Mass Effect has two leads, Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale, but you'll only hear one of them as Commander Shepard per playthrough. According to player stats, most people play as a guy, meaning Mark Meer is their Shepard throughout the trilogy.

However, Meer encourages players to give FemShep a go - purely so they can enjoy the performance of his co-star, Hale. Speaking with PC Gamer, Meer says that he's a huge fan of her work, and doesn't have any problem with players choosing to only play as FemShep because of her performance.

Online retailer Etsy will prohibit sales of most sex toys, content that depicts sex acts and genitalia, and more starting July 29.

The indie seller published its Adult Nudity and Sexual Content policy yesterday, which states that sales of adult toys that are insertable, "applied to the genitalia," or "designed for genitals to be inserted into them" will be prohibited. That pretty much runs the gamut — dildos, vibrators, rings, plugs, and the like will be banned.

A prime mover behind the Shirion Collective, a conspiracy-minded, pro-Israel disinformation network seeking to shape public opinion about the Gaza conflict in the US, Australia and the UK, is a tech entrepreneur named Daniel Linden living in Florida who co-wrote a guidebook for OnlyFans users, the Guardian can reveal.

Shirion has harassed pro-Palestinian activists, including many Jews, offered bounties for the identity of pro-Palestinian protesters, spread conspiracy narratives centered on figures like George Soros, and boasted of an AI-surveillance platform but offered few concrete details of how the technology functions.

The Guardian investigation used public records and open source materials to corroborate information originally provided by the White Rose Society, an Australian anti-fascist research collective.

A Chinese woman who tried to shield a Japanese mother and her child from a knife attack has died.

Hu Youping was working as a school bus attendant in Suzhou city when a man attacked a Japanese woman and her child at a bus stop outside a Japanese school.

She suffered serious injuries while trying to restrain him.

Tributes for her have poured out online and the local government has said she will be given the title of "Righteous and Courageous Role Model".

A Chinese woman who tried to shield a Japanese mother and her child from a knife attack has died.

Hu Youping was working as a school bus attendant in Suzhou city when a man attacked a Japanese woman and her child at a bus stop outside a Japanese school.

She suffered serious injuries while trying to restrain him.

Tributes for her have poured out online and the local government has said she will be given the title of "Righteous and Courageous Role Model".

After months of public outcry and pressure from the City Council, New York City’s libraries are poised to have their budgets fully restored so that branches may resume seven-day-a-week service, including Sundays, according to three people with knowledge of the budget negotiations.

Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council are set to announce a handshake budget deal on Friday that reverses $58 million in library cuts, the sources said. The three people who spoke to Gothamist provided the information on the condition that their names not be used because budget discussions are private.

Following the publication of this story, the mayor and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams issued joint press releases announcing the restoration of funding for libraries as well as cultural organizations.

“I recall that Dr Disrespect was made aware by the individual that they were underage during the conversation, after which he indicated that this was no problem and continued on,” the former employee says. “There was no confusion. Messages sent after this was acknowledged were no less graphic and in sexually explicit nature than before, and I think more than the categorization of ‘leaning too much in the direction of being inappropriate’ might indicate.”

The ex-Twitch employee has also provided Rolling Stone a more detailed account of internal conversations at Twitch following the report of Beahm’s messages and his subsequent ban. They say the details of Beahm’s case are coming out because of Conners’ explosive tweet last week. “Cody definitely got the ball rolling. Me and many of my former colleagues are only comfortable speaking up now because of it. Our priority is always to the safety of the \[alleged] victim and to keep their identity secret,” they said.

As some of its streamers faced a flood of sexual misconduct allegations in June 2020, Twitch created an incident response team codenamed “Gold Sparrow” to develop a process to investigate and take action on the reports as one unit, the former employee says. “We wanted to be able to process mounting investigations quicker and with more resources while providing as much support for the victims as possible,” the former employee says. (Twitch did not provide comment by press time.)

“I recall that Dr Disrespect was made aware by the individual that they were underage during the conversation, after which he indicated that this was no problem and continued on,” the former employee says. “There was no confusion. Messages sent after this was acknowledged were no less graphic and in sexually explicit nature than before, and I think more than the categorization of ‘leaning too much in the direction of being inappropriate’ might indicate.”

Head and body presets can be selected individually and customized to your liking with 40 different complexions that include smooth, rugged, youthful, and freckled skin tones, skin hues ranging from cool to neutral to warm, undertones to those skin tones, and even a melanin slider. Busche tells me BioWare relied on consultation to represent all people authentically. There's a Vitiligo slider (where you can adjust the intensity and amount of it) and sliders for your forehead, brow, cheeks, jaw, chin, larynx, and scalp. You can select your undergarments, with nudity as well because "this is a mature RPG," Busche adds, and use the "Body Morpher" to select three presets for each corner of a triangle and then move a cursor within it to morph your body or head into a mix of these presets. It's an impressive technology I'd like to see adopted in other games.

Japan's government is calling for stricter oversight of U.S. troops stationed in the country after a soldier was charged over the alleged sexual assault of a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Prosecutors in the southern island region charged the U.S. soldier in March, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Tuesday.

Local media said the 25-year-old man had been accused of assault, adding that he knew the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.

CNN is facing mounting criticism after several Black media outlets accused the longstanding news giant of excluding them from covering Thursday night's presidential debate, fueling claims that the network is barring access from underrepresented groups.

The debate is being held at CNN's Midtown studio in Atlanta, a city that has long been lauded as a mecca for Black excellence. The debate's location is also coincidentally within five miles of two prominent Black-owned publications—the Atlanta Voice and the Atlanta Black Star—yet both of the outlets said they never received any correspondence from CNN about media access. EBONY magazine also reports that they were denied press credentials for the event, saying the move "appears to undermine the democratic process."

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday night vetoed a measure that would have increased warnings for Floridians and tourists when a beach or public waterway is polluted.

The bill required the Florida Department of Healthto issue health advisories if water quality failed to meet the agency’s standards and required closing polluted beaches “if it is deemed necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public,” according to a House staff analysis of the bill.

The measure also required municipalities and counties to notify the state health department of unsafe water quality within 24 hours and required counties to post signs warning of unsafe waters, according to the bill.

Not only was the bill bipartisan, it sailed through both the Florida House and Senate with unanimous approval.

Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools Thursday to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms.

The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and “immediate and strict compliance is expected.”

A spokesperson of the Hindu community is seeking to have ancient Sanskrit scriptures displayed in public classrooms alongside the Ten Commandments.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law that requires each public classroom, starting from kindergarten to state-funded universities, in Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments.

The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism Rajan Zed said in a statement that the Bhagavad Gita, or the Gita, was a historically significant document and he believes is a treasure that should be displayed in public school classrooms.

A white couple from rural West Virginia is back behind bars after a judge revoked the initial bond and raised it to $500,000 apiece — more than double the amount they faced last year when police arrested the pair on charges of locking their adopted Black children in a barn and forcing them to work as “slaves.”

Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, both of Sissonville, were ordered to reappear in Kahanwha County Court on June 11, more than eight months after each posted a $200,000 bond following their arrests in October.

At the time, police conducting a wellness check at the Cheyanne Lane home were shocked to discover two of the couple’s five adopted children living in deplorable conditions, padlocked inside a ramshackle storage shed on the back of the property, which had no working lights or running water.

A human arm found approximately 50 miles from Milwaukee on an Illinois Beach has been identified as belonging to Sade Robinson, the Black Wisconsin college student killed and dismembered after a first date on April 1 with Maxwell Anderson.

Someone taking a walk along Waukegan Municipal Beach found the 19-year-old’s arm on May 11, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office. The coroner used DNA to positively identify the arm, and once it was confirmed, Robinson’s family was notified last Tuesday.

In a statement, coroner Jennifer Banek said, “On behalf of the Lake County Coroner’s Office, I want to express our sincere condolences to Sade’s family and friends who continue to endure this tragic loss,” NBC News reports.

In the wake of Texas’ abortion ban, the state’s infant death rate increased and more died of birth defects, a study published Monday shows.

The analysis out of Johns Hopkins University is the latest research to find higher infant mortality rates in states with abortion restrictions.

The researchers looked at how many infants died before their first birthday after Texas adopted its abortion ban in September 2021. They compared infant deaths in Texas to those in 28 states — some also with restrictions. The researchers calculated that there were 216 more deaths in Texas than expected between March and December the next year.

In Texas, the 2022 mortality rate for infants went up 8% to 5.75 per 1,000 births, compared to a 2% increase in the rest of the U.S., according to the study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

“In order to maintain our principles and standards as a studio and individuals, we needed to act,” the studio wrote in a statement. “For this reason, we are terminating our relationship with Guy Beahm immediately. While these facts are difficult to hear and even more difficult to accept, it is our duty to act with dignity on behalf of all individuals involved, especially the fifty-five developers and families we have employed along with our community of players.

The music industry has officially declared war on Suno and Udio, two of the most prominent AI music generators. A group of music labels including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Group has filed lawsuits in US federal court on Monday morning alleging copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”

The plaintiffs seek damages up to $150,000 per work infringed. The lawsuit against Suno is filed in Massachusetts, while the case against Udio’s parent company Uncharted Inc. was filed in New York. Suno and Udio did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

“Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all,” Recording Industry Association of America chair and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a press release.

Over the past 30 years, the American political landscape has been characterized by a growing divide between rural and urban voters, almost as if they’re on two opposing teams, according to Suzanne Mettler, the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the College of Arts and Sciences (A\&S).

But the divide is confined largely to white Americans, Mettler and collaborators have found in an examination of the racial and ethnic facets of the trend.

When it comes to politics, Black and Latino residents of rural America differ far less, if at all, from their urban counterparts than do non-Hispanic white residents, the researchers report. With one in four residents of rural America now identifying as nonwhite, the study’s findings raise concerns about political representation of Black and Latino Americans and highlights a need for further research on rural people of color broadly, including racially marginalized groups beyond Black and Latino people.