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Tag Archives: stages
Gungrave G.O.R.E version 1.02 update now available, adds Bunji as playable character across all stages
Publisher Prime Matter [57 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/plaion/prime-matter”>Prime Matter and developer Studio IGGYMOB [50 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/studio-iggymob”>Studio Iggymob have released the version 1.02 update for Gungrave G.O.R.E [30 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/gungrave-gore”>Gungrave G.O.R.E, which adds Bunji as a playable character across all stages, as well as various stability updates and bug fixes.
Get the details below.
With today’s update, the series-favorite character Bunji (The Wolf) is now playable across all stages in Gungrave G.O.R.E, complete with his own set of achievements.
It’s been a bit of a wait for Bunji fans, but Iggymob’s commitment to making Gungrave G.O.R.E the ultimate Gungrave experience continues. Along with the ability to play as Bunji throughout the entire storyline, today’s update also includes a host of stability updates and bug fixes that continue to improve the gameplay of Gungrave G.O.R.E.
Gungrave G.O.R.E is available now for PS5 [4,120 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps5″>PlayStation 5, Xbox Series [3,171 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-series”>Xbox Series, PS4 [24,548 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps4″>PlayStation 4, Xbox One [11,789 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-one”>Xbox One, and PC [16,729 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC via Steam, as well as via Xbox [21,761 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox”>Xbox Game Pass.
Watch a new trailer below.
Version 1.02 Update Trailer
Image of star cluster more than 10bn years ago sheds light on early stages of universe | Space
Scientists have been given an unprecedented glimpse into the birth of stars and the early stages of the universe, after a new image showing a cluster more than 10bn years ago was released by the James Webb space telescope.
The image shows a young cluster of stars, known as NGC 346, which is more than 200,000 light years from Earth.
Scientists have taken a particular interest in the cluster, which is in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), because it resembles the conditions of the early universe when star formation was at its peak.
Astronomers hope that studying the region could give more answers as to how the first stars formed during the “cosmic noon”, only 2 or 3 billion years after the big bang.
Dr Olivia Jones, the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Webb fellow at its UK astronomy technology centre, is lead author on a paper featuring the images.
Jones said: “This is the first time we can detect the full sequence of star formation of both low and high mass stars in another galaxy.
“This means we have far more data to study at high resolution, offering us new information on how the birth of stars shapes their environment and even greater insight into the star formation process.”
The NGC 346 cluster houses protostars, which are clouds of gas and dust in space that are developing into stars. Astronomers study these to try to further understand how stars are formed.
As the gas and dust gathers, it resembles ribbons coming in from the surrounding molecular cloud. The material collects into a disk, which feeds the central protostar.
While astronomers have previously detected gas around protostars within that cluster, JWST’s observations have also detected the dust.
The JWST is the largest optical telescope in space, and can be used to look at objects too old, distant or faint for the Hubble space telescope. It was launched into space on Christmas Day 2021.
In July 2022 the telescope delivered high-resolution images of distant galaxies billions of years ago, and also captured an image of Jupiter showing the giant gas planet’s weather patterns, moons, altitude levels, cloud covers and auroras.
Guido de Marchi, a co-investigator on the research team, who is based at the European Space Agency, said: “We’re seeing the building blocks, not only of stars but also potentially of planets.
“And since the Small Magellanic Cloud has a similar environment to galaxies during cosmic noon, it’s possible that rocky planets could have formed earlier in the universe than we might have thought.”
As COVID stages another winter comeback, many Californians don’t appear to care
The Bay Area was a model of cooperation during the early years of the COVID pandemic, as residents sheltered in place, lined up for vaccines and donned masks in public. Many locals looked on with consternation as health precautions became politicized in other parts of the country.
Yet, even in this conscientious region, vigilance hasn’t lasted. As
another winter COVID surge
grips the region, large numbers of people are
forgoing masks
and
skipping the latest booster
— a vital tool in preventing serious illness as immunity from previous shots or infection wanes.
Since the emergence of vaccines and better COVID treatments — and the lifting of blunt governmental measures such as mask mandates — the public approach to the
coronavirus
has become
more laissez-faire.
Some call this approach the
“figure it out yourself”
era of the pandemic. But individual choices still exact a heavy toll on vulnerable populations, such as older and immunocompromised people, some of whom are retreating again from the public square.
Compounding widespread apathy toward the latest surge is considerable confusion over how to behave at this stage in the crisis. Experts say, in particular, that the rollout of the new bivalent vaccine booster — the first to target both the original coronavirus and the omicron family of variants — has been tepid. Without a strong marketing push and government resources put into distribution, many Americans are unaware of the booster’s benefits, or even its existence.
“The situation is that people are left to decide as individuals,” said Denise Herd, a UC Berkeley behavioral sciences professor in the School of Public Health. “Without a lot of information, without a lot of support for some of these public health measures, we’re going to see what we do now.”
To date, only 20.5% of eligible Californians have received the bivalent vaccine, leaving the majority more vulnerable to severe illness. California’s uptake is higher than the
national average of 14.6%,
but still only a fraction of the 72.5% of people who received the initial two-dose vaccine series. The bivalent vaccine is authorized for Californians
older than 6 months,
depending on
when someone completed their initial two-dose series and when they last received the older “monovalent” booster.
Bay Area counties lead the California average in booster uptake, but the proportion is still relatively low, ranging from 23% to 38% of the eligible population. That may be contributing to the
sharp increase in local COVID cases
in the past month and
rising hospitalizations
that further tax a medical system already straining with outbreaks of flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
“Pandemic fatigue fatigue” and confusion
Some fatigue with the pandemic is “natural, expected and real,” said Marin County public health officer Matt Willis. He noted that the term
has been used since 2020.
Perhaps now, “we’re getting pandemic fatigue fatigue,” Willis said.
After all, the ability to self-regulate “is like a muscle that gets tired,” said Benjamin Rosenberg, a psychology professor at Dominican University of California. “Making that risk calculation every time you go out, it’s exhausting,” he said.
A
recent Chronicle survey
found fewer Bay Area residents wearing masks to go to the supermarket, despite the current COVID resurgence. While not a scientific study, comments offered to reporters — people without masks said they “gave up” and wanted to “move on with life” — underscored the public health challenge of encouraging voluntary compliance.
It’s easier to make healthy decisions when people have clear, credible and accessible information, and for the decision itself to be relatively easy to make, said Stanford medicine Professor Kevin Schulman, who researched marketing campaigns for the initial vaccines in 2021. But in the current pandemic landscape, Schulman said, it’s hard to find those attributes.
“This is no longer a scientific undertaking that all of us are following every week,” Schulman said.
Indeed, added Rosenberg, other “big-ticket items replaced COVID at the top of the list of things people are seeking to read about,” whether inflation, layoffs, Ukraine, abortion rights, the Warriors or the weather. And there’s only so much bad news that’s healthy to absorb: psychologists have actually measured
an increase in news-related stress,
according to the American Psychological Association.
“Some people are quite literally turning away from information about COVID. It’s almost like an ‘ignorance is bliss’ instinct,” Rosenberg said.
The waning attention is lessening cooperation with public health efforts. A September poll found, for instance, that
half of the American public
had heard “little or nothing” about the bivalent vaccine.
But lukewarm messaging and the lack of a mass marketing campaign share the blame, Schulman said. “We’re not putting nearly as much effort into this as we put into getting people to vote for somebody,” he said, referring to political ads during the midterm elections.
Information isn’t reaching the people who need it most, added Debbie Toth, CEO of the Pleasant Hill-based nonprofit Choice in Aging. Older people get their information mostly from radio and television news, and sometimes the local newspaper. “I can tell you that older adults are not going to public health websites to look things up,” she said.
Lack of federal funding, mobilization
The White House
has acknowledged the confusion
to some extent. But it has also blamed Congress for failing to authorize additional funding to support the coronavirus response.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control has delegated much of the pandemic response to state and local public health departments who, in turn, say they’re looking to the CDC for guidance, said Stanford medicine Professor Seema Yasmin, an expert in science communication.
“In the middle of that, you have hundreds of millions of Americans who are like, ‘Who’s in charge of what’s going on, and what should I do?’” Yasmin said.
Resources are “really limited,” with no additional federal funding to do mass vaccination sites or other large campaigns, said San Francisco Health Officer Susan Philip.
Programs such as those that sent teams of people into nursing homes to vaccinate seniors in 2021 have been curtailed or eliminated.
“It’s the people with health insurance, with computers, with transportation options that still can really choose to be vaccinated or not,” said UC Berkeley’s Herd.
Some older and disabled people concerned
The urge to get back to “normal” life
may be stronger
among younger people, but they’re also at lower risk. More than half of confirmed COVID cases in California are among those aged 18 to 49, according to the most recent data from the
state COVID-19 dashboard.
Yet, Californians older than 65 — who are one-sixth of the population — make up nearly three-quarters of confirmed deaths in the state.
Another group at heightened risk of severe illness and hospitalization are people whose immune systems are compromised. As masks come off and precautions melt away, disabled writer, speaker and model Charis Hill, who has the inflammatory disease ankylosing spondylitis, has gone into isolation for self-protection.
“The fatigue of a lot of non-disabled people is that they want to travel again,” Hill said. “My fatigue is I just want autonomy over my own life and daily living activities.”
A return to normal ignores that “normal has never been good for disabled people,” Hill said.
Some jurisdictions are now moving to reinstate limited regulations. Last week, the Oakland City Council
reimposed a mask mandate
inside publicly operated buildings after lobbying from groups such as Senior & Disability Action.
Senior & Disability Action director Jessica Lehman despaired of the mind-set that COVID isn’t serious if mostly older and disabled people are going to the hospital and dying. It reinforces the idea that “seniors and disabled people are less important, less valued in society,” she said.
But most public health officials remain reluctant to enact mask mandates. “We will not be mandating behaviors unless there’s a major change in the virus,” such as a more virulent strain that’s highly infectious, Willis said.
Possible solutions
Short of across-the-board mandates or expensive marketing and incentive campaigns, health experts see ways the general public could be engaged again in helping to slow the virus and protecting themselves.
“You change the environment to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the public health officer for Santa Clara County.
Simple measures can go a long way: offering free masks at the entrance of buildings, or suggesting patients get the bivalent vaccine when they visit their doctor or go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. The key is to grab their attention “at the fleeting moment” they become motivated, said Dominican’s Rosenberg.
It may also involve a rebranding of the vaccine: If part of pandemic fatigue derives from the sense of uncertainty, then “the vaccine itself is actually the remedy because it makes you safer in every way,” said Marin County’s Willis.
Added San Francisco’s Philip, “we need to reinforce the message that … it’s very effective at keeping people out of the hospital.”
Claire Hao is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: claire.hao@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @clairehao_
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Pierces Through Dust Clouds to Unveil Young Stars in Early Stages of Formation
Image of the Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. Credit: Science: Megan Reiter (Rice University), Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)
Webb’s Infrared Capabilities Pierce Through Dust Clouds to Make Rare Find
Searching for buried treasure isn’t easy. It can be a painstaking, even frustrating, process. It is common to sift through the proverbial sand for hours and hours and rarely hit the jackpot. However, with
Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, has long intrigued astronomers as a hotbed for star formation.
Many details of star formation in NGC 3324 remain hidden at visible-light wavelengths. Webb is perfectly primed to tease out these long-sought-after details since it can detect jets and outflows seen only in the infrared at high resolution.
This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the iconic First Image revealed on July 12, 2022, which highlight molecular hydrogen, a vital ingredient for star formation. Insets on the right-hand side highlight three regions of the Cosmic Cliffs with particularly active molecular hydrogen outflows.
In this image, red, green, and blue were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam data at 4.7, 4.44, and 1.87 microns (F470N, F444W, and F187N filters, respectively).
Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Science: Megan Reiter (Rice University), Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)
Webb Space Telescope Unveils Young Stars in Early Stages of Formation
Scientists taking a “deep dive” into one of Webb’s iconic first images have discovered dozens of energetic jets and outflows from young stars previously hidden by dust clouds. The discovery marks the beginning of a new era of investigating how stars like our Sun form, and how the radiation from nearby massive stars might affect the development of planets.
The Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within the star cluster NGC 3324, has long intrigued astronomers as a hotbed for star formation. While well-studied by the
Recently, by analyzing data from a specific wavelength of infrared light (4.7 microns), astronomers discovered two dozen previously unknown outflows from extremely young stars revealed by molecular hydrogen. Webb’s observations uncovered a gallery of objects ranging from small fountains to burbling behemoths that extend light-years from the forming stars. Many of these protostars are poised to become low mass stars, like our Sun.
“What Webb gives us is a snapshot in time to see just how much star formation is going on in what may be a more typical corner of the universe that we haven’t been able to see before,” said astronomer Megan Reiter of Rice University in Houston, Texas, who led the study.
Molecular hydrogen is a vital ingredient for making new stars and an excellent tracer of the early stages of their formation. As young stars gather material from the gas and dust that surround them, most also eject a fraction of that material back out again from their polar regions in jets and outflows. These jets then act like a snowplow, bulldozing into the surrounding environment. Visible in Webb’s observations is the molecular hydrogen getting swept up and excited by these jets.
“Jets like these are signposts for the most exciting part of the star formation process. We only see them during a brief window of time when the protostar is actively accreting,” explained co-author Nathan Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth.
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.
NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Previous observations of jets and outflows looked mostly at nearby regions and more evolved objects that are already detectable in the visual wavelengths seen by Hubble. The unparalleled sensitivity of Webb allows observations of more distant regions, while its infrared optimization probes into the dust-sampling younger stages. Together this provides astronomers with an unprecedented view into environments that resemble the birthplace of our solar system.
“It opens the door for what’s going to be possible in terms of looking at these populations of newborn stars in fairly typical environments of the universe that have been invisible up until the James Webb Space Telescope,” added Reiter. “Now we know where to look next to explore what variables are important for the formation of Sun-like stars.”
This period of very early star formation is especially difficult to capture because, for each individual star, it’s a relatively fleeting event – just a few thousand to 10,000 years amid a multi-million-year process of star formation.
“In the image first released in July (see image above), you see hints of this activity, but these jets are only visible when you embark on that deep dive – dissecting data from each of the different filters and analyzing each area alone,” shared team member Jon Morse of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “It’s like finding buried treasure.”
This image, released for Hubble’s 17th anniversary, shows a region of star birth and death in the Carina Nebula. The nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Credit for CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF
In analyzing the new Webb observations, astronomers are also gaining insights into how active these star-forming regions are, even in a relatively short time span. By comparing the position of previously known outflows in this region caught by Webb, to archival data by Hubble from 16 years ago (see image above), the scientists were able to track the speed and direction in which the jets are moving.
This science was conducted on observations collected as part of Webb’s Early Release Observations Program. The paper was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in December 2022.
Reference: “Deep diving off the ‘Cosmic Cliffs’: previously hidden outflows in NGC 3324 revealed by JWST” by Megan Reiter, Jon A Morse, Nathan Smith, Thomas J Haworth, Michael A Kuhn and Pamela D Klaassen, 4 October 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac2820
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Cameroon scores late winner against Brazil at Qatar 2022 but fails to qualify for knockout stages
CNN
—
Soccer can be harsh sometimes, just ask Cameroon.
The Indomitable Lions became the first team to score against Brazil at Qatar 2022 on Friday, but its famous 1-0 win against the tournament favorite was still not enough to see it through to the knockout stages.
Vincent Aboubakar’s header in stoppage time may have given his nation a memorable victory, but Switzerland’s 3-2 win against Serbia in the other Group G game meant Cameroon could not progress.
The match at the Lusail Stadium had been largely uneventful for 90 minutes with both sides failing to find a breakthrough. Brazil had already booked its place in the next round and rested many of its key players.
Cameroon, meanwhile, knew it needed at least a win against the Brazilians to stand any chance of staying in the competition, but it failed to trouble its opponent until a frantic stoppage time period.
After nine minutes of added time was announced, Cameroon sensed an opportunity but, in truth, Aboubakar’s goal came completely against the run of play.
The striker’s fine header may not have helped its side into the round of 16, but it was historical nonetheless – and was celebrated by the entire Cameroon squad.
It was a goal that inflicted Brazil with its first World Cup group stage defeat since 1998.
However, soccer isn’t always kind, and Aboubakar was subsequently shown a second yellow card for taking his shirt off in celebration, meaning he was sent off the pitch before full-time.
Referee Ismail Elfath looked almost apologetic as he rained on Aboubakar’s parade, but the striker took it well, shaking the officials hand before walking down the tunnel smiling.
Despite the defeat, Brazil still progresses as the Group G winner and will face South Korea in the next round on Monday.
Neymar, who continues to nurse an ankle injury picked up in the opening match, watched on from the stands on Friday, and Brazil manager Tite will hope his captain can be fit in time for the next fixture.
Despite its dominance in possession against Cameroon, Brazil looked sloppy in front of goal and missed the bit of quality that Neymar so often produces.
“It’s a warning signal,” veteran Brazil defender Dani Alves told reporters after the match. “There is no weak rival. Here is the lesson, we need to stay switched on throughout the game. One detail and it’s over.
“We end today with the feeling that a beautiful day slipped through the hands of us players who weren’t playing much.”
Meanwhile, Switzerland finished runner-up in the group and will face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal on Tuesday after a high-scoring game against Serbia.
Despite taking the lead, the Swiss found themselves 2-1 down before mounting a stunning comeback to take victory, and second place in the group.
Dua Lipa ‘smitten’ on Trevor Noah date, ‘very early’ dating stages
Dua Lipa was darn near levitating during her dinner date with Trevor Noah earlier this week, Page Six has exclusively learned.
The London-born pop star, 27, and the South African comedian, 38, were spotted Wednesday night sharing an intimate meal at Miss Lily’s in New York City’s East Village, which an insider tells us was a place of Noah’s choosing.
Our informant says Lipa was “smitten” on what was “definitely a date,” though we’re told the pair is in the “very early” stages of getting to know each other.
A separate source tells us Lipa and Noah are not officially a couple.
Photos from the unlikely pair’s outing show them sitting closely during dinner, yet far away from other patrons, before heading off on a stroll afterward.
The duo was seen walking, talking and hugging, with the soon-to-be former talk show host appearing to give the singer-songwriter a kiss.
Our source tells us Noah was “a gentleman” the whole evening and that the two went home “separately.” As for whether the pictures show him planting a smooch on Lipa’s cheek or her lips, we’re told there was “maybe a corner lips kiss.”
“There is definitely interest on both ends,” our insider insists.
For their romantic rendezvous, the “One Kiss” songstress sported a black leather jacket and oversized denim jeans, which she paired with leopard-print kitten heels, minimal makeup and long, straight hair.
The 2021 Grammys host matched his date’s vibe, opting for an olive green jacket and slouchy black pants.
Reps for the stars did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
Lipa’s last public relationship was with model Anwar Hadid, 23. They called it quits in December 2021 after more than two years of dating.
“Dua and Anwar are currently taking a break from their relationship and are spending time apart. They’re figuring things out right now,” a source told People at the time, though they never publicly rekindled their romance.
Noah — who announced Thursday he’d be leaving “The Daily Show” after seven years — last dated Minka Kelly, 42. They parted ways this past May after having been together since 2020.
“Minka is single now,” an insider told People at the time, adding that the actress had “the best attitude” regarding the split.
“She is very happy. She’d rather be single than waste her time with the wrong guy,” the source noted.
However, another informant close to both Noah and Kelly told the outlet that they had actually “been broken up for a while.”
Angry China stages more drills near Taiwan as U.S. lawmakers visit
BEIJING/TAIPEI, Aug 15 (Reuters) – China’s military said it carried out more exercises near Taiwan on Monday as a group of U.S. lawmakers visited the Chinese-claimed island and met President Tsai Ing-wen, who said her government was committed to maintaining stability.
The five U.S. lawmakers, led by Senator Ed Markey, arrived in Taipei on an unannounced visit late on Sunday, the second high-level group to visit following that of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August, which set off several days of Chinese war games.
The Chinese military unit responsible for the area adjacent to Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, said it had organised multi-service joint combat readiness patrols and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan on Monday.
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The exercises were “a stern deterrent to the United States and Taiwan continuing to play political tricks and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”, it added.
China’s Defence Ministry said in a separate statement that the lawmakers’ trip infringed on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and “fully exposes the true face of the United States as a spoiler and spoiler of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will resolutely crush any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatism and foreign interference.”
The theatre command said the exercises took place near Taiwan’s Penghu islands, which are in the Taiwan Strait and are home to a major air base, and showed close up video of the islands taken by a Chinese air force aircraft.
Tsai, meeting the lawmakers in her office, said China’s exercises had greatly affected regional peace and stability.
“We are engaging in close cooperation with international allies to closely monitor the military situation. At the same time we are doing everything we can to let the world know that Taiwan is determined to safeguard stability and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait,” she said, in video footage provided by the presidential office.
Markey told Tsai that “we have a moral obligation” to do everything to prevent an unnecessary conflict.
“Taiwan has demonstrated incredible restraint and discretion during challenging times,” he added.
Amphibious armoured vehicles under Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command take part in an assault wave formation training exercise in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, China August 14, 2022. cnsphoto via REUTERS
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said 15 Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Monday, an unofficial barrier between the two, adding it condemned China’s new drills and would “calmly” face them.
LOW KEY
Pelosi’s visit infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, and ditching some lines of dialogue with Washington, including theatre military talks and on climate change.
However, this trip was much more low key than Pelosi’s, with Tsai’s meeting with the lawmakers not carried live on her social media pages, which is the general practice when high-level foreign guests come.
The group left Taiwan late on Monday afternoon, and only after then did the presidential office release footage of the meeting with Tsai.
It was not immediately clear where they were going.
The de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said they had also met Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and members of Taiwan’s parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.
“Authoritarian China can’t dictate how democratic Taiwan makes friends,” Wu said on Twitter of their meeting.
The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to provide the democratically governed island with the means to defend itself.
China has never ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan’s government says the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island and so has no right to claim it, and that only its 23 million people can decide their future.
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said they would not be deterred by China’s response to such visits by foreign friends.
“We can’t just do nothing because there is an evil neighbour next door, and not dare to let visitors or friends come,” he told reporters.
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Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel and Raissa Kasolowsky
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Nelly Furtado Stages Rare Performance at Drake’s OVO Show in Toronto
Nelly Furtado made a surprise, rare live appearance this week to sing two of her hits alongside Drake at the rapper’s OVO Presents All-Canadian North Stars event in Toronto.
Furtado, who hadn’t performed live in nearly five years, delivered an abridged rendition of her “Promiscuous” before she was joined by Drake on a jovial, singalong rendition of the single “I’m Like a Bird.”
“Thank goodness I’m a nice, humble, well-spoken [person], I like to deal with people the right way, because that’s the only way that you could get this next person to come out of the house to do what they’re about to do right now,” Drake said in introducing his fellow Canadian, noting her lengthy absence from the stage.
“I don’t care how loud you sang tonight, right now, I need you to sing as loud as you can because this right here took a lot… This next person’s changed my life so much, I love her so much.”
The Grammy-winning Furtado hasn’t toured since 2017, the same year she released her last studio album, The Ride. However, the singer has inched back into the music world over the past year, releasing an EP with German production duo Quarterhead in May 2021 followed by a reissue for her 2006 album Loose.
The Furtado cameo continues Drake’s hometown celebration of TRL-era hitmakers, as the rapper himself made a surprise appearance to perform with the Backstreet Boys when that band visited Toronto.
FromSoftware’s next game is ‘in the final stages’ of development
FromSoftware fans may not have to wait years before they get the chance to play the company’s next game. In a recent Japanese-language translated by , director and From president Hidetaka Miyazaki said his studio’s next game is in “the final stages” of development. Miyazaki shared the tidbit in response to a question about a previous interview he gave in 2018.
At the time, he told 4Gamer.net that FromSoftware was working on “three-and-a-half games.” Since then, the studio has released all but one of those projects. In 2018, we got and PSVR exclusive Déraciné. This year, From came out with Elden Ring, leaving only one of the projects Miyazaki mentioned in 2018 unaccounted for. “Development is currently in the final stages,” he told 4Gamer.net this week when asked about the state of that game.
Miyazaki didn’t go on to share any other details on the project. However, some fans, citing a Resetera , have speculated the unannounced game could be a new entry in From’s long-running Armored Core series. The studio hasn’t released a new mainline entry in the franchise since 2012. In the same interview, Miyazaki also said he was already working on his next game as director, and that he would like to create a “more abstract fantasy” title in the future.
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