_Happy boy

Ukraine will be victorious in its war against Russia very soon, its prime minister said on Friday, after Britain's Boris Johnson said it remained a realistic possibility Russia could still win. "We are absolutely sure that Ukraine will win in this war and victory will be in (a) very short period," Denys Shmyhal told CNN, when asked about Johnson's comment. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia’s military operation in his country was just the beginning and that Moscow has designs on capturing other countries, after a Russian general said it wants full control over southern Ukraine. “All the nations that, like us, believe in the victory of life over death must fight with us. They must help us, because we are the first in line. And who will come next?” Zelensky said in a video address late on Friday. Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s central military district, was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying full control over southern Ukraine would give it access to Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/ukraine-will-be-victorious-in-war-against-russia-says-pm/ar-AAWvkhq?ocid=EMMX&cvid=113570b7d52f49dd898a35271619f18e

Satellite images released Thursday showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, and local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 Ukrainian civilians there in an effort to conceal the slaughter taking place in the siege of the port city. The images emerged hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol, despite the presence of an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters who were still holed up at a giant steel mill. Putin ordered his troops not to storm the stronghold but to seal it off “so that not even a fly comes through.” Satellite image provider Maxar Technologies released the photos, which it said showed more than 200 mass graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting. The imagery showed long rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused the Russians of “hiding their military crimes” by taking the bodies of civilians from the city and burying them in Manhush. The graves could hold as many as 9,000 dead, the Mariupol City Council said Thursday in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Boychenko labeled Russian actions in the city as “the new Babi Yar,” a reference to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941. “The bodies of the dead were being brought by the truckload and actually simply being dumped in mounds,” an aide to Boychenko, Piotr Andryushchenko, said on Telegram. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin. When mass graves and hundreds of dead civilians were discovered in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv after Russian troops retreated, Russian officials denied that their soldiers had killed any civilians there and accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities. In a statement, Maxar said a review of previous images indicates that the graves in Manhush were dug in late March and expanded over the past couple of weeks. After nearly two lethal months of bombardment that largely reduced Mariupol to a smoking ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port. But a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Moscow’s estimate, have stubbornly held out for weeks at the steel plant, despite a pummeling from Russian forces and repeated demands for their surrender. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped there, according to Ukrainian officials. Instead of sending troops to finish off the defenders in a potentially bloody frontal assault, Russia apparently intends to maintain the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food or ammunition. Boychenko rejected any notion that Mariupol had fallen into Russian hands. “The city was, is and remains Ukrainian,” he declared. “Today our brave warriors, our heroes, are defending our city.” The capture of Mariupol would represent the Kremlin’s biggest victory yet of the war in Ukraine. It would help Moscow secure more of the coastline, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and free up more forces to join the larger and potentially more consequential battle now underway for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas. Putin expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops in deciding against sending them in to clear out the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, where the die-hard defenders were hiding in a maze of underground passageways. At a joint appearance with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin declared, “The completion of combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success,” and he offered congratulations to Shoigu. Shoigu predicted the steel plant could be taken in three to four days, but Putin said that would be “pointless.” “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” the Russian leader said. “Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly comes through.” The plant covers 11 square kilometres (4 square miles) and is threaded with some 24 kilometres (15 miles) of tunnels and bunkers. “The Russian agenda now is not to capture these really difficult places where the Ukrainians can hold out in the urban centres, but to try and capture territory and also to encircle the Ukrainian forces and declare a huge victory,” retired British Rear Adm. Chris Parry said. Russian officials for weeks have said capturing the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas is the war’s main objective. Moscow’s forces opened the new phase of the fighting this week along a 300-mile (480-kilometre) front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Azov Sea. While Russia continued heavy air and artillery attacks in those areas, it did not appear to gain any significant ground over the past few days, according to military analysts, who said Moscow’s forces were still ramping up the offensive. A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said the Ukrainians were hindering the Russian effort to push south from Izyum. Rockets struck a neighbourhood of Kharkiv on Thursday, and at least two civilians were burned to death in their car. A school and a residential building were also hit, and firefighters tried to put out a blaze and search for anyone trapped. Elsewhere, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Russian troops kidnapped a local official heading up a humanitarian convoy in the southern Kherson region. She said the Russians offered to free him in exchange for Russian prisoners of war, but she characterized that as unacceptable. Vereshchuk also said efforts to establish three humanitarian corridors in the Kherson region failed Thursday because Russian troops did not hold their fire. Western nations, meanwhile, rushed to pour heavy weapons into Ukraine to help it counter the offensive in the east. US President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance, including heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones. But he also warned that the $13.6 billion approved last month by Congress for military and humanitarian aid is “almost exhausted” and more will be needed. All told, more than 100,000 people were believed trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, which had a prewar po[CENSORED]tion of about 430,000. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the siege, according to Ukrainian authorities. The city has seized worldwide attention as the scene of some of the worst suffering of the war, including deadly airstrikes on a maternity hospital and a theatre. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of launching attacks to block civilian evacuations from the city. On Thursday, at least two Russian attacks hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, a way station for people fleeing Mariupol. No one was wounded, the regional governor said. Britain’s Defence Ministry said that Russia probably wants to demonstrate significant successes ahead of Victory Day on May 9, the proudest day on the Russian calendar, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. “This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date,” the ministry said. In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukrainians living in areas of southern Ukraine under Russian control not to provide Russians with their IDs, which he said could be used “to falsify a so-called referendum on our land” to create a Moscow-friendly government. “This is a real possibility,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation. “Beware.” https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/russia-ukraine-crisis-satellite-photos-show-possible-mass-graves-near-mariupol/ar-AAWtdks?ocid=EMMX&cvid=34a817e37d1f4c318de4a488764eed9a

Google has developed a new feature that allows you to view the air quality of major cities within the US. This is likely tied to other sustainability and environmental education efforts from the company for Earth Day on April 22. As reported by MSPoweruser, this feature was initially released in India but has since also been rolled out in Victoria, Australia, and various cities across the US, using data from airnow.gov and PurpleAir. “We’re always working on new ways to connect people with helpful information when they come to Google,” a Google spokesperson said. “We continue to explore ways to make authoritative information on a range of sustainability and environmental topics readily accessible and look forward to sharing more in this space soon.” To use this feature you can simply type "Air quality in Washington DC" (or the name of the city you're searching for) into the search engine on your mobile, laptop, or computer, and you'll be presented with a map of the local area, alongside a US Air Quality Index (AQI) which measures air quality from a scale of 0 to 500. This scale is also color-labeled with the usual Green = good and Red = bad, with specific areas on the map showing how the air quality can differ across the entire city. This is especially useful if you're wanting to relocate, but stay within the city area and wish to be mindful of local pollution. We tried a few other major cities such as London and Paris and found that while metrics are provided in a graph, no map appears to clearly display the air quality in various zones of either city. It also isn't clear how many US cities are included within this feature right now, but we certainly hope that it gets rolled out on a more global scale so we can breathe easy in the knowledge that we can...well, breathe easy. Analysis: good, but we need more Google has a good habit of trying to include additional sustainability efforts across many of its hardware and search engine integrations. Being able to measure the air quality directly is a great asset and one that could benefit folks that live outside of the US. Thing is, there are rival search engines that market themselves as an environmentally friendly alternative to Google, so why isn't it doing more to level the playing field? Ecosia comes to mind, with its promise that using its search engine will plant trees, using funds raised through ad revenues when you use the platform. Does Google do something similar? Perhaps, but I certainly can't find any trace of similar practices, and even searching for results on Google itself using the term 'Does Google plant trees' comes up with pages and pages of articles for Ecosia instead. If the tech giant was making such efforts, it would do well to shout about them more. Thankfully there is a middle ground as Ecosia has a chrome extension that works alongside the Google web browser, though we found that our own company administration blocks this from being installed, which is likely to be a similar story across a lot of corporate devices. Still, with Google integrating functions that allow you to check on pollution and air quality, it would be nice to see if the company was taking greater steps to improve the results given its status as one of the largest companies in the world. The environment is all of our responsibility after all, and Google certainly has more power and money to make changes than asthmatic individuals visiting a new city for the first time. https://www.techradar.com/news/googles-earth-day-gift-is-the-grim-realization-of-how-polluted-your-city-is

The gaming PC accessory brand Glorious PC Gaming Race is ditching its controversial meme-inspired name, according to a recent announcement. In a blog post, the company reveals it’ll now go by “Glorious”, while an accompanying rebrand switches out its logo for a simplified silhouette. The Glorious brand was founded back in 2014, and its original name is a spin on the po[CENSORED]r “PC gaming master race” meme. The gag itself originates from an episode of The Escapist’s video review series Zero Punctuation, with journalist Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw using the expression to mock the elitist attitudes of PC gamers. Of course, “master race” is also a reference to Nazi ideology, which inherently added racial overtones to the company’s branding. Glorius says that the brand has “matured” since its “community has expanded to nearly every country in the world, and includes people from all walks of life.” The gaming keyboard and mouse maker also say its refined name is more than just a meme, as it “represents much-needed positivity in the world today.” The Glorious PC Gaming Race Model I will be the last gaming mouse released under the old brand, while new products like the GMMK 2 will feature the new name and logo. The company also confirms that its URL will change in the coming weeks, and existing products will be rebranded over the next “several years”. https://www.pcgamesn.com/glorious-PC-gaming-race-rebrand

Final Fantasy XIV might be soaking up all the adulation these days, but the other FF MMO is still going strong, and the Final Fantasy XI crossover event is about to return once again with the Maiden’s Rhapsody 2022. The seasonal event is coming back in less than a week’s time, so if you’re already sick of the eggs in FFXIV’s major cities, you’re about to have a new holiday to take on. The Maiden’s Rhapsody event returns on Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 1am PDT / 4am EDT / 9am BST. This is an exact repeat of the event that ran in 2015, 2017, and 2020, but if you’ve missed out before, now’s your chance to check it out. If you want to replay the event, you can do so using the seasonal event replay feature. You can start the event (or the replay) by talking to Remumu on the Limsa Lominsa upper decks at X:11.6, Y:11.2. That’ll kick off the ‘A Journey to Remember’ quest, which like many seasonal quests, will have you through an array of special seasonal FATEs. The reward is the event armour you can see above. https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv/maidens-rhapsody-2022

Worshippers were allegedly attacked by a gang armed with bottles and hockey sticks outside the Sri Lankan Muslim Centre in East London as they went inside for iftar. A bin containing paper was set on fire outside the mosque in Pilgrims Way, East Ham. Several people incurred minor injuries in the incident on Tuesday evening, but did not require medical treatment. The Metropolitan Police sent officers to the scene, but no trace of the suspects was found. The force said patrols in the area have been stepped up in light of the alleged attack and is appealing for anyone with information to come forward. No arrests have been made and enquiries continue. “Police are investigating a report of racially aggravated common assault following an incident outside a mosque in East Ham,” the Met Police said in a statement. “Police were called at 21:06hrs on Tuesday, 19 April, to reports that a group of men in Pilgrims Way, armed with bottles and hockey sticks, had attacked members of the mosque. “One suspect is said to have set alight some paper in a bin outside the mosque. “The suspects fled prior to the police’s arrival. Officers searched the area but found no trace of the suspects.” Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons defence select committee, branded the alleged incident "shameful". Has Ahmed, a Conservative candidate in the upcoming local council elections in Redbridge, East London, called the attack appalling. "Appalled by this attack on innocent worshipers who were just leaving prayers in Ramadan," he tweeted. "That could have been any one of our family members. Hope those sick individuals are caught and feel the full force of the law." https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/london-mosque-attack-worshippers-set-upon-by-gang-wielding-sticks-and-bottles/ar-AAWrpFL?ocid=EMMX&cvid=e2fb76941e824ac582927f8e9430dc49

Google is nothing if not helpful: the search giant has built its reputation on making the internet more accessible and easier to navigate. But not all of its innovations are either clever or welcome. Take the latest change to Google Docs, which aims to highlight examples of non-inclusive language through pop-up warnings. You might think this is a good idea, helping to avoid "chairman" or "fireman" and other gendered language – and you'd be right. But Google has taken things a step further than it really needed to, leading to some pretty hilarious results. Inclusive? A viral tweet was the first warning sign that perhaps, just perhaps, this feature was a little overeager to correct common word usages. After all, is "landlord" really an example of of "words that may not be inclusive to all readers"? As Vice has ably demonstrated, Google's latest update to Docs – while undoubtedly well-intentioned – is annoying and broken, jumping in to suggest corrections to some things while blatantly ignoring others. A good idea, poorly executed The idea behind the feature is well-meaning and will likely help in certain cases. The execution, on the other hand, is poor. Vice found that Docs suggested more inclusive language in a range of scenarios, such as for "annoyed" or "Motherboard", but failed to suggest anything when a speech from neo-Nazi Klan leader David Duke was pasted in, containing the N-word. In fact, Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto – a legendary piece of literature – got more edits than Duke's speech, including suggesting "police officers" instead of "policemen". All in all, it's the latest example of an AI-powered feature that seems like a good idea but in practice has more holes than a Swiss cheese. Helping people write in a more inclusive way is a lofty goal, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired and, ultimately, makes the process of writing harder. https://www.techradar.com/news/google-docs-is-having-some-serious-issues-with-its-new-inclusive-language-warnings

AMD FreeSync is a hardware solution to the horrors of screen tearing, and the tech comes baked into some of the best gaming monitors. Software solutions like Vsync can help prevent games from becoming a jittery mess, but FreeSync compatible screens can smooth out stuttering and boost fps without a hitch. Sure, if you’re rocking one of the green team’s best graphics cards, you’ll probably be more likely to jump onto the Nvidia G-Sync bandwagon. However, both companies are starting to cooperate in terms of compatibility, making it easier than ever to mix and match. It used to be the case where buying an AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync monitor locked you into a specific ecosystem, making it incredibly difficult to switch between the two GPU vendors without giving up the benefits – but not anymore! Fortunately, Nvidia is slowly but surely opening up its G-Sync technology, meaning you can pair a FreeSync monitor with an Nvidia graphics card and vice versa. GPU politics and compatibility aside, you might still be asking the question “what is FreeSync?” Well, fear not, as we’re about to walk you through the ins and outs of screen tearing, G-Sync compatibility, and a breakdown of AMD’s FreeSync Premium and Premium Pro tiers. The main question on most people’s mind is whether you can use an AMD graphics card with a G-Sync monitor or an Nvidia graphics card with a FreeSync monitor. The answer is that any graphics card will work with pretty much any display and an image will present itself like it would on any other screen, but if you want to use the variable refresh rate provided by G-Sync or FreeSync on a display to prevent screen tearing, that answer is a little more complicated. WHAT IS FREESYNC? FreeSync, G-Sync, and Vsync (otherwise known as vertical sync) combat screen tearing by synchronising the frame rate with the refresh rate of your monitor. Vsync was the first of the bunch, taking a software-based approach to synchronisation. This allows it to have the widest support as pretty much anyone can use Vsync by heading into a game’s menu and switching it on, but it certainly comes with its own issues. If your frame rate dips below your monitor’s refresh rate with Vsync on, the feature doesn’t adjust, causing screen stuttering instead. FreeSync and G-Sync both use adaptive synchronisation technology built into the monitor itself, using this streamlined communication with the graphics card to scale to whatever frame rate your system is pumping at any given time. Although G-Sync is proprietary and has been mostly locked to Nvidia graphics cards since its 2013 introduction, FreeSync has always been royalty-free, hence the name. WHAT IS FREESYNC PREMIUM? AMD’s FreeSync comes in three tiers, with FreeSync Premium and FreeSync Premium Pro building on the tech’s existing abilities. On top of preventing screen tearing and facilitating low latency, the premium tier features low framerate compensation (LFC) abilities that kick in when frame rates drop below your monitor’s refresh rate. This version of FreeSync also maintains 120hz at 1080p, ultimately leading to a smoother experience. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro works similarly to its premium counterpart but comes with additional HDR capabilities. Previously known as FreeSync 2 HDR, the tier enables LFC, 120Hz, and low latency gameplay while enjoying the benefits of high dynamic range. https://www.pcgamesn.com/what-is-freesync

It’s Thursday in Los Santos, folks, and that means it’s GTA Online weekly update day. Rockstar Games will post the official rundown on its Newswire later in the day, though the update is already live, so people have jumped in to see what’s new. If you’re looking to raise money or grind reputation points, the Cross the Line adversary mode may be the best bet over the next seven days. If you’ve been out of the loop, the PvP mode was added to the online game in the Freemode Events update back in 2015. The way it works is simple; two teams battle to cross the line before the other. When we think about it, the mode sounds like something you might see in Squid Game. If you’re looking for new wheels to stick in your garage, the latest GTA Online Prize Ride challenge will net you the Dinka Jester Classic, which typically costs $790,000 in GTA bucks. You’ll need to win one Street Race Series race for four days in a row to claim this one. Are you feeling lucky? The GTA Online podium vehicle is the Schlagen GT this week. Here are all the discounts: If you’re looking to get up to some hijinks in GTA Online’s offline mode, check out our GTA 5 mods and GTA 5 cheats guides. https://www.pcgamesn.com/grand-theft-auto-v/weekly-update-cross-the-line

At least six people, including a number of children have been killed in a terrorist attack at a boys school in Kabul on Tuesday, Taliban police said. There are fears the death toll could rise further. The Afghan Journalists Association said a local TV journalist had been detained attempting to report from the area. The school is in the Dasht e Barchi area in the west of the city, a Hazara majority area. The Hazara are a Shiite minority group in Afghanistan that has often been attacked by ISIS, Al Qaeda and other extremist groups. A local hospital said at least six people had been killed. The school targeted was reportedly the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School. "Three blasts have taken place ... in a high school, there are some casualties to our Shia people," said Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for Taliban forces in Kabul. In May last year, at least 85 people, mostly children, were killed in a bombing at the Sayed Al Shuhada school in the same area. ISIS-linked groups in the country have killed hundreds of Afghans from different communities in recent years, but have singled out the Shiite Hazara minority, killing dozens in attacks targeting mosques and schools. Kabul was rocked by sectarian violence in the early 1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989, who were ousted from the country after an almost decade-long war in support of an allied Communist government. Warlords battled for control of towns and cities and in west Kabul, Hazara and ethnic Pashtun militias fought street battles and frequently attacked civilians. But despite high-profile attacks that appear to have a sectarian motive, such as the school bombing last May, similar inter-communal violence has not yet erupted in the capital and the Taliban has pledged to protect the Shiite minority, claiming their forces are capable of stemming a wave of ISIS activity in the country. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/kabul school attack in afghanistan kills at least six including children/ar-AAWm6st?ocid=EMMX&cvid=e6304809b5694962a24fcd67026491ac

Security researchers have found a fake Windows 11 upgrade website that promises to offer a free Windows 11 install for PCs that don’t meet the minimum specifications, but actually installs data-stealing malware. Windows 11 has some… interesting… requirements to run, and its most famous demand is for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 support. This has led to perfectly capable, and powerful, PCs and laptops being unable to upgrade to Windows 11, as they did not meet the minimum specifications. Understandably, this annoyed people with relatively new hardware that couldn’t upgrade to the latest version of Windows, and many looked at ways of circumnavigating the TPM 2.0 requirement to install Windows 11 on their unsupported devices. It’s these people that this new threat is targeting, as Bleeping Computer reports. Looking legitimate While the website’s address (URL) should be a red flag (we won't mention it here), as it’s clearly not a Microsoft website, the actual website itself does look like it’s an official Microsoft website, using logos and artwork that makes it difficult to tell it apart from a real Microsoft page. However, as security researchers CloudSEK discovered by clicking the ‘Download now’ button, the website downloads an ISO file that contains malware. This malware, called ‘Inno Stealer’, uses a part of the Windows installer to create temporary files on an infected PC. These create processes that run and place four additional files on your PC, some of which contain scripts that disable various security features, including in the Windows registry. They also tweak the built-in Windows Defender anti-virus, and remove other security products from Emisoft and ESET. Other files then run commands at the highest system privileges, while yet another file is created in the C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Windows11InstallationAssistant folder, and it’s this file that contains the data-stealing code, named Windows11InstallationAssistant.scr. This then takes information from web browsers, as well as cryptocurrency wallets, stored passwords and files from the PC itself. This stolen data is then sent to the malicious users who created the malware. Pretty nasty stuff. Analysis: Be careful what you wish for The scale of the infection here, and what it’s able to steal from you, is very scary, but the good news is that it’s easy to avoid. No matter how desperate you are to install Windows 11, you should only download ISO files from sources you are absolutely certain are legitimate. While the makers of this malware have put in a lot of work to make the website look legitimate (like many so-called ‘phishing’ attacks), there are some tell-tale signs, such as the aforementioned URL, which highlights that this is not a genuine Microsoft website. If your PC is eligible for a Windows 11 upgrade, you’ll be alerted via Windows Update, a tool that’s built into Windows operating systems. This is the safest way to ensure you are downloading and installing a genuine copy of Windows 11. If your PC isn’t eligible, due to not meeting the TPM 2.0 requirements, then there are some safer ways to install Windows 11 without TPM anyway. But we don’t really recommend any of them, especially as Microsoft is making it harder to run Windows 11 on unsupported systems, which could mean you miss out on important updates, security fixes and features in the future. Above all, however, you should never attempt to download and install a Windows 11 ISO file from any website that isn’t run by Microsoft itself. https://www.techradar.com/news/warning-this-fake-windows-11-upgrade-is-filled-with-malware

A new Magic: The Gathering Streets of New Capenna deck reveal today shows off all the cards players can expect in the Cabaretti Cacophony Commander deck, which is due for a release this month in one of the best card games on PC. Streets of New Capenna is the big new event launching this month, and we’ve got the details on all the cards in the Magic: The Gathering Cabaretti Cacophony deck. There are around 17 new cards in the set, including two premiums, and a lot of reprints too. The aim of this particular deck seems to be to amass many token creatures, pump them up, then go for all-out attacks with spells to reinforce your board or protect your creatures while attacking. The primary commander card is Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva, who ‘encourages’ your opponents into attacking each other by improving a creature’s stats. Giving your opponent’s creatures trample as well ensures it’s an offer they can’t refuse. The other premium is Phabine, Boss’s Confidant, a literal cat lady who gives 1/1 creature tokens or pumps creatures by +1/+1 until the end of a turn – and also gives them all haste. Two very different cards there, it seems. For the reprints, there are heaps of cards that focus on token generation and politics. You aim to convince your opponents that you’re not worth dealing with just yet. Cards like Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs also protect you from incoming attacks by generating ogres unless your opponent pays a mana cost per attacking creature. The deck doesn’t have many ways to defend itself outside of having sheer numbers, but it does have choice removal cards like Path to Exile. You’ve also got a way of dealing with the pesky Rhystic Study card drawing tricks with Zurzoth, Chaos Rider. The deck also has decent mana generation, especially from the Cultivate or Sakura-Tribe Elder cards. As for the rest of the Cabaretti Cacophony deck, here are a few highlights: Crash the Party creates a 4/4 rhino for every creature you control, possibly for a big play after an all-out attack. Grand Crescendo creates indestructible citizen creatures and is good for when you’re attacking with many creatures at once. Killer Service allows you to create more 4/4 rhino tokens once per turn by sacrificing another token. Life of the Party is an elemental creature that gets bigger as you amass more tokens. If Life of the Party is also used, opponents get copies of that card’s creature to attack everyone but you. It sounds mad, but quite fragile. Here’s the list of reprint cards in full: Call the Coppercoats Duelist’s Heritage Felidar Retreat Fell the Mighty Martial Cou Agitator Ant Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs Magus of the Wheel Outpost Siege Zurzoth, Chaos Rider Arasta of the Endless Web Awakening Zone Beastmaster Ascension Champion of Lambholt Sandwurm Convergence Scute Swarm Shamanic Revelation Sylvan Offering Thunderfoot Baloth Artifact Mutation Assemble the Legion Aura Mutation Camaraderie Gahiji, Honored One March of the Multitudes Selvala, Explorer Returned Idol of Oblivion Canopy Vista Castle Ardenvale Castle Embereth Cinder Glade Exotic Orchard Fortified Village Game Trail Mossfire Valley Rugged Prairie Sungrass Prairie Temple of Triumph Windbrisk Heights Rumor Gatherer – Main Set Soloist – Main Set Cabaretti Charm – Main Set Cabaretti Courtyard – Main Set Intangible Virtue Orzhov Advokist Path to Exile Beast Within Cultivate Harmonize Leafkin Druid Sakura-Tribe Elder Wood Elves Boros Charm Arcane Signet Bloodthirsty Blade Commander’s Sphere Fellwar Stone Sol Ring Ash Barrens Command Tower Shrine Myriad Landscape Naya Panorama Path of Ancestry Thriving Bluff Thriving Grove Thriving Heath Land Cards – 4x Mountains, 8x Forests, 4x Plains You can find all the details on another Streets of New Capenna Commander deck, Maestros Massacre, over at Wargamer. Magic: The Gathering Streets of New Capenna launches on April 29. https://www.pcgamesn.com/magic-the-gathering-arena/cabaretti-cacophony-deck

The hotly anticipated RTX 4000 release date may be just over the horizon, but it appears that new AMD Radeon GPUs could spoil Nvidia’s launch plans. Emerging rumours suggest that both companies next-generation graphics cards could launch in the same month, which hasn’t happened since the release of the GeForce 200 and Radeon HD 4000 series, almost 13 years ago. Ever-reliable hardware leaker Greymon55 reveals that “the next generation of new products are basically concentrated in September,” which includes the RTX 4000 release date as well as new AMD Radeon GPUs built with the RDNA 3 microarchitecture. Curiously, however, it seems that the graphics card manufacturers will adopt very different release strategies for their components. Greymon55 comments that the RTX 4000 series may follow a “similar release order to that of Ampere”, meaning that we should expect RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs to be available first, with the RTX 4070 following a month or so later. Contrastingly, the leaker also says AMD is poised to launch its Navi 33 graphics cards first, which will likely appear in its mid-range RX 7600. These differences in approach ultimately mean that there will be a range of options for those looking to buy the best graphics card available, as well as those looking for a more value oriented pixel pusher. Either way, both companies will flesh out the RTX 4000 and RX 7000 line-ups after their initial release date, so Nvidia’s time at the top may be short-lived. While AMD may concede a short-term victory to Nvidia later this year, the company faces an equally tough battle between Intel for the title of the best gaming CPU. While team red hopes 3D V-Cache technology can carry its Zen 4 CPUs to victory, Intel’s refined LGA 1700 Raptor Lake CPUs could see the tides shift in team blue’s favour. https://www.pcgamesn.com/nvidia/rtx-4000-release-date-amd-radeon-gatecrash

Ukrainian authorities condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the northeast and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting. After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv. Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians,” he said late on Sunday. Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks. It calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverised port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday, despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn. “The city still has not fallen,” he told ABC’s “This Week” programme, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the southeastern city. On Saturday, Russia said it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov. Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbas region, would be a strategic prize for Russia, connecting territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014. On the streets of Mariupol, small groups of bodies were lined up under colourful blankets, surrounded by destroyed trees and scorched buildings. Residents, some pushing bicycles, picked their way around destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles while Russian soldiers checked the documents of motorists. Among them was Irina, who was evacuating with a niece wounded in the shelling. “I have a daughter in DNR,” she said, referring to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. “Maybe we will try to move there for the time being. “I hope they will re-build (Mariupol). The most important thing is utility systems. Summer will pass fast and in winter it will be hard.” About four million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the crisis on February 24. The economic damage is significant. Shmyhal said Ukraine’s budget deficit was about $5 billion a month and urged Western governments for more financial aid. On Twitter, Zelenskiy said he had discussed ensuring Ukraine’s financial stability and preparations for post-war reconstruction with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, quoting her as having said support was essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding. Ukraine pressed on with efforts to swiftly join the European Union, as officials completed a questionnaire that is a starting point for the EU to decide on its membership. On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis implicitly criticised Russia, pleading for an end to the bloodshed and lamenting the “Easter of war” in a speech in St. Peter’s Square after Mass. “May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” he said. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/russia-ukraine-crisis-zelensky-condemns-shelling-as-bodies-line-streets-of-mariupol/ar-AAWjOUz?ocid=EMMX&cvid=76f019e592234292bc0bc35048405f5d

Windows 11 users are reporting some installation failures when trying to update the OS, with an uninformative error not throwing much light on the cause of the apparent problem – although it’s an issue that Microsoft is ‘closely monitoring’. Windows Latest reports that an error code 0xc1900101 is being produced for some folks when trying to update, and the operating system then rolls back to the previous build with no further details on the cause of the issue being provided. This is apparently happening mostly with preview builds of Windows 11, and other error codes have been witnessed as well, Windows Latest notes, but the aforementioned one is the most commonly seen and reported on Microsoft’s Feedback Hub. One user posted to the Hub: “All my physical machines updated ok, but on a virtual machine running either Hyper-V, VMWare, or VirtualBox, it almost gets to the end of the update, and then rolls back. Worse, on VMWare and VirtualBox, the virtual machine software crashes at the end of the update.” Another observed: “Mine has the same problem. The first time I update the pc to the latest build it showed an error about my graphics driver so it rolled back. I was suspecting that the windows update corrupted my graphic driver as after rolling back my graphics card was not working, it just works after I reinstall driver. I reinstall the update later and it was a success.” Microsoft has confirmed that it knows about the error which it describes as a ‘generic’ failure and an area that the company is watching closely. Microsoft advised one affected user: “Thanks for taking the time to report this – error code 0xc1900101 is a generic error displayed when an update fails and rolls back for some reason. This is an area we monitor closely and can have different root causes depending on which build you were attempting to upgrade to and your setup.” No firm advice was given, then, as to how someone might get around this gremlin in the works, but Microsoft does say that users should try updating to the very latest preview build (if they were attempting to upgrade to a previous version, of course). Analysis: Some possible workarounds, but the waiting game might be best There are various theories about the cause of this – and similar – update failure errors, including suggestions of app compatibility or driver issues (as we saw above), or even low disk space. But as Microsoft mentions, this is a ‘generic’ error and one which could have a number of different causes. If you encounter this problem, aside from making sure you are attempting to install the very latest build, there are a few things you can try. It certainly won’t hurt to ensure that you aren’t running low on drive space, and maybe run a disk clean (it’s a good idea to do this periodically anyway). Also, we’ve seen another user report that disabling their antivirus resolved the installation failure of a recent preview build, and there are some further suggestions of potential action to take in this thread from the Microsoft Tech Community. What’s also worth noting here is that this error has been a problem in the past, for example with Windows 11 preview build 22504 (back in November 2021). At the time, Microsoft’s advice was that users “may want to pause updates until we release a fix”, although in the past Microsoft has also said that those encountering this error code with Windows 10 should try to install the update again after a clean boot (find instructions here – and interestingly as observed above, another potential mitigation mentioned is to disable your antivirus temporarily). In short, while you may get some joy from the potential solutions floated in the links above, your best bet might be to simply wait for the issue to resolve itself, providing you don’t have an urgent need to get the update in question up and running. https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-updates-are-failing-to-install-with-this-weird-error

AMD Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' Engineering Sample With 8 of The Latest Zen 4 Cores Possibly Spotted Earlier this year, the same MilkyWay@home repository listed two unknown CPUs which Benchleaks was able to identify as AMD Raphael ES CPUs The leaked parts include a 16 core and an 8 core part. Now, a brand new chip has been leaked with the model ID being '100-000000514-03_N'. This is also another 8 core parts. NVIDIA GeForce & AMD Radeon Graphics Cards Prices Now Less Than 20% Over MSRP, Good For Gamers But Uncertainty Looms The Crypto Segment According to Benchleaks again, this looks to be Raphael or AMD's Ryzen 7000 CPU with its proper production model ID (the previous one was 96). The leaker also states that this could very well be the B1 stepping of Raphael and why this has appeared just now might have to do with the fact that the Zen 4 CPUs were expected to hit mass production this month. The CPU is part of the Authentic AMD Family 25 Model 97 Stepping 1 / A60F11. Also, just like the previous leaks, this brand new AMD Ryzen 7000 ES CPU also rocks 1024 KB cache which is twice the amount listed for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (512 KB), listed in the same database. This is the L2 cache per core and it looks like AMD has doubled that for their upcoming Zen 4 chips. A recent Zen 4 die layout did point out to 1 MB L2 cache shared between the 'Priority' & 'backup' cores. More on that here. AMD Ryzen 'Zen 4' Desktop CPU Expected Features:\ Brand New Zen 4 CPU Cores (IPC / Architectural Improvements) Brand New TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD Support on AM5 Platform With LGA1718 Socket Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support 28 PCIe Lanes (CPU Exclusive) 105-120W TDPs (Upper Bound Range ~170W) According to the latest rumors, AMD is expected to unveil its Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs and the X670 platform at Computex by the end of May but the official launch is planned for early Q3 '22. https://wccftech.com/possible-amd-ryzen-7000-zen-4-rapahel-engineering-sample-cpu-8-cores-spotted/

The Genshin Impact Ayaka banner release time is set for this week, just after the Easter weekend, and – as promised by Mihoyo – it is a rerun for the po[CENSORED]r five-star Cryo character as part of phase II of update 2.6 for the anime game. As was recently confirmed, the next Genshin Impact banner will launch this Tuesday, April 19, and is a rerun of ‘The Heron’s Court’ – the banner from last year that introduced Kamisato Ayaka as a playable character in Mihoyo’s RPG game. Zephyr of the Violet Garden also increases the drop rates for four-star characters Razor, Rosaria, and Sayu. As for weapons, the banner includes the five-star Mistsplitter Reforged sword and The Unforged claymore, along with the four-star Favonius sword, The Bell claymore, Favonius Lance polearm, Favonius Codex catalyst, and Favonius Warbow. That’s all of the Favonius weapons, right there. As for quests, the banner will feature the Vibro-Crystal Research, Marvelous Merchandise, and Ley Line Overflow events, which players can take part in to get Primogems, Mora, materials, and ore. GENSHIN IMPACT AYAKA BANNER RELEASE TIME The Genshin Impact 2.6 Ayaka banner rerun release time for this week is Tuesday, April 19, at 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT / 11pm BST – and this will run until May 10 at 2:59pm EDT / 11:59am PDT / 7:59pm. PCGamesN’s extensive guide has all the further gameplay details of the Hues of the Violet Garden event, which is happening concurrent to this banner. https://www.pcgamesn.com/genshin-impact/ayaka-banner-release-time-rerun

Ukraine and Russia have failed to agree on Sunday about humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas, Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday. “We have not been able to agree ... about ceasefires on evacuation routes. That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,” she said on her Telegram account. Vereshchuk also said that the Ukrainian authorities have asked for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops from the besieged port of Mariupol. “Once again, we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians, especially women and children, from Mariupol,” she wrote. Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas area to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions, Donetsk and Lugansk. They have also recently accused Russian forces of targeting evacuation infrastructure, including buses and a train station in Kramatorsk where more than 50 people were reported killed in Russian strikes. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that if Russian forces kill Kyiv’s troops remaining to defend the city, then a fledgling negotiation process to end nearly two months of fighting would be ended. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/world/ukraine-russia-fail-to-agree-on-evacuation-convoys-deputy-pm/ar-AAWivHD?ocid=EMMX&cvid=aad3557246e1476e8489201f3f8404ee

WhatsApp has pushed out numerous tweaks and improvements in recent months, and there's a new one to know about: the Communities feature that works in a similar way to public servers on Discord or Slack, which can then be split up into smaller groups as needed. As per the official blog post announcing the news, Communities will "enable people to bring together separate groups under one umbrella to better organize conversations". The update is being rolled out now and will take a few weeks to reach everyone. The idea is that the feature will make it easier for non-profit organizations, local clubs, schools and other groups to communicate within their groups – these communities might be used by school heads to share important announcements and updates, for example. Even more new features WhatsApp is introducing a bunch of other new features for group chats too, whether or not they're part of Communities: voice calls for up to 32 users, upgraded file sharing capacities (up to 2GB), and the ability for admins to delete messages that aren't appropriate for the group. We're also going to get emoji reactions to messages – the same reactions you've probably become used to in every other chat platform out there, including Discord, Slack, and indeed Facebook Messenger. It sounds as though at least some of these features will be released to beta users first before everyone gets access to them, so don't panic if you can't see them straight away. For more details on what's involved, see the official blog post. Analysis: Meta wants all of your chats, all of the time Meta chief Mark Zuckberg is no stranger to ripping off the best features of other apps – or indeed apps in their entirety. Take the stories feature of Snapchat, for example: once Zuckerberg realized how po[CENSORED]r the format was, it was rushed into Instagram and Facebook as quickly as possible. Instagram and Facebook have since tried their best to copy TikTok and piggyback on its success, though these efforts aren't getting much traction for the time being. Don't forget both Instagram and WhatsApp were bought and swallowed up by Facebook as they were starting to take away its market share, whereas Snapchat famously rebuffed Facebook's advances. With that in mind, WhatsApp's introduction of features familiar from Discord and Slack shouldn't really come as any surprise. Zuckerberg himself says Communities is "an important evolution for WhatsApp and online communication overall", spoken like someone who has used these other products that WhatsApp is competing with and seen how intuitive they can be. As Slack has been with us for eight years at this point, WhatsApp is actually quite slow off the mark, but the intention is clear – to make sure you spend as little time as possible in apps that aren't made by Meta. As with every other tech giant out there, Meta is keen to lock you into its products as tightly as possible. https://www.techradar.com/news/communities-makes-whatsapp-more-like-discord-or-slack

A new contender for the best VR headset crown by TikTok’s sister company is heading to Europe, and it could take the Oculus Quest 2 head-on. Announced at the virtual reality showcase Laval Virtual 2022, The Pico Neo 3 will release in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the UK, following its release in Asia last year. The Oculus Quest 2 rival will release as the Pico Neo 3 Link across Europe, arriving with a price tag of £399/€449 (roughly $521 USD). While the Neo 3 Link is set to cost a chunk more than Meta’s VR current-gen headset, it packs a 3664×1920 screen that could give even the rumoured Oculus Quest 2 Pro a run for its money. The company behind the Pico Neo 3, Pico Interactive, was acquired by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in 2021. However, the company has released various VR headsets over the years, with the original Pico Neo making its debut back in 2016 (via UploadVR). In other words, the company has walked a similar path to Meta, as the social media giant used Oculus as a ticket to the realm of VR. There’s no word on whether the Pico Neo 3 will launch in the US, but its presence in Europe could help shake up the VR scene. The Oculus Quest 2 is still top on Steam, but data for March suggests users are flocking to alternatives like the Valve Index. Pico Neo 3 Link Oculus Quest 2 CPU Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 RAM 6GB 6GB Resolution 3664 x 1920 1832 x 1920 Refresh rate 90Hz 120Hz Storage 256GB Up to 256GB Meta’s vice grip on the market could tighten with the release of next-gen headsets like the Oculus Quest 3 and Project Cambria. Yet, if it decides not to unveil its refreshed Oculus Quest 2 Pro device at its upcoming Meta Showcase, devices like the Pico Neo 3 Link may munch away at its large slice of VR market pie. https://www.pcgamesn.com/oculus/quest-2-pico-neo-3-vr-headset-tiktok

Superhero fans of Epic’s battle royale game will be able to get two new Fortnite Marvel skins for free, along with a few extra items, as part of the new five-part Zero War comic tie-in event that kicks off in June – and some of these will be exclusive to these comics. Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2 is running now and it’s already gone heavy on the Marvel collaboration, with two skins in the battle pass and probably more to come later. That’s not going to stop in Season 3 either, which is set to start in June and sees the launch of a new Fortnite Marvel comic book event called Zero War. Marvel has now confirmed that all five issues of the tie-in will come with codes to unlock rewards within Fortnite – including two brand new skins. While most of these will also be available in the in-game store, Marvel notes that “select in-game items” are only available by buying the comic – although it seems Marvel Unlimited digital subscribers can claim the codes too. Here’s everything you can get along with each issue of the comic: Comic 1: Marvel skin #1 Comic 2: Weapon wrap Comic 3: Pickaxe Comic 4: Spray emote Comic 5: Loading screen Redeem all five codes and it’ll unlock Marvel skin #2 As for what the skins might be, one of them is almost certainly Shuri from Black Panther, but the second is a mystery. It won’t necessarily be a completely new character, though. One of the revealed comic covers shows both Thor and Storm from the X-Men in different outfits to their normal Fortnite skins, so it could be either of them. https://www.pcgamesn.com/fortnite/marvel-skins-free-zero-war-comic

Eleven people including nine schoolteachers died in a head-on road crash south of Baghdad as they returned from a Ramadan meal, Iraqi authorities said Saturday, blaming speed. The accident happened in Babylon province around midnight as the group was returning in a minibus from the Shiite holy city of Karbala, a police source said. Their vehicle collided with a 4x4 travelling in the opposite direction “due to high speed and the driver of the second vehicle’s lack of attention”, a statement from road traffic authorities said, adding two people were injured. The police source said the vehicles caught fire. Conflict, neglect and endemic corruption have left oil-rich Iraq’s infrastructure, including roads and bridges, in disrepair. Many roads are full of potholes and are plunged into total darkness at night. “The number of traffic accidents doesn’t stop rising. It’s as if we were at war,” said senior road traffic official Tarek Ismail late last month, quoted by state news agency INA. He blamed a “lack of respect for speed limits”, the use of mobile phones and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Last year, almost 1,000 people died in road accidents in Iraq, a country of around 41 million people, according to a traffic authority official. https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/middleeast/iraq-9-school-teachers-among-11-dead-in-minibus-crash/ar-AAWgWc6?ocid=EMMX&cvid=e5e8e0279fa0417cb010e46f2d1d0ed5

April 14 was the day that I became a married man. And during the two years spent arranging it, there were a few apps on iOS 15 that we constantly used to make sure everything was paid for, and perfectly scheduled to play its part on the day. Planning a wedding involves tasks that you would never expect to have to sort out – from agreeing on the music that would play while you sign the marriage certificate, to checking if the right tree logs for the table have been picked up by the best man. If we didn't have our iPhones and apps at hand, we may have had to hire a wedding planner to avoid the multiple moments of stress we would have inevitably had. But thankfully, there were five apps that helped us manage big chunks of the wedding that I was not expecting when I proposed back in 2020. Notes Apple's Notes app is one I've relied on since the first version of iOS. It's simple, useful, and has always helped remind me of what's needed to be done for certain tasks. For the wedding, its usefulness went to another level, thanks in part to the ability to manage notes with someone. Having both of us add and remove checklists across the two years helped a bunch, especially when an update can appear as a push notification. Things 3 While we had been arranging the wedding since 2020, tasks didn't really ramp up until the beginning of this year, which is where a to-do app came in. Having tried other apps in this category, such as OmniFocus, Things 3 won out thanks to the quick actions of its Today screen. I could add and remove sudden jobs, and they'd also display in a helpful widget on my iPhone. It's not just available on your iPhone for $9.99 / £9.99 / AU$11.99, it's also available on the iPad for $19.99 / £19.99 / AU$24.99, and on the Mac priced at $49.99 / £29.99 / AU$59.99. Being reminded to pay for a photo booth or to decide on types of flowers in Things was a big help. In fact, it was so helpful I've expanded it to other aspects of my life, including my job at TechRadar, and hobbies like, embarrassingly, weekly Fortnite challenges. Shazam Spotify and Apple Music are two apps I've constantly used for the last decade. I still pay for iTunes Match, which is a yearly service that allows me to host all the music content that I owned on my iPod. For the wedding itself, we found Spotify useful in arranging the entire playlist from start to finish, mainly due to the ability to have collaborative playlists. This allowed us to add and remove songs in a playlist as we pleased, with our initials letting each of us know who added the most embarrassing song of the evening. However, Shazam was most useful in helping us discover artists and tracks that we never would have considered. Going to wedding fayres and shops we heard a lot of music and by using Shazam to discover what the titles were, we could add them to our Spotify and Apple Music playlists. It's a handy app that can help bolster your music library on whichever music app you use, without being intrusive. A recent update also allows Shazam to be set up as a shortcut in Control Center on iOS 15, which saves you time before the track stops playing. Angry Birds For me, managing a wedding is the equivalent of spinning 50 plates while standing on one leg, and reciting the alphabet backward in Spanish. And that can lead to moments where you just want to escape the planning and the picking, and the paying, and just play a game instead. This is where I decided to revisit some games thanks to Apple Arcade, and I rediscovered Angry Birds. It was an ideal pick for alleviating some of the frustration that occurred with some suits in February. The game's maker, Rovio has also re-released the original game on iOS and Android, which I promptly downloaded. Flicking the irate fowl across four worlds on my iPhone 13 Pro turned out to be a great stress reliever while I was on a train to sort out the suits again or deciding on the right type of chairs for the reception. Monzo Pots Weddings cost money – lots of money. If you want to make sure that the location or items you had your heart set on for years can be part of your special day, you're going to hear the word deposit a lot until the big day arrives. It's also a great lesson in managing your funds, which is where a feature from Monzo came in handy for us. Pots are a way of moving money into sections that can't be used by your debit card. They're essentially saving methods without creating a savings account. You can lock a pot to stop you from withdrawing any money from it, alongside naming it whatever you wish and setting it with a picture. If you want, you can set any transactions to round up the payment to the nearest unit, with the spare change being sent to this pot. It removes a worry about how much you have ready for the wedding or other saving goals, alongside making sure it's safe from temptation. https://www.techradar.com/news/i-got-married-this-week-these-are-the-five-ios-apps-that-helped-lower-our-stress

The Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade has suffered yet another delay, with publisher CD Projekt Red announcing the news via the official Witcher Twitter account. Worse still, CDPR has said that it has taken the decision to postpone the update’s release date “until further notice.” CD Projekt Red states the reason for the postponement of the Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade is due to development responsibilities moving away from Sabre Interactive to its own in-house team. “We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done,” says CDPR, “and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice.” It’s currently unclear why CD Projekt Red has now assumed responsibility for the Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade, but it’s possible that both it and Saber Interactive felt it was the best direction for the project. For now, we’ll just have to take CDPR’s word that it’ll provide an update “as soon as it can” following its evaluation of what’s left to wrap up. First announced back in September 2020, the Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade should introduce several enhancements, including ray tracing and faster loading times. However, you’ll likely need to equip your gaming PC with one of the best graphics cards and a gaming SSD to enjoy these features to the fullest. At the very least, the Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade should hopefully arrive before the newly announced The Witcher 4, which will usher in the beginning of “a new saga.” https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/next-gen-upgrade-delayed-indefinitely

Minecraft is a sandbox game where you can build just about anything you can think of. That means you can play Wordle or Minesweeper in Minecraft if you want to. The possibilities are endless, and that also means players can go way beyond just recreating games we all know and love, and make some really cool original content – including houses full of grisly horrors. One thing that many people might not think of when playing Minecraft is how good it can be as a horror game. While a lot of players like to make the world look pretty and mess about with creating absurd Redstone creations, others like to lean into the unsettling nature of some of the game’s areas. That’s exactly what TheChopper2112 and SSupersette on Reddit have done with this horror map. The two Redditors created the map as part of the Yeggs Spring 2022 Mapjam, where lots of creators put their heads and pickaxes together to develop new maps as part of a competition. This kind of thing is always going to throw up a lot of interesting finds, and you should have a look through if you’re looking for new experiences. You can find the full list of maps in this spreadsheet, but the one you’ll want to try out for the scary experience is Ashen. Ashen plonks you into a haunted house where your goal is to kill a giant creature and try and escape. You do this by trying to collect materials, trying to keep the lights on, and avoiding creatures by being sneaky. What makes the map so much fun to play through is the excellent decoration throughout. While we’re on the subject of horror, did you know that the Minecraft Warden is getting a few buffs at some point in the future? We’re not sure it really needed a boost, but Mojang decided they should mess about with it in the latest snapshot. https://www.pcgamesn.com/minecraft/horror-map-ashen