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03 Nov 11:35

Report links most climate change denial on Facebook to 10 publications

by Igor Bonifacic

Most climate change misinformation comes from only a handful of sources. That’s according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The organization found that ten publishers are responsible for 69 percent of all interactions with climate change denial content on Facebook. Included in the group, which the CCDH titled “The Toxic Ten,” are Breitbart, Russia Today and Media Research Center, which has ties to the fossil fuel industry.

The findings broadly mirror that of another report the CCDH published earlier in the year, which found that as much as 73 percent of vaccine misinformation on Facebook can be linked to only 12 individuals dubbed the “disinformation dozen.” That study has been widely cited by US lawmakers who have called on social media platforms to do more to address the “urgent threat” misinformation represents to public health.

As it did with the earlier disinformation dozen report, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, disputed the methodology the CCDH used to compile its latest study. “The 700,000 interactions this report says were on climate denial represent 0.3 percent of the over 200 million interactions on English public climate change content from Pages and public groups over the same time period,” a spokesperson for the company said. It also pointed to the recently announced expansion of features like the Climate Change Information Center as evidence of its commitment to tackling misinformation on the topic.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the CCDH, said the organization looked at approximately 7,000 articles published between October 2020 and October 2021. He called the sample “robust” and said there was enough data “to derive representative finds of trends.”

Additionally, the report examined the financial incentives involved in publishing climate change denial content. The CCDH estimates eight of the companies included in the Toxic Ten made $5.3 million in Google ad revenue over the last six months, with $1.7 million going to the search giant. "We recently announced a new policy that explicitly prohibits publishers and YouTube Creators from monetizing content that promotes climate change denial. This policy will go into effect on November 8 and our enforcement will be as targeted as removing ads from individual pages with violating content," a spokesperson for Google told Engadget.

“When you put it all together, you’ve got these two industries, Big Oil and Big Tech, and they are the two industries that pose the greatest threat to the survival of our species,” Ahmed told The Post.

The timing of The Toxic Ten report comes as delegates from around the world meet at the UN’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland in what’s been described as “the world’s last best chance” to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Without dramatic reductions, the planet is currently on track for a “catastrophic” 2.7 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. With every additional degree of warming beyond the 1.5-degree target put forward by the Paris Agreement, there’s a greater risk of the planet passing specific tipping points that could lead to even more dramatic changes to the climate.

03 Nov 11:33

Facebook shuts down automatic face recognition, deletes more than a billion saved faces

Today Facebook has shocked the world by announcing that it's shutting down its automatic face tagging system, powered by facial recognition. This is the system that figures out who is in photos based on the faces it sees. People who have previously opted in to using this will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and Facebook will delete more than a billion people's individual facial recognition templates. This means people's faces will no longer be automatically recognized in Memories, photos, or videos, and you won't be able to turn it on again. The company...

02 Nov 12:54

Jumbo Jets Airlifting PS5 Stock Into the UK in Time for Christmas

by Robert Anderson

PlayStation 5 consoles are being airlifted into the UK in time for Christmas, with three full jumbo jets arriving in the UK over the last two weeks, and another two planned for later in November.

PS5s have been in increasingly short supply in the UK this year, but it seems Sony has started to take extra precautions to ensure more gamers can have access to the new console before the end of the year.

According to the report by The Sun, Boeing 747 jets have been touching down in London ready to ship the consoles across the UK.

"A phenomenal operation has been underway to stock UK shelves of PS5s for Christmas," a Sony source told The Sun. They also said that Sony "just wants to keep fans happy".

"The 747 plane is rare after being decommissioned by British Airways, but carries a vast amount of cargo as a freighter aircraft," the source added.

"Each plane can bring in 100 tonnes of equipment on almost 50 pallets. It means millions of gamers will now be smiling this Christmas."

In May, Sony CFO Hiroki Tokoi claimed during an earnings call that the company is expecting PS5s to remain in limited supply throughout next year. In that same month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang echoed these thoughts, with supply shortages for the RTX 30 series to last until "the second half of this year."

Despite these apparent supply issues, Sony has still managed to sell 13.4 million PS5s worldwide, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation console ever.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

02 Nov 10:58

Facebook verified a Bitcoin scammer pretending to be Elon Musk

by Nicole Lee

Despite Facebook’s attempts at verifying suspiciously popular accounts, it isn’t perfect (to say the least). The Verge has reported that the company has mistakenly verified a Facebook fan page for Elon Musk as Musk’s own official account. On top of that, it appears to be run by a Bitcoin scammer.

The page, which has 153,000 followers as of this writing, actually acknowledges it isn't Musk... at least in the About section. It says there: “This is a fanpage, uploading tweets etc from him.” But then the URL ends in "ElonMuskoffici", which indicates they're certainly pretending as if it's official. In the Page Transparency section, it says that the people who manage the page are “based in Egypt,” not in the US, which is where Musk resides.

Fake Elon Musk
Engadget

The account currently has 11 posts, and while most of them are just reposts of Musk’s tweets, the most recent one is clearly a phony Bitcoin giveaway (the post has since been removed). The earliest is on October 21st, but as The Verge pointed out, the page was actually created on July 28th 2019 under the name “Kizito Gavin” with several name changes since then. It changed its name to Elon Musk on October 17th.

Facebook verification requires account owners to submit proof of their identity, such as driver's license or passport, but scammers have at times found ways around the official process.

We’ve reached out to Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, for comment, but have not received a response just yet. 

Update 7:16PM ET: The page is currently "unavailable." It's unclear if it has been deleted. 

02 Nov 10:58

'Squid Game' cryptocurrency collapses in a $3 million scam

by Mariella Moon

A cryptocurrency inspired by Squid Game successfully enticed enough investors to see its value soar to over $2,800... before its creators cashed out and vanished. The cryptocurrency called $SQUID, which wasn't officially sanctioned by Netflix, launched in late October and rose up to 310,000 percent in value within just a few days. It was sold supposedly as a way to play an upcoming online game based on the South Korean series, in which people buried in debt are forced to play a deadly game. 

At 5:40AM on Monday morning, however, the coin's value plummeted to $0, its website disappeared (you can view an archive here) and its Twitter account got blocked. As Gizmodo explained, its creators staged what's called in the crypto world as a "rug pull," wherein the coin's creators cash out for real money and disappear. The scammers may have made off with as much as $3.38 million. 

There were multiple signs that the cryptocurrency was a scam from the start — people merely missed or ignored them, perhaps due to the promise of a game based on the popular Netflix show. Its website was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, and as Gizmodo pointed out, people were able to buy coins but weren't allowed to sell them. 

This isn't the first time a coin based on a pop culture phenomenon was launched, and it won't be the last. While some may be legit, those interested to invest in them will have to keep an eye out for signs of fraud. Just earlier this year, a cryptocurrency based on The Mandalorian turned out to be a scam, as well.

31 Oct 07:31

Timothée Chalamet Reveals He Had A Secret Xbox 360 YouTube Channel

During the press tour for the newly released film, Dune, the star of the blockbuster Timothée Chalamet revealed that he had his own YouTube channel dedicated to custom Xbox 360 controllers.

The actor, who plays Paul Atreides in the film, and his co-star Zendaya, who plays Chani, were recently talking about their experience with video games in a new interview with YouTuber Nate Hill. The pair spoke about the consoles and games they played growing up, with Chalamet mentioning that he got "hooked" on Luigi's Mansion and Super Smash Bros, and liked playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare.

At one point during the interview, Chalamet revealed that his fans found his old YouTube channel, which was called "moddedcontroller360", going on to confirm that the mystery person behind the camera was in fact him.

Continue Reading at GameSpot
31 Oct 07:17

Dune: How Denis Villeneuve Designed the Ornithopters

by Simon Cardy

Dune director Denis Villeneuve is no stranger to designing spaceships and vehicles unfamiliar to the human eye, whether that be the other-worldly egg-shaped behemoths from Arrival, or the neon-tech infused shuttles from Blade Runner 2049’s far future. Adapting Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi epic, Dune, provided a new set of challenges for Villeneuve, though.

How do you bring the wholly analog tech of Arrakis and its surrounding planets to life for modern audiences? It proved a tough balancing act, but one that the director never shied away from.

“It's a process I deeply love”, Villeneuve states. “It was quite challenging because Dune did inspire a lot of other movies in the past. The challenge was to try to bring something fresh to the screen. To do so, we entirely focused on the novel and the description that Frank Herbert did. I tried to go back to the image that I had in my mind when I was a teen when I read the novel the first time.”

“It was a long process,” he explains. “The good news is that we had a lot of time. I was not rushed. I did a lot of work that time, the proper time to bring things as precisely as possible in the concept art. So the effects crew will have everything they need. Not just the design, but even the atmosphere, the look, the quality of the light. Everything was precisely done in prep.”

In Villeneuve’s mind, no vehicle in the Dune universe was more important to get right than the Ornithopter. A merging of the mechanical and the animal kingdom, it plays a huge role in the story, and the vivid descriptions of it in the novel have been in Villeneuve’s dreams from a young age.

“I worked at the beginning with my storyboard artist, Sam Hudecki, where we did tons of sketches,” he says. “For instance, the ornithopters, how would you approach a machine that is described in the book as a flying machine that has wings, like a bird flapping in the air?”

“I was dreaming to have that shape inspired by a dragonfly, that would be muscular and feel realistic, and close to the spirit of a helicopter. It was important to me that all the vehicles obey the laws of nature, gravity, and physics, and that they not look like fantasy vehicles, but something closer to science fiction, to science, and all grounded in the book."

“There is something very retro-futuristic, because the world is analog,” he notes. “It’s a thing that I deeply love, the idea that we are dealing with a science fiction world where there's no computers and where the only intelligence on-board is the human brain. That triumph of the human spirit is something that is at the very heart of Dune. We try to keep that reality into the design of the machines.”

“For the cockpit of the ornithopters, I asked the crew to design something that will keep the characters in contact with the environment, feeling that they are, in a way, a bubble that allows us to always be in visual contact with the landscape and feeling the impact of the landscape seen from above. So they were really like aquariums that the characters were sitting in.”

Putting the designs to paper is one thing, but bringing them to life is another, especially when Villeneuve desired fully practical sets and CGI kept to a minimum.

“We had several ornithopters that were built full size, because we needed some of them to be in Hungary, some of them in Jordan,” he reveals. “They were meant to be practical. Inside the cockpit was functional. We were able to open the doors of the cockpit, the back door was always mechanical.”

“Other ornithopters were designed for onstage shooting. There was one which was called The Bucket, which was an ornithopter that was more like a Lego piece, that we can remove pieces so we could bring the camera inside and find the more interesting angles.”

“The only problem we had with ornithopters is that because they were meant to receive a lot of people inside, they were extremely heavy,” he explains. “I think, if my memory is good, it's 11 tonnes. To bring those machines into the desert was a big challenge. We had to use an Antonov, which is the biggest cargo plane available on Earth, in order to bring those ornithopters in Jordan, and then move them with the massive cranes into the desert to put them in the proper position. It was a bit painful, but quite rewarding to see them in position in the desert.”

“We actually made one fly with cranes,” he reveals. “There was a moment where Paul and Gurney are watching the worm engulf the harvester from above. In order to have the proper light and dynamic of the shot, we had to put one of the ornithopters with stunt guys... I don't know many feet in the air,, but it was quite a technical challenge to bring that machine with that weight and make it spin under sunlight to have the proper lighting on the characters. It was a really exciting shot to do, but very technically complex.”

“There's something about the utilitarian quality of it that I feel is quite appealing,” he says. “There's something fresh and very dynamic in the way we brought them to the screen.”

The challenges were immense, but the payoff is there for all to see. Dune’s signature ships sing across the sand whenever they’re on the screen, and only add to Arrakis feeling like a real lived-in world. But what about the finally confirmed Dune Part Two? What other-worldly vehicles is Villeneuve looking forward to bringing to life next?

“I think that there are some,” he teases. “But I will keep that for me because I would love to keep the surprises for the second part.”

Simon Cardy thought that Dune was absolutely spectacular. Come talk to him about giant worms on Twitter at @CardySimon.

27 Oct 13:21

Scalpers Jack Up the Price of Razer Zephyr

by Matt Purslow

Scalpers have been selling Razer’s Zephyr RGB face mask for hugely inflated prices on eBay.

The Zephyr air purifier face mask with N95-grade filters retails for $99.99, but is currently completely sold out on Razer’s website. Some of those sold masks have been picked up by scalpers, who are currently selling them for absurd prices on eBay. A search for the item shows numerous sold items, all going for anything from $250 to an eye-watering $500.

The Razer Zephyr only went on sale on October 22, and so this scalper situation occurred almost immediately. The Zephyr itself was first shown off as a concept at CES 2021, and shortly after announced as an actual product. It’s N95 respirator status means it protects from droplets and splashes, and so is an effective COVID mask. The sleek, almost cyberpunk design is pretty unique, and so it’s understandable why it sold out so fast. It’s just a shame that several of them were used by scalpers to make a huge profit.

Scalping has been a huge issue in gaming lately, thanks to the popularity of the new generation of consoles. An estimate of 10-15% of PS5 consoles sold in the US went to scalpers, with resellers having made millions in profit. Scalpers have also targeted new Nvidia graphics cards. This global situation has prompted pressure on the UK government to ban scalping. While this is a new wave in the gaming space, we've seen it all before in sneaker culture.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

27 Oct 10:39

Far Cry 6 Players Are Receiving Emails From 'El Presidente' Mocking Them For Quitting

by Logan Plant

With so many games constantly fighting for our attention and playtime, Ubisoft is turning to an interesting marketing strategy to get gamers to boot up Far Cry 6. Players who haven't jumped into Yara for a while are getting emails from Ubisoft trying to get them back into the game. What's more, these emails are presented as if they're messages directly from Giancarlo Esposito's El Presidente character, aggressively taunting players to jump back in to take him down.

A tweet from journalist Brendan Sinclair detailed the types of emails Ubisoft is sending out. One email from Ubisoft had "You disappoint me" in the subject line and "It was amusing watching you fail" in the actual body of the email. The email is supposed to read as if El Presidente, the main villain in Far Cry 6, is personally mocking players for leaving the game so soon. Later on in the email, it says, "Surely you can do better than this", along with the user's Far Cry 6 playtime.

However, Ubisoft isn't just sending out emails to lapsed players. The company is also sending progress reports to people who have put some solid playtime into Far Cry 6.

While some players, including the original post, were annoyed with a game company pestering them to get back into their game, others were amused at the idea of a video game villain emailing players to egg them on.

The discussion also resulted in a lengthy thread on Resetera, in which some users called it "genuinely funny" and "good trolling" by Ubisoft.

"I kinda understand some of the concern with games (that's a larger discussion for another thread), but this is basic marketing rather than something darkly sinister," one user wrote.

We reached out to Ubisoft for comment, and they said, "The emails sent to Far Cry 6 players are intended to be a fun and clever way to remind folks to come back to Yara and are written as if from El Presidente himself. We’ve heard from the community and we’ve shared their concern with El Presidente. And know that Chorizo does miss you dearly.”

For more, check out our Far Cry 6 review, where we said it's the most fun we've had with the series in nearly a decade.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

27 Oct 10:38

'Dune: Part Two' arrives October 20th, 2023

by Jon Fingas

It didn't take long to greenlight a follow-up to Denis Villeneuve's Dune. Legendary Pictures has confirmed plans to release Dune: Part Two, saying it was "excited to the continue the journey." The studio expects the movie to premiere October 20th, 2023, and it's safe to presume Part Two will cover the back half of Frank Herbert's classic novel.

The move isn't shocking. Villeneuve clearly wanted to finish telling Paul Atreides' story, but the movie also fared better than expected. Deadlinenoted that Dune racked up $41 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend. That's not as strong as movies like Shang-Chi ($71.4 million) and a far cry from pre-pandemic openings, but it's the best opening for a Warner Bros. movie with simultaneous theatrical and HBO Max releases this year.

It's not yet clear how much the HBO Max launch helped (or hindered) Dune's theatrical premiere. However, Villeneuve won't have to worry about a simultaneous streaming release for Part Two. Warner Bros. is returning to theater-first openings starting in 2022. Like it or not, you'll have to brave the crowds and buy tickets if you insist on watching the follow-up as soon as possible.

22 Oct 12:07

Stink bugs add to global supply-chain headaches

by Byron Hurd
22 Oct 12:01

Mythic Quest Renewed for Seasons 3 and 4 at Apple TV+

by Matt Kim

Mythic Quest, Apple TV Plus’ workplace comedy set in a fictional video game studio, has been renewed for both a third and fourth season. The new season will premiere in 2022 before the third season of Ted Lasso.

In a short video to commemorate the renewals, Mythic Quest star and co-creator Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) FaceTimes academy award winner and Mythic Quest guest star Anthony Hopkins with the renewal announcement.

The call doesn’t go quite as planned, though Sir Anthony Hopkins does appear more interested in a potential guest appearance on Ted Lasso than any reappearances on Mythic Quest (for which he was nominated for an Emmy).

Mythic Quest is set in a fictional video game development studio that created the popular MMORPG of the same name. It’s a pretty loving send-up to video games, though it’s more of a workplace comedy than an inside-baseball look at the video game industry.

The second season is where the show hits its stride, according to our review. Also, check out our Ted Lasso season 2 review for more on Apple’s popular TV offerings.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

22 Oct 11:58

Tesla driving data decrypted by Dutch forensic lab

by Reuters
19 Oct 21:41

First Cowboy Bebop Netflix Teaser Combines Scott Pilgrim and Tarantino

by Kat Bailey

With Netflix's Cowboy Bebop exactly one month away from premiere, the streaming giant has released what might be called a standalone short for the upcoming anime adaptation, giving fans a feel for what to expect in the new live-action show.

Cowboy Bebop: The Lost Session is a two-minute special presentation that's a little bit Tarantino, a little bit Scott Pilgrim. Opening with a 70s-style title card complete with film grain, the trailer features Spike, Jet, and Faye exchanging quips and trading barbs as they battle thugs and jump from one scene to the next.

While it's presented as a "lost session" with its own story, it functions as more of a sizzle reel that attempts to convey the overall vibe of the show. It features plenty of snippets that should be familiar to fans of the anime: stylish martial arts, Spike sneaking off to grab a bite to eat, and even a quick vision of Vicious — the katana-wielding villain from the anime who plays as Sephiroth by way of The Godfather.

The presentation is intentionally heightened, with various characters leaping from one cel to another, or even using scene dividers to bludgeon foes. The effect is akin to the original opening, which memorably established the series' mood with sharp lines and stylized silhouettes.

Being a "lost session," this trailer is likely to be separate from the full show, functioning more as a promo for the final release. On that note, an official trailer will be released next week.

The Cowboy Bebop live-action adaptation was first announced in 2018, with John Cho taking on the role of its lead character, the bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. Over the past few months, we've seen stills of Cho as Spike, as well as the official opening. It's clear that the live-action adaptation is at pains to capture the flavor of the anime, even as it changes certain elements such as Faye's outfit.

Cowboy Bebop debuts on Netflix on November 19.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

19 Oct 07:53

History of the World Part II Is Finally Happening After All These Years

by Petey Oneto

Mel Brooks will write and executive produce a TV series sequel to History of the World Part I. Yes, after all these years, we're finally getting Part II.

Hulu has ordered eight episodes of History of the World Part II, according to Variety. It's described as a variety series, so it's likely to follow the original movie's anthology structure of multiple historical stories. Brooks will write the series with Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen, and Kevin Salter.

Filming is expected to begin in spring 2022. No actors or directors have been announced for the series at this time. and Disney's Searchlight Pictures and 20th Television are producing History of the World Part II.

"I can’t wait to once more tell the real truth about all the phony baloney stories the world has been conned into believing are History!” Brooks said, according to Variety.

This is Brooks' first writing project for the screen since his 2015 comedy special Mel Brooks: Live at the Geffen. During that time, he performed two nights on Broadway and reworked his Young Frankenstein musical in the UK. Brooks has also been acting in movies like Toy Story 4 and the last two Hotel Transylvania movies.

History of the World Part I was released on June 12, 1981. Unfortunately for History of the World, that was the same day Raiders of the Lost Ark opened in theaters and a week before Superman II. The New York Times said History of the World Part I was "a considerable disappointment to Fox because tracking studies had shown that the movie was eagerly awaited....Then its ticket sales shriveled because of poor word of mouth."

As the world anticipates another history lesson from Brooks, read up on the best comedies on Netflix.

Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

19 Oct 07:50

Marvel's Phase 4 plans in tatters as it delays Thor 4, Black Panther 2 and more

by Nick.Pino@Futurenet.com (Nick Pino)

It’s a bad day to be a MCU fan: Marvel announced that nearly every major film it plans on releasing over the next two years will be pushed back.

Including the films affected by the delay are Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that will now be released in early May instead of March; Thor: Love and Thunder which now releases in July instead of May; and Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever that will now face a four-month delay, going from a July release date to November. That means The Marvels and Ant-Man 3 will be pushed back as well.

Here’s the full list of purported changes:

  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: now May 6, 2022 | was March 25, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder: now July 8, 2022 | was May 6, 2022
  • Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever: now November 11, 2022 | was July 8, 2022
  • The Marvels: now early 2023 | was November 11, 2022
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania: now July 28, 2023 | was February 17, 2023

The only silver lining here is that the upcoming Hawkeye Disney Plus show and Spider-Man: No Way Home were unaffected by the delays and will still be available to watch online and in theaters on November 24, 2021 and December 17, 2021, respectively.  


Analysis: Turns out, making multi-million-dollar movies is a time-consuming process 

While your first thought might be that Disney wants to avoid another Black Widow scenario, the company says it’s making the decision to delay the films due to production conflicts. 

According to Deadline, “some titles are contending with finishing scenarios while others are in production,” which it says has led to a “domino effect” at the movie studio where films need to be pushed back later to accommodate the production schedule.

The easiest way to make that happen, Disney figures, is to just simply push each of the release dates back to the next slot, freeing up some time for production to get caught up. The logic makes sense even though it's disappointing.

Unfortunately none of these films will be coming to Disney Plus right out of the gate, and will instead be theatrical-only – though there’s a chance we’ll eventually see them on the service sometime down the road. 

18 Oct 08:47

HBO Max's Doom Patrol Gets Season 4 Renewal, New Clip

HBO Max has announced that Doom Patrol, the series based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name, has been renewed for Season 4. Season 3 debuted on the streaming service on September 23--so not even a full month later, it's a huge vote of confidence.

The announcement is part of the festivities and wall-to-wall announcements during DC FanDome--the comics giant's free, global virtual fan event. While Season 4 is still going to be a while away, what's immediately more exciting is that DC FanDome also offered a new Season 3 mid-season trailer, which you can check out below.

The clip ably demonstrates that the series is going to only get weirder and weirder as the series progresses. It's best to watch for yourself--maybe the best thing to spoil is that, hey, if you like torso-less butts with fangs, this will be your jam. The series official logline: "Doom Patrol reimagines one of DC's most beloved groups of superheroes who all suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities, but also left them scarred and disfigured… [Doom Patrol] fights for a world that wants nothing to do with them."

Continue Reading at GameSpot
18 Oct 08:47

Netflix's Sandman Unveils First Look At Gwendoline Christie's Lucifer - See The Photos

​​DC has released a first look at Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer in the highly-anticipated Netflix adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman co-created graphic novel series Sandman. The unveiling was part of the festivities and wall-to-wall announcements during DC FanDome--the comics giant's free, global virtual fan event.

As Gaiman himself said earlier this year, he's held off for 30 years "successfully battling bad movies of Sandman." Netflix's recent Tudum event showcased a quick clip of the series--DC FanDome has given us a first look at yet another character.

No Caption Provided
Gallery

The Sandman comic first debuted in 1988, written by Gaiman and art by Sam Kieth (issues 1-5) and Mike Dringenberg. The series follows Dream--who is also called The Sandman, Morpheus, Lord of Dreaming, The Shaper, etc.--who has been a prisoner for 70 years and must rebuild his kingdom, which has collapsed in his absence.

Continue Reading at GameSpot
18 Oct 08:43

Pennyworth Is Heading to HBO Max Starting With Season 3 - DC FanDome

by Matt Kim

Pennyworth, a show centering on a younger Alfred Pennyworth before he becomes Bruce Wayne's loyal butler, is leaving Epix and heading to HBO Max for season 3.

At DC Fandome, WB TV announced that in 2022 Pennyworth is coming to HBO Max as a Max Original. The first two seasons will also be coming to the service in early 2022.

Pennyworth is set in 1960s London. Alfred Pennyworth is a former British SAS soldier who starts up his own security company that becomes employed by Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father. The series is part spy action, part psychological thriller, and will hopefully find an even larger audience on HBO Max.

The third season will pick up five years after the end of season 2. The civil war has ended and there's a new age of superheroes and villains that a former special forces-turned-butler must contend with.

Pennyworth is just the latest DC show to make its way over to HBO Max after starting out on another network. DC has consolidated shows like Pennyworth, Titans, Harley Quinn, and Young Justice under the HBO Max banner. And those shows have gotten a new life at the streamer.

For more announcements, check out IGN for all the news, trailers, and reveals from DC FanDome.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

15 Oct 09:36

The 'Lower Decks' season two finale is Star Trek at its best

by Kris Naudus

This post contains spoilers for season two, episode 10 of 'Star Trek: Lower Decks.'

Last week I posited that seasons one and two of Lower Decks together would make up one story arc of the show. Given this week’s finale, it looks like we’ll be dealing with the consequences of the Pakled threat for just a bit longer. But when an episode is this good, I’m perfectly fine with being wrong.

Especially when this installment just encompasses so many of my favorite things about Star Trek. It’s not just the delightful appearance by Captain Sonya Gomez — you might remember her as the ensign who spilled hot chocolate on Captain Picard way back in season two of The Next Generation. And it’s not because of the first on-screen appearance of cetacean ops, a concept hinted at in various blueprints but never actually mentioned with any real seriousness.

CBS

It’s the general plot of the episode, where the entire crew must work together to save the day. I’m a real sucker for teamwork scenes, like the final battle in The Undiscovered Country or, more recently, when the crew of the USS Discovery had to disguise themselves as their mirror universe counterpart. Star Trek has been described as “competence porn” by many online, in how it depicts people who are insanely good at their jobs and work together well.

The first two seasons haven’t always showcased the crew at their finest. We’ve seen Boimler and Mariner lose the Klingon diplomat they were supposed to be escorting, Freeman get into a pissing match with the captain of another Starfleet vessel, and the crew fail its (rigged) assessment test spectacularly. At times the show is very much like The Office, more interested in the personal lives and antics of its employees than the actual business at hand.

CBS

However, even The Office would occasionally remind you that the staff of Dunder Mifflin were good at their jobs, particularly Michael Scott. Michael was a terrible manager, but one hell of a salesman. And this episode of Lower Decks put the spotlight on Carol Freeman, whose fine work over the past two years is being rewarded with a promotion to a better ship. The USS Cerritos is a California-class ship, a real workhorse of a vessel that doesn’t get a lot of respect. That the Cerritos even became important at all is completely due to circumstance in encountering and surviving the newly empowered Pakleds. But it’s given Freeman a lot of time in the spotlight, with her tasked a few episodes ago with negotiating a cease-fire with the Pakled government. (It was a ruse, but that’s not her fault.)

Last week I thought this episode would wrap up that storyline, given that we now know the Pakleds were getting help from a Klingon captain, one who is no longer alive thanks to the actions of a lower-decker. Instead, this episode focuses on Freeman’s possible promotion, her senior staff’s reaction to it, and the futures of our lower decks ensigns.

CBS

This is all happening against the backdrop of a first contact mission. The USS Cerritos mostly specializes in second contact missions — we’re told this in the very first episode. That means they come in and handle all the annoying administrative stuff after flagships like the Enterprise come in and establish initial relations. Now, the Cerritos gets to take part in the more important first impression, but only as backup to the USS Archimedes.

Sitting on the bench ends up serving the Cerritos well when a solar flare plus an unstable planetoid ends up disabling the Archimedes and putting it on a crash course with the planet below. Freeman is ready to sacrifice herself in order to save the other ship, but Rutherford and company have a better plan, one that can prevent fatalities on both vessels. But they’ve only got 20 hours, so the whole crew has to chip in. That means Ransom piloting, Billups supervising the hull removal, and Tendi giving Mariner a much-needed pep talk. The latter might not be necessary to the functioning of the ship, but it is important to the show because it pushes the two women toward the emotional resolution they need.

CBS

We also get to meet the crew of cetacean ops, two beluga whale lieutenants named Kimolu and Matt. But it’s Boimler who has to save the day, because the clamp they need to release isn’t made to be turned by flippers. (I really appreciate the accessibility joke here, because Starfleet has often been cited over the decades as an OSHA nightmare.) Needless to say, the crew succeeds (this isn’t a movie, after all, so we’re not losing the ship). After the bravery shown by the entire crew of the Cerritos, particularly Boimler and Rutherford, it’s hard to imagine that season three won’t start off with a few promotions.

But first, there’s the matter of Freeman’s transfer, which she has decided to decline in favor of staying with a crew that has proven itself capable of being truly excellent. Unfortunately, that Pakled storyline comes to bite us all one more time, leading us into the show’s very first cliffhanger, and the very first season-ending cliffhanger in the new Kurtzman-era of Trek programs.

CBS

Star Trek: Lower Decks had a lot to prove when it debuted last year: It was the first animated show since the ‘70s, and the franchise’s first attempt at a primarily comedic series. It also had to overcome the initial impressions of it as being akin to Rick and Morty or Family Guy. The quality of the first season started a bit rough but improved as time went on, ending on the fantastic action-packed episode, “No Small Parts.” Season two’s “First First Contact” ups the game in several ways, not just in its element of danger but also in how the show is willing to use big storylines to push the characters forward as the seasons progress.

11 Oct 14:33

THE OFFSPRING Guitarist NOODLES Opens Up About His COVID-19 Battle: 'Because I Am Vaccinated, I Got Over It Very Quickly'

THE OFFSPRING guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman says that the band canceled its concerts in Denver and Salt Lake City earlier this month after he tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On Saturday (October 9), Noodles took to his Twitter to write: "I tested positive for Covid on the 27th of last month. I was in Philly with my wife & we were supposed to travel to NYC for a couple of days. I had a slight cold & thought I better get tested before traveling. My wife tested negative, but not me. "I immediately reached out to management, the band, & crew," he continued. "We canceled the Denver & SLC shows at that time out of an abundance of caution. My positive test led to others getting tested. I'm not going to divulge who got what. So don't ask me for any information about anyone else. If anyone else wants to talk about their health it is up to them. The important thing is everyone isolated until we were safe to be around. Earlier this week everyone on our tour tested negative. "Most of our tour party never got sick," Noodles said. "My wife who slept next to me while I had it never caught it. I was sick for 2-3 days at most. Runny nose & sore throat. By Wednesday the 29th I was fever free and my symptoms were almost entirely gone. "Everyone on our tour is vaccinated, thankfully, but I still managed to get it. There's always that risk, especially with the Delta variant. Because I am vaxxed I got over it very quickly and was less likely to spread it to someone else. "I'm sorry that we had to cancel a couple of shows but we have to do what we can to minimize the risks," he added. "Stay safe, take care of each other, & get vaccinated. The vaccine might've just saved my life. It certainly made it easier." Two months ago, longtime THE OFFSPRING drummer Pete Parada announced that was being dropped from the band's current tour after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine for medical reasons. Pete said a doctor had advised him not to get the shot because he has a rare autoimmune disorder. The musician said he first experienced Guillain-Barré syndrome, where a person's immune system damages their nerves, in childhood and the effects had got "progressively worse over my lifetime". He also revealed that he contracted COVID-19 over a year ago and only had mild symptoms, "so I am confident I'd be able to handle it again", he wrote. Parada wrote on social media that he's "unable to comply with what is increasingly becoming an industry mandate". As a result, "it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio and on tour", he said. Parada added that he had "no negative feelings towards my band". He wrote: "They're doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same." It is not clear if Parada, who joined the group in 2007, has now left THE OFFSPRING permanently. Earlier this year, THE OFFSPRING encouraged fans to receive their COVID-19 vaccines by reworking the chorus of its 1994 classic "Come Out And Play" to say "you gotta go get vaccinated." The new version of the song was shared in March on THE OFFSPRING's Instagram, featuring a snippet from the song's music video with the reworked lyrics. THE OFFSPRING singer Bryan "Dexter" Holland has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and wrote his thesis on microRNA in HIV genomes. The 175-page research paper, titled "Identification of Human MicroRNA-Like Sequences Embedded within the Protein-Encoding Genes of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus", had been published in PLoS One. Holland had received his Ph.D. from University of Southern California in 2017. THE OFFSPRING's tenth studio album, "Let The Bad Times Roll", arrived in April via Concord Records.
08 Oct 10:29

The Internet Archive's 'Wayforward Machine' paints a grim future for the web

by Kris Holt

The Internet Archive is marking its 25th anniversary by peering into the future to predict what the web might look like a quarter of a century from now. The non-profit took the opportunity to rail against internet regulation by offering a grim vision of what lies ahead.

Punch a URL into the Wayforward Machine and you'll see a version of that page covered in pop-ups. The messages include one reading "Classified content. The website you are trying to access features information that the owner(s) have opted to restrict to users that have not shared their personal information." Another reads "This site contains information that is currently classified as Thought Crime in your region."

The way things are going, the Internet Archive suggests, free and open access to knowledge on the web may become far more limited. A Wayforward subsite includes a timeline of things that might go awry in the coming years, starting with the repeal of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects websites and internet platforms from being liable for things that users post. A repeal could have enormous consequences for the web, though some, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have proposed that the provision should be reformed.

The timeline includes some other wild-but-not-inconceivable suggestions, such as a law allowing corporations to copyright facts, forcing Wikipedia to move to the Dark Web, and more countries introducing their own versions of China's Great Firewall. The Internet Archive teamed up with several digital rights organizations for this project, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future and the Wikimedia Foundation. The subsite includes resources on how to help protect freely available information.

The Wayforward Machine is, of course, a satirical version of the Wayback Machine, which has archived hundreds of billions of web pages over the last two and a half decades. It's an important resource for helping preserve the history of the internet, including things like Flash games and animations, so it's probably worth paying attention to the Internet Archive's vision of the future.

07 Oct 14:32

Lego Just Unveiled Its Largest Set Yet, Which Hopefully Won't Sink

You might not have a shelf that's large enough for Lego's latest set. Lego just revealed an appropriately massive kit centered around the most (in)famous ship of all time: the Titanic. The Lego Titanic comes in at a whopping 9,090 pieces. The full build will stretch 53 inches in length. Unsurprisingly, the Lego Titanic is extremely pricey at $630. It'll be available for purchase exclusively at the Lego Store starting November 8, and we'd guess that stock will be extremely limited.

Lego Titanic

$630

The Lego Titanic was designed with authenticity in mind. The cross section is ridiculously detailed, and includes the grand staircase, boiler room, smoking lounge, and other rooms and fixtures. You'll build the promenade deck, swimming pool, and ship's bridge as well. While you can display it as a full set, it also splits into three sections so that you can impress visitors by showing them all of the interior work you did.

It has a few interactive components to it as well. If you turn the propellers, the piston engines turn inside the ship. You can also raise and lower the anchor and tinker with the the masts.

Continue Reading at GameSpot
07 Oct 10:11

Marvel's What If...?: Season 1 Ending Explained - How the Finale Sets Up Season 2

by Jesse Schedeen

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Marvel's What If...?: Season 1! For more on the animated series, check out our review of the Season 1 finale, and then see our breakdown of the most shocking What If...? moments and a list of all the returning MCU actors.

Marvel' What If...? has officially wrapped up its first season on Disney Plus, but it's safe to say the story is just beginning. The finale wraps up a number of loose ends and reveals the secret threads tying together what seemed to be a series of standalone, isolated adventures. In the process, we're starting to get a clearer picture of how the series will evolve in Season 2.

Let's break down what we learned from the finale. But first, let's touch on the most confusing element of Episode 9 - the mysterious version of Gamora who Uatu the Watcher recruited for his Guardians of the Multiverse.

What If...?'s Missing Gamora Episode

The Season 1 finale turned out to be an unexpectedly confusing experience, as it features a version of Gamora we've never seen before. Fans could be forgiven for thinking they missed an episode somewhere along the way, because that's exactly what happened.

Executive producer A.C. Bradley has revealed that Season 1 wound up being one episode shorter than planned due to some pandemic-based production setbacks. That lost episode is reportedly set in a universe where Tony Stark never makes it back through the portal at the end of The Avengers. Instead, he's dragged to Sakaar and becomes the galaxy's new favorite arena champion in place of the Hulk. That causes a chain reaction of events that somehow results in Tony joining forces with Eitri and Gamora (wielding her father's armor and double-bladed sword) and destroying the Infinity Gauntlet before Thanos can unleash its power.

The good news is fans will eventually see this missing episode, but it's been bumped to Season 2. That's sure to stir up some debates over the proper viewing order for What If...?, much like how watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars in chronological order requires a bit of extra homework.

Weirdly enough, multiple toys based on this missing Iron Man/Gamora episode have already made their way to stores. LEGO released a set that includes Tony's Sakaarian armor, Uatu, and a mohawked Valkyrie, and Funko released a "Gamora: Daughter of Thanos" figurine in its What If...? line.

The Marvel Zombies Loose End

There's one other loose thread left dangling in the Season 1 finale. While most of the cliffhanger endings from previous episodes wind up feeding directly into this story, the finale doesn't provide much resolution to Episode 5's zombie plotline. We see an undead Scarlet Witch and hundreds of other zombies summoned to battle Ultron, but apart from that, none of the characters wind up playing a role in the finale. Anyone hoping to see Zombie Hunter Spider-Man recruited for the Guardians of the Multiverse may have come away disappointed. Though, to be fair, one Doctor Strange per team seems to be plenty.

Despite the lack of focus on the Marvel Zombies universe here, it seems safe to assume the series will revisit that storyline in a future season. We're still waiting to find out what happens when Zombie Thanos and Zombie Scarlet Witch duke it out for control of the Infinity Stones. (Assuming Zombie Scarlet Witch is still alive, um, dead after this episode's events.)

The Guardians of the Multiverse

Episode 9 ties the whole series together by introducing a team called the Guardians of the Multiverse. We now know that characters like Captain Carter, T'Challa Star-Lord and Strange Supreme aren't just isolated characters in an infinite multiverse, but characters with a pivotal, shared role in saving reality as we know it.

The Guardians of the Multiverse is a new concept that doesn't directly draw from Marvel's comics. The closest analogue would be the Exiles, a team of heroes from across the multiverse tasked with fixing unnatural deviations to the timeline (not unlike Loki's Time Variance Authority or DC's Legends of Tomorrow). Traditionally, Exiles has been more of an X-Men-centric franchise, though the most recent incarnation did induct Captain Carter into Marvel's comic book universe. [Note: She actually originated in the mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest, of all things.]

Marvel Comics is also introducing a similar team in the upcoming Avengers Forever, which features many incarnations of Earth's Mightiest Heroes from across the multiverse. Do we sense corporate synergy at work?

Presumably, the Guardians of the Multiverse will continue to be the glue that holds together the many separate universes of What If...?. Even if new episodes continue to prioritize standalone stories over the ensemble format, sooner or later another threat will emerge that forces Uatu to intervene again and assemble his team. The roster may be fluid, but the mission remains the same.

Episode 9 is called "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?" That title seems to hint at some ominous consequences to his actions here. Uatu may have saved the multiverse, but what fallout will he face for violating his sacred oath to observe but never interfere? He fixed the damage he inadvertently caused with Ultron, but what if Uatu becomes overconfident and tries to "fix" things that would have been better left alone? That may well be one of the central themes of the series going forward.

What If...?: Post Credits Scene and What to Expect From Season 2

Marvel has already confirmed that at least some of the characters introduced in Season 1 will continue to appear in future seasons. Stories like the Captain Carter plotline will become serialized, revealing even more far-reaching ramifications of these deviations.

Episode 9's mid-credits sequence gives us some idea of what to expect from the next Captain Carter episode. Peggy discovers Hydra was working to recover Steve Rogers' old Hydra Stomper armor, and we're left to believe Steve himself may have somehow survived inside the suit. Just as the series premiere explored a new take on the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, the sequel may tackle the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (presumably with Steve himself playing the Winter Soldier part).

Between a Captain Carter sequel and the aforementioned missing Sakaar episode, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from two Season 2 episodes. The Season 1 finale also implies Strange Supreme's story is far from done. When last we see him, Strange has trapped the Arnim Zola-possessed Ultron and the rogue Killmonger in a pocket dimension, ensuring neither villain can threaten the multiverse. But given that Strange Supreme is mourning the loss of his entire universe, who's to say he won't crack and decide to unleash the Infinity Stones once more?

It's also worth remembering that by the time Season 2 debuts, both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will have hit theaters (barring any further release date changes). Both films look to deal heavily with the Marvel multiverse, so they may open up new storytelling angles and alternate universes for What If...? to explore. Who knows? Maybe characters like Captain Carter or Uatu will make their live-action debuts in the Doctor Strange sequel.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

07 Oct 08:08

The Umbrella Academy season 3 has a launch window – and an official setting

by Tom Power

It's official: The Umbrella Academy season 3 will be released in 2022. And fans of the comic series will be as equally happy to learn where it's set, too.

Revealing the tentative launch window for the show's next instalment via a brief teaser trailer, Netflix also dropped the biggest hint yet that season 3 will incorporate the Hotel Oblivion into its overarching narrative.

Curiously, however, Netflix didn't announce The Umbrella Academy season 3's launch window via its official social media accounts. Instead, various news outlets – including Collider and TV Line – reported that the teaser trailer was available to view on the show's official Netflix page. Fans can head over and scroll down to the 'Trailers & More' section to view the 15-second teaser now.

As well as the teaser on the show's Netflix page, a 26-second video also appeared on the newly unveiled Sparrow Academy Twitter account. 

The footage doesn't reveal much – star Justin H. Min, who plays Ben Hargreeves in the show, reveals that The Sparrow Academy, much like The Umbrella Academy, was born on October 1, 1989. Still, it's a fun little video that offers an insight into the Sparrows' more rebellious nature ahead of season 3's release next year.

We are the gift. Happy birthday to us! pic.twitter.com/rpdrcVaaDAOctober 1, 2021

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The revelation that The Umbrella Academy's third season will arrive next year isn't an unexpected one. 

Filming on season 3 wrapped in late August, so the show's next entry is currently in its post-production phase. It shouldn't take more than 12 months for edits, potential reshoots, digital effects and more to be sorted out, so season 3 will be with us in 2022.

Still, it's pleasing to see that The Umbrella Academy's latest instalment isn't being held back until 2023. Fans have been clamoring for season 3 ever since the show's second season ended, so the wait has been long enough already.


Analysis: what is the Hotel Oblivion in The Umbrella Academy season 3?

The Umbrella Academy Volume 3: Hotel Oblivion

(Image credit: Gerard Way/Gabriel Ba)

Hotel Oblivion is the name of The Umbrella Academy Volume 3, which is the most recent instalment in Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá's comic series.

Not only that, but the Hotel Oblivion is also, well, a hotel-style space prison located on a distant planet. It's here where the galaxy's most prominent supervillains have been imprisoned by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the Umbrella Academy and other superheroes. In the comics, it's a detention center that these evil entities apparently can't escape from. That is, until one particular breakout attempt leads an entire rogues gallery heading for Earth and seeking revenge on those who imprisoned them.

It's unclear if Netflix's adaptation will follow the exact storyline in the Hotel Oblivion comics. For one, The Umbrella Academy season 2 didn't: it was inspired by events in Way and Bá's graphic novels, but its plot diverged somewhat from the events that play out in the source material.

So we can expect season 3 to do likewise. In the graphic novels, The Sparrow Academy – another superhero group – weren't introduced until the final few pages. In the show, however, their arrival was teased in the last scene of season 2. The Umbrella Academy's third season, then, is already charting a different path from the comics.

There's the potential that season 3 could include elements from the as yet unreleased fourth volume of The Umbrella Academy. As long time readers of the comics, we hope it doesn't: we wouldn't want any surprises spoiled for us before Volume 4 is released. 

But there is the potential for Netflix's show to move ahead of the graphic novels, just like HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones did, so we'll have to wait for an official trailer to learn more about what season 3 will entail.

Either way, we can expect to see new threats when The Umbrella Academy season 3 rolls around. Our hopes? That it'll include multiple villains from the comics, such as the Perseus Corporation, Dr. Terminal or the Scientific Man. Any two of that trio would prove to be difficult foes for The Umbrella and Sparrow Academies to deal with, and it would set season 3 apart from its predecessors. We've see Vanya become the 'villain' in both seasons of the Netflix show so far. Now it's time for something different, please.

07 Oct 08:04

Twitch says 'server configuration change' led to massive data leak

by Steve Dent

Twitch has released an update on a massive hack that appears to have exposed source code, streamer payment figures and other information. It said that data was exposed to the internet "due to an error in a Twitch server configuration change that was subsequently accessed by a malicious third party." It added that its teams are working with "urgency" to investigate the attack. 

The Amazon-owned streaming site added that it has "no indication" that any login credentials, including passwords, were exposed. "Additionally, full credit card numbers are not stored by Twitch, so full credit card numbers were not exposed," the company said.

Twitch also said that "out of an abundance of caution, we have reset all stream keys," and provided a link to get a new one. Depending on the broadcast software you use, you may need to manually update your software to start a new stream. "Twitch Studio, Streamlabs, Xbox, PlayStation and Twitch Mobile App users should not need to take any action for your new key to work," it wrote. "OBS users who have connected their Twitch account should also not need to take any action."

However, if you haven't connect your OBS account to Twitch, you'll need to manually copy your stream from the Twitch Dashboard and paste it into OBS. "For all others, please refer to specific setup instructions for your software of choice."

Yesterday, attackers said they stole the "entirety of Twitch.tv," including the site's mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients. It also accessed proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services, red-teaming tools and more. All of that information could make Twitch vulnerable to future attacks by letting potential hackers probe for weaknesses. 

The leak also shows creator payments in the millions for streamers like xQc, Nickmercs and Shroud. Several have confirmed that the figures are accurate. 

Twitch said that the investigation is ongoing. "We are still in the process of understanding the impact in detail," the company wrote. 

Update 10/7/2021 4:54 AM ET: Twitch has reset all stream keys and advised users on how to update their software. That information has been added to the article. 

07 Oct 07:50

European Parliament calls for a ban on facial recognition in public spaces

by Kris Holt

The European Parliament has called on lawmakers in the European Union to ban automated facial recognition in public spaces and to enforce strict safeguards for police use of artificial intelligence. MEPs voted in favor of the non-binding resolution by 377-248, with 62 abstentions.

The MEPs said citizens should only be monitored when they're suspected of a crime. They cited concerns over algorithmic bias in AI and argued that both human supervision and legal protections are required to avoid discrimination. The politicians noted there's evidence suggesting AI-based identification systems misidentify minority ethnic groups, LGBTI+ people, seniors and women at higher rates. As a result, the MEPs say, "algorithms should be transparent, traceable and sufficiently documented," with open-source options being used wherever possible.

The resolution states that "those subject to AI-powered systems must have recourse to remedy." Under EU law, according to the document, "a person has the right not to be subjected to a decision which produces legal effects concerning them or significantly affects them and is based solely on automated data processing."

In addition, the MEPs called on EU officials to ban private facial recognition databases (some law enforcement agencies in Europe are using Clearview AI's one), as well as "predictive policing based on behavioral data." They also urged the European Commission to prohibit social scoring or social credit systems and said the iBorderCtrl virtual border agent and other border control systems that use automated recognition should be shut down.

The approval of the resolution follows similar calls by EU data protection regulators this summer. The European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor said the EC should ban AI systems from using biometrics to categorize people "into clusters based on ethnicity, gender, political or sexual orientation," or any other classifications that could lead to discrimination.

In April, the EC proposed a bill called the Artificial Intelligence Act, which would introduce a sweeping regulatory framework for AI. Among the measures are a ban on remote biometric identification (such as facial recognition) in public spaces unless it's being used to tackle major crimes, including terrorism and kidnappings.

07 Oct 07:50

WHO approves the world's first malaria vaccine

by Devindra Hardawar

In a landmark announcement today, the World Health Organization has recommended the use of the first-ever malaria vaccine. RTS,S, also known as Mosquirix. Specifically, the WHO says it should be deployed for children in sub-Saharan Africa and other areas where with moderate to high malaria transmission. The announcement follows in the footsteps of huge vaccine advancements around the COVID-19 pandemic. To be clear, though, RTS,S isn't an mRNA vaccine, which have the potential to make an even bigger impact on malaria and other diseases that have affected humans for ages.

“This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”

RTS,S has an efficacy rate of preventing 39 percent against malaria cases and 29 percent of severe cases, based on trials in Africa involving small children. That may seem particularly low, but when combined with other anti-malarial tools, like bed netting with insecticide, the WHO says the vaccine could potentially save tens of thousands of lives annually. The organization estimates that more than 260,000 African children (out of around 500,000 people total) die from malaria every year.

Crucially, the WHO also says RTS,S can be deployed easily, is safe to use and is cost effective to roll out. According to The Guardian, the company behind the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), says it will supply up to 15 million doses annual at no more than 5 percent of the production cost. The WHO and GSK are looking for additional sources of funding from partners and governments. 

RTS,S is just the start, though. Thanks to mRNA-based technology, which can teach our bodies how to respond to specific diseases, Oxford University's R21 vaccine is up to 77 percent effective when it comes to preventing malaria. And based on tests so far, it's proven to be safe.     

"For centuries, malaria has stalked sub-Saharan Africa, causing immense personal suffering,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in a statement. “Today’s recommendation offers a glimmer of hope for the continent which shoulders the heaviest burden of the disease and we expect many more African children to be protected from malaria and grow into healthy adults.”

06 Oct 13:43

A Russian crew is shooting the first feature film on the ISS

by Kris Holt

Filming is underway on the first feature-length movie to be shot in space after Russian actor Yulia Sherepild and director Klim Shipenko docked at the International Space Station. Their movie, The Challenge, will feature around 35-40 minutes of scenes filmed on the space station, according to The New York Times. The film is about a surgeon (Sherepild) who goes on an emergency ISS mission to save the life of a cosmonaut (Shipenko).

The two cosmonauts who were already on the ISS captured a shot as Peresild (or her character) emerged from the capsule and entered the station. Sherepild and Shipenko will film scenes over the next couple of weeks before returning to Earth on October 17th.

Other projects have been filmed on the ISS, including documentaries, virtual reality projects and a short called Apogee of Fear. Tom Cruise hoped to make the first feature film in space with the help of NASA and SpaceX, but the Russian team beat him to the punch. Russia's Roscosmos agency announced a plan to send an actor to the ISS soon after word emerged about Cruise's movie in May 2020.

Time will tell whether The Challenge is any good. Regardless, the creatives behind the project have carved out their own little slice of history.

05 Oct 13:24

House of the Dragon: First Trailer Released for the Game of Thrones Prequel

by Joe Skrebels

HBO has released the first trailer for House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel arriving in 2022.

The trailer doesn't reveal too much, but shows us a series of images of Targaryen family members – the core of the new show – as well as a mantra of sorts: "Gods, kings, fire, and blood. Dreams didn't make us kings – dragons did." Of course, along the way we see the Iron Throne, jousts, sword fights, lots of bright white hair (the Targaryen trademark), and just the hint of a dragon.

Set around 200 years before the original series, the show will tell the story of House Targaryen, the line of kings that ruled Westeros before Robert Barratheon took the throne and, eventually, kicked off the events of Game of Thrones.

The show features a star-studded cast, including Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Emma D'Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower. Co-created by George R.R. Martin and Colony's Ryan Condal and from executive producer and director Miguel Sapochnik (who directed many iconic Game of Thrones episodes including "The Battle of the Bastards" and "The Long Night"), House of the Dragon will air on HBO and HBO Max.

We recently got our first look at images of the main cast members. The show, which is part of a wider deal between HBO and author George R.R. Martin, is one of several Game of Thrones series in the works. Currently, HBO is working on multiple live action series, and is also working on animated spin-offs set in the universe.

We still don't have a concrete premiere date for House of the Dragon, but it's due to drop in 2022.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.