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As originally spotted over in a Resetera thread, the prices of Xbox Series S and Series X have just gone up (the change is reflected on the Microsoft Germany website too). The new changes are as follows:

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This means the 1 TB model of the Xbox Series S now costs more than the 1 TB Xbox Series X console. As well as this, in June, Microsoft started sunsetting the 2 TB model, citing component costs. And Xbox hardware is seemingly already struggling to sell. As revealed on the latest earnings call, Xbox hardware revenue decreased by a whopping 29% "driven by lower volume of consoles sold."

As pointed out by VGC, Microsoft did previously confirm price hikes, but only in the US. With increases of $100-$150 across the board, Europe actually appears to have been hit worse by the changes. The 512 GB Xbox Series S got a $100 rise in the US, but a £130 (around $175) increase in the UK

Even though higher-priced hardware is bad for pretty much everyone in the gaming industry, there is some schadenfreude to be felt here. That's because console pricing is only so bad because of the memory crisis, and AI growth has led to that memory crisis. In turn, Microsoft has put a lot of money into AI, so as our Tyler puts it, "Microsoft doesn't know what to do about the memory pricing crisis Microsoft is causing."

Unfortunately, all signs suggest the memory crisis isn't ending soon. Samsung, one of the big three memory manufacturers, has warned of a 'severe' memory supply crisis next year, and it will likely take some time for supply to catch up with demand.

With the next generation of consoles still expected to launch at the end of 2027, or perhaps into 2028, it seems likely that whatever Sony and Microsoft do next will be hit by the same memory pricing and supply issues.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Both companies will likely take some losses on consoles to make it back in software, but even a small loss is unlikely to make a big dent in the astronomical prices of memory for the foreseeable future.

James is a more recent PC gaming convert, often admiring graphics cards, cases, and motherboards from afar. It was not until 2019, after just finishing a degree in law and media, that they decided to throw out the last few years of education, build their PC, and start writing about gaming instead. In that time, he has covered the latest doodads, contraptions, and gismos, and loved every second of it. Hey, it’s better than writing case briefs. %!s()

Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, starring Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller, will open the section at the Bosnian film festival, with Danis Tanović’s 2001 film No Man’s Land set to close it. The movie takes place in 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By a twist of fate, Čiki, a soldier in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, finds himself trapped in the same trench as Nino, a Bosnian Serb soldier.

Also premiering in the program is Luna’s film about two siblings forced to leave Mexico and head to Madrid to reunite with their mother, who had left a few years earlier to chase a better future. When they arrive, however, the bitter, suffocating reality that awaits them proves far harsher than imagined. Luna spoke to The Hollywood Reporter at Cannes about the making of the film and why it was a deeply personal project.

Also screening is Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, another feature from Cannes, following a successful company director called Gleb, who finds himself under siege from mounting corporate pressures and an increasingly unstable world. The collapse of his carefully ordered life accelerates towards violence.

The Berlinale opener No Good Men from Shahrbanoo Sadat is also set for a Sarajevo premiere. It focuses on Naru, the only camerawoman at Kabul’s main TV station, who struggles to keep custody of her three-year-old son after leaving her husband, a serial cheater. Convinced no good men exist in her country, Naru is caught off guard when Qodrat, Kabul TV’s most respected journalist, gives her a career opportunity.

Among other movies premiering in this section are Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, and Michael Winterbottom’s 1997 film Welcome to Sarajevo, in honor of the recently announced Honorary Heart of Sarajevo recipient Woody Harrelson.

Also on Monday, the Sarajevo Film Festival unveiled its Open Air Premiere program, which brings together the most anticipated new films from the region of the former Yugoslavia. These movies are screened at UNIQA Open Air Cinema Stari Grad, and the best film — selected by audiences — will receive the Prix Cineplexx.

Among the features in this selection are Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After, Miha Hočevar’s Hidden People, and Marijana Jankovic’s Home. Igor Jelinović’s Honey Bunny will screen, as will Darko Štante’s The Lost Son, Predrag Ličina’s The Virus of Pathological Kindness, and Hari Šečić’s The Widower, about a 62-year-old electrician who was raised and lives in a patriarchal society. When his daily routine changes after the sudden death of his wife, Enisa, Mirsad tries to get used to a life without her and soon realizes that he took her for granted.

The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival will take place Aug. 14-21. %!s()

A new study led by Boston University and published in Science Advances suggests that this atmospheric loss can resemble wind moving across water. On Earth, wind passing over a body of water can create rolling waves and swirling vortices. At Mars, the solar wind appears to produce a similar effect by "stirring" the outer boundary of the upper atmosphere.

This interaction generates enormous boundary waves called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves.

First author Chi Zhang, a research scientist at BU's Center for Space Physics, a collaboration between BU's College of Arts & Sciences and College of Engineering, worked with colleagues to analyze data from the MAVEN and Tianwen-1 missions. Tianwen-1 measured the incoming solar wind before it reached Mars, while MAVEN tracked atmospheric ions escaping near the planet.

By combining the two sets of observations, the researchers could directly compare changing solar wind conditions with the movement of Martian atmospheric particles into space.

Two Spacecraft Reveal Atmospheric Escape

Large clouds of plasma in the upper atmosphere can produce what researchers call the "bulk escape" of atmospheric ions. Scientists had previously proposed several possible explanations for how these clouds formed, but their origin remained uncertain because direct evidence was limited.

One major obstacle was that a single spacecraft could not observe the undisturbed solar wind upstream of Mars while also measuring atmospheric ions escaping closer to the planet.

In an earlier study published in Nature Communications, Zhang and his colleagues showed that simultaneous measurements from MAVEN and Tianwen-1 could connect changes in the incoming solar wind with conditions around Mars. The new Science Advances study builds on that work and identifies Kelvin-Helmholtz waves as an important mechanism behind atmospheric ion loss.

The researchers found clear evidence that these waves generate the large plasma clouds associated with atmospheric escape. They also discovered that the process is not distributed evenly around Mars.

"Instead, it is mainly observed on one side of the planet, depending on the direction of the solar wind electric field," said Zhang.

The findings provide a direct connection between Kelvin-Helmholtz waves and increased atmospheric ion escape from Mars.

Measuring the Waves That Drain Mars

"Future research will focus on identifying the conditions that favor the formation and growth of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves and determining how much they contribute to atmospheric escape from Mars," Zhang noted.

Answering those questions will require additional spacecraft measurements and advanced computer simulations. MAVEN is now moving toward the closeout stage of its mission, but researchers expect future missions to continue its work.

"Its rich scientific legacy will be complemented by NASA's ESCAPADE mission, which has already launched and will provide an important new opportunity to investigate solar-wind-driven atmospheric loss at Mars," said Zhang.

"We want to know when these waves are most likely to form, how they evolve, and how strongly they can drive atmospheric escape," said Chuanfei Dong, a BU Center for Space Physics faculty member and a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of astronomy. "This process could also occur on other planets that lack a strong magnetic field, including some exoplanets."

A Clue to Mars' Lost Habitability

Understanding atmospheric escape could help explain the dramatic transformation Mars experienced over its history.

"Mars is thought to have once been potentially habitable, with a thicker atmosphere and surface liquid water. Understanding how it became the cold, dry planet we see today is important for understanding how planetary environments evolve over time," said Zhang. %!s()

Coastal Residents Face Faster Sea Level Rise

More than half a billion people live in low-lying coastal zones, placing them on the front lines of one of climate change's most serious challenges.

A team from the German Geodetic Research Institute at TUM (DGFI-TUM) and Tulane University in New Orleans reports in Nature Communications that people living in heavily populated coastal regions experience an average relative sea level rise of about 6 millimeters per year.

That rate is nearly three times the coastline-weighted global average of 2.1 millimeters per year, which represents the mean relative increase recorded along coastlines worldwide. It is also almost twice the climate-driven absolute sea level rise of approximately 3.15 millimeters per year.

The main reason for the difference is land subsidence, the gradual sinking of the ground beneath coastal cities and communities.

What Causes Coastal Land to Sink

The precise cause of subsidence is not always easy to determine because several forces can operate at the same time.

Among the most important contributors are heavy groundwater pumping, oil and gas extraction, the compression of relatively young sediments in river deltas, and the weight of expanding urban areas. Natural processes also contribute, including tectonic movement and adjustments in the Earth's crust following the loss of ancient ice sheets.

"If we want to understand sea-level rise along coastlines and respond effectively, we must not only observe the ocean but also the land itself. Especially in densely populated coastal regions, human activities cause the land to subside more strongly - often due to excessive extraction of water and resources that previously stabilized the subsurface. The sheer weight of cities, along with long-term geological processes, can further intensify this subsidence. In doing so, we significantly amplify the effects of climate-driven sea-level rise," says Dr. Julius Oelsmann, lead author of the study and researcher at DGFI-TUM.

Some Cities Are Sinking Extremely Fast

Thailand, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, China, and Indonesia are among the countries experiencing the highest relative sea level rise. Their population-weighted coastal averages range from roughly 7 to 10 millimeters per year.

The United States, the Netherlands, and Italy also have elevated rates, averaging approximately 4 to 5 millimeters per year.

Several major coastal cities stand out as subsidence hot spots. Average sinking rates include Jakarta (13.7 mm/year), Tianjin (13.5 mm/year), Bangkok (8.5 mm/year), Lagos (6.7 mm/year), and Alexandria (4 mm/year).

Conditions can differ sharply even within the same city. In Jakarta, some locations are sinking by as much as 42 millimeters per year, while other sections are rising at the same time.

Rising Land Can Offset Sea Level Changes

Not every coastline is moving downward. In Sweden and Finland, geological uplift is producing a relative decline in sea level along parts of the coast.

The land in these regions is still rising because of postglacial rebound following the last Ice Age - and the uplift is occurring faster than the sea is rising.

Groundwater Policies Can Slow Subsidence

Although some causes of sinking land are natural, groundwater use is one factor that governments and communities can directly influence.

"In many large coastal cities, groundwater extraction is a major driver of land subsidence. This means that local political and water-management decisions can make a significant difference. Improved groundwater management, stricter regulation of withdrawals, or targeted recharge of aquifers can at least slow subsidence rates and, in some cases, largely halt them," says Florian Seitz, Professor of Geodetic Geodynamics and Director of the German Geodetic Research Institute at TUM (DGFI-TUM).

Tokyo offers a prominent example of how regulation can reduce the problem. The city once experienced subsidence exceeding 10 centimeters per year, with the worst affected locations sinking by around 24 centimeters annually.

Government action and the development of alternative water supplies eventually brought those rates down substantially.

A similar response took place in the Harris-Galveston region of Texas, where extensive groundwater withdrawal had become the primary cause of sinking land. Officials created the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District in 1975 to regulate groundwater use, encourage alternative water sources, and promote water conservation. %!s()

Video of the incident some 65 km (42 miles) west of the capital Athens, shows one of the Bell helicopters hitting the propellers of the other, which bursts into flames. Both fell into a ravine.

Several fires have broken out in Greece this week, prompting mass evacuations. Several other European nations have suffered devastating wildfires after a succession of prolonged heatwaves.

According to the Greek Fire Service, the two leased Bell helicopters collided while taking part in efforts to tackle a large wildfire burning on the Attica-Boeotia border.

The crew members of one aircraft were rescued alive, while the second crew were recovered unconscious and later pronounced dead.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his "deepest sorrow" over the accident.

In a post on X, he said the loss of the Greek coordinator and Danish pilot "fills us all with grief". He also sent condolences to their families.

According to protocol, all Bell helicopters across the country have been grounded, a source from the Ministry of Civil Protection told the BBC.

The source added that the second Bell helicopter involved in the collision made an emergency landing in an area of low vegetation.

"The two people on board, a British pilot and a Greek fire service liaison officer – escaped with minor injuries," the source said.

"Both remained conscious and have been admitted to hospital, where they will remain under observation for 24 hours as a precaution."

Erickson Air-Crane and Chinook helicopters, as well as Canadair water-bombing aircraft are continuing to carry out firefighting efforts.

Early this week, France and Spain battled huge fires - two of the main ones were close to Madrid and Bordeaux respectively. Those have now been contained, though they are still burning. Some 300,000 people who were evacuated have started to return to their homes.

In Greece, media reports describe "a titanic battle" along a swathe of territory that includes Porto Germeno, Psatha, Fokida, Megara and Kefalonia, where more than 500 firefighters have been struggling to bring the situation under control over the past 72 hours.

Most wildfires are sparked by people, whether intentionally or accidentally, but climate change is making the conditions for them more common.

Last winter was mild and wet, encouraging vegetation growth, which has then dried out in successive hot spells, generating fuel for wildfires. %!s()