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The Kansas City Chiefs aim for a historic hat-trick of Super Bowl titles on Sunday when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in front of a star-studded crowd in New Orleans headed by US President Donald Trump.Trump will become the first sitting president ever to attend the NFL showpiece when he takes his seat among a sell-out crowd of around 74,000 fans at the Superdome for the biggest annual event in the American sporting calendar, which kicks off at 5:30pm local time (2330 GMT).Pop superstar Taylor Swift will also be in the VIP seats to watch as her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his fellow Chiefs bid to become the first team in history to lift three consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophies.Trump’s presence at the NFL showpiece will mean even tighter security than normal around an event which was already bolstered by a heavy police presence following a New Year’s Day attack which left 14 people dead and many more injured on the Big Easy’s famous Bourbon Street.Trump has had a strained relationship with the NFL stretching back several decades, and triggered uproar during his first time in 2017 when he attacked the patriotism of players who kneeled during the playing of the US national anthem in a protest against racial injustice.Speaking in a pre-game interview aired on Fox News, Trump said his decision to attend this year’s Super Bowl was for the good of the country.”I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the President be at the game,” Trump told Fox. “It’s an iconic day. It’s going to be a great game, two great teams, and let’s see what happens,” Trump added, revealing that he was tipping Kansas City for victory, citing the record of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is eyeing his fourth Super Bowl win.”When a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City,” Trump said. “I have to go with Kansas City.”Trump was due to fly into New Orleans from Florida, where he reportedly played a round of golf with Tiger Woods earlier Sunday. A schedule released by the White House said he is expected to leave the Superdome at around 8.05pm local time, well before the game reaches its conclusion.Super Bowl fans on Sunday welcomed Trump’s attendance at the game.”I think it is awesome, congratulations to him for being the first President to make it,” Bob Benderovich, a Philadelphia Eagles fan from Fort Myers, Florida, told AFP.- Chiefs favorites -As always, the Super Bowl crosses over into popular culture and the half-time show this year will feature hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, who had a clean sweep at last Sunday’s Grammys, winning in all five categories for which he received nominations.Bookmakers and casinos meanwhile are taking odds on whether Chiefs star Kelce will propose to pop icon Swift after what might be his final game in the NFL. For the more serious punters, the oddsmakers have the Chiefs as slight favorite for the game, a rematch of the Super Bowl from two years ago which the Chiefs won by three points.They defended their title last year, beating the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas and putting them one win away from an unprecedented “three-peat.”The 29-year-old Mahomes will become one of just four quarterbacks in National Football League history to have won more than three Super Bowls should he triumph again, having first led the Chiefs to Super Bowl glory in 2020.But the Eagles have added serious offensive firepower since their defeat two years ago with mobile quarterback Jalen Hurts joined by the game-changing speed and power of running back Saquon Barkley.The Chiefs put the finishing touches to their game preparations Saturday with a 30-minute walkthrough of a mock game.Chiefs coach Andy Reid saluted his team’s attitude to training over the whole week since arriving in Louisiana.”I thought the guys worked hard, they got done what they needed to get done,” Reid said.The Eagles had a similarly relaxed final session before going to the Superdome on Saturday for a team photo.Head coach Nick Sirianni said his Eagles were “hungry” and “ready to roll.””We’re ready for the challenge against a really good team,” Sirianni said.

US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will imperil attempts to forge landmark ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and fuel anti-American sentiment in the oil-rich kingdom, analysts said.Trump’s proposal to redevelop Gaza and oust the more than two million Palestinians living in the territory prompted a global backlash and enraged the Arab world, making it difficult for the Saudis to consider normalisation.”If this is going to be his policy, he shut the door on Saudi recognition of Israel,” James Dorsey, researcher at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, told AFP.Recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is seen as a grand prize of Middle East diplomacy intended to calm chronic tensions in the region.But Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and the Middle East’s largest economy, now faces the spectre of instability on its borders if neighbouring Jordan and Egypt suddenly house large numbers of Gaza exiles.At the same time, Riyadh must maintain cordial relations with Washington, its long-time security guarantor and bulwark against key regional player Iran.”When it comes to security, Saudi Arabia has nowhere to go but to Washington,” Dorsey said. “There’s nobody else. It’s not China. They’re not willing and they’re not able. “And post-Ukraine, do you want to rely on Russia?”- Quick reaction -The Saudis were engaged in tentative talks on normalisation via the United States until the outbreak of the Gaza war, when they paused the negotiations and hardened their position.They reacted with unusual speed to Trump’s proposal, made during an appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.About an hour after his comments, at around 4:00 am Saudi time, the foreign ministry posted a statement on X that “reaffirms its unequivocal rejection of… attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.In the same statement, the Saudis rejected Netanyahu’s comment that normalisation was “going to happen”, repeating their insistence there would be no ties without a Palestinian state.Trump’s plan carries real risks for Riyadh, which is throwing everything at an ambitious post-oil economic makeover that relies on stability to attract business and tourism.If Gazans are displaced to Egypt and Jordan, it “will weaken two countries essential to regional stability and particularly to Saudi security”, said Saudi researcher Aziz Alghashian.”Trump’s plan, coupled with Netanyahu’s approach, poses major risks for Saudi Arabia. “It highlights that they are not true partners for peace in Riyadh’s eyes — especially Netanyahu, who appears to want all the benefits without making concessions.”- ‘Making normalisation harder’ -Trump’s declarations “will further destabilise the region and fuel anti-American sentiment, particularly in Saudi Arabia”, said Anna Jacobs, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.”He is making Saudi-Israel normalisation harder, not easier.”Andreas Krieg of King’s College London said Saudi Arabia would not agree meekly to normalisation if ordered by Washington.Prior to the Gaza war, the Saudis were negotiating for security guarantees and help building a civilian nuclear programme in return for Israeli ties.”They are not a US vassal state and so they’re not just taking a diktat from Trump,” said Andreas Krieg of King’s College London.”And I think it will stand firm on their positions, willing to negotiate here and there. But the principal red lines remain.”Nobody in Saudi Arabia has an interest in selling out Palestinian statehood. That is the last and the most important bargaining chip that the Saudis have in terms of authority and legitimacy in the Arab and Muslim world.”But the question is how Saudi Arabia and its 39-year-old de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will proceed.”I don’t think that the Saudis will take any major steps now,” said Krieg.”They obviously have their own levers that they can use for pressure on America, particularly in the energy sector. I don’t think the Saudis will want to use it at this point.”

“Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars.The black comedy from director Sean Baker, about an erotic dancer’s whirlwind romance gone wrong, picked up the prestigious Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America top awards, just a day after capturing the foremost US critics’ prize.”My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now!” said Baker, a 53-year-old indie director, previously best known in arthouse circles for his empathetic portrayals of life in US subcultures, as he accepted his prize at a swanky Beverly Hills DGA gala.Baker thanked his producers for being “able to pull off a $6 million film, shot on film, in New York City in 2023 — almost impossible.””Anora” won the Cannes film festival top prize Palme d’Or back in May, yet had more recently lagged behind other films including “Emilia Perez” in terms of Oscar nominations.Besides Saturday’s coup, “Anora” also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday, propelling it as a renewed favorite for the Academy Awards — which will take place on March 2.Accepting his prize from Christoper Nolan, last year’s DGA winner, Baker joked that campaigning for Hollywood’s seemingly never-ending awards season had made him feel like he was “actually doing work” for “the first time.””I’ve been able to play — and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, being able to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since I was five years old,” said Baker.He also thanked his mother for supporting his career — but the director, whose films mainly center around sex work and pornography, admitted he was glad she had not seen his latest, somewhat graphic project.Nineteen of the past 21 DGA winners have gone on to also win the Oscar for best director that same year, including the last two winners — “Oppenheimer” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”The DGA prize for best movie from a first-time filmmaker went to another Oscar best picture nominee, “Nickel Boys,” from RaMell Ross.Ross, whose film about abuses at a 1960s Florida reform school for juvenile boys — shot as if from the eyes of its characters — said it was too “rare” to see the Black gaze represented in Hollywood cinema.Meanwhile across town in Los Angeles Saturday, “Anora” also won the PGA top prize.

The Kansas City Chiefs aim for a historic hat-trick of Super Bowl titles on Sunday when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in front of a star-studded crowd in New Orleans headed by US President Donald Trump.Trump, a strident critic of the National Football League over the years, will become the first sitting president ever to attend the Super Bowl when he takes his seat among a sell-out crowd of around 74,000 fans at the Caesars Superdome for the  biggest annual event in the American sporting calendar.Pop superstar Taylor Swift will also be in the VIP seats to watch as her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Chiefs team-mates bid to become the first team in history to lift three consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophies.Trump’s presence at the NFL showpiece will heighten security around an event which was already protected by a heavy police presence following the New Year’s Day attack which left 14 people dead and many more injured in the Big Easy’s famous Bourbon Street district.”I’m confident the safest place this weekend will be under the security umbrella we have in place around (the Superdome),” Cathy Lanier, the NFL’s chief security officer, said this week. “We have reviewed, and re-reviewed, all the events of January 1.”Trump’s groundbreaking attendance at the game comes against a backdrop of a strained relationship with the NFL stretching back several decades, when he sought to join the league as an owner in the early 1980s only to be rebuffed.Trump also triggered uproar during his first term as president when in 2017 he criticized NFL players who knelt during the playing of the US national anthem to draw attention to issues of racial injustice.Players in Sunday’s game have so far walked a diplomatic line when asked about Trump’s presence, with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes saying playing in front of the US leader would be “cool.”Fans in New Orleans meanwhile expressed hope that Trump does not politicize the occasion.”I’m hoping that basically he comes in and he’s at his seat and they kind of like keep it quiet. I just want it to be a fun game and not be political,” Debra Ward, a teacher from Virginia, told AFP.As always, the Super Bowl crosses over into popular culture and the half-time show this year will feature hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, who had a clean sweep at last Sunday’s Grammys, winning in all five categories for which he received nominations.Bookmakers and casinos meanwhile are taking odds on whether Chiefs star Kelce will propose to pop icon Swift after what might be his final game in the NFL. Reports late Saturday said the 35-year-old is considering retirement after the Super Bowl. American sports books, now legal in 38 states, could take an estimated $1.39 billion in bets on the Super Bowl according to an annual report from the American Gaming Association (AGA).- Chiefs favourites -For the more serious punters, the oddsmakers have the Chiefs as slight favourite for the game, a rematch of the Super Bowl from two years ago which the Chiefs won by three points.The Chiefs defended their title last year, beating the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas and putting them one win away from an unprecedented “three-peat”.The 29-year-old Mahomes will become one of just four quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to have won more than three Super Bowls should he triumph again, having first led the Chiefs to Super Bowl glory in 2020.But the Eagles have added serious offensive firepower since their defeat two years ago with mobile quarterback Jalen Hurts joined by the game-changing speed and power of running back Saquon Barkley.The Chiefs put the finishing touches to their Super Bowl preparations on Saturday with a 30-minute walkthrough of a mock game.Chiefs coach Andy Reid saluted his team’s attitude to training over the whole week since arriving in Louisiana.”I thought the guys worked hard, they got done what they needed to get done,” Reid said.The Eagles had a similarly relaxed final session before heading to the Superdome on Saturday for a team photo.Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said his players were “hungry” and “ready to roll.””We’re ready for the challenge against a really good team,” Sirianni said.

Sony PlayStation’s online services came back online on Saturday, the Japanese group said, after a 24-hour outage frustrated gamers around the world. PlayStation Network “has been restored. You should be able to access online features without any problems now,” said a statement on X around midnight GMT Sunday, 24 hours after a message acknowledged users were experiencing “difficulty launching games, apps or network features.” “Sorry for the inconvenience!” the post added, without providing further details on the reasons for the outage. The network’s failure prevented many owners of Sony consoles including the PS4 and the PS5 from playing multiplayer games such as the hugely popular “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.”  The specialized site DownDetector.com had reported that users’ difficulties peaked sharply around 7:00 pm US Eastern time on Friday (midnight GMT Saturday), before falling steadily, but not quite returning to normal levels. Players expressed impatience and anger on social media during the outage. One user said on X that it was “criminal” to have a PlayStation outage on a Friday evening, but another quipped more equably that it was time for him to reintroduce himself to the woman he married five years ago. 

A resurgence of avian flu, which first struck the United States in 2022, is hitting chicken farms hard, sending egg prices soaring and rattling consumers accustomed to buying this dietary staple for only a few dollars.In Washington and its suburbs, supermarket egg shelves are now often empty, or sparsely stocked. Some stores limit the number of cartons each client may buy. And everywhere, consumers are shocked by the high prices. “They’re getting expensive,” 26-year-old student Samantha Lopez told AFP as she shopped in a supermarket in the US capital. “It’s kind of difficult… My budget for food is already very tight.”The situation is much the same in the southern state of Florida. “Eggs are important (and) so nutritious,” said Miami resident Blanche De Jesus, “but you can hardly buy them because they are so expensive. It is a shame.”Responding to irate consumers, a Washington supermarket posted this explanation: “You may notice a price increase on eggs at this time due to the recent avian influenza outbreak in the Midwest,” the country’s agricultural heartland.More than 21 million egg-laying hens have been euthanized this year because of the disease, according to data published Friday by the US Agriculture Department. Most of them were in the states of Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri.The department reported the “depopulation” of a further 13.2 million in December.Higher prices were the inevitable result, experts say.”If there’s no birds to lay eggs… then we have a supply shortage, and that leads to higher prices because of supply and demand dynamics,” said Jada Thompson, a poultry specialist at the University of Arkansas.- ‘Near-record highs’ -Some grocers are “holding prices at record or near-record highs to dampen demand,” the Agriculture Department said.The average price of a dozen Grade A eggs was 65 percent higher in December compared to a year before — rising from $2.50 to $4.15, according to official data.  Supermarkets are not the only ones feeling the pain. Waffle House, a popular restaurant chain known for its all-day breakfast menu, made headlines when it moved to charge customers an extra 50 cents per egg.  “The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices,” Waffle House said in a statement to CNN. “Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.”In the United States, the virus is being found not only in poultry but also in dairy cows.Sixty-seven cases have been detected in humans since the beginning of last year, nearly all of them proving benign and linked to known contacts with infected animals.Americans are among the world’s biggest egg lovers, particularly at breakfast time, consuming on average 277 eggs a year, according to the United Egg Producers, an agricultural cooperative. 

He has no foreign policy experience but sports a reputation as a talented negotiator unafraid to speak his mind. And Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has already made his mark.A close friend to the US president, 67-year-old real estate magnate Witkoff is credited with playing a key role in negotiating the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and the Hamas armed group. The truce took effect January 19, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration for a second term in the White House. This week, Witkoff found himself in the spotlight, defending the US president’s stunning suggestion that he wanted to “take over” the Gaza Strip and move its two million Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere.”When the president talks about cleaning it out, he talks about making it habitable, and this is a long-range plan,” Witkoff told reporters at the White House just ahead of a joint news conference by Trump and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”And this guy knows real estate,” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, appearing alongside the special envoy, said with a smile.  Speaking later that day on Fox News, Witkoff continued laying out the administration’s justification for the notion of a large-scale relocation of Palestinians from Gaza — even as the idea drew fire in the region, with some calling it tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”A better life is not necessarily tied to the physical space that you’re in today,” he said, seeming to gloss over the complexities of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump had nothing but praise for Witkoff at the White House news conference.”Steve, stand up, Steve, please. What a job you’ve done. Quite a good job. You’ve done a fantastic job,” he said.It was Witkoff, a billionaire like his friend and a regular golfing partner of his, who was called on to introduce the new president at a celebratory gathering at a Washington arena following his January 20 inauguration. – ‘Not a real estate deal’ -Though a complete neophyte in the world of diplomacy, Witkoff was named as special envoy to the Middle East only a week after Trump’s election, a reflection of the two men’s close relationship. Eight years earlier, after Trump was elected for his first term, he named another diplomatic novice — his son-in-law Jared Kushner — to the same position.Even before Trump took office, Witkoff joined in the Gaza ceasefire talks, taking part in a final round of negotiations in early January alongside Brett McGurk, the Middle East advisor to then-president Joe Biden. It was a rare collaboration between an outgoing and incoming US administration.After attending the talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, Witkoff flew to Israel on a Saturday — interrupting Netanyahu on the Jewish Sabbath — in an urgent bid to finalize an agreement.  Then on January 29, Witkoff traveled to Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble after 15 months of an Israeli offensive launched in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.He was the first US official to visit the territory since the war began.In an article published Thursday by Foreign Policy journal, Steven Cook, an expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Witkoff’s lack of diplomatic experience could be an advantage, giving him a fresh perspective.Still, he added: “The Israel-Palestine conflict is not a real estate deal.”Born on March 15, 1957, in the New York borough of the Bronx, Witkoff made his fortune in real estate, first as a corporate lawyer and then at the head of big realty firms. In 1997, he founded the Witkoff Group, which describes itself as “one part developer, one part investor (and) one part landscape-changer.” His wife and a son work there.A graduate of Hofstra University near New York, Witkoff has several children, including one who died in 2011, aged 22, from an OxyContin overdose. 

A US judge issued an emergency order early Saturday blocking Elon Musk’s government reform team from accessing personal and financial data for millions of Americans stored at the Treasury Department, court documents showed.US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer’s order restricts giving access to Treasury Department payment systems and other data to “all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department.”The temporary restrictive order, which remains in effect until a February 14 hearing, also says any such person who has accessed data from the Treasury Department’s records since President Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded.”Musk, the world’s richest person, is leading Trump’s federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).The case was brought against the Republican president, the Department of the Treasury and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent by attorneys general from 19 states on Friday.They alleged the administration violated the law by expanding access to sensitive Treasury Department data to staff from Musk’s DOGE.The Tesla, SpaceX and X chief is neither a federal employee nor a government official, although US media reported this month that he had been registered as a “special government employee.”DOGE does not enjoy full status as a government department, which would require approval by Congress.But Musk, a top Trump donor and ally, and his team have rampaged through federal agencies in the first weeks of the new administration, pausing foreign aid programs, slashing budgets and attempting to lay off scores of government workers.Musk, in posts on X on Saturday, denounced Engelmayer as an “activist” and accused Democrats of “trying to hide possibly the biggest fraud scheme in human history!”  – ‘Unfettered access’ -Judge Engelmayer’s order early Saturday said the states that sued would “face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief.””That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking,” he wrote.Musk ran into controversy last week with reports he and his team were accessing sensitive data stored at the Treasury Department.An internal assessment from the Treasury called the DOGE team’s access to federal payment systems “the single biggest insider threat the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) has ever faced,” US media reported.The lawsuit from states including New York and California alleged that the Trump administration granted “virtually unfettered access” to BFS payment systems to “at least one 25-year-old DOGE associate” who had the “authority to view or modify numerous critical files.”That access “poses huge cybersecurity risks, including risks to States and States’ residents that their information will be used and processed, unchecked, in a manner not permitted by federal law,” says the states’ lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Manhattan late on Friday.It also said that reports indicated “that data from other federal agencies is being fed into an open-source Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) system owned and controlled by a private third party.”New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said on Friday that Trump “has allowed an unelected billionaire to infiltrate key federal agencies and systems that store Social Security numbers, banking information, and other extremely sensitive data for millions of people.”- More challenges -More court challenges have taken shape as Trump has moved rapidly to overhaul the government’s spending and workforce.An attempt to overturn the constitutional guarantee to birthright citizenship has been blocked by a judge. Another judge paused an effort to offer mass buyouts to federal workers on Thursday, pending arguments next week.The US Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes humanitarian aid globally, has become a major target. The Trump administration has ordered thousands of internationally based staff to return to the United States and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around 300.Labor unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught. A federal judge ordered a pause on Friday to a plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave by the weekend.Democrats say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without the legislature’s green light.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a top advisor to US President Donald Trump, said he has no interest in acquiring social media platform TikTok’s operations in the United States, in comments released Saturday.”I’ve not put in a bid for TikTok and I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” said Musk in comments made via videolink at a German forum in late January that were released on the weekend.TikTok is facing down a US law that ordered the company broken off from its Chinese owner ByteDance or otherwise be banned in the United States over national security concerns regarding the data it gathers on users.In one of his first acts in office, Trump ordered a pause on enforcing the law that should have seen TikTok effectively made illegal in the country a day before he took office for a second term.Soon after, Trump said he would be open to Musk — the owner of social media platform X, Tesla and a slew of other companies — buying the platform.Musk, however, said he did not wish to acquire the company.”I don’t use TikTok personally, so, you know, I’m not that familiar with it,” he said. “I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”Musk bought social media giant Twitter, which he renamed X, for $44 billion in 2022, insisting he was doing so in order to safeguard “free speech.”Since his takeover, rights campaigners warn there has been a spike in hate speech and disinformation on the platform.Musk was one of Trump’s main financial backers in his presidential campaign, and is heading the US president’s budget-slashing initiatives.His so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) has targeted a range of federal government agencies and regulators, with the apparent intent of shutting them down and firing staff, especially those not in line with Trump’s political agenda.On Saturday, a US judge issued an emergency order blocking Musk’s government reform team from accessing personal and financial data for millions of Americans stored at the Treasury Department, court documents showed.In the comments at the forum in Germany, Musk also took aim at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which are meant to support historically oppressed and disenfranchised communities.”DEI is simply racism rebranded,” he said. “I’m against racism and sexism no matter who it’s directed against.”US officials have been racing to enact Trump’s war on DEI across the federal bureaucracy — dismantling training initiatives, scrapping grants and sidelining hundreds of workers.In Germany, Musk has voiced firm support for the far-right anti-immigration AfD party — a political taboo in a country whose Nazi past remains a sensitive subject.

From the United States to Thailand, users of the popular Sony PlayStation consoles might encounter “difficulties,” the Japanese group said Saturday, as game players around the world expressed their frustration.”You might have difficulty launching games, apps or network features,” Sony said on its status page. “We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”PlayStation’s online services allow users of Sony consoles like the PS4 or the PS5 to play hugely popular multiplayer games like “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty.” The specialized site DownDetector.com reports that users’ difficulties peaked sharply around 7:00 pm Friday (00H00 GMT Saturday), before falling steadily but not quite returning to normal levels. Users took to social media to express their anger and frustration. One user said on X that it was “criminal” to have a PlayStation outage on a Friday evening, but another quipped more equably that it was time for him to reintroduce himself to the woman he married five years ago.