The nonfungible token (NFT) game Stepn will ban users in mainland China in an attempt to follow Chinese regulatory requirements.
The company’s uncertainty has been fueled by rumors that it will be forced to leave mainland China. STEPN is a popular “move-to-earn” game based on Solana and BNB Chain, created by two Chinese emigrants now living in Australia.
On July 15, Stepn will clear all accounts based in mainland China for local compliance reasons. Before then, the platform advises users who plan to reside in mainland China long-term to sell their assets on the platform if possible.
— STEPN | Public Beta Phase IV (@Stepnofficial) May 26, 2022
The news sent shockwaves throughout the market, with investors dumping assets. When Pandaily launched Stepn in April, the floor price of a “sneaker” on the platform was around 13 SOL, but it has since dropped to just 8 SOL. Also, the price of STEPN’s utility token, GMT, has plummeted by more than 30% in the past 24 hours, with most of it occurring after the announcement.
After the news was announced, Jerry, the firm’s founder, noted that mainland Chinese users make up 5% of the platform’s overall user base, implying that the company’s exit from this market will not have a significant impact on its financial success. According to Stepn’s official Twitter account, daily active users increased to more than 500,000 in May, from 300,000 in April.
Stepn aims to show that it is viable because it earns commissions from other blockchain firms who want to market their goods or tokens to Stepn’s users, who are quickly accessible through the move-to-earn concept, Rong stated last month.
China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency-related activities for years, and the central bank’s statement about foreign cryptocurrency exchanges in September last year prompted large platforms such as Binance and Huobi to leave the country.
Gran Turismo is reportedly being adapted into a movie or TV series by Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions. This project is said to be currently at a very early stage of development, and the plot of the adaptation is currently under wraps. The studios are hoping to rope in director Neill Blomkamp to be at the helm for this project. Blomkamp broke out onto the scene with the 2009 sci-fi action film District 9, before going on to make the Matt Damon-led 2013 dystopian sci-fi Elysium, and the 2015 dystopian sci-fi film Chappie.
Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions recently collaborated on the Uncharted movie adaptation that has grossed over $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,106 crore). Now, Deadline is reporting that the studios hope to repeat this financial success with a feature film based on the Gran Turismo games. However, there have been conflicting reports about the nature of this adaptation. A report by IGN claims that Sony is developing a Gran Turismo TV series instead of a movie. Could it be both?
Whatever the case may be, this franchise seems an unlikely choice as the Gran Turismo games don’t feature any plot. These games are revered for their highly-detailed graphics and precise driving physics. Created by Polyphony and Kazunori Yamauchi in 1997, the Gran Turismo series has reportedly sold over 85 million copies in total. The latest addition to the series, Gran Turismo 7, was released in March for the PS4 and PS5.
There is also a highly-anticipated The Last of Us series coming to HBO, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, respectively. An Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz-starrer Twisted Metal series will soon debut on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service in the US. Furthermore, a movie based on Ghost of Tsushima is being directed by Chad Stahelski, who is renowned for the John Wick franchise.
Reliance Jio is offering three new postpaid monthly recharge plans with the purchase of its JioFi 4G wireless hotspot. The plans are priced at Rs. 249, Rs. 299, and Rs. 349 with different data limits. The base plan comes with 30GB of data, while the Rs. 299 and Rs. 349 recharge plans offer 40GB and 50GB data, respectively. All three plans have one month validity and have a lock-in period of 18 months. Also, these plans do not include any voice or SMS benefits and aim at enterprise or business customers. Customers can avail portable JioFi device free of cost under these plans. It will be issued on a use and return basis.
As per Jio’s website, the new Rs. 249 postpaid recharge plan offers 30GB data with one month validity. The Rs. 299 postpaid recharge plan provides access to 40GB data, while the Rs. 349 plan credits 50GB data, each valid for a month. After reaching the data ceiling limit, the speed will be reduced to 64Kbps.
Customers choosing the Rs. 249, Rs. 299, and Rs. 349 JioFi postpaid recharge plans will also get the JioFi 4G wireless portable hotspot free of cost on use and return basis. As mentioned, these packs lack voice and SMS benefits. A minimum first order quantity of 200 is required to avail JioFi postpaid tariff plans.
The JioFi 4G wireless hotspot supports a SIM (Nano) and is claimed to deliver surfing for up to five to six hours with a speed up to 150Mbps. It is said to connect with up to ten devices at a time. The JioFi 4G hotspot device comes with a micro-USB port and a microSD card for connectivity. It is powered by a 2,300mAh battery. The device measures 85x55x16mm.
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Tottenham and Chelsea have both been dealt a blow in their pursuit of defensive reinforcements as RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol is now ‘expected to stay’ at the German club this summer.
The Croatian centre-back has enjoyed a stunning season for Leipzig, appearing 29 times in the Bundesliga, while the 20-year-old has also managed 6 appearances both in the Champions League and Europa League.
Playing as a left centre-back, he has caught the attention of both Chelsea and Tottenham, both of whom are looking to strengthen in that position this summer. He was named on a four-man shortlist that included Pau Torres and Andrea Bastoni for the Lilywhites, while Chelsea are scrambling for options following their takeover.
However, Gvardiol has previously poured cold water on departure rumours, citing his desire to stay in Germany.
‘I really enjoy every day with this great team at this top-class club. I don’t think about anything else’, the starlet told Bild.
When asked about whether he will be a Leipzig player in 2022/23, he replied ‘Yes, of course!’ before explaining that he ‘really has no plans’ for his future.
And now, it seems as though the message has got through, with the defender ‘expected to stay at RB Leipzig this summer’ according to Nathan Gissing.
The current feeling with Josko Gvardiol is that he is expected to stay at RB Leipzig this summer. The centre-back is happy there and there is no hurry to find a move elsewhere despite interest from various clubs such as Chelsea and Spurs. 🇭🇷 #RBLeipzigpic.twitter.com/IAwjYfQBmh
The latest setback could force Chelsea to pivot for another Tottenham target in Andrea Bastoni while Pau Torres is also an option, though they could yet face competition from Manchester United.
Manchester United are discussing Villarreal’s Pau Torres as one of 3/4 options for the new centre back. No proposal made yet, as it depends on Erik ten Hag decision and Man Utd board changes. 🔴🇪🇸 #MUFC
Alternatively, they could promote youth prospect Levi Colwill, who has excelled at Championship level with Huddersfield Town. Whether they deem it a season too soon, however, remains to be seen.
Community members in Sowripalayam, outside Coimbatore, receive a meal from No Food Waste, a GFN-supported food bank in India. Credit: The Global Food Banking Network/Narayana Swamy Subbaraman
Opinion by Lisa Moon (chicago, usa)
Inter Press Service
CHICAGO, USA, May 27 (IPS) – For months, the specter of a global hunger crisis has been looming. The war in Ukraine is a compounding factor, blocking key value chains for food and fertilizer just as the world reckons with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on global hunger.
Add the pervasive effects of climate change to the mix, and the result is what the United Nations is calling a “perfect storm” that risks one-fifth of the global population – as many as 1.7 billion people – falling into poverty and hunger.
This number feels so large that it is almost inconceivable, never mind possible to accept. And of course, the mounting global food crisis will not affect everyone equally.
Recent feedback from food bank leaders all over the world already echoes the reality ahead. Because food banks, especially across emerging and developing markets, are the first (or sometimes only) port-of-call for those facing hunger, they offer a window into understanding the full extent of the coming food crisis: an early warning system of the strains on our food systems.
Daily wage workers stand in line to receive a meal prepared by No Food Waste, a GFN-supported food bank in India. Credit: No Food Waste
The Global Food Banking Network works with member food banks in 44 countries, and many of them in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are already reporting that higher food prices are contributing to an increase in demand for emergency food assistance.
For example, a partner food bank in Ecuador, Banco de Alimentos Quito, has reported a 50 percent increase in demand for services, while another partner, India Food Banking Network, has warned the number of people requesting food has doubled recently.
If more is not done – and done quickly – these numbers will be just the tip of the iceberg. Tragically, as while demand at many food banks is increasing, supplies donated to food banks are often diminishing.
These food banks in Ecuador and India—and others across the Network—are reporting decreases in product donations of up to 50 percent. Banco de Alimentos Quito and Banco de Alimentos Honduras, both of which regularly recover fresh produce directly from farmers to distribute to people facing hunger, are flagging that planting schedules have been thrown off because farmers cannot get key inputs.
In short, less produce is available to donate because of the rise in need and smaller, less reliable yields.
A volunteer organizes food donations in Banco de Alimentos Quito’s warehouse in Ecuador. Credit: The Global Food Banking Network/Ana María Buitron
With the recent World Economic Forum in Davos and the G7 Summit, there are already calls on governments and business leaders to invest more in hunger relief and food aid. This is a crucial first step, but investment will only be as effective as the implementation mechanisms in place to deliver them.
This is also where food banks can step in effectively and immediately. Because food banks address community food needs even in less precarious times, they are already well positioned to respond to crises by scaling up in times of scarcity and distributing food when conventional supply chains are undermined.
The COVID-19 pandemic is already a case in point, with global food banks serving 40 million people in 2020, a 132 percent increase from the prior year. And because food banks are community-based and community-led, they can understand and adapt to local needs quite quickly, acting as frontline responders when a crisis hits.
Responses to the global hunger crisis must include recognition for the critical role food banks play. They will step up and play a crucial role in meeting the sharp increase in demand for food relief in the coming months.
However, if the global community steps forward and supports the value of these assets further, food banks’ impact can become outsized. And an outsized response is exactly what this coming crisis will require.
One of the many strange things about being an American citizen these days is that there’s a whole lot of killing done in our name that our government deliberately keeps secret. Friends of mine, back from Iraq or Afghanistan, used to respond to people asking the inappropriate question veterans always get, “Did you kill anyone?” with the sharp-elbowed response, “If I did, you paid me to do it — ” a rough reminder of the link between the military and the citizens they represent. But back then, the actions of our military were much more visible. What does it mean to be a citizen of a state that kills for you but doesn’t tell you about it? Are you still responsible?
When I was a public affairs officer in the Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009, back during the era of massive antiwar protests, an activist group taking out a full-page ad in The New York Times to attack the credibility of a U.S. general led to spirited debates about everything from the morality of the war to the wisdom of its strategy. The main efforts of the American military in this period were conducted in the open, and my job entailed courting journalists to embed with our units to see what they were doing.
This relative openness meant the war provoked messy debate, political grandstanding, lies and hypocrisy and ill-informed analysis on cable news, and other byproducts of democracy. It also meant that the George W. Bush administration had to explain and defend its policies, which meant that I knew what we were supposed to be fighting for, what success was meant to look like, and why we were there. It meant political pressure brought to bear on U.S. policymaking to keep it tethered to the will of the American people.
But the nature of war shifted, for political and military reasons. One way of describing the change is to look at the pace of American Special Operations. In the spring of 2004 the Joint Special Operations Command was conducting about six operations a month in Iraq. By the summer of 2006 they were doing 300. This didn’t happen by sending the Navy SEALs to the gym to work on their run time, but by rehauling the whole process of finding targets, fixing them in place, finishing them, exploiting and analyzing the intelligence collected, and then disseminating that intelligence to the agencies and commands able to most rapidly act on it. It was this capability that former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates claimed in 2011 fused “intelligence and operations in a way that just, I think, is unique in anybody’s history.”
When Americans think about the killing we do overseas, we often think about the mechanism. A drone delivering a bomb strikes us as a bit creepy. A member of the Navy SEALs bursting into a bad guy’s compound strikes us as heroic. But the SEALs and the drone are just tools — the flat head and Phillips head screwdriver at the end of the targeting system. And the initial parts of that system can be offered to other countries, like Ukraine, which do the killing themselves. (In a press briefing on May 5, the Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, distanced the United States only slightly from the killing of Russian generals: “We do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield or participate in the targeting decisions of the Ukrainian military,” he said, but he freely admitted we provide Ukraine with relevant intelligence.)
Warning: If you want to know knothing about potential details for Cyberpunk 2077‘s first expansion, turn back now.
It looks as though Cyberpunk 2077 is about to get a whole lot bigger after the game’s 2023 expansion.
According to VGC details of the still-untitled expansion have been leaked online, pointing to inaccessible areas from the main game being opened up for the first time.
The Combat Zone, an area of the Pacifica region which was mentioned in the main game but remains locked, is said to be opened up in the new expansion. The zone was previously featured in the Cyberpunk 2077 art book. Additionally, the Sports Dome will finally be opened – another large, inaccessible area from the main game. It’s said that this area will house one of the new main missions from the expansion.
The leaked files have already circulated on social media, and also reveal some details about the new content of the expansion. The DLC will reportedly follow Songbird – a character previously datamined from the main game.
Although the leak appears to be incomplete, it’s said that the expansion will include several new side missions, as well as seven main missions. According to users who have seen the leaked files, the expansion will also include fixer quests, world stories, and new world encounters.
It’s also noted that there seems to be very little in the way of new dialogue from Johnny Silverhand, prompting speculation that there may have been an issue regarding Keanu Reeves’ availability when producing this expansion. Instead, there are several instances of other characters ‘silencing’ Johnny.
Want to find out more about Cyberpunk 2077? Check out our tips and tricks or some essential help, or our full walkthrough of the main jobs if you’re still getting stuck.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
When Stranger Things premiered on Netflix in July 2016, premiered on Netflix in July 2016, viewers were introduced to a cast made up of largely unknown young actors. Now, almost six years later, it’s almost impossible to still call them kids at all.
Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas, was 14 during the show’s first season, which means he is now 20 years old. They grow up so fast! And we feel very old.
The tales of traders getting scammed out of their nonfungible tokens (NFTs) were quite common at the peak of the NFT boom. However, in an interesting turn of events, the Solana community came together to “scam” a scammer in order to get back some stolen NFTs.
It all started with the Discord channel hack of cross-chain gaming development studio Uncharted NFT, where scammers managed to drain out 109 user wallets. The scammers got away with 150+ SOL tokens and 25 World of Solana (WOS) NFTs, including three rare and highly valuable digital collectibles.
2/ It all began when @UnchainedNFT_ Discord got hacked two days ago.
A hacker drained the wallet of 109 users for a total of 150+ $SOL.
The most affected person was a WOS whale with 25 WOS NFTs that got stolen.
— World Of Solana {WOSup} (@worldofsolana) May 25, 2022
WOS is a collection of 2,222 unique heroines with the most expensive avatar currently listed for 123 SOL ($5,600). The current floor price of the collection is 2.03 SOL.
In the aftermath of the hack, the community decided to get back the stolen NFTs. The WOS team got in touch with their dev partner who goes by the Twitter name “Cyberfrog” and raised royalties on stolen NFTs 98% from the default 5%.
The community was asked to keep an eye on the Solana NFT marketplace MagicEden for any new listings. The scammer fell for the trap within two days, and the community managed to buy back 15 NFTs, while the other 10 were sniped.
Sniping is a process of waiting until the last few seconds of an NFT auction in order to make a winning bid. This strategy is used to prevent other NFT bidders from placing a higher bid before the auction ends.
The community managed to retrieve the other 10 sniped NFTs as well and return the 25 WOS NFTs to the rightful owner.
4/ Two days later, around 2am EST, the hacker listed the 25 WOS NFTs on @MagicEden.@WorldofSolana community managed to buy 15 and a sniper took the other 10.
— World Of Solana {WOSup} (@worldofsolana) May 25, 2022
The Twitter thread detailing the events of the hack and the community work to get it all back also asked community members to “always use a burner wallet and be careful when minting.” The small NFT community has managed to get back at scammers twice now.
Coral reefs hide within them several secrets that are difficult for scientists to record and study. Experts must do rigorous analyses to determine reef health based on sound recordings because coral reefs have a complex soundscape. Now, in a new research, artificial intelligence (AI) can track the health of coral reefs by learning the “song of the reef”. Scientists at University of Exeter used several recordings of healthy and deteriorated reefs to train a computer algorithm, allowing the machine to learn the difference. The computer then analysed a slew of additional recordings and correctly recognised reef health 92 percent of the time. This was used to keep track of the progress of reef restoration projects by the team.
The meaning of many of these calls is unknown, but the new AI system can tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy reefs’ overall sounds. The recordings utilised in the study were made at the Mars Coral Reef Restoration Project in Indonesia, which is working to restore severely damaged reefs.
The findings were published in the journal Ecological Indicators.
Ben Williams, the lead author of the study, said that coral reefs were under threat from a variety of factors, including climate change, and so, it was critical to keep track of their health and the success of conservation efforts.
One important challenge faced by challengers was that visual and audio reef surveys were typically labour-intensive. The fact that many coral organisms hide or are active at night limits visual surveys, and the richness of reef noises makes it difficult to determine reef health using individual recordings.
To solve that difficulty, the researchers used machine learning to see if a computer could pick up on the reef’s melody.
“Our findings show that a computer can pick up patterns that are undetectable to the human ear. It can tell us faster, and more accurately, how the reef is doing,” said Williams.
Dr Tim Lamont of Lancaster University, the co-author, believes the AI method will greatly improve coral reef monitoring. He said that sound recorders and artificial intelligence might be used all across the world to track the health of reefs and see if efforts to protect and restore them are successful.
In many circumstances, it is quicker and less expensive to place an underwater hydrophone on a reef and leave it there rather than have specialist divers inspect the reef on a regular basis, especially in isolated regions, said Dr Lamont.
This week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, we discuss iPhone 13, new iPad and iPad mini, and Apple Watch Series 7 — and what they mean to the Indian market. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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