The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups without disclosing the payments to donors, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

The center’s CEO Bryan Fair said the payments went to confidential informants in order to monitor threats of violence from the extremist groups — and that the information the center received was frequently shared with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The information gathered by the informants helped save lives, Fair said Tuesday.

“We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC,” Fair said.

The Justice Department alleged that the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the same extremism that it claimed to be fighting. The indictment says payments of at least $3 million went to informants affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America and other groups between 2014 and 2023.

The charges, filed in Alabama where the center is based, include wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Here are some things to know about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s history and controversies:

The center was created 55 years ago to support civil rights

Alabama lawyer Morris Dees founded the organization in 1971, starting a civil rights-focused law practice for people who were poor or disenfranchised. At the time, federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court rulings designed to end Jim Crow-era segregation were still fairly new, and widespread resistance to desegregation persisted in the South.

People who faced continued discrimination often struggled to find attorneys who were willing to represent them in court; lawyers were reluctant to bring the first lawsuits to test the civil rights laws.

Dees and another attorney, Joe Levin, took on some of those cases, representing their clients for free. Some of those earliest cases resulted in the desegregation of recreational facilities, the integration of the Alabama state trooper force and other reforms, according to the center’s website.

Southern Poverty Law Center

expands to label and track hate groups

By the 1980s, the civil rights group was monitoring white supremacist organizations in the U.S. The effort, initially called “Klanwatch” and focused on the Ku Klux Klan, was later renamed the “Intelligence Project,” and expanded to include other extremist groups.

Many of the groups did not appreciate being called out, monitored and sometimes sued by the center. Members of the KKK tried to burn down the center’s Montgomery offices on July 28, 1983, in retaliation for lawsuits filed against Klan groups.

The fire damaged the building, office equipment, the center’s law library and files. More than a year later, three KKK members were arrested in connection with the blaze, and all three plead guilty and were sentenced to prison.

The center previously used paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities, often sharing it with local and federal law enforcement, Fair said. They were used to monitor threats of violence, he said, adding that the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

The center has a big purse

The nonprofit organization gets most of its funding from donor contributions, and those contributions have added up. Its endowment had just under $732 million in hand as of last October, according to the center.

Conservatives criticize SPLC and FBI cuts ties

The center’s “Intelligence Project” has grown over the years, and the organization has faced criticism for some of the groups it has added to the tracker. Conservatives have said adding some groups unfairly maligns them because of their viewpoints. The conservative religious organization Focus on the Family was added in part because of its anti LGBTQ+ rhetoric, for instance.

That criticism escalated after the September 2025 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college campus in Utah. That brought renewed attention to the center’s inclusion of Kirk’s group, Turning Point USA.

The center included a section on Turning Point in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”

A month after Kirk’s death, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the bureau would sever its relationship with the center, asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map.”

That move marked a dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups.

Indictment alleges the center ‘fraudulently obtained’ donated money

The indictment says the center told donors the money would be used to help dismantle violent extremist groups, but did not disclose that some of the funds would actually be used to pay members of those groups. Some legal experts say it’s an unusual legal approach.

“That’s a new way of going after a charity — I’m somewhat surprised,” said Phil Hackney, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Typically, when a nonprofit group is charged with fraud, it’s because someone is accused of pilfering donated funds to line their own pockets, Hackney said.

But in this case, the government is targeting the method and intent in which a nonprofit used its money, he said.

The government is looking at the informant payments “as an intent to further hate — and I doubt Southern Poverty Law Center had that intent,” Hackney said.

The law has never required nonprofit groups to hand donors a line-item receipt for every sensitive operation, said Todd Spodek, a federal criminal defense attorney with Spodek Law Group P.C. in Manhattan.

“From a defense perspective, this isn’t a fraud case. It is a political attack on standard investigative tradecraft,” said Spodek. “We are talking about high stakes intelligence work where discretion isn’t a form of deception, it is a matter of survival.”

In order to win a conviction, the government will have to prove the center engaged in a deliberate scheme to lie, Spodek said.

“They simply cannot. Silence of tactical details is not a crime, and you don’t get to call it fraud just because the government dislikes the methods used to get results,” he said. He later continued, “The prosecution is trying to turn operational discretion into a felony, which is a massive overreach.”

Other organizations also have relied on undercover workers

Other nonprofit groups also have sent people undercover or used confidential informants to get information. For instance, the nonprofit conservative group Project Veritas, founded in 2010, is best known for conducting hidden camera stings that have embarrassed news outlets, labor organizations and Democratic politicians.

The anti-abortion organization Center for Medical Progress was behind secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood executives in California. The videos were then edited in a way to falsely suggest that the executives were selling fetal remains. The videos triggered several investigations, and Planned Parenthood was cleared of any wrongdoing but two of the activists with Center for Medical Progress were ultimately convicted of illegally recording someone without consent.

The center says the informants helped monitor threats of violence

Fair says the organization began working with informants to monitor threats of violence during a time of increased risk, and the program was kept quiet to protect informants’ safety.

“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”

A pilot involved in the near-crash was praised for their ‘proactive airmanship’

Three aircraft nearly collided over Cambridgeshire skies last year, a report has revealed. Airprox has carried out a report into the incident which happened over the south of Cambridge Airport on September 5, 2025.

On this day, the pilot of an Antare, a type of glider, was flying north of Cambridge. As it was going on its route, the pilot said they “preferred not to route through Cambridge”, as “incoming traffic was intended to route through the overhead”.

Instead, the pilot decided to fly on the southern edge of the Cambridge zone until they could go directly to their destination. While flying straight and level, there was a “late sighting of two low-wing single-engine aircraft in close formation” around 250m to the right of the aircraft, and around 250ft below it.

The pilot described the risk of collision as “medium”. The YAK-18T pilot was leading the two planes seen by the Antares pilot.

The pilot said that during descent, the lead pilot and wingman “both saw a glider to the right and above”. The report stated that the lead pilot was “happy that the rate of descent and forward speed provided sufficient clearance to the orbiting glider”.

After seeing a glider orbiting in the area, the lead pilot admitted it was “somewhat of a surprise”, and assessed the risk of crash as “none”. In its report, Airprox raised concerns over how close together the aircrafts were.

It said: “Despite the significant vertical separation, the lack of barrier effectiveness had resulted in a situation where safety had not been assured.” The Antares pilot was praised for their “proactive use” of an SSR responder and their “establishing a FIS whilst transiting in the vicinity of Cambridge Airport”.

Airprox added that the pilot’s actions stood as a “template of consideration and proactive airmanship for the gliding community”.

The Dawnay Arms, Church in West Heslerton is to close on Friday, May 1.

Posting on social media, the landlords said: “We are closing for good on Friday 1st May as our lease ends on the 1st June.

“We don’t know if there is a new tenant taking over or how long it will be closed for but would like to thank all our customers for their loyalty and custom. I’m sure you will miss the cheesecakes and Sunday lunches just as much as we will.

“Unfortunately due to rising running costs we can no longer keep working 70 hours a week for nothing and keep ploughing personal savings into the pub.

“A few lovely local pubs nearby which are definitely worth a visit and your custom are Star Inn, Weavethorpe, Ham and Cheese, Scagglethorpe, Coach and Horses in Rillington and Providence Inn at Yedingham.

“It’s the last Sunday lunch service this Sunday so a couple of tables left to book please ring to confirm.”

Nearly 400 people signed a petition in three days challenging the council to begin works on a long-awaited pedestrian crossing in Main Street, which runs through Monk Fryston.

It came after Keir Mather, the MP behind the petition, said that crossing the road could be “difficult” for most people – and made even more dangerous for young, elderly and disabled residents.

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He added: “Anyone who lives in Monk Fryston will tell you that near misses or collisions occur far too frequently, and residents are subjected to unacceptable risks when crossing the road.”

The MP’s petition gathered nearly 400 signatures in three days, calling for action to be taken on the busy road (Image: Supplied)

The busy rural road up to and through the village is subject to a high volume of HGVs and agricultural vehicles and was the site of five crashes between 2020 and 2024 – one of which was fatal.

Speaking about this and the road safety campaign, North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: “We take our road safety responsibilities seriously, and, based on a recent assessment, our engineers have been considering options for a puffin crossing, which uses smart sensors to detect pedestrians and adjust light timings.

“We have identified a potential site between Water Lane and the village shop.

“To introduce a pedestrian crossing, the kerb line would need to be changed on both sides of the road, losing some on-street parking spaces, including outside of the shop.

“It would also mean having to relocate kerbed islands, manholes and gullies.

“Therefore, we are working out the cost and considering how it could be funded.

“We are liaising with the parish council and, should the scheme be approved, a consultation would be carried out later this year ahead of it being delivered.”

Two soldiers have been arrested after a Scots teenage recruit was sexually assaulted during his basic training.

A former Royal Military Police officer says he is shocked by revelations that a teenage Scots rookie soldier was sexually assaulted and filmed while carrying out his basic training. SAS trained Graham Yuill was part of the elite 177 Provost Company which provided armed escorts for senior military personnel and politicians in Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles.

During his service Graham worked closely with the The Royal Military Police Special Investigation Branch (SIB) which is responsible for investigating serious crimes, including murder, rape and sexual assault, within the UK armed forces. Graham, from Glasgow, says the army needs to take urgent action to reduce what appears to be a rise in the number of sex attacks.

The 67 year old believes that failure to do so could affect future recruitment and deter young people from joining the armed forces. Yesterday we reported how a 17 year old male from Fife was sexually assaulted at his barracks by two fellow squaddies just weeks into their basic training.

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Two soldiers in their 20s have been arrested after the young man was attacked last week at Catterick Army base in Yorkshire. Graham added: “The army is less than it was before but there seems to be more allegations of sexual assaults.

“It is the type of incident if not investigated properly could affect future recruitment and drive young people away including women. The army has to address this and ensure better training of senior officers to identify potentially vulnerable recruits and protect young people from assault and bullying,

“The army have to get a grip because of dwindling numbers. Perhaps some of the old timers have got to realise they have to move with the times.

“It has to be zero tolerance of any type of violence or harassment.”

One trainee soldier is said to have carried out the serious sex attack while a second filmed it. Another trainee soldier is understood to have overheard the attack being discussed in a toilet by the pair.

Senior officers were then alerted and two men, both in their mid-20s, were arrested by the Royal Military Police and placed in custody. It’s understood that mobile phones were seized and examined as part of the investigation.

Graham believes that last weeks incident will be investigated to a very high standard. He added: “I worked closely with the SIB in Monchengladbach, West Germany and Hong Kong for a total of four years whilst serving as a general duty military policeman.

“Allegations were always treated seriously when I was there, nothing was swept under the carpet. It won’t matter that the two suspects have only been in the army for a few weeks, they are subject to military law and treated just like anyone else.

“We were the first person to be called out when there was a sexual assault and it would then handed over to the SIB. It will be investigated very thoroughly.”

Graham is an author of books on the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury in 2018 and the IRA assassination of King Charles’s great uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979. He has also worked as a private security consultant providing personal protection services at home and abroad.

Yesterday Fife Labour MP Melanie Ward urged the victim of the sex attack to contact her office if he would like support. Ms Ward, who represents Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, said: “I am very concerned to hear about this and have raised it directly with the Ministry of Defence.”

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The army’s Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC) has confirmed the arrests. A spokesperson said: “Two members of the Armed Forces have been arrested following an investigation by the DSCC.

“As the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further.”

Last year, a record £3.2million was paid to compensate victims of rapes and other sexual assaults by military personnel, including £2.3million to Army staff.

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It comes as many Brits are worried their flights in May and early summer could be cancelled across numerous airlines, due to concerns of fuel shortages caused by the current Middle East conflict.

Supplies of jet fuel (which is used to fly planes) from the region have been disrupted since the US-Israel’s war with Iran because of Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international shipping route.

This has led to soaring prices and warnings that flights could be affected because of Europe’s reliance on fuel imports from around the world.

easyJet issues flight update to UK passengers amid fuel shortage fears

However, for those who are planning on flying with easyJet over the next few weeks, there is no need to worry, as at present the airline is seeing “no disruption to flights” and doesn’t plan on making “any changes” to its flight schedule.

A spokesperson for easyJet which is headquartered at London Luton Airport (LTN) told Newsquest today (April 21): “We are currently seeing no disruption to flights and don’t plan to make any changes to our flying schedule”.

It appears the airline is remaining positive about its flights going into summer too, specifically in July, as someone asked @easyJet on X: “@easyJet I have a holiday package booked with you in July, with the fuel shortage looking ever more likely, is this looking likely to cancelled?”

easyJet responded: “We understand that you’re concerned about the status of your holiday.

“We are currently not seeing disruption to jet fuel supply and engage with fuel suppliers and government to monitor the situation.

“We have no plans to make changes to our flying programme.”

TUI confirms it is ‘monitoring’ jet fuel shortages

Elsewhere, TUI has said it is “monitoring” jet fuel shortages as a result of the US-Israel and Iran war.

The update from the budget airline comes after another concerned passenger asked the question on social media regarding their holiday in May.

They said: “With the reported jet fuel shortages, are you expecting holidays from May 1 to be affected?”

TUI replied: “We’re closely monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East and its potential impact on global aviation fuel supplies.

“At present, we’re not anticipating any immediate disruption to our flight schedules or holiday programmes from fuel shortages.”

Earlier this month, a trade body for European airports warned over a “systemic” shortage of jet fuel ahead of the peak summer season if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen in the weeks ahead.

Welcome back to #TUITriviaTuesday! Which Nordic country is famous for fjords, trolls and vikings! 🔍 Hint…it is west of Sweden 🧭

— tuiuk (@TUIUK) April 14, 2026

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Airports Council International (ACI), which represents more than 600 airports, wrote a letter to the European commissioners for energy and transport and tourism.

The body’s director-general Olivier Jankovec wrote in the letter: “At this stage, we understand that if the passage through the Strait of Hormuz does not resume in any significant and stable way within the next three weeks, systemic jet fuel shortage is set to become a reality for the EU.

“The fact that we are entering the peak summer season… is only adding to those concerns.”

Which airline are you due to fly with, in the coming weeks? Let us know in the comments below.

Archaeologists have found a papyrus copy of Homer’s Iliad in the gut of an ancient Egyptian mummy, the first time ever that a Greek literary text has been found incorporated into the preservation process.

The discovery has big implications for our knowledge of funerary practices and religious life in ancient Egypt.

The papyrus fragment was discovered in the abdomen of a mummy buried in a Roman-era tomb in Oxyrhynchus around 1,600 years ago.

Oxyrhynchus, known in the Pharaonic times as Per-Medjed, was one of the most important cities of Greco-Roman Egypt. Its remains are in the present-day town of Al-Bahnasa, about 190km south of Cairo, next to the branch of the Nile known as Bahr Yussef.

Researchers from the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies at the University of Barcelona found the mummy during a recent excavation campaign carried out between November and December 2025.

They found the mummy featured an unusual element, a papyrus placed on the abdomen as part of the embalming ritual.

Egyptian mummies from this period have previously been found to carry papyri written in Greek, but they have all carried text of magical or ritualistic content.

The discovery of the Iliad papyrus marks the first time that a Greek literary text has been found in the embalming context, researchers note.

The epic poem, divided into 24 books, is attributed to Homer and dates back to 800BC.

It mainly focuses on the Trojan War and the heroic deeds and tragic fate of Achilles, the mightiest warrior of the Greek army.

The poem unfolds a few weeks into the final year of the war, depicting the wrath of Achilles after he’s slighted by the Greek commander Agamemnon, delving into themes of pride, fate, honour, and mortality.

It combines elements of ancient Greek culture and mythology, providing valuable insights into the values of the ancient Greeks, continuing to be relevant even in modern times, inspiring countless adaptations.

The identified Iliad text in the recent dig belongs to the catalogue of ships in Book II of the epic poem, researchers say.

It contains a famous passage listing the Greek forces massing before Troy.

Researchers said they were unsure why this particular Greek text was chosen for the mummification process.

Roman-era mummification in Oxyrhynchus combined traditional Egyptian, Greek, and Roman customs.

Ancient Egyptian priests of the time focused on preserving bodies for over 40 days, using natron salt to dehydrate them and wrapping them up in linen.

Instead of using traditional canopic jars to preserve organs, they preferred to pack the body with preserved materials along with papyri containing Greek literature sealed with clay inside the chest or pelvic cavity.

Coffins and wrappings frequently displayed a mixture of Egyptian and Roman motifs.

“This is not the first time we have found Greek papyri, bundled, sealed, and incorporated into the mummification process, but until now, their content was mainly magical,” Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a professor in the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages, said.

“Furthermore, it is worth noting that since the late 19th century, a huge number of papyri have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus, including Greek literary texts of great importance, but the real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context.”

So far, excavations at Oxyrhynchus have revealed three limestone chambers containing Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi.

Previous campaigns in the ancient city led to the discovery of 52 Ptolemaic-era mummies, of which over a dozen had “golden tongues”, a symbol of preparation for the afterlife.

Hull and East Riding Friends of the Earth (HERFoE) has launched Tree Stories, a new project encouraging residents to reconnect with the living landscape in their communities.

Backed by £17,090 from the national lottery community fund, the two-year programme aims to inspire people to care for existing trees, support new planting, and explore the ways trees shape daily life.

Lauren Saunders, project artist and climate artist at HERFoE, said: “Tree Stories is about making space for many different ways of noticing, valuing and caring for trees.

“Whether your starting point is science, creativity, memory or everyday experience, this project invites people to build deeper relationships with the trees that shape our shared landscapes.”

Members of the public are invited to tell the story of a tree in their community, sharing creative responses, ecological observations, memories, historical research or hopes for new plantings.

A previous creative commission by Hull and East Riding Friends of the Earth – “Where beings are” (Image: Lauren Summers)

These stories will be added to a growing online ‘Digital Forest’ – an interactive map showcasing tree stories across the East Riding and Kingston-upon-Hull.

The project builds on local surveys highlighting strong public support for more green spaces, alongside HERFoE’s ongoing work to protect trees.

Originally conceived as an ‘adopt-a-tree’ scheme, it has grown into a broader community effort that blends creative, scientific, heritage and community-led approaches to nature connection.

Submissions are welcome in text, images or audio-visual formats, and can be sent online or by post.

To ensure the project is accessible, key resources are available in Romanian, Polish, Kurdish (Sorani), and Arabic through a partnership with Hull-based translation service Language Is Everything.

The programme will include free workshops, talks, walks and community events.

These will offer opportunities to learn about tree care and planting, while also exploring artistic and cultural connections to trees.

Friends of the Earth member Hilary picking litter from a local wooded area in East Yorkshire (Image: Supplied)

Lauren Saunders said: “Tree Stories invites people to slow down, notice and build relationships with the trees they live alongside – to see them as part of our shared community.

“Through observation, creativity, curiosity and shared knowledge, we can strengthen our collective responsibility for the places we call home.”

Tree Stories launches today, which is also Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

HERFoE is inviting community groups and public-facing organisations across the East Riding and Kingston-upon-Hull to take part, whether tree-focused or not.

Partners will be able to connect with new audiences, raise the profile of their work and contribute to a growing, county-wide celebration of trees and community action.

A dedicated Partner Pack and digital resources will be available to help organisations get involved.

For more information, visit hfoe.org.uk/treestories.

US Vice President JD Vance will again lead the American delegation

Donald Trump says he ‘expects to be bombing Iran’ and that the US military is ‘raring to go’ as JD Vance departs for eleventh‑hour talks in Pakistan.

The US President told CNBC he had no intention of prolonging the two‑week ceasefire with Tehran as the deadline approaches, insisting Washington now holds the upper hand and is “going to end up with a great deal”.

Fresh negotiations in Islamabad are already overshadowed by uncertainty, set against a tense stand‑off in the Strait of Hormuz that continues to disrupt global shipping and unsettle energy markets.

The effective closure of the critical supply route during the conflict has inflicted a global economic shock and sent energy prices soaring.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who has been holding discussions with counterparts aimed at safeguarding the strategic waterway, has described it as “a critical diplomatic moment” in the crisis.

US Vice President JD Vance will again lead the American delegation while Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf has been tipped as Tehran’s chief negotiator.

The timing of the talks has not been confirmed, and the White House said Mr Vance was still in Washington on Tuesday afternoon.

Threatening to resume strikes if a deal is not struck with Iran soon, Mr Trump said: “Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with. But, you know, we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”

Mr Trump also said he did not want to extend the current ceasefire, which he said runs out on Wednesday. He told CNBC: “I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time.”

The president added: “What I think is that we’re going to end up with a great deal. I think they (Iran) have no choice. We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders.”

He again claimed “regime change” and said those now in charge were “much more rational”. Mr Trump said: “I think we’re in a very strong negotiating position to do what other presidents should have done during a 47-year period.”

Meanwhile, Mr Qalibaf has accused the US president of seeking to turn the negotiating table into a “table of surrender”. “We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats,” he wrote in an X post and said Iran was preparing “to reveal new cards on the battlefield”.

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In the UK, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer held talks with ministers and officials on the Government’s work to ease pressures on the public caused by the conflict.

The Middle East Response Committee discussed ongoing contingency planning such as work with fuel suppliers, airlines and international counterparts, a Government spokesperson said.

They also talked about diplomacy to support negotiations between the US and Iran, military planning as part of the post-war mission to keep the Strait of Hormuz open co-led with France, and wider measures such as efforts to weaken the link between gas and electricity prices.

As Game Pass undergoes a major overhaul and Project Helix edges closer to release, GameCentral asks whether the glory days of the Xbox 360 will ever come again.

When Phil Spencer was still in charge of Xbox, he used to balk at the idea that the Xbox 360 was the golden age of the brand, arguing that there are more people playing Xbox today (by which he meant the console, PC, and streaming) than there ever was in the late 2000s. But that was missing the point. The Xbox 360 maintains its reputation as the best Xbox console for many reasons but the most important is that it was the only time Microsoft was leading the conversation in the industry.

The Xbox 360 sold less than both the PlayStation 3 and Wii and yet still most people refer to that generation as the Xbox 360 era. That’s not because anyone cares how many it sold but because it set the pace for the generation, in terms of introducing new ideas – from indie downloads to Achievements – and had better first party support than Sony, while being the lead format for almost all third party games.

It’s a common argument that competition benefits everyone and the Xbox 360 is clear proof of that. Without Xbox keeping Sony on their toes, the introduction of online features to PlayStation formats would have been much slower. The PlayStation 4, in particular, was a pointed response to the lessons learned from Xbox and the console’s outstanding first party line-up would likely have never existed without its stimulus.

Despite all Microsoft’s money they never again had that sort of influence over the games industry, with the Xbox One selling less than the Xbox 360 and the Xbox Series X/S less than both. Something had to change and inevitably that meant replacing Spencer, with new boss Asha Sharma – who has no experience in the games industry and barely seems to have played any games before.

That should not count against her though, as many execs have little or no experience in game development (reportedly, legendary Nintendo boss Hiroshi Yamauchi could barely use a controller) and Spencer being a self-avowed gamer did not seem to help anything.

Sharma’s first few months on the job have mostly consisted of mood talk, as she insists that she won’t ‘chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop’, despite that being precisely what everyone expects from Microsoft at the moment.

It’s easy to assume that the next gen Project Helix hardware was designed with AI in mind, given Microsoft’s attachment to the technology and the threat of not just Gaming Copilot but generating whole games with AI. In addition, Sharma’s background is with generative AI, so backing away from it completely seems very unlikely.

The first part of her statement is just as important, as one problem with Xbox since the very beginning has been short-termism. Perhaps blinded by its own wealth, Microsoft is always looking for a short cut and time and again has proven itself happy to rip up the roots of the business just to chase the latest trend.

Its support for the original Xbox was cut short as soon as they realised it wasn’t an instant hit, the Xbox 360’s time in the sun lasted only a scant few years before the introduction of Kinect (an attempt to copy the Wii) and the deterioration of its first party studios, the Xbox One started its life trying to be anything but a games console, and the Xbox Series X/S bet everything on Game Pass… and lost.

The big annoucement this week was that Game Pass prices are being cut, following a previous increase, and that Call Of Duty will no longer be part of it from day one. That’s a sensible U-turn, but there’s still no sign that Microsoft has accepted the fact that most people have no need for a video game subscription service and don’t want to pay for games that way.

With rumours of another massive round of lay-offs coming up, it’s unclear what other changes Sharma will make. The return of Halo and Gears Of War will be important steps forward, but they were initiated before she started. There’s been talk of her bringing back console exclusives but that seem very unlikely given how small the Xbox Series X/S userbase is and how unlikely it is Project Helix will do better (not least because, according to Microsoft, it will be very expensive).

For a long time now, it’s seemed as if Microsoft is just treading water, aware that they are unable to break Sony’s stranglehold on the games market. It often feels like they’re just biding their time until video game streaming becomes practical for everyone – at which point they will have an instant and potentially unassailable advantage over their rivals. And yet playing the waiting game doesn’t seem to be Microsoft’s style.

The company’s impatience is most obvious in its constantly changing marketing focus, which ping pongs from one feature to another with the attention span of a bored toddler. Sharma was praised for killing the ridiculous ‘This is an Xbox’ campaign, almost as soon as she took over, but at the same time that means yet another switch in brand messaging.

There are some things that never change at Microsoft, including the way current and previous execs always seem to talk as if Xbox is a market leader, despite the fact that it’s very clearly not. Sharma immediately fell into this trap and while it wouldn’t matter so much if it was just an act, most execs seem to end up believing their own hype, which then goes on to adversely influence their decision making.

Xbox’s other big problem has been its inability to appeal to anyone outside of North America and the UK. Occasionally, it half-heartedly acknowledges the importance of Japan but it has never had the exclusive games or publisher relationships necessary to succeed there. Continental Europe has been much the same, with Xbox’s marketing attempts amounting to nothing more than the occasional FIFA bundle (‘They like soccer there, right?’) while they give the job of translating the Xbox dashboard and documentation to AI, with predictably incoherent results.

By this point, these failings seem baked in at Microsoft but the biggest issue for Sharma is the simple question of what is the purpose of Xbox? What is its trying to do or be? As a console format it’s never been less popular and its ecosystem offers little tangible appeal to anyone else. People can be drawn into it via the right kind of exclusives but, as mentioned, that prospect seems unlikely.

This year’s Forza Horizon 6 will be a huge hit on PlayStation 5, and there’s a chance the Fable reboot will be too, but that doesn’t make Xbox any different from a third party publisher like EA or Ubisoft. Which is fine, as long as you’re making money, but Microsoft’s aspirations have always been greater than that.

They got into the games industry to prevent Sony from taking over the living room with PlayStation, a concern that smartphones rendered irrelevant. So what is the goal now? Xbox Game Studios is already the biggest games publisher in the West, simply by virtue of owning Activision Blizzard, but so what?

Despite that, Xbox’s influence on the games industry has never been more insubstantial. Neither friend nor foe seems to care what they do and, unlike in the Xbox 360 days, they have no big ideas that everyone’s trying to catch up with and implement themselves.

That is what Is needed though and the worst case scenario is that they’ve convinced themselves it’s AI. One can only hope that the response to DLSS 5 has disabused them of that, but if they have seen sense they still need something else. Not just a selling point but a sign that they understand the games industry and its future better than anyone else.

If you’re a PlayStation owner you should hope they come up with something, so that they can in turn light a fire under an increasingly complacent Sony. Competition is good for the industry, but Xbox has not provided any for a worryingly long time.

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