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Democrat Ben Wikler explores a 2028 run for Senate in Wisconsin
Some Democratic insiders are rankled by the former state party chair’s ambitions and national book tour, with one saying it feels like he’s “whistling past the graveyard.”
Keys to future human exploration, past planetary conditions hide under surface of moon, Mars
Purdue research to discover what materials and potential resources beneath the Martian and lunar surfaces are important for plans to one day put humans on either planet.
Leland Stein and David Malan continue Regent Theatre’s legacy of entertainment
Over the past century, the Regent Theatre has hosted thousands of movies, music, comedy, and vaudeville acts. For the past 25 years, Leland Stein, the Regent’s director of programming and community relations, has been the man responsible for choosing what Arlington audiences enjoy. Stein has booked popular movie singalongs (including “The Sound of Music”); renowned musicians, ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Johnny Winter, as well as beloved cover bands, including The Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra (Sept. 26), the Regent’s unofficial “house band” and an annual Tom Petty night (Oct. 24); comedians including Paula Poundstone, Margaret Cho, and Bengali comedian Anirban Dasgupta
The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think
A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment
Cardinals’ Demote Promising Starter, Recall Veteran Reliever Before Cubs Game
The St. Louis Cardinals are demoting right-handed pitcher Hunter Dobbins to Triple-A Memphis. In a corresponding move, the team has selected the contract of Peter Strzlecki. Dobbins, 26, was acquired from the Boston Red Sox this past offseason. As it stands, he has a 3.74 ERA through his first 33.2 innings for the Cardinals. This season, Dobbins […] The post Cardinals’ Demote Promising Starter, Recall Veteran Reliever Before Cubs Game appeared first on HEAVY.
Kansas State Football Gets Another Major Endorsement For Next Season
Kansas State football has undergone major changes in the past few months, following coach Chris Klieman's retirement after a rollercoaster 2025 season.
‘Blessed’: Frederick Haynes, pastor and candidate, on his politics, faith and health
WASHINGTON (RNS) — ‘The church has been so supportive that, I mean, they've been more excited about my campaign than I have,’ Haynes said of his historically Black Dallas megachurch.
Flores named chief operating officer of healthcare group
Rev. Bolívar Flores, a prominent Jersey City pastor and Latino community leader, has been appointed chief operating officer of the Sunrise Group of
Tears at dinner time: the science to rolling out fresh pasta
Tearing is a common problem with pasta dough say our experts. Culprits include the wrong type of flour, cold dough – or it could even boil down to the size of your egg
Nikola Jokic celebrates latest achievement involving his horse
Nikola Jokic may not have won anything with the Denver Nuggets this past season, but the three-time NBA MVP had a huge reason to celebrate this summer. Through his star horse “Delicious Gar” from his Dream Catcher stable, Jokic won…
Years of scandals haven't stopped Ken Paxton. Can James Talarico change that?
Ken Paxton’s past has been litigated for years, yet he keeps winning. James Talarico is trying a different strategy. Here’s what it is.
Oscar Casas Signs With Impression Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)
Oscar Casas, the Spanish actor who stars in Netflix chart-topper 'Desire,' has inked with Impression Entertainment for management.
U.S. Senate candidates not addressing Michigan’s economic woes, political experts say
“Michigan’s economy over the past 25 years has become calcified in its nostalgia for manufacturing,” said pollster Richard Czuba, who regularly surveys Michigan residents for the Detroit Regional Chamber. “And that is, at the very core, what has caused Michigan’s economy to just stagnate. We have got to change.”
Louisiana leads the nation in construction job growth
Louisiana posted the nation’s highest construction employment growth rate over the past year, with employment rising 7.7% between June 2025 and June 2026. That’s according to a new analysis of … Already an INSIDER? Sign in. Already an INSIDER? Sign in
'Losing Rodri would be a massive blow'
Joseph: Losing Rodri would be a massive blow to the team, he's been a fantastic servant over the past few years and has been a strong warrior regardless of injuries. To lose Rodri would put a hole in the team that would take time to fill. Rodri is just getting better, he proved that in his World Cup performances after a season of injuries.
Strategy buys preferred stock in past week instead of bitcoin, hit to business model signaled
Strategy (MSTR) was trading higher as the bitcoin treasury company announced a repurchase of its preferred stock instead of buying bitcoin in the past week.
More Louisiana companies are selling to private equity. Is that a bad thing?
The sale of Livingston-based Epic Piping to a Houston private equity firm was the latest of three similar deals in south Louisiana in the past month alone. Experts say it won’t be the last.
Business First Bancshares (BFST) Could Be 4% Undervalued On Earnings Dividends And Buybacks
Business First Bancshares (BFST) has drawn fresh attention after reporting second quarter and six month 2026 results, affirming both common and preferred dividends, and updating investors on recent share repurchases. See our latest analysis for Business First Bancshares. At a share price of $31.16, Business First Bancshares has seen momentum build recently, with a 20.40% year to date share price return and a 25.46% total shareholder return over the past year, alongside ongoing dividends and...
Mets rally late, spoil sweep bid for Dodgers
Marcus Semien's three-run homer capped a seven-run rally, lifting the Mets past the Dodgers 8-3 and denying Los Angeles a series sweep at Citi Field.
Hands on science lessons for Independence students
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio – Youngsters in Independence schools have enjoyed a whole new approach to learning science over the past year.
VT’s big names in politics; Examining the past 250 years in state governance
VERMONT — While the United States celebrates its 250th year as a nation, Vermont technically has one more year to wait.
De Klerk holds nerve as Spirit edge past Rockets
South African all-rounder Nadine de Klerk stars with 41 not out from 22 balls as London Spirit beat Trent Rockets with three balls to spare.
Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) Faces Margin Pressure, Is The Stock Still Undervalued?
Recent commentary on Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) has focused on slower sales growth, rising capital intensity, and substandard operating margins. This has raised investor questions about free cash flow resilience as margins are expected to contract. See our latest analysis for Live Nation Entertainment. At a share price of $177.24, Live Nation Entertainment has eased slightly over the past week and month, but its 90 day share price return of 13.3% and 1 year total shareholder return of...
Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) And The Valuation Debate Around Its Global Expansion Story
Event backdrop and what is worrying investors Live Nation Entertainment (LYV), owner of Ticketmaster and the EDC music festival, is under scrutiny as slower sales growth, rising capital intensity and pressure on operating margins raise fresh questions about the stock’s risk and reward tradeoff. See our latest analysis for Live Nation Entertainment. Live Nation Entertainment’s share price has climbed over the past year, with a year to date share price return of 21.97% and a 1 year total...
Political turmoil, lower pay yield small candidate pool for HTA’s top job
The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority has attracted about 60 applicants in its search for a new president and CEO, a significantly smaller candidate pool than past searches as the agency tries to recruit a leader after years of political turmoil and uncertainty about its future.
Gambling becomes America’s favorite pastime as Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined
Americans wagered $166 billion on sports last year, more than Hollywood, the music industry, books, and museums combined.
$100,000 Donation Expands Grants for Veterans Starting Farming Businesses
Tractor Supply Company, which supplied the grant, has supported efforts the past eight years.
Boilers Sprint Past Langara Select in Exhibition Game 102-63
For the first time since 2022, Purdue fans got their first look at the Boilers without Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, or Trey Kaufman-Renn on the roster. Those are some big shoes to fill for a program accustomed to needing to fill big shoes in the past but there are ample familiar faces that appear willing […]
How The MacBook Pro Has Changed In The Last Five Years
In the past five years, the MacBook Pro got a redesigned base model, more powerful processors, improved displays, and more.
Metro Health urges summer pool-goers to curb cryptosporidiosis risk as diarrhea cases rise
San Antonio Metro Health reports 36 cryptosporidiosis and 15 cyclosporiasis cases so far in 2026, in line with past summers. Officials urge pool and food safety steps, and to see a provider for persistent GI symptoms.
Capcom explains why it's putting out so many Resident Evil remakes and why there aren't a lot of spin-offs
Capcom’s Masachika Kawata has commented on why we’ve been seeing a bunch of Resident Evil remakes over the past few years, but not so much in the way of spin-offs. You could easily make the case that we’re in a golden age with Resident Evil right now. New games have been a hit with fans and critics alike. In between...
Measles on the rise in California
Measles cases over past six months have doubled from the same period last year
Democrats in Maine gather to replace Graham Platner in the race against Susan Collins
Democrats are hoping to move past Platner's scandal-plagued campaign as they look to unseat Republican incumbent Susan Collins. The apparent front-runner is former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson.
I left corporate life and found my joy as a full-time pastry chef
Hali Mo, a former McKinsey consultant, quit her stable job as a product manager to start her own microbakery and become a professional pastry chef.
Has Oscar Health (OSCR) Run Too Far After Its 68% 90 Day Rally?
Oscar Health (OSCR) has been drawing attention after a strong share price run, with investors weighing that performance against mixed valuation signals that suggest the stock is not an obvious bargain. See our latest analysis for Oscar Health. Recent trading has cooled slightly, with the share price down around 3% over the past month and 7 days. That comes after a strong 90 day share price return of about 68% and a very large 3 year total shareholder return, suggesting momentum has been...
Patriots putting new pieces together
LINCOLN CITY, Ind. (WEHT) — The Heritage Hills Patriots have been the most successful football team in southern Indiana over the past three seasons. “These guys, all the way back to their freshman year, have seen nothing but success,” Heritage Hills football head coach Kevin Tempel said. Three regional titles, two state championship appearances, and […]
Small Businesses Sue Trump Administration Over Latest Tariffs
The businesses are represented by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal group that has successfully challenged President Trump’s past duties.
Trump to deliver ‘unifying yet vicious’ remarks at press dinner months after shooting incident, White House says
The president, first lady and top administration officials had to be evacuated and the April dinner canceled after a heavily armed man rushed past security.
German Fest is back; three days of authentic food and entertainment
German Fest is back this weekend with three days of authentic food, entertainment, and a vibrant community atmosphere. Brian Kramp is on the grounds seeing why it’s grown to be one of the biggest German festivals in the U.S. over the past 45 years.
Saquon Barkley reflects on golf outing with Trump, weighs in on politics and football
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley reflects on his past interactions with President Donald Trump and the situation surrounding Jaxson Dart.
Boeheim's Army wins, advances in The Basketball Tournament
Cole Swider's double-double led the SU alumni team past Hall In and into the Alumni bracket semifinal round Sunday.
Businesses step up as Akawa Butte Fire grows in central Oregon
Akawa Butte Fire grows past 26,000 acres, 3% contained, as shifting winds spur expanded evacuations near Sisters.
Trump administration's transit priorities include renaming Penn Station
Trump has floated a desire to rename the iconic rail hub after him in the past.
ChatGPT Health Rolls Out to Everyone While OpenAI Stares Down Major Lawsuits
OpenAI has faced two lawsuits in the past three months alleging that ChatGPT gave users dangerous—and in some cases fatal—medical advice.
Political Faithfulness in a Polarized Age
Orienting around the kingdom of God instead of partisan idols.
SCCT highlights payment gains, policy challenges as coronary CT use surges
An increase of nearly 200% in the use of CCTA over the past year has driven policy changes.
Amazon is bringing games to Prime Video
Amazon is hoping the addition of games can turn Prime Video into a one-stop entertainment destination, borrowing a strategy from Netflix, which has increasingly embraced party games over the past several years.
49ers players anchor Fox Sports' 'half-decade' team
Trent Williams and Fred Warner have been dominant at their respective positions over the past six seasons for the 49ers.
A Florida pastor is suing OpenAI over ChatGPT health advice that nearly killed him
Scott Winters claims ChatGPT discouraged him from seeking care for six weeks as blood clots developed, exploiting his religious beliefs along the way
How gun dealers with serious past violations got licenses back under Trump
Nearly a dozen stores that had their licenses revoked under Biden have now been allowed to sell firearms again under Trump, a CNN investigation found.
Shorts are back in fashion on Wall Street
The most popular trade on Wall Street for the past couple of years has been a simple one: Buy Big Tech and ride the AI wave.
State justice department weighs in on Salem Health-Santiam deal
The Oregon Department of Justice is planning to host a public hearing on Aug. 5 to hear feedback from citizens, but that pushes the deal past the Aug. 1 deadline Santiam says it needs to remain solvent. To comment on this story, use the form at the end of the report.
NFL Insider Makes Huge Claim About Vikings’ Quarterback Battle
The Minnesota Vikings quarterback battle is going to be one of the most interesting storylines throughout the course of training camp. It has been a storyline picking up over the past couple of weeks, with some experts siding with J. J McCarthy. Other individuals, such as Vikings legend Cris Carter have spoken highly of Kyler […] The post NFL Insider Makes Huge Claim About Vikings’ Quarterback Battle appeared first on HEAVY.
VA reduces improper payments for private health care by 98% since 2020
The VA has slashed improper payments to private companies that provide medical care to veterans by 98% in the past five years.
Northern Arapaho Business Council crafts policy governing 'outside organizations' after sermon sparks outrage
Protests, Sunday services continue after Foundations for Nations pastor goes viral with call for tribal members on Wind River Reservation to reject their traditional spiritual ways.
iOS 27 adds convenient new iPhone feature you’ll use all the time
One of my favorite iOS 27 features so far is a convenient addition for quickly pasting items from the iPhone clipboard. Here’s how it works.
A-List celebrities show up for 40/40 Club at Fanatics Fest
Some of the biggest names in sports, music, and fashion, converged in New York City for Fanatics Fest over this past weekend. While many took part in all of
Why Did This Man Avoid Alzheimer’s? Scientists Reveal Their Astonishing Theory - Futura-Sciences
A Family Plagued by Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Doug Whitney inherited a rare genetic mutation that’s devastated much of his family: many relatives experienced significant cognitive decline as early as their 50s. Yet Doug himself has stayed mentally alert well past the age at which illness struck in the family. According to...
Margaret Thatcher’s legacy: is Andy Burnham stuck in the past?
PM says Iron Lady caused Britain’s problems but is his ‘neoliberalism’ critique just ‘1980s karaoke’?
Family business faces third theft in six months
Lucy Hardware in Intervale is in its fourth generation as a family business. In that time, owner Taylor Lucy said it's never seen anything quite like this until now: three thefts at the business in the past six months.
AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app
Over the past decade, streaming platforms competed by dominating individual formats like music, video, podcasts, or audiobooks. Now, as AI makes it easier to create, organize, and recommend content, those distinctions are fading, pushing companies like Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok to become all-purpose entertainment destinations instead.
AI and the rise of the universal entertainment app
Over the past decade, streaming platforms competed by dominating individual formats like music, video, podcasts, or audiobooks. Now, as AI makes it easier to create, organize, and recommend content, those distinctions are fading, pushing companies like Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok to become all-purpose entertainment destinations instead.
A Massive Flow of Rock and Mud Tumbled Down Mount Rainier Centuries Ago. Scientists Pinpointed Its Date to Better Understand the Volcano's Complex Threats
In a recent study, researchers dated a historic lahar called the Electron Mudflow to the summer of 1507, establishing a way to determine when past geologic events around the Puget Sound occurred
Troy Jackson’s sudden rise in Maine invites scrutiny of his past and his vulnerabilities
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is Democrats’ likely nominee to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins in an expensive, consequential race following Graham Platner’s exit.
How Republicans Made Olive Garden Into a Voter ID Talking Point
Republicans claim that Olive Garden polices its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl more tightly than the United States does its elections. It’s not that simple.
Giants Coaching Holdover Named Potential Breakout Candidate in 2026
John Harbaugh has a knack for developing elite coaching minds, and ironically one of the New York Giants' best is a guy who has been in the facility for years. Outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen, who has spent the past two years coaching the Giants' edge unit, was named as an assistant coach to watch by The Athletic. Bullen was initially hired by since-fired head coach Brian Daboll, yet he survived the cultural purge from Harbaugh, who even added "run-game coordinator" to his title.
Cyclosporiasis Outbreak: Cases surge across NC as health officials work to find source
North Carolina health officials confirm hundreds of new cases of Cyclospora in the past week as investigators continue searching for the source of the outbreak.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past Reveal Date Confirmed
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past will be revealed at gamescom 2026 during Opening Night Live, CD Projekt has announced.
The Witcher 3's Big New Expansion Makes Its Debut at Gamescom Opening Night Live
Songs of the Past shows itself
Iran may be stronger than we thought
Three US troops were killed in the past week, and the risks are only growing.
College football’s best QBs for 2026, plus poll results
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Don’t spy on anyone today. Coming up: 🏈 CFB QB tiers 📺 Clark out at ESPN 🗳️ Your poll results As one football leaves us, the next one settles in right on time. The World Cup is in the past now. American football is nigh. It’s time to switch our focus. At least until later in this newsletter. We’ve entered one of my favorite parts of the college football preseason: when predictions feel a little more weighty, just...
Democrats drive voter opposition to data centers, POLITICO Poll finds
A new POLITICO Poll found that Americans’ attitudes toward data centers have grown increasingly sour and politically polarized in the past six months.
Pro-science PAC backs El-Sayed
314 Action, which has been criticized for ties to pro-Israel lobbying in the past, shows a shake-up in Michigan
Nintendo says it has no legal duty to pass its U.S. tariff refunds on to consumers
Nintendo is asking a court to dismiss a proposed class action suit that was filed this past spring by gamers who say the Mario maker is breaking the law if it doesn’t pass on its U.S. tariff refunds to consumers. Those consumers “received exactly what they bargained and paid for” when buying price-hiked Nintendo goods last year, the company said in a filing on Monday in the case of Hoffert et al v. Nintendo. “Plaintiffs are not entitled to a rebate simply because of intervening legal developments related to tariffs.” Nintendo increased the price of Switch 2 controllers and the original Switch last year, following the imposition of globe-spanning U.S. tariffs (tariffs described by Nintendo’s lawyers on Monday as “sweeping” and “constantly changing”). This past February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs were illegal. A month later, Nintendo sued the U.S. government to get a refund. And in April, gamers filed the class action claim against Nintendo in Washington, saying it would be illegally double-dipping if it made money from tariff-hiked sales and then from a refund. The gamers sought relief for anyone in the U.S. who bought price-hiked Nintendo items between February 2025 and February 2026. “The common thread among Plaintiffs’ claims is that it is somehow ‘unfair; that Nintendo has not retroactively adjusted its prices for completed sales in response to the outcome of the tariff litigation,” the company’s lawyers wrote in today’s motion to dismiss. “But that is now how commercial transactions work.
Aaron Rodgers shares photos of reunion with estranged family
As Aaron Rodgers prepares for his final NFL season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he has held bonding sessions in the past few weeks this summer. On Monday night, Rodgers posted three photos on social media – one with his mom…
Miami Dolphins Discussion: You Just Knew But Were Wrong Edition
We ask Miami Dolphins fans which past player they beieved would be a star for the team but ultimatly were busts.
Tracker helps to understand New York prison release trends
The information is from the past 10 years including information on releases from January 2015 to May of this year.
UFC Freedom 250 Fails to Knock Out The Ratings
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) If UFC fans wanted one image to say, “Hey, Paramount+ is crushing it with their UFC rights deal,” I could provide that image. Here it is: (Reminder: this is my creation of the Nielsen Top 30, since Nielsen doesn’t combine the lists or include sports. I take all three lists and combine them. Some streaming TV shows probably have higher ratings than many of the films on this list.) Look at that! UFC Freedom 250 is number one! It topped the Nielsen “Top 30” list for shows and films that made the top ten the week of 15-June. So if you’re a UFC fan or supporter of Paramount+, that’s the good news for you this week. This program topped the ratings charts for one week. Everything else is bad news, or at least a huge caveat to that story, which I’ll explain today in the first part of this week’s Streaming Ratings Report—for the weeks of 8-June and 15-June—which is a double issue since I’ve been writing on a bunch of topics recently. UFC Freedom 250 is one of the biggest streaming events of the year, and super relevant to Paramount+’s strategy, so it merited its own article. Let’s dive in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of June 8th to June 21st 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Check Out My Interview on UFC 250 at MMA Draw After you read this article, if you want even more thoughts on UFC and Paramount-Skydance/Paramount+, I did a written interview with MMA Draw. They asked me to answer some questions about UFC Freedom 250, and I was happy to chat with them. Find it here: [ The MMA Draw Newsletter Did Paramount really overpay for the UFC? What the data tells us so far If you know the history of American television, you also know that combat sports is often a leading indicator of the future… Read more a day ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Nate Wilcox and Zach Arnold ](https://www.themmadraw.com/p/did-paramount-really-overpay-for?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) I never thought I’d need a combat sports newsletter in my life, but the good folks at MMA Draw publish an excellent one on UFC, MMA, pro wrestling, boxing and more, analyzing both the sports themselves and the politics, economics and antitrust issues that impact them. Check the article and their newsletter out! Paramount+ Has Its Best Sporting Event of All Time…But Was It Worth It? Before we look at the UFC Freedom 250 data in particular, let’s talk about what we can’t say. Namely, let’s start with the lack of comparisons. First off, I’d love to put a chart out comparing this fight to past UFC fights on Paramount+…but we don’t have the data. This is the first time we’ve gotten Nielsen data about a Paramount+ UFC fight. As far as I can tell, Paramount provided data for the first fight, but it was a proprietary datecdote (saying it had “an average minute audience” of 5 million “views”) and then, for two fights, we got the linear viewership numbers when they aired on CBS, but no streaming data. Everything else was crickets. We also can’t compare this fight to other fights/combat sports on streaming, in particular the MMA and boxing, because Netflix also didn’t use Nielsen to track those events, opting for TVision and VideoAmp, respectively. (This isn’t Paramount’s fault, but does still suck.) We also can’t compare to UFC’s fights that used to be on ESPN+, since we don’t have any data for that, plus Disney+ didn’t have marquee fights. The comparisons would not be apples-to-apples. Can we compare to past Pay-Per-View fights? Absolutely not. The comparisons would absolutely NOT be apples-to-apples. That didn’t stop Paramount+, though, who bragged that their UFC events have reached drastically more people than past PPV fights. Duh. Sorry, but I gotta make this point again. A basic tenet of economics is that the cheaper something becomes, the more people consume or buy it. That’s Econ 101. (Sometimes pundits call things “Econ 101” that are actually like Econ 210 or even PhD-level economics, but no, this is really like first or second class basic economics.) Yet I still see one analytics firm consistently say that more people watch films on streaming than PVOD proves streaming which means that the streaming window is more valuable than the PVOD window. No, it’s not! Same thing here. Pay-Per-View events back in the day could be really, really, really expensive! So whole groups of people pitched in to buy them. That increased the perceived value of, say, the Mike Tyson fight. Or a UFC numbered event. So yes, the fact that Paramount+ makes numbered UFC fights essentially “free” if you’re already a Paramount+ member means consumption will go up. Obviously. Same for Netflix and their boxing matches. They’re talking about fights that used to cost consumers, in some cases, $50 in 1996…which is over $100 in today’s dollars. Over 1.6 million people paid that to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight! Again, streaming is essentially “free”. Or $10 to $20, depending on what streamer we’re talking about and what tier you’re on. No wonder more people are “watching”. (Plus, Nielsen’s out-of-home viewing also helps these numbers.) UFC Freedom 250 Did Well…But I Have A Lot of Worries So what can we compare the fights to? Well, the good news is Nielsen put out that the fight averaged 7.0 million viewers for UFC Freedom 250, which is a solid number for a fight. We also know the length, at roughly 4 and a half hours. (I saw different run times, but this seems to be the consensus considering it started at 8 pm, had a delay and then finished after midnight on the East Coast. If you assume a shorter run time, then yes, the total hours viewed would go down.) That means I have the two numbers needed to add this to my Nielsen database. And then…I can compare this viewership to the NFL: And, uh, not great. But also within striking distance, mainly because the runtime for this event was so long. I’d also add that this event had viewership equal to a regular season NFL game on streaming, but if anything, it was more comparable to an NFL playoff or Super Bowl-esque event. And you can compare viewership to the top football games on broadcast, cable and streaming, and it’s not impressive at all: We can also compare it to other sports that week, including the NBA Finals and start of the World Cup: Again, not great. The NBA generated roughly four times as many average viewers each game for its NBA Finals. The World Cup has similarly big numbers. Also, that’s just a tiny fraction of the 25 most watched sporting events each week. The NBA, NHL and FIFA World Cup had many, many more games racking up hours. We could also compare this to other streaming programs to get an idea of “is this a good investment?” and here is how it ranks compared to other top Paramount+ programs: The worry here? Well, unlike scripted programming, which has rewatchability, older fights/sporting events have very little library value. Very, very few people are rewatching these fights, especially years from now. Paramount has also released datecdotes bragging about their subscriber numbers. Earlier this year, they claimed that the first UFC fight on Paramount+ brought in 1 million subscribers. Then, in their quarterly earnings report, they only ended up with 700K subs. Not great! They claimed they dropped lower-value international subscribers, but that’s why I tend to discount subscriber additions when they’re leaked to the press.1 I expect we may see a bump again for UFC Freedom 250, but I’d caution using subscriber growth so soon after these events to judge the success, since new subs with high churn (see Peacock) aren’t great either. Also, analysts often want to attribute all subscriber growth to their favorite/pet show, and that just doesn’t make sense. The biggest caveat for UFC Freedom 250 and Paramount’s very first UFC marquee event is that these could be high watermarks for the sport. UFC Freedom 250 had an incredible amount of earned media coverage compared to most UFC fights. I mean, it had wall-to-wall national news coverage in the lead up to the event. (The first fight also had a lot of promotion from Paramount since it was first.) Other fights could reach this bar—say the Conor McGregor return to the Octagon—but they’ll be fewer and far between. Was This Deal Worth It? All to ask: is this Paramount deal worth it? In this case, I think the UFC Freedom 250 numbers are more distracting than helpful. This fight did well and compares well to other top sporting events. But we know that the first marquee event was at least a third smaller, if Paramount’s own data is to be believed. And it’s likely the other fights are much, much, much smaller. And then you get to the paycheck that Paramount-Skydance paid. FIFA’s World Cup cost about the same for Fox, but clearly generated multiples more total viewership. (Though it’s only every four years.) The NBA is much more expensive, but until the playoffs, they likely didn’t pay for itself. Even still, Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video likely overpaid. So, in that context, the NBA may be an overpay that makes the UFC look not so bad. But two overpays don’t make an underpay, to paraphrase the old cliché about wrongs and rights. And looking at UFC Freedom 250 as the likely ceiling of MMA on Paramount+, Paramount-Skydance likely paid too much. Share 1 I would love regular reports on subscriber additions by programs, but as is, it’s mostly leaked or rumored in haphazard ways.
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