Who says that video games will rot your brain? It seems like one is doing a whole lot of good. You know Minecraft. Even if you’ve never played it. The game has no real set goal, and is often described as digital Lego. In the blocky, 3-D virtual world of Minecraft, users can build and destroy structures as they like. And last year, more than 200 million monthly players helped turn “A Minecraft Movie” into the highest-grossing video game movie ever made.

The game’s open-ended design and building tools allow players to reimagine real-life spaces like abandoned riverbanks, dark alleys and dump sites, making it one of the main tools used to involve citizens, especially youth, in redesigning urban areas.

Since 2012, Block by Block Foundation and U.N.-Habitat have supported the building of over 150 urban structures in 55 different countries, with more than 30,000 citizens using Minecraft to participate in the design process. The program says that the core essence of the methodology is its participatory nature. “It champions the active involvement of local residents, many of whom would not traditionally have a say in public projects. The initiative ensures that their views are considered in urban development, creating a more democratic and inclusive urban planning process.”

There’s no fixed approach to designing public spaces that really solve local issues. “But there’s a looseness to the Minecraft methodology that we can play with,” said James Delaney, who has led the foundation since 2020. Including both children and adults in the workshops was part of the magic. “The power dynamic between the two is flipped because the younger person instantly knows Minecraft and can be quite quick at it.”

Local organizations—mostly nonprofits working on engaging citizens in urban planning—submit their project proposals to U.N.-Habitat. Those selected are given funding and technical guidance to engage community members, run the Minecraft workshop and construct the final designs, with budgets of $10,000 to $200,000. Once a site is chosen, community members go on a walk equipped with printed-out maps and markers. Once the Minecraft designs are ready, they take turns presenting their ideas before voting on which models should be built in real life. Professional architects and urban planners then translate the Minecraft models into sketches and drawings that could be used for construction.

The U.S. carried out strikes on Iran Thursday morning, hours after President Trump told reporters the U.S. would “be hitting them very hard” in response to the surprise attacks by Iran targeting U.S. forces in the Mideast earlier this week. Hours later, Jordan shot down five missiles launched from Iran, Jordan's state-run news agency said.

The was just entered its six month and the latest exchange of hostilities marked a new interruption in efforts to reach a ceasefire deal. One senior Pentagon official told the Washington Post that Trump and Iran appear “stuck,” with neither side seeing benefits to continuing the conflict or believing that negotiations to end it will yield a decisive outcome.

And still the Strait of Hormuz remains functionally closed. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Thursday that two tankers that had tried to use what it called an unsafe route through the strait turned back after a fire broke out on one of the ships. The statement from the Guards, published by Iranian state media, did not mention the cause of the fire or whether it was the result of an attack.

Anthony Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing Wednesday where Republicans pressed the retired government scientist on whether he was sufficiently truthful in past testimony about the coronavirus pandemic. On the advice of his lawyers, he chose not to incriminate himself before a panel dominated by hostile Republicans who accused him of causing the coronavirus pandemic and insinuated that he enriched himself while Americans died.

According to the New York Times, the hearing was “part Washington theater, part political Rorschach test, highlighting deep partisan divisions over Dr. Fauci, who spent decades as the government’s top infectious disease expert,” advising presidents of both parties and generating bipartisan respect until his efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 turned him into a polarizing figure.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a longtime adversary of Fauci, concluded the nearly three-hour hearing by saying the committee is planning a vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. Democrats, meanwhile, praised Fauci as a hero and thanked him for his work fighting infectious diseases. And while Fauci said little in Congress, his personal diary details his thoughts on everything from school closures during the pandemic to his own celebrity.