Month: April 2025

MIAMI—The arrival of a new car brand to the US was always going to pique my interest, even before the current government decided to upend the automotive sector with punitive tariffs. So when Cupra invited me to come check out some of its cars and hear about its plan to launch here in America, I wanted to know more. My burning question was probably the same one you have as you read this: "Isn’t this a terrible time to try to launch a new car brand in the US?"

What’s a Cupra?

One of the brands of the sprawling Volkswagen Group, you can think of Cupra as sort of a Spanish Polestar. Originally, it was a high-performance badge given to some Seats (Seat being VW's budget brand from Spain), which then got spun out into a standalone brand.

OK, it's not a perfect analogy: Cupra is not a luxury brand, nor is it just electric vehicles. But it was created to fill a gap between the mass market and premium brands, with a focus on design and performance to attract a younger customer than VW's existing brands. "We are not a brand for everyone," said Chief Brand Officer Igansi Prieto.

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Nintendo announced Friday morning that a number of accessories for the Switch 2 "will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions." And while the launch price of the console hardware and Nintendo's first-party exclusive games is not changing for now, the company warned that "other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions."

The announcement comes as Nintendo has set a new date of April 24 to open US preorders for the Switch 2. Those preorders were initially delayed from a planned April 9 opening so Nintendo could "assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions" on the console's launch. "We apologize for the retail pre-order delay, and hope this reduces some of the uncertainty our customers may be experiencing," Nintendo said in its announcement Friday.

Here are the newly announced planned prices for Nintendo's official Switch 2 accessories (the original prices announced on April 2 are struck out in parentheses):

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The creators of Sunderfolk wanted to make a video game that would help players “Rediscover game night.” By my reckoning, they have succeeded, because I am now regularly arguing with good friends over stupid moves. Why didn’t I pick up that gold? Don’t you see how ending up there messed up an area attack? Ah, well.

That kind of friendly friction, inside dedicated social time, only gets harder to come by as you get older, settle into routines, and sometimes move apart. I’ve hosted four Sunderfolk sessions with three friends, all in different states, and it has felt like reclaiming something I lost. Sunderfolk is a fun game with a lot of good ideas, and the best one is convincing humans to join up in pondering hex tiles, turn order, and what to name the ogres who shoot arrows (“Pointy Bros”).

Maybe you already have all the gaming appointments you need with friends, online or in person. Sunderfolk, I might suggest, is a worthy addition to your queue as a low-effort way to give everyone a break from being the organizer. It does a decent job of tutorializing and onboarding less experienced players, then adds depth as it goes on. Given that only one person out of four has to own the game on some system, and the only other hardware needed is a phone, it’s a pretty light lift for what I’m finding to be a great payoff. Some parts could be improved, but the core loop and its camaraderie engine feel sturdy.

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Ericsson will in seinen Berichten keine Diversität und Inklusion mehr. Angeblich geht es nur um sprachliche Präzision. (Ericsson, Börse)

Assassin’s Creed titles are cozy games for me. There’s no more relaxing place to go after a difficult day: historical outdoor museum tours, plus dopamine dispensers, plus slow-paced assassination simulators. The developers of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows seem to understand this need to escape better than ever before.

I’m “only” 40 hours into Shadows (I reckon I’m only about 30 percent through the game), but I already consider it one of the best entries in the franchise’s long history.

I’ve appreciated some past titles’ willingness to experiment and get jazzy with it, but Shadows takes a different tack. It has cherry-picked the best elements from the past decade or so of the franchise and refined them.

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Es besteht Phishing-Gefahr bei der britischen Einreisegenehmigung. Die Polizei warnt vor Betrugsmaschen. (Phishing, Security)

Andrew Cunningham and Lee Hutchinson have spent decades of their lives with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, and they previously brought that knowledge to bear as they recapped each first season episode and second season episode of Amazon's WoT TV series. Now we're back in the saddle for season 3—along with insights, jokes, and the occasional wild theory.

These recaps won't cover every element of every episode, but they will contain major spoilers for the show and the book series. We'll do our best to not spoil major future events from the books, but there's always the danger that something might slip out. If you want to stay completely unspoiled and haven't read the books, these recaps aren't for you.

New episodes of The Wheel of Time season three will be posted for Amazon Prime subscribers every Thursday. This write-up covers the season three finale, "He Who Comes With the Dawn," which was released on April 17.

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Die neuesten Modelle von ChatGPT haben eine bisher wenig bekannte Fähigkeit: Sie können identifizieren, wo Fotos aufgenommen wurden. (OpenAI, KI)

Die US-Behörde zum Schutz der Finanzen von Verbrauchern wird neu ausgerichtet und halbiert die Inspektionen von Finanzdienstleistern. (Fintech, Verbraucherschutz)

Die chinesische Regierung dämpft den Hype um selbstfahrende Autos. Irreführende Werbeversprechen und zu häufige Updates werden verboten. (Autonomes Fahren, Elektroauto)