children aged 5 to 17 are up to date on their 2024–2025 COVID shot. Surveys suggest that parents largely think the vaccines are unnecessary, given that most children only have mild COVID infections.
Still, not all infections are mild, and even mild cases can lead to long COVID, according to the authors of the first study. An estimated 1 percent to 3 percent of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 will develop long COVID, defined as having symptoms that continue or develop four or more weeks after the initial phase of infection. With tens of millions of kids getting infected with the pandemic virus, a large number of them are at risk of developing the condition.
© Getty | JOSEPH PREZIOSO
The cryptocurrency industry and those responsible for securing it are still in shock following Friday’s heist, likely by North Korea, that drained $1.5 billion from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, making the theft by far the biggest ever in digital asset history.
Bybit officials disclosed the theft of more than 400,000 ethereum and staked ethereum coins just hours after it occurred. The notification said the digital loot had been stored in a “Multisig Cold Wallet” when, somehow, it was transferred to one of the exchange’s hot wallets. From there, the cryptocurrency was transferred out of Bybit altogether and into wallets controlled by the unknown attackers.
Researchers for blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, among others, said over the weekend that the techniques and flow of the subsequent laundering of the funds bear the signature of threat actors working on behalf of North Korea. The revelation comes as little surprise since the isolated nation has long maintained a thriving cryptocurrency theft racket, in large part to pay for its weapons of mass destruction program.
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In a bold move last month, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang took out a full-page ad in The Washington Post, telling President Trump that “America must win the AI war.” The statement sparked mixed reactions, as seen during Wang’s appearance Sunday during the opening night of Web Summit Qatar. When Wang’s interviewer, Axios’ Felix Salmon, […]
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Anthropic’s next funding round is reportedly growing larger. Anthropic, which makes the AI chatbot Claude, is finalizing a $3.5 billion fundraising round that values the company at $61.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Anthropic initially set out to raise $2 billion, but investors have now agreed to a larger tranche, per the WSJ. […]
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Ongoing scarcity has made it challenging to purchase Nintendoâs adorable Alarmo since its soft launch last year, but it appears those days are behind us. The $99.99 alarm clock is now readily available from third-party retailers in the US, starting with Best Buy. You can also buy it directly from Nintendo without a subscription, with the only caveat being that you must sign in with a Nintendo account.
Nintendo announced its alarm clock in October while we patiently awaited (any) news regarding the Nintendo Switch 2, which is set to launch later this year. Although the Alarmo is certainly not as exciting as a new console, it is unapologetically Nintendo, with a cartoonish look that calls to mind a vintage alarm clock â albeit with a few modern features.
Nintendoâs bright red alarm clock features an illuminated button on top and a rounded face that houses an LCD display. The 2.8-inch panel shows the time/date and will attempt to wake you each morning with scenes and sounds from several iconic franchises. It makes room for visits from beloved characters like Link and Mario, as well as pikmin. There are currently 35 scenes across five franchises available, and Nintendo says yo …
We’re nearing the deadline that Elon Musk imposed for government workers to reply to a mass email about productivity, and the results have been predictably confusing — with even a direct statement from President Donald Trump failing to clear things up.
Government agencies have taken significantly different tacks toward the Musk-promoted email, which he announced to the public midday on February 22nd. Sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the message demanded all federal employees respond by the end of the 24th with “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week,” and Musk said on X that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The email reportedly didn’t include this noteworthy detail.
But while some agencies have apparently ordered compliance, others have called the email optional or told employees to not respond. The Department of Justice, Administrative Office of the US Courts, and State Department all instructed staff to disregard the message and follow internal review processes instead, according to multiple news outlets. The Treasury Department, conversely, appears to have ordered Internal Revenue Service employees to comply.
Other agencies have issued more nebulous guidance. In an email obtained by The Verge, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson told staff that responses were “voluntary” — but he added that “I enthusiastically responded” to the message and “strongly encourage you to respond as well.”
As of this article’s publication, the White House has done little to clarify the situation. An unnamed administration official said on Monday morning that employees should defer to their agencies’ guidance, reported Politico. An OPM official further told The Washington Post that the office was “unsure what to do with the emails” and had “no plans” to analyze them. Yet more anonymous officials, however, said that workers’ reports would be “fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary or not,” per NBC News.
Meanwhile, on the same day, Trump said publicly that people who failed to respond would be “sort of semi-fired,” adding that “a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.” He denied that agencies were clashing with Musk by issuing conflicting guidance, saying it was “done in a friendly manner.”
Musk’s email echoed his behavior after taking over Twitter, where he demanded employees do things like print out 50 pages of their recent coding work or write a memo justifying their jobs to receive previously promised company stock. But unlike at Twitter, where he held sole unquestioned control, he’s dealing with formal chains of command and many other stakeholders here.
Still, the whole impossibly tangled situation is conducive to Musk and Trump’s goal of paralyzing the government, letting them instill fear in employees while creating an excuse to fire people as desired. (If they work on nuclear safety or bird flu, maybe they’ll get semi-rehired afterward.)
Like many moves by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the latest action ignores existing government structures in a way that may be aimed at avoiding legal or political accountability. The email nonetheless drew an immediate challenge in court. It was included in an amended suit filed by groups including the American Federation of Government Employees, which condemned the email as “thoughtless and bullying … meant to intimidate federal employees and cause mass confusion.”
Ironically for figures who claim to be fighting bureaucratic confusion, Musk and Trump have created one of the most downright kafkaesque scenarios imaginable. We’re now looking at a government order presenting a drastic ultimatum that is never mentioned in the order, in which a response may be either mandatory or forbidden, and failing to respond may or may not get you simultaneously fired and not fired. Also, you may not actually exist.
Edtech company Chegg has sued Google claiming that the tech giant’s AI summaries of search results have hurt Chegg’s traffic and revenue. In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Chegg accuses Google of unfair competition — specifically reciprocal dealing, monopoly maintenance, and unjust enrichment. Google, Chegg claims, forces […]
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Anthropic is closing in on a massive $3.5 billion funding round that would push its valuation to $61.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The AI startup, known for developing the Claude chatbot, continues to attract deep-pocketed investors eager […]
The post AI startup Anthropic finalizing $3.5B funding at $61.5B valuation amid AI race with OpenAI first appeared on Tech Startups.
