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Microsoft employee escorted out of 50th anniversary event after protesting sales to Israel: ‘You have blood on your hands. All of Microsoft has blood on its hands’

A Microsoft employee interrupted an address being given by AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman as part of the company’s 50^th anniversary event, demanding the company “stop using AI for genocide.”

The disruption was first reported by The Verge, which also shared video of the incident. It can also be heard in The Verge’s full coverage of Microsoft’s Copilot presentation, although Ibtihal Aboussad, reportedly the employee who interrupted Suleyman, is out of view.

Microsoft employee disrupts 50th anniversary and calls AI boss ‘war profiteer’ – YouTube

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“You are a war profiteer,” Aboussad says as she’s escorted out of the room. “Shame on you. You are a war profiteer. Stop using AI for genocide, Mustafa. Stop using AI for genocide in our region. You have blood on your hands. All of Microsoft has blood on its hands.”

A February 2025 report by AP said the Israeli military’s use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology “skyrocketed” following the Hamas attacks of October 2024, to nearly 200 times higher than what it was the week before the attack. It also notes that Israel’s Ministry of Defense is Microsoft’s second-largest military customer, behind only the US military.

The Verge shared a copy of an email Aboussad sent to Microsoft employees via numerous internal mailing lists saying that it was that relationship that prompted her to take action.

“My name is Ibtihal, and for the past 3.5 years, I’ve been a software engineer on Microsoft’s AI Platform org,” Aboussad wrote. “I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice. This is especially true when I’ve witnessed how Microsoft has tried to quell and suppress any dissent from my coworkers who tried to raise this issue.

“For the past year and a half, our Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim community at Microsoft has been silenced, intimidated, harassed, and doxxed, with impunity from Microsoft. Attempts at speaking up at best fell on deaf ears, and at worst, led to the firing of two employees for simply holding a vigil. There was simply no other way to make our voices heard.”

Later in her email, Aboussad said she was initially excited to move to Microsoft’s AI platform for the potential good it offered in areas like “accessibility products, translation services, and tools to ’empower every human and organization to achieve more’.”

“I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government, with the purpose of spying on and murdering journalists, doctors, aid workers, and entire civilian families,” Aboussad wrote. “If I knew my work on transcription scenarios would help spy on and transcribe phone calls to better target Palestinians, I would not have joined this organization and contributed to genocide. I did not sign up to write code that violates human rights.”

Microsoft’s military entanglements have been met with pushback in the past: In 2019, for instance, a group of Microsoft employees protested the company’s $479 million contract to develop HoloLens technology for the US Army; shareholders expressed similar concerns in 2022. But concerns about Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza are not hypothetical: More than 50,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed since October 2023, although that’s merely an estimate—researchers say the actual number could be much higher.

Aboussad’s email urged employees to speak out by signing a “No Azure for Apartheid” petition, urging company leadership to end contracts with the Israeli military, and ensuring others at the company are aware of how their work could be used.

“Our company has precedents in supporting human rights, including divestment from apartheid South Africa and dropping contracts with AnyVision (Israeli facial recognition startup), after Microsoft employee and community protests,” Aboussad wrote. “My hope is that our collective voices will motivate our AI leaders to do the same, and correct Microsoft’s actions regarding these human rights violations, to avoid a stained legacy. Microsoft Cloud and AI should stop being the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”

Not long after Abbousad’s protest, a second employee staged a similar disruption during a separate talk being held by current and former Microsoft CEOs Satya Nadella, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates.

“Shame on you all. You’re all hypocrites,” Vaniya Agrawal said. “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating their blood. Cut ties with Israel.”

Some in the audience booed, while Nadella, Ballmer, and Gates sat in awkward silence while Agrawal was escorted out of the room. Agrawal also sent an email to company executives, viewed by CNBC, in which she said she’s “grown more aware of Microsoft’s growing role in the military-industrial complex,” and that Microsoft is “complicit” as a “digital weapons manufacturer that powers surveillance, apartheid, and genocide.”

“Even if we don’t work directly in AI or Azure, our labor is tacit support, and our corporate climb only fuels the system,” Agrawal wrote. Like Abbousad, she also called on employees to sign the No Apartheid for Azure petition.

It seems likely that this protest will cost Aboussad and Agrawal their jobs: In 2024, Microsoft fired two employees who organized a vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza.

I’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update if I receive a reply.

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Build guns that can bathe entire cities in nuclear fire using the power of math in this explosive roguelike

Despite its unsubtle name and clear love of exploding buildings, Disaster Blaster is actually something of a slow burn. It took me several runs to fully understand what kind of game was tucked under its candy-colored, retro-graphics, planet-destroying facade. Once you start to peel back its layers, there’s entertaining depth tucked within its deceptively simple systems.

Despite looking like a frenetic action game, Disaster Blaster actually strips you of all direct control. Your character, a twitchy little shock-haired weirdo with a penchant for destruction, automatically sprints and leaps to the right, blazing rounds at everything that stands in his path, from snapping cyan sharks to looming skyscrapers. Your task is to choose upgrade cards for your blaster, which determine everything from how much damage it does to how quickly it fires, as well as adding elemental boosts or other effects.

A town on fire in Disaster Blaster. — (Image credit: Jarsick)

As you begin to learn how cards work together and amplify each other, you’ll discover combinations that turn your blaster from an underpowered pea-shooter into a world-destroying weapon of mass destruction. It’s deeply satisfying to watch your character go from taking multiple pot shots to dispatch tiny enemies to firing incinerating bolts that engulf entire city blocks in nuclear fire.

Like Oppenheimer, you’ll unleash world-ending annihilation through the magical power of math. By combining base damage increases, multipliers, and recursive cards that repeat the effects of previous cards in the sequence, you’ll begin to turn out astonishing amounts of carnage with every shot.

The game gives you a hand by showing you a preview of how much placing a card in a certain slot will affect your total damage. Late in runs, the numbers can grow so high that the preview changes from a number to just giant text that says “REALLY??”. Now that’s satisfying.

The upgrade screen in Disaster Blaster. — (Image credit: Jarsick)

That said, the game has systems in place to ensure that you can’t just steamroll every planet. Sometimes when your character gets hit, instead of deducting a heart, one of your cards will be randomly shattered. This is especially punishing if the card in question is a crucial multiplier or repeat card, which can immediately strip multiple digits off of your damage number.

There’s also enough enemy variety to demand that you vary up your tactics as you make your way through each level. While a rapid fire blaster with bullets that pass through and damage multiple enemies is a good fit when you’re getting swarmed, it’s next to useless against a few larger enemies. Conversely, a blaster that spews powerful single shots may have the opposite problem.

Sharks and flying boats attacking the player in Disaster Blaster. — (Image credit: Jarsick)

You’ll stack points as you make your way through each level, which are then translated into currency when you finish a run (whether you were successful or not). You can spend your cash to unlock new planets to dominate, upgrade existing characters or purchase new ones, or buy access to new skill cards that will then appear in subsequent levels.

The downside of this system is that it’s mostly random. You won’t see any details of new characters before you unlock them, and skills are unlocked blind box style, so you never know what you’re going to get. In fact, other than a suggestive icon, you won’t be able to see what the skill you’ve unlocked does until it shows up in a run.

The planet select screen in Disaster Blaster. — (Image credit: Jarsick)

Disaster Blaster also has a number of other rough edges, particularly around presentation. It’s hardly a looker, with graphics reminiscent of the Commodore 64 era, minus the retro charm. Also, the music is completely unbearable. After one full run of listening to its carnival-style thumping and wheezing, I was hustling to the settings menu to find the mute option.

That said, if you’re looking for a quick hit of dopamine by way of planetary destruction, and especially if you like the idea of exploiting mathematical synergies to achieve it, Disaster Blaster presents a satisfying roguelite loop designed to feed your brain a steady drip of delicious chemicals. It’s available on Steam now, and there’s even a free demo if you want to give it a try.

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South of Midnight review

NEED TO KNOW

What is it? A Southern Gothic action-adventure.
Release Date: April 8, 2025
Expect to pay: $30 / £35
Developer: Compulsion Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Reviewed on: Windows 11 Pro, RTX 4080, AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Link: Official Site

Around 20 minutes into playing South of Midnight, I had to stop and take a moment. Not because I’d taken offense to its portrayals of the American South—that’s something you learn to brace for growing up in Mississippi—but the opposite. The Southern Gothic action-adventure had me feeling disarmed and sentimental over, of all things, a shed. Not the part where I tussled with the supernatural manifestation of a man’s innermost fears, the Rougarou, and forced him to reckon with the pain, but a shed.

In my defense, South of Midnight’s headstrong and compassionate protagonist, Hazel Flood, is just that good. Perhaps it’s less about the shed and more about her casual grief for that rickety thing’s existence, mourning it long before the impending hurricane even has a chance to wash it away. But her fleeting prayer, a simple “I hope it’s still standin’ after tonight,” hit me with all the force of that storm.

Living in the Deep South—in those places where it’s humid enough to drown a man and they’ve as many churches as people—is a lot like that. There’s not enough time to stop and mourn anything, not your shed or your neighbor. It’s a constant churn of brace, endure, and rebuild as best you can.

Much to my relief, South of Midnight gets that, too. It’s not a few hours of kitschy antebellum aesthetics, sanitized bedtime stories, or exploitative violence. It’s a supernatural tale with magic powers and creatures, but that doesn’t stop it from being an earnest, empathetic look at that often-forgotten stretch of land between eastern Texas and the Atlantic seaboard by a team that truly must give a damn.

Itchy, an old man in South of Midnight who is wearing overalls and sitting beside an oxygen tank

(Image credit: Compulsion Games)

How’s your momma ‘n’ em?

Hazel’s violent encounters with angry spirits aren’t difficult, but they are fun—I especially liked the sequences where her only option was to run (lest the past catch up to her). The action isn’t the main attraction, though. It’s the details like that shed and other remnants of poverty and grief that really affected me, and on more than one occasion I stopped dashing through the bayous or swinging over muddy obstacles to inspect a fantastically familiar vision of the South.

Hazel’s initial routine may seem a tad mundane to the unfamiliar, but every piece of its opening vignette is placed with an impossible attention to detail and care. It’s in a lot of little things, like photos from state fairs, a social worker’s paperwork, and the familiar blare of severe weather warnings. Then there’s the more subtle pieces, like her momma Lacey’s slight don’t-sass-me tone change and the way Hazel is so endeared to her neighbors.

I suspect some of those folks, like the nearby Mrs. Pearl, are the type to give you the last five dollars to their name or maybe open your front door unannounced. The latter isn’t a degree of familiarity I’d endorse, but the rest has a charm that leaves me longing. South of Midnight is full of those unexpected idiosyncrasies I adore—like listening to a Southerner’s inexplicable and excessive use of the word “done,” or hearing the way we can take a string of words and turn them into one.

Some of those folks, like the nearby Mrs Pearl, are the type to give you the last five dollars to their name.

The whole journey is a tapestry of Deep South born and raised, but there’s a lot of hurt in becoming acquainted with some of those mannerisms, too. They aren’t all forged by some innate Southern goodness, but by places where you better learn to save yourself (and each other) because there sure as hell ain’t no one else coming.

And after the game’s hurricane churns through, separating Hazel from her mother, South of Midnight hammers that sentiment home. If Hazel wants to find her ma’, she’s going to have to do it without the folks who should be first in line to offer help. I reckon it wouldn’t be news to her, Hazel’s probably known since birth, but some of that Southern hospitality is just for show.

Hazel cleansing a Haint in South of Midnight

(Image credit: Compulsion Games)

A Haint ‘n’ a holler

In those first couple of chapters, where South of Midnight introduces Hazel’s supernatural abilities as a Weaver, combat assumes the pace of a slow Southern drawl. The fights don’t have much depth, and Hazel sort of meanders between smaller enemies in some of the game’s oversized arenas.

There’s definitely a learning curve to figuring out what parts of the world are safe or a hazard too, and its action isn’t always explained very well. Thankfully, the occasionally clunky transition isn’t a very long one, and after a few deaths to a single toe in the water, the game gets its point across.

I never found myself overly frustrated or severely punished, and outside of some of those finicky moments, I had a mighty good time with Hazel’s magical weaponry. Her kit is an ethereal arsenal of beloved trinkets, like a darling childhood doll and a literal bottle to capture emotional pain. Along with her enchanted Hooks, those knickknacks are an important part of the whole Weaver responsibility. Wielding one in each hand, Hazel can rip through enemy Haints—angry spirits spawned by a trauma-fueled rot setting into the world.

South of Midnight knows that festering despair as Stigma and warns it thrives where folks wept their hardest tears. Those formulaic encounters with tortured ghosts in their suspiciously open arenas remind me of Alice: Madness Returns. It gets a little repetitive, even with newfangled upgrades Hazel makes to some of her weapons along the way, but I never really mind it.

That’s mostly thanks to the game always sewing something thematically better in the background. There’s a big-picture perspective on combat that’s often far better than any singular piece. If you stick around long enough to learn how to fight, South of Midnight transitions into even better lessons on how to heal.

South of Midnight's Hazel Flood as she looks at one of the blue bottles she removed from an old man's bottle tree.

(Image credit: Compulsion Games)

A bottle for your thoughts

It’s not enough to destroy the rotting sources of Stigma’s roots, but you can’t really fix things back to how they were either. A lot of Hazel’s journey is about wrestling with that. It’s fixing through listening. Acknowledge the hurt, share the pain, then stitch whatever remains back together. As a Weaver, she’s one of the only few in the world who can. It’s not a fair ask, but the Deep South’s never cared much about fairness, anyway.

It’s a process leading to plenty of encounters with broken people, sometimes easy to hate and hard to love. The expectation, from both myself and the game’s most troubled souls, is that the world will laugh or look away, but South of Midnight never does that. It doesn’t distill places still haunted by the Confederacy, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow into a palatable nothing, and nor does it reduce that residual pain into cheap sentimentality.

South of Midnight's giant Catfish warning Hazel,

(Image credit: Compulsion Games)

Tending the Deep South’s wounds looks different from chapter to chapter. Some are gentle whispers of shared generational wisdom, while others are pleas for mercy after unimaginable sin. When I see Hazel carry all that—still loving so fiercely and fighting so hard—the bitter, redneck chip on my shoulder grows a little lighter and I’m thankful for its thoughtful reminders of resilience.

There’s a moment in the game’s later chapters I won’t spoil, but one line still sits with me, even days after wrapping up Hazel’s journey. In a rush to protect the more vulnerable, Hazel declares, “These creatures aren’t monsters, they’re just waiting for someone who cares to come along.”

It’s grounding, really. It’s given me this feeling I can only describe as what must be the videogame equivalent of a really big hug. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced something so sincerely devoted to the people and places I call home, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t my new bar for how it should look.

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Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1 release times

If you’re searching for Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1 release times, you’re likely as excited to fight Mizutsune as I am. This beloved bubble-blasting fox is returning to the game as part of the first free content drop, alongside Zoh Shia arriving as a repeatable hunt, and a Grand Hub where you can gather with friends to wave your tankards around and listen to a Wyverian diva belt out some ballads.

Later in the month, we’re also getting our springtime-themed event, and an extra challenging monster in Arch-Tempered Rey Dau, for all you hardcore hunters that found the base game a little too easy. Check below for Title Update 1 release times in each region to find out when you can get playing.

What time does Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1 release?

Capcom has said that Title Update 1 for Monster Hunter Wilds will release on April 4, though this will vary based on your timezone. Maintenance for the update is due to start at 10 pm UTC on April 3 and proceed till 3 am on April 4, after which you’ll be able to download the latest version and hop into the update.

The release times for each region are as follows:

April 3

West Coast North America: 8 pm PT
East Coast North America: 11 pm ET

April 4

United Kingdom: 4 am BST
Europe: 5 am CET
Japan: 12 pm JST

If you haven’t been keeping up with the recent showcases, Title Update 1 kind of has a rolling release in terms of content. The initial update will add Mitzutsune, Zoh Shia as a repeatable hunt, and the Grand Hub gathering area, but then on April 22, we’ll get our first event with the Festival of Accord: Blossomdance (a spring-themed event if the name wasn’t clue enough).

As mentioned, we’ll also get to fight our first super hard monster with Arch-Tempered Rey Dau on April 29 as part of a MH Wilds event. For details on future updates, such as the return of Lagiacrus in the summer, see our Monster Hunter Wilds roadmap.

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Today’s Wordle answer for Thursday, April 3

Clear your daily Wordle in record time with our easy access to the April 3 (1384) answer, ready to save the day whenever you need it. A bit much? No problem. Spend a while with our general advice and tips instead, or get some help from today’s hint.

Ah, that was lovely. No fuss or fighting, just a generous helping of hints that took me from a blank board to today’s answer in record time. You can guarantee yourself a similar experience if you like; just read through today’s clue to give your opener a huge boost.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, April 3

Using a sharp implement to cut something, especially hair, could be called this. Usually associated with caring for sheep.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

Yes, there is a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

If you’re new to the daily Wordle puzzle or you just want a refresher after taking a break, I’ll share some quick tips to help you win. There’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day.

A mix of unique consonants and vowels makes for a solid opening word.
A tactical second guess should let you narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
There may be a repeat letter in the answer.

You’re not up against a timer, so you’ve got all the time in the world—well, until midnight—to find the winning word. If you’re stuck, there’s no shame in coming back to the puzzle later in the day and finishing it up when you’ve cleared your head.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Let’s get this won. The answer to the April 3 (1384) Wordle is SHEAR.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Keeping track of the last handful of Wordle answers can help to eliminate current possibilities. It’s also handy for inspiring opening words or subsequent guesses if you’re short on ideas for the day.

Here are the last 10 Wordle answers:

April 2: CURSE
April 1: JEWEL
March 31: BOOTY
March 30: QUOTA
March 29: SORRY
March 28: VERSE
March 27: SHEET
March 26: ELBOW
March 25: SHELF
March 24: ANGLE

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes every day and the aim is to figure out the correct five-letter word by entering guesses and eliminating or confirming individual letters.

Getting off to a good start with a strong word like ARISE—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good tactic. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns , it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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A Minecraft Movie review

“It’s harder to create than to destroy. That’s why cowards tend to choose the deuce.” You may be wondering where this quote is from. Could it be Aristotle, or maybe Friedrich Nietzsche penned it in The Birth of Tragedy? It’s certainly thought-provoking enough to be mistaken for the work of any notable philosopher.

Need To Know

What is it? An hour and forty-minute live-action Minecraft movie.
Premiere: April 4, 2025
See it at: Cinemas
Produced by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by: Jared Hess

But this theological statement is actually from one of this generation’s greatest minds: Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie. It sums up the core message of this film: No matter how difficult it is to create something, hard work and practice always pay off; a very Minecraft sentiment.

Instead of trying to become the new canon Minecraft experience, A Minecraft Movie decides to focus on a few individuals and their experiences within the game. Jack Black’s version of Steve isn’t the Steve; he’s just a Steve. And while there is a story in the form of the Piglins trying to get the precious orb back from Steve and friends to complete their domination of the Overworld, this is more of a vessel for the core cast to explore and interact with Minecraft.

The best parts of the film (other than all of Jennifer Coolidge’s scenes) were all the times when characters interacted with Minecraft just like any other player would. During a zombie/skeleton invasion on the first night, Henry, the young protagonist, manages to create a fortress to protect himself and his friends from the unfriendly mobs. Later on, we get to see more builds that Jack Black, aka Steve, made during his time in the Overworld. There’s a working Ferris wheel, a booby-trapped diamond mine, and of course a fitting tribute to his trusty wolf dog, Dennis.

Piglins attacking with ghasts

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

It’s a very human experience to point at something familiar and go, “I do that!” which is probably why I enjoyed seeing the Dennis statue or Steve, Garrett, and Henry fly through canyons with elytra whilst getting chased by a swarm of Ghast-riding Piglins so much. Playing Minecraft is a very relatable experience, something that binds all of us who play. Everyone’s hidden in a hole or a little dirt hut on their first night, celebrated once they cracked their first redstone build, or aspired to build the magnificent diamond block house. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this movie thrives when it’s simply being a relatable Minecraft experience while also showing off just how limitless Minecraft’s world is.

Unfortunately, this film isn’t just about gazing at vistas and watching its characters make cool builds. The problems with this film lie in its character development and rushed story.

It ender drags-on a bit

An Iron Golem

(Image credit: Warner Bros)

From the start, you can see that one of the issues that the creators had to overcome was how to get their characters from point A (the real world) to point B (Minecraft’s Overworld) as fast as possible. There would’ve been a couple of nifty quick ways to do so, one of which being a Jumanji-like scenario in which Steve would’ve been swept into the Overworld via some old grey PC, later to be followed by the rest of the core group.

But instead, Steve decides to break into an abandoned mine, breaking some poor man’s ankles when he sidesteps him into oblivion on the way in. This is where Steve finds the orb and the earth crystal, which he combines to create a gateway to the Overworld.

A Minecraft Movie never marketed itself as a film with a ton of layers.

After making a couple of cool builds, Steve gets robbed of his orb by the Piglins and their leader, but to save the Overworld from complete destruction, Steve hands the orb to Dennis to hide in the real world.

It’s at this point where we’re introduced to the rest of the group, and where the film really struggles with finding the right pace. Most of the character introductions are rushed to get to the Overworld quicker, except for Garrett, a pro retro gamer, who got an odd amount of backstory for someone who I think was meant to be a secondary character or at the very least behind Henry.

Because of this, most of the characters don’t feel massively rounded out. Occasionally, there’d be a moment or two where there’d be some attempt at character progression, only for it to be cut short to retain the attention of its younger audience.

But to be fair, A Minecraft Movie never marketed itself as a film with a ton of layers, so I can’t really be angry that it yells about crafting tables instead of providing a deep character study.

A decent block-buster

Image 1 of 4

Garrett and Steve shaking hands — (Image credit: Warner Bros)

Once I looked past some of these pitfalls and just decided to enjoy this movie for what it is, some good light-hearted fun, I started to enjoy my time with it a bit more. Instead of dwelling on why the Piglins didn’t attack Steve straight away as he had no gold armour on, I instead found myself smiling at fun references to creeper farms and a lovely little Technoblade tribute.

It’s obvious that this film is really meant for the younger Minecraft playerbase rather than those who played the game back when it first released, with Jack Black regularly yelling out the name of items like flint and steel or crafting table. But there’s just enough cool references and some funny jokes to help you sit through the movie.

Jennifer Coolidge’s scenes, which take place in the real world as she romances a lost Minecraft villager, were the most consistently funny scenes in the entire movie, and her story arc alongside the lost villager made me laugh way more than I thought it would. I’m not going to lie, her mid-credits scene made my day.

So, to older fans of Minecraft, I’d say go check out A Minecraft Movie if you’re up for some casual fun and want to check out a pretty impressive visualisation of the Overworld and Nether. A Minecraft Movie probably isn’t the serious storytelling that some players want, but it’ll make you laugh a couple of times, and at least in my case, it’s given me the bi-annual itch to play Minecraft again.

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Today’s Wordle answer for Wednesday, April 2

If you need a little help with today’s Wordle then our tips can refresh your general guesses, guiding you towards a win. And if you need more than a little help (we’ve all been there), feel free to read through our April 2 (1383) clue, or even take a peek at today’s answer.

My joy at finding three yellow letters early on quickly turned to frustration as they remained the same colour no matter where I placed them. Some of it’s my own fault—do check which slots you’ve already tried before rushing for your next great idea—but not all of it. I solved this one mostly by trial and error, whittling down the possibilities until there was only one arrangement left.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle hint - a grid with yellow, grey, and green letters — (Image credit: Josh Wardle)

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, April 2

This could be a hex or magical punishment, or a run of bad luck that made someone feel like they were living under one. More generally, this is another term for a swear word.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is not a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

Playing Wordle well is like achieving a small victory every day—who doesn’t like a well-earned winning streak in a game you enjoy? If you’re new to the daily word game, or just want a refresher, I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:

You want a balanced mix of unique consonants and vowels in your opening word.
A solid second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
The answer could contain letters more than once.

There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by the end of the day. If you’re struggling to find the answer or a tactical word for your next guess, there’s no harm in coming back to it later on.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answers

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

Here you go. The answer to the April 2 (1383) Wordle is CURSE.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

April 1: JEWEL
March 31: BOOTY
March 30: QUOTA
March 29: SORRY
March 28: VERSE
March 27: SHEET
March 26: ELBOW
March 25: SHELF
March 24: ANGLE
March 23: DOPEY

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s your job to work out which five-letter word is hiding by eliminating or confirming the letters it contains.

Starting with a strong word like LEASH—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good place to start. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns , it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second go should compliment the starting word, using another “good” guess to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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Call of Duty will finally let console players turn off crossplay to dodge PC cheaters, which is potentially terrible news for all the legit PC players

In a win for console players fed up with Call of Duty’s cheating problem, Activision will finally let players turn off crossplay in regular unranked matches starting in Black Ops 6 Season 3. The long-requested feature comes six years after crossplay became a core feature of Call of Duty in the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot.

Until now, players have only been able to limit crossplay in Call of Duty’s ranked modes across standard multiplayer and Warzone, but Season 3 expands the feature to include “Multiplayer Unranked,” and unless I’m misunderstanding Activision’s meaning here, that should include every other multiplayer mode in CoD. After Season 3 begins on April 2, the crossplay options will be as follows:

On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in the selected playlists.
On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in selected playlists.
Off: Restricts matchmaking to your current gaming platform only in selected playlists.

Activision warns that the “consoles only” option “may negatively impact queue times,” while admitting that setting crossplay to “Off” will surely slow down matchmaking. Why would you cut off a huge chunk of the CoD population from your matches? The most obvious reason is to even the playing field by limiting your opponent pool to the same control scheme, but I reckon the majority of PS5 and Xbox players who flip off crossplay will be doing it to avoid cheaters. As Activision recently admitted, the vast majority of cheating happens on PC, even though 60% of reported players are on console.

The severity of Call of Duty’s cheating problem is up for debate—it’s not hard to find people flaunting their circumvention of CoD’s Ricochet anti-cheat online, but it’s also among the most popular games in the world, so the percentage of matches spoiled by cheaters is likely low.

But Call of Duty’s frequent perception as a hacking-riddled mess means enough players might hop aboard the “get me out of the PC player pool” train to make a dent in queue times for all the legit PC players. That’d be a shame, or maybe a boon, depending on who you ask.

Black Ops 6 meta - The Feng 82 LMG on its side while being inspected in a courtyard area.

(Image credit: Activision)

“As a PC player… Hate this change, but I get it. I hope it doesn’t affect queue times for the game in the long run so I’m not forced to buy the game on PS5 to have a good experience,” wrote Reddit user exjr_ in response to the change.

A fair worry, but user DeminoTheDragon shared a different outlook:

“-play PC

-most of the sweatiest of players will enable Console only crossplay

-still get most of the player base aside from sweats and a select few that even care enough to enable that specific cross play

-sure aight”

A salient observation communicated in the fewest words possible. If we assume only the most active, informed, and possibly skilled console players will care enough to disable PC crossplay, maybe the matchmaking impact will be minimal, and I know more than a few PC players who wouldn’t mind encountering fewer console “sweats” who know how to get the most out of CoD’s extremely generous aim assist.

User NothingSeemsToSpeak also made a point I hadn’t considered: If consoles can selectively banish PC players from their lobbies, PC players should get to choose which consoles can enter theirs.

“As a PC player, I just want an option to disable PlayStation because of how often their controller mic is playing music with a baby crying in the background,” they wrote.

That controller mic really is obnoxious.

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Same plan, different CEO: Intel’s Lip-Bu Tan laments ‘past mistakes’ while promising a brighter ‘engineering focused’ future

Vision Opening Keynote | Lip-Bu Tan | Intel Business – YouTube

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Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, leant heavily into the company’s failures in his debut keynote performance at the Intel Vision 2025 event, yesterday. He also promised that the future would be brighter thanks to a new more responsive, ‘engineering first’ approach. The catch? It’s hard to see how Tan’s vision is terribly different from that of Intel’s ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger.

The opening of Tan’s keynote was humble, to say the least. He spoke of Intel “falling short of expectations,” having “a lot of hard work ahead,” and needing to “correct past mistakes.” He also conceded that the company had “lost quite a bit of talent” in recent years and that it had been “very hard to watch Intel struggle.”

His solution? In simple terms, Intel must return to its roots as “an engineering first company.” That sounds like an excellent idea. But it’s also very much the same idea that was behind the installation of his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger.

When Gelsinger was installed at the helm, there was a near universal sigh of relief. Finally, the narrative went, an engineer was back in control of Intel instead of a marketing bod.

Of course, Gelsinger was ~~elbowed out~~ retired from, Intel last year. So what’s different this time around? That’s hard to say. Tan didn’t go into any specifics, either with new Intel products or customers for its customer foundry or fab business.

Put it this way, if you were expecting Tan to announce a killer new chip or a vital customer, you’d have been disappointed. He didn’t even go into details over aspirations for future product. He did not, for instance, commit Intel to producing an AI chip to take on Nvidia directly.

So, what did he say?

One interesting insight was that Tan’s view of Intel’s future flips the company’s product development process on its head. “In the past, Intel’s approach has been inside out. We design hardware, then you figure out developing the software to make it work,” he said.

But no longer. In future, Intel will start with the problems that customers have, then build products to solve them. “The world has changed, you have to flip that around,” Tan said.

More broadly, it looks like Tan wants Intel to be far more customer centric. “We will reinvent how we engage with the customer and it begins today,” he said.

He did reaffirm Intel’s commitment to pushing out its next-gen Panther Lake laptop CPU on the all-important new 18A process later this year. But there was no product news as such. The same applies to Intel’s foundry business. Tan did not announce a big new customer for Intel’s fabs, but he did hint that the identity of key partners was now nailed down.

“You need two or three very important customers,” he said, explaining that, “they’re going to help us to drive the performance and yield, and I know these few customers very well.” Will Nvidia or AMD figure among them? Maybe even Apple? Arguably, it’ll be Tan’s ability to secure foundry customers that will define his success—and that of Intel.

Lip-Bu Tan's keynote

Lip-Bu Tan says Intel will be much more customer-centric from here on. (Image credit: Intel)

Tan also emphasised that Intel needed to reclaim some of its lost talent. “We lost quite a bit of talent. That’s my top priority, to recruit some of the best talent in the industry to rejoin or join Intel,” he said.

All of which means the wait for something really exciting from Intel goes on. If it was me, the one question I’d want answered is, “where’s the innovation?” I can point to AMD, Nvidia, Apple, whoever, and say, “looks there’s some innovation.”

With Nvidia, maybe it’s DLSS and the use of ML, or the company’s huge and complex GPUs, which have no direct competition. With AMD, it was first with chiplets and 3D cache and the more recently released Strix Halo APU with a 256-bit memory bus, chiplets and a huge (by APU standards) iGPU.

Apple, meanwhile, will do you a small PC in a box that offers 512 GB of unified memory for running AI models locally. And so on. But what’s the really obviously innovative Intel product of late?

Anywho, Lip-Bu Tan and Intel together have plenty to prove and much to do. But then that applied to Pat Gelsinger and it’s not clear he was given enough time to really see his plan through. The man himself says, “It will take some time, I am very patient.” How long investors and the Intel board will be willing wait is another matter entirely.

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Today’s Wordle answer for Tuesday, April 1

Quickly un-stick your game with our hint for today’s Wordle, designed to give you a solid nudge towards Tuesday’s answer without spoiling all your fun. Have a think, spend a few rows trying out your ideas, and if you’re still no closer to winning just click through to the April 1 (1382) answer—sorted.

I love it when Wordle gives me just the thing I need before I’ve even realised I needed it. Today’s challenge was a real head-scratcher, the clues I’d found not making a great deal of sense. And then one letter just happened to show up in exactly the right spot, and in that moment I just knew the answer.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, April 1

This is a generic term for a gem or some sort of decorative precious stone. You’d find these in beautiful rings and sparkly necklaces.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

Yes, there is a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path:

A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels.
Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares.

Today’s Wordle answer

Wordle answer

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

New month, same reliable win. The answer to the April 1 (1382) Wordle is JEWEL.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

March 31: BOOTY
March 30: QUOTA
March 29: SORRY
March 28: VERSE
March 27: SHEET
March 26: ELBOW
March 25: SHELF
March 24: ANGLE
March 23: DOPEY
March 22: AMBLE

Learn more about Wordle

Today's Wordle being played on a phone

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns , it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

Source link

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