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Xbox bets on Gears of War in battle of gaming giants

Photo: BBC

Gears of War, one of the video games that helped Microsoft's Xbox to win over millions of fans, is back.

Prequel E-Day takes players back to where it all started, telling the origin story of humanity's conflict with The Locust - the series' horrifying enemy species.

The game's been well-received by critics and players, but it's also seen as a big test of Xbox's new direction.

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USCBS News

Iconic penguin colony sees "population collapse," study finds

A remote island near Antarctica is no longer home to the world's largest penguin colony as climate-driven changes to ocean food chains likely devastated its once-thriving inhabitants and caused a "population collapse," researchers said Wednesday. Drone and satellite images showed that the volcanic island of Zavodovski lost more than 680,000 — or nearly two-thirds — of its chinstrap penguins between 2011 and 2025, according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "That's a very rapid loss," Norman Ratcliffe, the lead author of the BAS study published in the journal Current Biology, told AFP.

USCBS News

Can paying off debt too aggressively hurt your finances? Here's when it may make sense to slow down.

We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. That, in turn, can make an aggressive debt payoff strategy particularly appealing in today's economic landscape. Putting every available dollar toward a credit card or personal loan balance can accelerate progress and reduce what you ultimately pay in interest, after all. However, there can also be a downside to pushing the repayment timeline too hard, particularly when that money is needed elsewhere in the budget.

USABC News

Trump sons' investments have won billions in Pentagon contracts since his election

President Donald Trump announced a $6.6 billion investment with AI defense company Anduril Industries on Tuesday -- the most recent government funding agreement into a company with investment ties to the president's sons. The Trump administration announced the Navy will support $2.9 billion of the total cost to help create a new facility in Baltimore County, Maryland, that will manufacture critical parts for the Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine.