Mid-September, 2022, was not a good time to be living along the Bering Coast in Western Alaska. That was the week Typhoon Merbok, a Category One storm, struck the region, packing sustained winds of 130 km/h (80 mph), causing 15 m (50 ft.) waves and inundating communities along 1,600 km (1,000 mi.) of coastline. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a state of disaster on Sept. 17, saying at the time, “The storm hitting the coastal regions of western Alaska is unprecedented.”

And indeed it was. Merbok was caused by unusually warm coastal waters in the North Pacific, part of the overall change in climate that has been affecting the Arctic region for the past 40 years. On Dec. 13, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released its 2022 “Arctic Report Card,” surveying the climatic health of the entire region, and the grades it gave were grim.

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This year, Arctic air temperatures, NOAA reported, were the sixth warmest on record, going all the way back to 1900. Snow cover was the second lowest dating back 56 years across the North American Arctic and the third lowest across the Eurasian portion. The Greenland ice sheet experienced melt conditions across 36% of its surface, marking the 25th consecutive year of ice loss from the country’s land mass. The extent of Arctic sea ice was more than 36% below 1979 averages in September—a fact exacerbated by surface sea temperatures that were 3°C (5.4°F) warmer than the 1991 to 2020 average in August. Greening of the tundra is increasing, with the area covered by plant life rather than snow and ice, coming in this year at the fourth most extensive since 2000.

The report stressed that while the poor environmental health of the Arctic is bad for the planet as a whole, it is the Indigenous people and other locals who are most immediately paying the price in a host of ways. During the September typhoon, for example, homes were flooded, airport runways were underwater, populations of towns and villages were forced into public shelters and diesel fuel tanks, which power many homes, were upended. What’s more, the storm hit during peak hunting season, when many locals count on bagging moose and caribou to stock their freezers for the winter.

“Typhoon Merbok,” wrote the authors of the NOAA report, “demonstrated the inextricable linkage of environmental change and impacts on human safety, food security and health.”

The great storm was by no means the only example of the ways climate change imperils the locals. Hunting for bowhead whales—the only species that can legally be taken under global and U.S. laws—for example, is a means of subsistence for the people of the coastal Alaskan communities of Utqiagvik, Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik. The decrease in sea ice has doubled the days available for whaling, but, according to one 2021 study, has increased the number of days on which wave heights exceed 2.5 m (8 ft.) from 1.5 in 1979 to 13.1 by 2019, making the hunt more dangerous and forcing some villagers to buy larger boats that they can often ill-afford.

Seal and walrus hunting has been affected too. The retreat of sea ice forces hunters to travel as much as 160 km (100 mi.) in small skiffs to reach ice floes where their prey can be found. Many of the floes, however, are thinning, making setting foot on them yet another peril. Fatal falls through sea, lake, and river ice are on the rise too, the report reveals, disproportionately affecting Indigenous people, who live along the bodies of water.

Migratory patterns of caribou, walruses, bowhead whales, geese, and fish have also changed, making hunts harder and often less productive. All of this, the report states, affects the availability of food, but laws and policies that regulate hunting and fishing have not kept up with the changes in the Arctic environment.

“Expanding legal harvesting to other species of whales will likely soon be critical to the health and quality of life of Indigenous communities,” the authors of the report write. “But securing permissions from international and national authorities could take decades.”

Wildfires, once a rarity in Alaska, pose yet another risk. In May, a drought in southwest Alaska teed up the region for extreme fires in early summer. The smoke from the fires poses respiratory risks, disrupts hunting, and makes aviation—a critical part of the sprawling but sparsely populated state’s transit system—impossible at times. Rising summer temperatures make for sweltering homes, which typically lack air conditioning, forcing residents to keep their windows open and increasing their exposure to wildfire smoke.

Access to potable water is also on the decline, partly due to coastal flooding that mixes saltwater with freshwater sources like lakes and rivers. Loss of permafrost that was counted on to feed land basins has led to increasing drying. (The U.S. Geological Survey predicts that up to 24% of Alaska’s permafrost will be gone by the end of the century.) “In 2022,” the authors of the NOAA report write, “a tundra lake near Kotzebue, Alaska, supplying freshwater to some residents, abruptly drained. Nonetheless, quantitative projections of climate change impacts on drinking water in the Arctic are lacking.”

The NOAA report devotes only one of its many chapters to the human toll of climate change above the Arctic circle—but it is easily the most important chapter. The Arctic may not be home to a large share of the global population, but it is their home all the same. As the earth’s climate increasingly suffers, the blameless locals do too.

The Federal Reserve will deliver more interest rate hikes next year even as the economy slips towards a possible recession, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, arguing that a higher cost would be paid if the U.S. central bank does not get a firmer grip on inflation.

Recent signs of slowing inflation have not brought any confidence yet that the fight has been won, Powell told reporters after the Fed’s policy-setting committee raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by half a percentage point and projected it would continue rising to above 5% in 2023, a level not seen since a steep economic downturn in 2007.

Those rises in borrowing costs would come despite an economy that Fed officials projected will operate at near stall speed through next year, with an annual growth rate of 0.5% and an unemployment rate nearly a full percentage point higher by the end of 2023, well beyond the increase historically associated with a recession.

“We don’t talk about this kind of recession, that kind of a recession. We just make these forecasts,” Powell said in a news conference. “I wish there were a completely painless way to restore price stability. There isn’t, and this is the best we can do.”

He described the slow rate of economic growth penciled in by Fed officials next year as still “modest.”

“I don’t think it would qualify as a recession … That’s positive growth,” the Fed chief said, even though “it is not going to feel like a boom.”

But other aspects of the Fed’s projections, notably a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.6% from the current 3.7%, are consistent with a downturn settling in as the central bank keeps its target policy rate at a “restrictive level” for at least the next two years.

The rate increase on Wednesday, which was approved unanimously by Fed policymakers and widely expected by financial markets, lifted the targeted policy rate to the 4.25%-4.50% range, with officials expecting it to rise to a level between 5.00% and 5.25% next year.

If anything, the bias is higher: seven of 19 policymakers projected even higher rates will be needed, and U.S. central bankers are unanimous that the risks are tilted towards higher-than-expected inflation rather than a surprise in the other direction.

Still, Powell said, repeating the hard-line on enforcing the Fed’s 2% inflation target that he has developed through the year, “the largest amount of pain, the worst pain, would come from a failure to raise rates high enough and from us allowing inflation to become entrenched.”

“The new economic projections imply an even higher pain threshold than before” for a Fed willing to tolerate the equivalent of about 1.6 million lost jobs, wrote Aneta Markowska, chief financial economist at Jefferies. “This suggests hawks still outnumber the doves by a significant margin.”

Even with recent improvements, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation remains around triple the central bank’s target, and policymakers project it will take at least three years to fall all the way back.

Only two of 19 Fed officials see the benchmark overnight interest rate staying below 5% next year, a sign of a still broad consensus to lean against inflation.

The message from the Fed on Wednesday also leaned against market expectations that recent data showing slowing inflation might push the central bank from its hawkish path and move policymakers toward cutting rates before the end of next year.

“Getting markets to hear that is key to fixing financial conditions” that have loosened in recent months as inflation data has improved, a move counter-productive to the Fed’s inflation-fighting strategy, said Carl Riccadonna, chief U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

The new statement was released after a policy meeting at which officials scaled back from the three-quarters-of-a-percentage-point rate increases delivered at the last four gatherings.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday. In the U.S. Treasury market, which plays a key role in the transmission of Fed policy decisions into the real economy, yields were little changed to slightly lower. The dollar dipped against a basket of currencies.

“Taken together, today’s statement and economic projections tell a simple, but persuasive story: this Fed isn’t prepared to ‘pivot’ in any meaningful way until it sees sustained and conclusive evidence of a reversal in inflationary pressures,” said Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay.

Powell said the speed of coming rate rises is less critical now than earlier in the year when the central bank was “front-loading” rate hikes to catch up with accelerating prices.

“It’s not as important how fast we go,” he said, noting the bigger question facing policymakers is finding an “appropriately restrictive” endpoint and determining how long to stay there.

“Our focus right now is really on moving our policy stance to one that is restrictive enough to ensure a return of inflation to our 2% goal over time, it’s not on rate cuts,” Powell said.

“The inflation data received so far in October and November show a welcome reduction in the pace of price increases, but it will take substantially more evidence to give confidence inflation is on a sustained downward path,” Powell said.

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WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Allegations that Sam Bankman-Fried defrauded investors are now calling into question millions of dollars worth of donations he made to political campaigns.

Washington, D.C. politicians are distancing themselves from the fallen crypto king who, just one year ago, told Congress his goal was to “create a positive impact on the world.”

But that goal came crashing down with the collapse of his cryptocurrency company, FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), and his abrupt arrest Monday.

Bankman-Fried — colloquially known as SBF — opened his checkbook to members of Congress and donated more than $40 million to political campaigns in the 2022 election cycle alone.

Some of his biggest beneficiaries were Democrat-leaning super PACs. Those donations are now facing scrutiny as federal prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried illegally used that money by misappropriating customer funds.

Two senators, Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Boozeman (R-Ark.), said their offices had or would donate the money to charity.

Others, like soon-to-be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Gillibrand, already donated their now-tainted funds prior to the arrest this week.

At least 50 other members of Congress have not announced what they intend to do with the funds.

The new political implications come amid efforts in Washington to regulate cryptocurrency, which has grown from a niche investment to a major player in the financial field.

In a recent interview with cryptocurrency commentator Tiffany Fong, Bankman-Fried said he donated an equal amount to Republicans, but used methods that are not publicly disclosed, also known as “dark” money.

“All my Republican donations were dark. The reason was not for regulatory reasons, it’s because reporters freak the f–k out if you donate to Republicans. They’re all super liberal, and I didn’t want to have that fight.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge said Wednesday that he will not immediately halt New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to force mentally ill people from the streets and into treatment.

In a written order, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in Manhattan said there was currently no evidence that irreparable harm would likely occur before he rules on a request after exploring the subject further in coming weeks.

On Nov. 29, Adams announced that he wanted police and city medics to more aggressively get severely mentally ill individuals off the streets and subways and into treatment.

Advocates for people with mental illnesses want the plan stopped, saying police officers should not be first responders for those needing health care.

Individuals and groups, including New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of NYC, asked Crotty last week to order an immediate halt.

At a hearing on Monday, a city lawyer said training on the new initiative had not yet begun for 30,000 first responders.

On Wednesday, Crotty set a schedule for arguments on the issue stretching through January.

DALLAS (AP) — A destructive storm marched across the United States, spawning tornadoes that touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where the deaths of a young boy and his mother were reported, and it delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and threatened more severe weather Wednesday in the South.

In northern Louisiana, the boy was found dead in a wooded area more than a half-mile from his home in the Keithville area, just south of Shreveport, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said. The child’s mother was later found dead one street over from her home, he said.

The child’s father reported them missing from their home, which the sheriff said was demolished in the storm.

“We couldn’t even find the house that he was describing with the address. Everything was gone,” Prator told Shreveport TV station KSLA.

In Farmerville, Louisiana, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) to the east of Keithville, about 20 people were taken to a hospital, some with critical injuries, after a tornado caused major damage to mobile homes and an apartment complex, the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office told Monroe TV station KNOE.

Wednesday’s forecast calls for more severe storms and potentially additional tornadoes along the central Gulf Coast, including New Orleans and southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Earlier Tuesday, five tornadoes were confirmed across north Texas based on video and eyewitness reports, but potentially a dozen may have occurred, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas, reported.

Dozens of homes and businesses were damaged by the line of thunderstorms, and several people were injured in the suburbs and counties stretching north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. More than 1,000 flights into and out of area airports were delayed and over 100 were canceled Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

Blizzard warnings stretched from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado, and the National Weather Service said as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Winds of more than 50 mph (80 kph) at times would make it impossible to see outdoors in Nebraska, officials said.

“There’s essentially no one traveling right now,” Justin McCallum, a manager at the Flying J truck stop at Ogallala, Nebraska, said Tuesday.

Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians. Residents from West Virginia to Vermont were told to watch out for a possible significant mix of snow, ice and sleet, and the National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, depending on the timing of the storm.

In the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, police spokesperson Amanda McNew reported five confirmed injuries Tuesday.

A possible tornado blew the roof off the city’s service center — a municipal facility — and left pieces of the roof hanging from powerlines, said Trent Kelley, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation.

It was also trash day, so the storm picked up and scattered garbage all over, he said.

In Colorado, all roads were closed in the northeast quadrant of the state. The severe weather in the ranching region could also threaten livestock. Extreme winds can push livestock through fences as they follow the gale’s direction, said Jim Santomaso, a northeast representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.

“If this keeps up,” said Santomaso, “cattle could drift miles.”

A blizzard warning was issued on Minnesota’s north shore, as some areas are expecting up to 24 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph. And in the south of the state, winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) had reduced visibility.

National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye in the Twin Cities said this is a “long duration event” with snow, ice and rain through Friday night. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.

The same weather system dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and western U.S. in recent days.

___

Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas; Sam Metz in Salt Lake City; Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis; Jesse Bedayn in Denver; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Adapted from a speech Dr. Shulkind gave to prospective Milken parents

As a graduate student, I heard Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, professor at Harvard’s school of education, speak about schools as mirrors. She said, “schools have always been the arena where the cultural and historical dramas of our society get played out. Schools, she said, mirror social priorities, values and conflicts, but also the ways in which, in vivid microcosm–they magnify and intensify them.”

A few weeks ago, a banner on a bridge overhanging the 405 freeway said, “Kanye is right about the Jews,” accompanied by people holding up Nazi salutes as cars drove below them. As context, over the course of the last two weeks, YE (Kanye West) has made several very public antisemitic statements. 

Before the decision from Adidas to break with YE was announced, our senior leadership team gathered to discuss the dilemma of the impending Homecoming football game and the Adidas branded football uniforms our students wear. As educators, we felt they could not wear these uniforms, but we were sure that the kids would not be on the same page–they loved YE–he is a teenage icon. We were sure that our plea that they represented more than themselves, and that the symbolism of a Jewish football team in front of a crowd of a thousand would not resonate with their adolescent sensibilities. 

We planned what we anticipated would be a very difficult meeting with the team meeting at lunch. The next morning, though, Adidas denounced YE and, relieved and grateful, we told the students the meeting was not necessary, though we would be there in case they wanted to talk. We were sure no one would show up. The entire team did.

The primary takeaway of that meeting after a lot of thoughtful discussion, was that the team wants to focus on Jewish pride, realizing they have an important role in representing our culture. The team chose to wear white colored uniforms to stand in solidarity with all Milken students (who would also be in their Homecoming white t-shirts) against hate. They ran onto the field carrying the Israeli and American flags, and our singing of Hatikvah was imbued with especially relevant meaning. It was an example of our mission in action so compelling, there were many watery eyes in the crowd.

Our mission reads: 

Our School, founded on Jewish values, is about who our children can become and how they can help others become who they might be. Because the world our children will create tomorrow is born in the School we build today, our mission is to educate our children so they can surpass us.

Earlier in the same week, I stumbled upon a class of 11th graders, sitting in a circle in our outdoor garden, wrestling with a famous and complex Talmudic text — a wild, dramatic story of debate (machloket) between groups of scholars about who has authority to determine Jewish law. The text ends with a key line from our mission statement “נצחוני בני” our children have surpassed us. When I stopped by their class, I heard one student wonder about the role of humans in evolving and adapting the Torah’s laws. Another student wondered what happened as time goes on and people add their voices each generation, sometimes even disagreeing with the divine word. But another student suggested that this was evidence of success, actually, that we interpret the Torah on our own terms and for our own generations.

This scene–this conversation about the text– I thought, has happened thousands of times over millennia and around the globe. This scene, I thought, has never happened exactly like this, and it is our students’ unique ideas and the ways their ideas bump into each other and build on each other that will shape the future. 

As I reflected on both of these stories, I realized something–we, the adults, parents and educators are the bridge between the here and now and the future. Many of you reading this are making important decisions about the kind of future you want your children to inhabit and then create for their own children. 

Sara Lawrence Lightfoot’s ideas about schools as a mirror for society were codified in her book The Essential Conversation. She expounds on this idea in a chapter called “mirrors and metaphors.” To me, and to Milken, the football team’s decision and the 11th graders’ conversation is important because it was a reflection of society overall AND because the educators were a bridge, guiding the students to look at situations and their academic studies not only for the here and now, but for the better world they could create. Both of these moments contained within them the future and the past bound up together. It is our job–yours and mine–to be the bridge, to raise them in part because of those who came before us, of those generational echoes that stake claim on who we hope our children will become and how they will help others become who they might be. 

The post “Because the world our children will create tomorrow is born in the School we build today” appeared first on The Forward.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is kissed as she hands over the gavel to incoming Speaker John Boehner during a swearing-in ceremony in the House of Representatives as the 114th Congress convenes on January 6, 2015 in Washington, DC.

Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

• Former Speaker John Boehner had nothing but kind words for Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday.
• The Ohio Republican praised his one-time foil at her official portrait unveiling on Capitol Hill. 
• “No other speaker of the House … has wielded the gavel with such authority,” Boehner said. 

Famously sentimental former GOP Speaker John Boehner couldn’t stop from tearing up as he lavished praise on outgoing Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday evening at the US Capitol. 

“The younger generation today has a saying, ‘Game recognizes game.’ And the fact of the matter is no other speaker of the House in the modern era, Republican or Democrat, has wielded the gavel with such authority or with such consistent results,” the Ohio Republican told attendees at the unveiling of Pelosi’s official portrait. 

The waterworks started earlier, though, as Boehner recounted how his daughters had asked him to “tell the speaker how much we admire her.” 

Pelosi announced last month that she was stepping down from her House leadership post, clearing the way for a new generation of Democrats to take over after nearly two decades of her calling the shots. 

Boehner rose through the ranks of House Republican leadership at roughly the same time as Pelosi, career trajectories that would pit them against each other as the White House flip-flopped from the George W. Bush Administration to the Barack Obama years.

That meant fighting about everything from foreign wars to the polarizing Affordable Care Act. 

“But we were never disagreeable to each other,” Boehner said, citing a professional relationship that the two apparently kept above the partisan fray. 

In some ways, Boehner said he’s still paying for his affection for the California Democrat. He noted that he still gets grief from Republicans for planting a kiss on Pelosi when he took that gavel back from her over a decade ago. 

She handled the career change like a champ then, Boehner said, and he seemed to believe she’ll be fine with whatever comes next too. 

“You’re one tough cookie,” Boehner said, which made the crowd burst into applause. 

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Diablo IV is coming in June 2023.

Diablo IV / Activision Blizzard

• Diablo IV will be released on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms on June 6, 2023.
• Multiple editions are available for preorder with bonuses like early access to the game.
• The game feels like a fresh starting point for new and veteran players, with an emphasis on horror.

Diablo IV, the next entry in Activision Blizzard’s classic role-playing franchise, is set to arrive on June 6, 2023. Blizzard confirmed the game’s release date with an announcement at The Game Awards 2022, along with a new trailer.

For those unfamiliar, Diablo is an action RPG franchise with an isometric camera and an emphasis on dungeon-crawling. While the game isn’t an MMORPG like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, you can encounter other players online in the open world and gamers can team up to play together in small groups.

Check out the Diablo 4 trailer

Diablo IV will be the first game in the franchise to launch on computers and consoles at the same time and allow cross-platform play. Diablo III was on PC for more than a year before console versions were released and players remained separated by platform throughout the game’s lifespan.

Diablo IV is set to be one of the largest game launches in years for Blizzard. The previous game in the series managed to amass more than 65 million players over its 10-year lifespan. Activision Blizzard is one of America’s largest video game publishers and is currently in the process of being acquired by Microsoft.

Below, we’ve gathered everything you need to know about Diablo IV’s upcoming release, including preorder details and a breakdown of what you get with each edition. We’ve also included some impressions based on an early build of the game we got to play at a media event. 

Diablo 4 release date and price

Diablo IV will launch on June 6, 2023 for Windows PCs, PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. The standard edition costs $70 on each platform.

While players can transfer their game progress between consoles, like PlayStation and Xbox, they must purchase the game on each platform they wish to play on. Purchases for Xbox and PlayStation systems includes dual entitlement for both older and current generation consoles.

Diablo 4 preorder bonuses, early access, and special editions

Diablo IV / Activision Blizzard

Players who preorder any version of Diablo IV digitally via Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, or the PlayStation Store will get first access to an open beta before the game’s release, and earn in-game rewards for World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and Diablo Immortal.

In addition to the standard edition of the game, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox customers can also opt for a Deluxe or Ultimate Edition.  

The $90 Deluxe Edition offers up to four days of early access prior to the game’s launch, a seasonal battle pass, and special in-game mount and armor. The $100 Ultimate Edition includes the same rewards as the Deluxe Edition, plus 20 free tier skips for the battle pass, a cosmetic, and an additional emote.

Beyond the game itself, Blizzard is also selling a limited edition collector’s box for $96.66 that includes special items like an electric candle of creation, a cloth map, a mouse pad, two art prints, a pin, and an art book. Keep in mind, however, this package does not include a copy of the actual game. This will only be available from the Blizzard Gear Store, starting December 15.

Diablo 4 story details

Diablo IV is set decades after Diablo III but establishes a new story set in the world of Sanctuary. It focuses on the return of the demon Lilith, one of Sanctuary’s creators, and her conflict against Inarius, a rogue angel who helped her create Sanctuary to escape the war between Heaven and Hell.

The developers of Diablo IV have said one of their primary goals was to return to the franchise’s roots of darkness and horror. As a result, the game has a greater emphasis on cinematic storytelling and building a haunting environment.

Diablo 4 multiplayer and cloud-save features

Diablo IV will feature online multiplayer as well as offline cooperative play for players on Xbox and PlayStation. Diablo IV can connect between platforms, so players on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox should have no issues playing together.

You can encounter dozens of other players while exploring the game online, or team up with a group of friends to progress through story missions and dungeons. Cooperative play is typically designed for up to four players, but major events can allow up to eight players to team up. 

A Battle.net account is required for online play, but will also provide cloud saves, so you can transfer your progress between different platforms.

Diablo 4 first-look impressions

Diablo IV / Activision Blizzard

We got to try the first few hours of Diablo IV during a hands-on media event. We have some light experience playing Diablo II and III, so the gameplay immediately felt familiar on PC, letting us guide our character through the overworld of Sanctuary while fighting enemies and exploring early-game dungeons, all with a few clicks of the mouse.

Players can choose between one of five classes: druid, rogue, sorceress, barbarian, and necromancer (though necromancer and druid were unavailable in the hands-on test). While there is a core campaign with clear-cut missions, players are also encouraged to adventure to unknown areas for rare rewards and side quests. As players progress, the content shifts from pre-planned story set-pieces to more challenging, procedurally-generated content

Beyond the obvious improvements to graphics, we immediately noticed some key changes in presentation compared to the series’ previous games. There are more cutscenes to help immerse players in the world as soon as the game starts, and the entire atmosphere feels significantly darker and more threatening than the setting of Diablo III.

While we didn’t get to try much multiplayer, we were thoroughly impressed with our short time spent exploring Sanctuary and becoming familiar with the game’s larger overworld. So far, Diablo IV feels like a great starting point for players who are new to the franchise, and veteran players should also feel right at home.

Diablo games are designed to continue challenging players for hundreds of hours after the story is completed, and Diablo IV should be no different with Blizzard promising years worth of support and updates. With cross-platform play, Diablo IV is assured to have a vibrant online community; that along with the revamped story campaign should make the game well worth buying at launch.

NASA’s Juno mission captured an infrared view of Io in July.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft snapped an infrared image of Jupiter’s moon Io.
• Io is our solar system’s most volcanically-active body, and its surface is peppered with lava lakes.
• Juno should fly by the Jovian moon again on December 15, in the first of nine flybys.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured an infrared image of Jupiter’s moon Io from 50,000 miles away.

In the image, taken on July 5 and released on Wednesday, you can see the shapes of lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots.

“You can see volcanic hotspots. We’ve been able to monitor over the course of the primary mission — over 30 orbits — how this changes and evolves,” Scott Bolton, principal investigator for NASA’s Juno spacecraft, said in a press event at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting on Wednesday.

Io is home to hundreds of volcanoes, NASA has found. Surprisingly, scientists found more volcanic spots in the polar region than in the planet’s equatorial region, Bolton said.

The space probe Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. After studying the gas giant, Juno flew by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede in 2021 and by Europa earlier this year.

The spacecraft is scheduled to explore Io, which NASA says is the “the most volcanic place in the solar system,” again on December 15. It’s the first of nine flybys Juno has planned over the next year and a half.

Scientists hope to gather more data on the moon’s volcanoes and its magnetism — which play a “tug of war” to form Jupiter’s auroras — as they fly by.

“As we watch the volcanoes change and get active and less active, they’re driving Jupiter’s gigantic monster magnetosphere,” Bolton said on Wednesday.

Auroras are colorful displays of light that are not unique to Earth. Jupiter has the brightest auroras in the solar system, according to NASA.

On both Earth and Jupiter, auroras occur when charged particles, such as protons or electrons, interact with the magnetic field — known as the magnetosphere — that surrounds a planet. Jupiter’s magnetic field is about 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.

The data and insights Juno gleans could help inform future missions to study Jupiter’s moons, like NASA’s Clipper mission, which will investigate whether Europa could support life.