Technology | The Guardian

Novel design and cool software proves phones can still be fun, but this one struggles to beat flagship rivalsThe Phone 3 is London-based Nothing's latest attempt to get people to ditch Samsung or Apple phones for something a bit different, a little quirky and more fun.As the firm's first high-end Android in several years, it has most of what you'd expect a flagship phone to have. But where it tries to set itself apart is with slick, dot-matrix-inspired software and a design on the back that includes a small, unique LED screen. Continue reading...

Tribunal hearing comes days after Elon Musk's xAI apologised for antisemitic comments made by its Grok bot

Hackers also demanded the US government release more information on the sex trafficker Jeffrey EpsteinHackers gained access to the X account of the puppet Elmo over the weekend and used it to post racist and antisemitic threats as well as make profane references to Jeffrey Epstein. Sesame Workshop was still trying to regain full control on Monday over the red character's account.Elmo's X account was compromised by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts. We are working to restore full control of the account," a Sesame Workshop spokesperson said on Monday. Sesame Workshop is the non-profit behind Sesame Street and Elmo. Continue reading...

Tasting the good and the bad for the Filter; summer spritzes for aperitivo hour; and the perfect fans for keeping cool Don't get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereMy favourite scene in the film Ratatouille is when Remy the rat tastes strawberries and cheese. Closing his eyes, he takes a bite ... and it's fireworks. Like Remy, I'm a food lover: I'm a chef and recipe developer, writer and campaigner for a better food system, and have worked on farms and in kitchens, from River Cottage to Noma, for 25 years.Recently, I've been testing different supermarket staples for the food filter. Tasting 10 of each, I've rated everything from kimchi (as an avid fermenter, my favourite so far) to mayonnaise - 70 products in all. Vanilla ice-cream (coming up next week) was my least favourite: at least 50% of it was ultra-processed rubbish not even worthy of the name. It gave me stomach ache.The best men's suits under 400: 14 favourites for every occasion (and how to style them)The best period pants, tried and tested for comfort, style and absorbencyPanda Hybrid Bamboo mattress review: a stylish, supportive hybrid that keeps cool on balmy nightsThe best camping stoves for cooking like a pro in the wild, tested Continue reading...

Politics of carmaker's owner has soured sentiments in Grunheide, south-east of Berlin, where the factory promised jobs and revitalisationWhen Elon Musk advised Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) in elections last year, Manu Hoyer - who lives in the small town where the billionaire had built Tesla's European production hub - wrote to the state premier to complain.How can you do business with someone who supports rightwing extremism?" she asked Dietmar Woidke, the Social Democrat leader of the eastern state of Brandenburg, who had backed the setting up of the Tesla Giga factory in Grunheide. Continue reading...

A surge in messages from fraudsters about automatic renewal at a higher price has prompted Amazon to email 200m users to warn themAs a frequent Amazon shopper you pay 95 for an annual Prime subscription, so when an email arrives warning the price is going up you are quick to react.But the email, which includes a button to click on to cancel" the subscription, is a scam and sent by fraudsters trying to steal your account login and payment details. Continue reading...

Recruitment is powered increasingly by artificial intelligence but employers still want big (human) brains

Silicon Valley's final dream is a world without institutions. But what works for a startup doesn't work for democracyElon Musk has stepped away from Doge with very little efficiency" to show for it. While it may have been more of a showpiece than real policy, this brutal and short experiment in Silicon Valley governance reveals a long-simmering battle between digital utopians and the institutional infrastructures critical to functioning democracies.Doge's website dubiously claims $190bn in savings. The receipts show that they are less about efficiency than they are aimed at effective dissolution, a fate met by USAID, the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign assistance. Continue reading...

PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Iron Galaxy Studios/Activision

The games' runaway success introduced a whole generation to hopped up US punk and metal. Bands including Less Than Jake, the Ataris and AFI pay tribute to a gaming megastar who loves them backWhen millions of parents bought their kids a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game in the late 90s and early 00s, they couldn't have understood the profound effect it would have on their children's music taste. With bands from Bad Religion to Papa Roach and Millencolin accompanying every failed spin and grind, these trick-tastic games slyly doubled up as the ultimate compilation CD.While the Fifa games have an equally storied history with licensed music, those soundtracks feel impersonal - a who's who of whichever artists EA's associated record labels wanted to push at the time. Pro Skater's soundtrack, by contrast, felt like being handed a grubby and slightly dog-eared handmade mixtape, still battered from its last tumble at the local skate park. Continue reading...

Non-violent games about cooking, farming or tidying now rival the more traditional video game pursuits of shooting and fighting in popularity. So what will the #cozy genre tackle next?In 2017, a game design thinktank called Project Horseshoe gathered a group of developers together to define the concept of cosiness in video games. Games, of course, have had non-violent elements since the medium was invented. Early life simulators such as 1985's Little Computer People, a low-stakes game in which the player interacts with a man living his unremarkable life in a house, could fit the bill; then there was the proliferation of social farming simulations after 1996's chibi-adorable Harvest Moon.But the resulting report, Coziness in Games: An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs, is probably the first organised effort to define a then-emerging genre. The group zeroed in on three core things: safety, abundance, and softness. Cosy games (cozy in US spelling) don't have high-risk scenarios: There is no impending loss of threat," they wrote. They must have a sense of abundance: Nothing is lacking, pressing or imminent." And a soft aesthetic wraps everything up like a warm hug. Continue reading...

Ex-NBC executive was tasked with building an everything app', but billionaire owner was biggest obstacle in her pathIn May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company's relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference - which he called the worst post he's ever done - but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: Go fuck yourselves." Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference.I don't want them to advertise," he said. If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself," he said. Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you're in the audience, that's how I feel." Continue reading...

Teenagers increasingly taking breaks as they control own use of devices rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, experts sayChildren are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed.They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts. Continue reading...

Yaccarino announces she is leaving company after two years as chief executive officerThe CEO of X, Elon Musk's social network, announced on Wednesday she would resign.After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of ," Linda Yaccarino wrote. Continue reading...

At the Develop conference in Brighton this week, talk turns from cancelled deals and job cuts to replicating real human experiences and telling stories about diverse charactersFor anyone looking to gauge the mood of the UK games industry in 2025, there has been only one place to hang out this week: the bar of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Brighton. It's in this building that the annual Develop conference has been bringing together developers, publishers, students and journalists since 2006 - and during the three days of talks, roundtables and keynotes, it's in the bar that everyone meets and unloads their theories and concerns about the state of the business.This year, after many months of cuts and closures, the mood has been dour. On Tuesday, I spoke to many coders, artists and studio heads who have had games cancelled, staff axed and deals obliterated; several senior developers predicted that the recent savage cuts to staff numbers and game projects will lead to a gaping black hole in the release schedules of many triple-A publishers in late 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to be huge; now it's looking like the only game in town. Continue reading...

The popular Craigslist tradition is seeing a revival from Reddit and TikTok users, hoping a chance encounter turns into moreLayla Rivera was at work when her boyfriend texted: someone on Reddit was looking for her.In the comments of a post on the subreddit r/warpedtour, attendees of the punk rock and emo music festival searched for their missed connections - ephemeral friends or hookups they met onsite and would like to see again. Rivera could tell that one message, addressed to Leila/Layla (the short girl with the red top)", was almost certainly written by a man she encountered while watching the band Sweet Pill at Warped Tour's Washington DC stop in June. Continue reading...

Upgraded Bluetooth cans fold up, fit well, have long battery life, sound great and reduce more noise than rivalsSony's latest top-of-the-range Bluetooth headphones seek to reclaim the throne for the best noise cancellers money can buy with changes inside and out.The Sony 1000X series has long featured some of the best noise cancelling you can buy and has been locked in a battle with rival Bose for the top spot. Continue reading...

Researcher says tech could replace nearly all human labour within 20 years and societies urgently need to prepareIf Adam Dorr is correct, robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy within a generation and put virtually the entire human race out of a job. The social scientist doubles up as a futurist and has a stark vision of the scale, speed and unstoppability of a technological transformation that he says will replace virtually all human labour within 20 years.Dorr heads a team of researchers who have studied patterns of technological change over millennia and concluded that the current wave will not just convulse but obliterate the labour market by 2045. What cars did to horses and carts, and electricity to gas lamps, and digital cameras to Kodak, are templates for the coming shock, he says. Technology has a new target in its crosshairs - and that's us. That's our labour." Continue reading...

The popular bot on X began making antisemitic comments in response to user queriesElon Musk's artificial intelligence firm xAI has deleted inappropriate" posts on X after the company's chatbot, Grok, began praising Adolf Hitler, referring to itself as MechaHitler and making antisemitic comments in response to user queries.In some now-deleted posts, it referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids" in the Texas floods as future fascists". Continue reading...

Tech firm's chief, Louis Mosley, dismisses fears that contract threatens to undermine public trust in NHS data systems'Palantir, a US data company that works with Israel's defence ministry, has accused British doctors of choosing ideology over patient interest" after they attacked the firm's contract to process NHS data.Louis Mosley, Palantir's executive vice-president, hit back at the British Medical Association, which recently said the 330m deal to create a single platform for NHS data - ranging from patient data to bed availability - threatens to undermine public trust in NHS data systems". Continue reading...

The world's richest person threatens to create the America Party' and the US president calls him a TRAIN WRECK'Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech news, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are back at it, warring over the passage of the president's sweeping tax bill and the Tesla CEO's threat to create a third political party. Whether the richest person in the world is successful in those efforts will largely depend on the recruitment of another star politician. In other news, we want to know if you use generative artificial intelligence to write your personal messages - in what circumstances, and how often? Email tech.editorial@theguardian.com to let us know.His function in politics is that of an ATMThe vehicle suddenly accelerated with our baby in it': the terrifying truth about why Tesla's cars keep crashingElon Musk's xAI gets permit for methane gas generatorsJury says Google must pay California Android smartphone users $314.6mTrump to start TikTok sale talks with China, he says, with deal pretty much' reachedTrump officials create searchable national citizenship databaseAI doesn't know what an orgasm sounds like': audiobook actors grapple with the rise of robot narratorsWimbledon chiefs defend AI use as Jack Draper says line calls not 100% accurate'Google undercounts its carbon emissions, report findsA billion people backing you': China transfixed as Musk turns against TrumpTrump and Musk's feud blows up again with threats of Doge and deportation

This nicely put together Swedish UFO throwback is notable for its early use of vlubbing' - using tech to match lip movements to new English dialogue. What's coming next?Here is a derivative but nicely put together sci-fi throwback, in which Inez Dahl Torhaug stars as Denise, a rebellious teenager in foster care whose father went missing in 1988. A dedicated ufologist for whom the truth was very much out there, Denise's dad was trying to find aliens when he vanished. Alien abduction? Government cover up? Regular old disappeared-guy? When his old car falls from the sky into a local barn eight years later, Denise joins forces with her father's friends at UFO-Sweden, including the likably nervous Lennart (Jesper Barkselius) plus assorted misfits, to investigate what leads they have, including the potential role of a shady-seeming organisation, the SMHI, AKA The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.You may gather from the names above that this is a Swedish film, and yet the dialogue is entirely in English. What gives? The unexpected twist is that the film is an early example of a technique that you can easily imagine becoming standard practice for streaming platforms hoping to reach multiple territories for minimal cost: AI-assisted dubbing. The original actors have re-recorded their lines and AI tech has been used to edit the visuals so that the lip movements from the original Swedish version match the new English dialogue. The technique is called vlubbing" (visual + dubbing) and the target audience is seemingly the kind that won't read subtitles or watch a traditional dub. Continue reading...

Counter-terrorism agencies are scrambling to maintain an advantage and thwart attacks as access to digital tools easesCounter-terrorism authorities have, for years, characterized keeping up with terrorist organizations and their use of digital tools and social media apps as a game of Whac-a-Mole.Jihadist terrorist groups such as Islamic State and its predecessor al-Qaida, or even the neo-Nazi group the Base, have leveraged digital tools to recruit, covertly finance via crypto, download weapons for 3D printing and spread tradecraft to its followers, all while leaving law enforcement and intelligence agencies playing catch up. Continue reading...

Here's a breakdown of how original Switch titles work on Switch 2, explaining everything from free Switch 2 updates to inbuilt backwards compatibility and the paid Switch 2 Edition upgradesOutside of the phenomenal Mario Kart World and next week's Donkey Kong Bananza, there isn't much new Nintendo software to keep early Switch 2 adopters occupied. Thankfully, Nintendo has seen fit to improve a heap of existing Nintendo Switch games on the shiny new system, both in the form of graphics-boosting free updates and more substantial paid reworks. The different options can be confusing, however, so here's an explanation of how it all works. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm's busiest timeCorporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company's warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet". It is not clear how many took up the offer. Continue reading...

Fall of 6.8% in early trading wipes $79bn off firm's value as market frets CEO's foray into politics will distract from roleShares in Tesla fell 6.8% by the close of US trading on Monday, wiping $79bn (60bn) off the company's value, amid investor concern that Elon Musk's launch of a new political party will present further problems for the electric car maker.Tesla's market capitalisation fell from just over $1tn to about $921bn after stock markets closed on Wall Street, with the value of Musk's stake in the company reduced by nearly $15bn, lowering it to below $120bn. Continue reading...

iPhone maker accuses European Commission of going far beyond what the law requires' in ruling

A deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbolsIn 2016, Apple announced that its gun emoji, previously a realistic grey-and-black revolver, would henceforth be a green water pistol. Gradually the other big tech companies followed suit, and now what is technically defined as the pistol" emoji, supposed to represent a handgun or revolver", does not show either: instead you'll get a water pistol or sci-fi raygun and be happy with it. No doubt this change contributed significantly to a suppression of gun crime around the world, and it remains only to ban the bomb, knife and sword emoji to wipe out violence altogether.As Keith Houston's fascinatingly geeky and witty history shows, emoji have always been political. Over theyears, people have successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium - thecabal of corporations that controls the character set, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple - to include different skin colours and same-sex couples. It was easy to agree to add theface with one eyebrow raised, the guide dog and the egg. But not every request is granted. One demand for afrowning poo emoji" elicited this splendid rant from an eminent Unicode contributor, Michael Everson: Will we have a crying pile of poo next? Pile of poo with tongue sticking out? Pile of poo with question marks for eyes? Pile of poo with karaoke mic? Will we have to encode a neutral faceless pile of poo?" Continue reading...

Meta wiped out a business account and all contacts without warning for not abiding by community guidelinesI am the mentor of a young black entrepreneur, RM, who has had his personal and business social media accounts removed by Meta, which owns Instagram. There was no notice, no option to appeal and, from my understanding, no just cause. He had built up two successful businesses in clothing design and music events.Six days before the ban, he had sold 1,500 tickets for an electronic dance event in London. Instagram, rather than a website, is the platform for hiswork. However, he was suddenly informed that his content did not abide by Meta's community guidelines on violence and incitement. Continue reading...

Smallest and most affordable Framework still has brilliant modular ports, is upgradable and designed to lastThe modular and repairable PC maker Framework's latest machine moves into the notoriously difficult to fix 2-in-1 category with a fun 12in laptop with a touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge.The new machine still supports the company's innovative expansion cards for swapping the different ports in the side, which are cross-compatible with the Framework 13 and 16 among others. And you can still open it up to replace the memory, storage and internal components with a few simple screws. Continue reading...

Are these videos a sign of the times? Are they brainwashing me towards Christianity? Can scrolling deliver me salvation? Why can't I stop watching?

Other sectors also at risk from attacks, including healthcare, finance and telecommunications, expert warns

Billionaire says his new political party could try to turn attainable House and Senate seats to decide major issuesThe new US political party that Elon Musk has boasted about bankrolling could initially focus on a handful of attainable House and Senate seats while striving to be the decisive vote on major issues amid the thin margins in Congress.Tesla and SpaceX's multibillionaire CEO mused about that approach on Friday in a post on X, the social media platform he owns, as he continued feuding with Donald Trump over the spending bill that the president has signed into law. On Saturday, without immediately elaborating, the former Trump adviser announced on X that he had created the so-called America party. Continue reading...

President also says he may visit Xi Jinping or Chinese leader could come to US after Trump last month extended app sale deadline for third timeDonald Trump has said he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.The United States president said the US pretty much" had a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app. Continue reading...

Elon Musk is obsessive about the design of his supercars, right down to the disappearing door handles. But a series of shocking incidents - from drivers trapped in burning vehicles to dramatic stops on the highway - have led to questions about the safety of the brand. Why won't Tesla give any answers?It was a Monday afternoon in June 2023 when Rita Meier, 45, joined us for a video call. Meier told us about the last time she said goodbye to her husband, Stefan, five years earlier. He had been leaving their home near Lake Constance, Germany, heading for a trade fair in Milan.Meier recalled how he hesitated between taking his Tesla Model S or her BMW. He had never driven the Tesla that far before. He checked the route for charging stations along the way and ultimately decided to try it. Rita had a bad feeling. She stayed home with their three children, the youngest less than a year old. Continue reading...

Whether Nazi-punching your way through an Indiana Jones sequel or losing yourself in a beautiful fantasy world, you told us your best video game experiences of the first half of the year

Using emojis in text messages enhances connection and fun in close personal relationships, US study findsThe secret to a good relationship may be staring smartphone users in the face.A new study published in the journal Plos One found that using emojis in text messages makes people feel closer and more satisfied in their personal lives. Continue reading...

British No 1 says ousting of human line judges a shame' after crashing out to former finalist Marin CilicWimbledon bosses have defended the use of AI line judges after Jack Draper said the technology was not 100% accurate".The British No 1 said it was a shame" human line judges were ousted after crashing out in the second round to the 36-year-old former finalist Marin Cilic. Continue reading...

Peter Kyle calls for new leadership at Alan Turing Institute and greater focus on defence and national securityThe technology secretary has demanded an overhaul of the UK's leading artificial intelligence institute in a wide-ranging letter that calls for a switch in focus to defence and national security, as well as leadership changes.Peter Kyle said it was clear further action was needed to ensure the government-backed Alan Turing Institute met its full potential. Continue reading...

NAACP plans to sue over massive Memphis datacenter near Black residents, who have long dealt with pollutionElon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has been granted a permit to run methane gas generators at its massive datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee. The county health department approved the permit for the 15 machines late on Wednesday, a move that has sparked outcry from the local community and environmental leaders, who say the generators pollute their neighborhoods.Our local leaders are entrusted with protecting us from corporations violating on our right to clean air, but we are witnessing their failure to do so," said KeShaun Pearson, the director of the local environmental non-profit Memphis Community Against Pollution. Continue reading...

Former UK minister says platform, which will use AI to draft community notes, is leaving it to bots to edit the news'A decision by Elon Musk's X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of lies and conspiracy theories", a former UK technology minister has warned.Damian Collins accused Musk's firm of leaving it to bots to edit the news" after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language models to write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before users approve them for publication. The notes have previously been written by humans. Continue reading...

Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year agoTesla posted another big drop in quarterly deliveries on Wednesday, putting it on course for its second straight annual sales decline as demand falters due to backlash over CEO Elon Musk's political stance and an ageing vehicle lineup.Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year ago. Analysts had expected it to report deliveries of about 394,378 vehicles, according to an average of 23 estimates from the financial research firm Visible Alpha, though projections went to as low as 360,080 units based on estimates from 10 analysts over the past month. Analysts use the number of vehicles delivered to customers as a metric of success to evaluate both automotive sales and production. Continue reading...

Former staff likened offices of video game company in Paris to a boys' club above the law'Three former executives at the video game company Ubisoft have been given suspended prison sentences for enabling a culture of sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace at the end of the first big trial to stem from the #MeToo movement in the gaming industry.The court in Bobigny, north of Paris, had heard how the former executives used their position to bully or sexually harass staff, leaving women terrified and feeling like pieces of meat. Continue reading...

As demand for audio content grows, companies are looking for faster - and cheaper - ways to make it

From the lab-born Tennis for Two to the console classics of Nintendo and Sega, the sport has been a constant, foundational force in gaming's riseWith Wimbledon under way, I am going to grasp the opportunity to make a perhaps contentious claim: tennis is the most important sport in the history of video games.Sure, nowadays the big sellers are EA Sports FC, Madden and NBA 2K, but tennis has been foundational to the industry. It was a simple bat-and-ball game, created in 1958 by scientist William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, that is widely the considered the first ever video game created purely for entertainment. Tennis for Two ran on an oscilloscope and was designed as a minor diversion for visitors attending the lab's annual open day, but when people started playing, a queue developed that eventually extended out of the front door and around the side of the building. It was the first indication that computer games might turn out to be popular. Continue reading...

Research could help cut energy use and is latest example of AI being used for advances in materials scienceAI-engineered paint could reduce the sweltering urban heat island effect in cities and cut air-conditioning bills, scientists have claimed, as machine learning accelerates the creation of new materials for everything from electric motors to carbon capture.Materials experts have used artificial intelligence to formulate new coatings that can keep buildings between 5C and 20C cooler than normal paint after exposure to midday sun. They could also be applied to cars, trains, electrical equipment and other objects that will require more cooling in a world that is heating up. Continue reading...

Research says Google's carbon emissions went up by 65% between 2019-2024, not 51% as the tech giant had claimedIn 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024.New research aims to debunk even that enormous figure and provide context to Google's sustainability reports, painting a bleaker picture. A report authored by non-profit advocacy group Kairos Fellowship found that, between 2019 and 2024, Google's carbon emissions actually went up by 65%. What's more, between 2010, the first year there is publicly available data on Google's emissions, and 2024, Google's total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515%, Kairos found. The largest year-over-year jump in that window was also the most recent, 2023 to 2024, when Google saw a 26% increase in emissions just between 2023 and 2024, according to the report. Continue reading...

For his first Nintendo Switch 2 appearance, DK goes on a rhythmic rampage, powered up to new hulking heights by singing sidekick Pauline. It's big, brash and impossibly enjoyableWhile searching for gold in the dingy mines of Ingot Isle, a severe storm sweeps dungaree-donning hero Donkey Kong into a vast underground world. You think he'd be distraught, yet with the subterranean depths apparently rich in banana-shaped gemstones, DK gleefully uses his furry fists to pummel and burrow his way towards treasure. From here, the first Donkey Kong platformer since 2014 is a dirt-filled journey to the centre of the Earth.Much like the Battlefield games of old, Bananza is built to let you pulverise its destructible environments as you see fit. That seemingly enclosed starting area? You can burrow your way through the floor. Bored with jumping through a cave? Batter your way through the wall instead. There's a cathartic mindlessness to smashing seven shades of stone out of every inch of the ground beneath you, pushing the physics tech to its limits and seeing what hidden collectibles and passageways you unearth. Continue reading...

Two years after Immy killed herself, her mother Louise is still trying to understand how she found her way to a pro-suicide forum - and a man accused of supplying more than 1,000 packages of poisonJust a few hours before she ended her life, Immy Nunn seemed happy. She and her mother, Louise, had been shopping and had lunch. It was the final day of 2022 and Immy, who was 25, appeared positive about the new year. She talked about taking her driving test and looking for a new flat. She was excited about the opportunities her profile on TikTok was bringing her; known as Deaf Immy, she had nearly 800,000 followers, attracted by her honest and often funny videos about her deafness and her mental health.By the early hours of the next morning, Immy was dead, having taken poison she bought online, almost certainly after discovering it through an online pro-suicide forum. Continue reading...

Colombian artist and photographer Isabella Madrid explores the click to be saved' economy of hope in her project, Lucky Girl SyndromeGrowing up in Colombia - and online - has defined the way I create art: my identity has been formed by a country riddled with superficial and conservative values; a happy country but also one of the most violent; a country where men pray to virgins and kill the ones who are not.The internet felt like a safe space where I could be anyone - as a vulnerable young girl who felt out of place where I lived, it helped me define my personality and interests but it also alienated me from the real world and made me hyper aware of the way I looked and existed.Isabella Madrid is a Colombian artist and photographer Continue reading...