SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " agree " 2,660 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Getty Images Plans to End Shutterstock Deal After U.K. Imposes Conditions
Getty Images plans to terminate its merger agreement with Shutterstock after a U.K. regulator said the latter company must sell its editorial business in order for the merger to be approved.
CORUS ENTERTAINMENT PROVIDES UPDATES REGARDING CREDIT FACILITY AND SUPPORT AGREEMENT
Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX: CJR.B) ("Corus" or the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a second amending agreement to the waiver and standstill agreement dated as of February 28, 2026, as amended by a first amending agreement dated as of May 29, 2026 (the "Waiver"), with lenders under the Company's Eighth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement (the "Credit Facility"). This second amending agreement extends the term of the Waiver from June 30, 2026 to September 1, 2026 in light
RFK Jr. wants to make it easier to get peptides. FDA scientists disagree.
The health secretary has advocated for deregulating certain peptides, but FDA scientists point to a lack of data about their safety and effectiveness. Some have not been studied in humans.
Politics: High Cost Of Healthcare And The Political Fallout
Americans are grappling with a rising cost in healthcare. For the first time in five years, fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford healthcare. That’s according to the latest data from Gallup. The cost of healthcare in the US remains higher than any other large, wealthy country. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, five million fewer people are enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026, compared to last year. That’s as average premium costs rose about 58%.With health care costs increasingly becoming a stress for Americans, voters are now making the issue a top priority at the ballot box. And it’s an issue that crosses party and geographic lines. According to new polling from The Century Foundation, 71% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 75% of rural voters agree that reigning in hospital costs should be a top priority for lawmakers. While new polling from Ipsos and Axios suggests that a majority of Americans say they’re more likely to vote for candidates in November who will lower their health costs.How will the issue of healthcare shape the midterms? And how are Americans grappling with the cost of their health?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Politics: High Cost Of Healthcare And The Political Fallout
Americans are grappling with a rising cost in healthcare. For the first time in five years, fewer than half of Americans can consistently afford healthcare. That’s according to the latest data from Gallup. The cost of healthcare in the US remains higher than any other large, wealthy country. According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services, five million fewer people are enrolled in marketplace plans for 2026, compared to last year. That’s as average premium costs rose about 58%.With health care costs increasingly becoming a stress for Americans, voters are now making the issue a top priority at the ballot box. And it’s an issue that crosses party and geographic lines. According to new polling from The Century Foundation, 71% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 75% of rural voters agree that reigning in hospital costs should be a top priority for lawmakers. While new polling from Ipsos and Axios suggests that a majority of Americans say they’re more likely to vote for candidates in November who will lower their health costs.How will the issue of healthcare shape the midterms? And how are Americans grappling with the cost of their health?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Mamdani, City Council reach agreement on $125.8 billion budget
Mamdani said the budget will help make public transit more affordable.
Conduent agrees to sell tolling business to Quarterhill for $70M
Conduent Inc. announced on June 30 that it has agreed to sell its tolling business to Toronto-based Quarterhill Inc.
Supreme Court agrees to review ban on AR-style semi-automatic rifles in major Second Amendment case
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will decide whether cities and states may ban people from owning AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons, taking up a major Second Amendment dispute that it had previously declined to address.
Authentic Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Care Bears
Authentic Brands Group, a global brand and entertainment platform, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of Care Bears, one of the world's most beloved and enduring family entertainment franchises.
Authentic Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Care Bears, Expanding Its Entertainment Platform Into Character IP
/PRNewswire/ -- Authentic Brands Group ("Authentic"), a global brand and entertainment platform, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to...
Empower to Acquire Milliman’s Retirement Administration Business
Empower and Milliman, Inc. today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Empower to acquire Milliman’s retirement administration business...
Oregon Health Authority agrees to $630,000 settlement with ousted equity director
The sum includes more than $400,000 in back pay that the director would have received if she had remained at the agency until this year.
Nokia, SAP and Microsoft Enter Strategic Multi-Year Agreement to Advance Cloud- and AI-Driven Business Transformation
Nokia will accelerate its enterprise transformation using RISE with SAP Methodology, with SAP S/4HANA hosted on Microsoft Azure.
Conduent Announces Agreement to Sell Its Tolling Business to Quarterhill Inc. for $70 Million
Conduent Announces Agreement to Sell Its Tolling Business to Quarterhill Inc. for $70 Million. Conduent Bolsters Financial Position.
Conduent Announces Agreement to Sell Its Tolling Business to Quarterhill Inc. for $70 Million
FLORHAM PARK, N.J., June 30, 2026--Conduent Announces Agreement to Sell Its Tolling Business to Quarterhill Inc. for $70 Million. Conduent Bolsters Financial Position.
Conduent Announces Agreement to Sell Its Tolling Business to Quarterhill Inc. for $70 Million
FLORHAM PARK, N.J., June 30, 2026 — Conduent Incorporated (Nasdaq: CNDT), a global technology-driven business solutions and services provider, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Tolling business (a division of...
Hormel Foods sells Brazil business
Hormel Foods has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Brazil business to “simplify and streamline its portfolio”.
These Church Members Disagree on Politics. Together They’re Wiping Out Medical Debt.
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
Bruno Genesio agrees two-year Marseille contract
Bruno Genesio is set to put pen to paper over a two-year deal as Marseille manager, according to a report from L’Equipe. The former Lille OSC head coach was identified by Les Phocéens as the ide...
Kristaps Porzingis remains with Warriors on two-year deal
The Golden State Warriors have reached an agreement to retain former NBA champion Kristaps Porzingis.
Private Equity-Backed IT Business TPx Files for Bankruptcy to Sell Assets
The managed information-technology services company has a restructuring agreement with its sponsor and the majority of creditors.
Hormel Foods Announces Agreement to Sell Ceratti Business in Brazil
/PRNewswire/ -- Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL), a Fortune 500 global branded food company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to...
Talawar Therapeutics and JATT II Acquisition Corp. Announce Definitive Business Combination Agreement to Create Publicly Listed Biotechnology Company Developing Potentially Best-in-Class Bispecifics for I&I Diseases
Oversubscribed $225 million concurrent private investment in public equity ("PIPE") with available cash to the combined company at closing anticipated to fund...
BT and Verizon Agree to Merge Global Business Ventures
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman says the joint venture will create an “AI-ready and secure” platform with a combined annual revenue of US$4bn
Korn Ferry Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire AMS
Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), a global organizational consulting firm, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with OMERS Private Equity to...
New US-Iran clashes revealed fragility of truce — and why it may work
An apparent agreement by the US and Iran to pause a fresh outburst of violence stabilized a truce that is the first step to permanently ending the war and underscored that each side has a vital national interest in doing so.
Reports: Diomande agrees PSG move from Leipzig
Ivory Coast forward Yan Diomande has decided to leave RB Leipzig for Paris Saint-Germain, according to media reports. Broadcasters Sky and RMC, as well as transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano, reported on Sunday that the 19-year-old has agreed a five-year contract with the French Champions League winners.
Miles Bridges trade details: Hornets send athletic forward to Suns, land Grayson Allen
Phoenix and Charlotte kept the NBA offseason rolling on Sunday, reportedly agreeing to a deal involving some key role players.
🚨 BREAKING: Robert Lewandowski agrees multi-year deal with Chicago Fire
Major League Soccer looks set to add another iconic veteran presence to its ranks this summer, with Polish legend Robert Lewandowski reportedly primed for a move to Chicago Fire.Per The Athletic, the ...
Suns trade Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale for Miles Bridges
The Suns have agreed to trade two key rotation players and a 2033 first-round pick for Hornets forward Miles Bridges and future draft capital.
If USMCA is not renewed, analysts expect uncertainty for businesses
US President Donald Trump has warned he would 'rather not have' the free trade agreement ahead of its July 1 review.
Americans find common ground on healthcare
Americans agree that healthcare needs to be better, cheaper, and less complicated. Good ideas toward those goals are bubbling up around the country.
These church members disagree on politics. Together they're wiping out medical debt
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, N. C., has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
These church members disagree on politics. Together they're wiping out medical debt
Trinity Moravian Church, a politically diverse congregation in Winston-Salem, N. C., has been raising money to retire medical debt in the surrounding community.
Israeli politicians lash out after Netanyahu announces intention of 'broad national government'
During the press conference, Netanyahu condemned unnamed forces which "want to cause a rift in the people, want to aggravate and deepen the misunderstandings and disagreements and rifts within us."
Fiorentina agreement for Beltran, but striker resists River Plate
Fiorentina have agreed to sell half of Lucas Beltran to River Plate following the loan at Valencia, but it’s reported the player wants to remain in Europe.The striker spent time in the River Plate a...
Sony is deleting over 550 purchased movies from PS5 users’ digital libraries
PlayStation says a licensing agreement means users will no longer be able to access some purchased videos…
'Godfather of SaaS' says you can't get truly rich working from home
SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin agrees with Flexport CEO Ryan Peterson's skepticism of remote work.
Mo Salah moves closer to €80m contract deal
Following a poor campaign - both individually and collectively - the Egyptian King reached an agreement to rip up his £400k per week contract one year early.The 34-year-old is currently strutting his...
140 Kauai Coffee jobs saved through new land lease agreement
The lease agreement between Kauai Coffee’s parent company, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, and landowner Brue Baukol Capital Partners was finalized after nearly two years of negotiations
Congress subpoenas Leon Black during interview about Jeffrey Epstein
The House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to billionaire Leon Black after he declined to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements.
OpenAI launches limited preview of GPT-5.6 at US government's request
OpenAI said they were complying as part of its agreement with the Department of Defense, which allows the department to use its AI models.
Disagreements between Supreme Court justices bubble into public view as major rulings loom
The Supreme Court is handing down major opinions at a rapid clip, but even with some of the biggest decisions yet to come there are signs of tension between the justices.
Trump says Iran strike in Strait of Hormuz is a ‘foolish violation’ of agreement
President Donald Trump called Iran’s strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz a “foolish violation” of the agreement to end the war with Tehran, but offered little indication the episode would prompt a return to active hostilities.
Ryman Hospitality Addresses Possible Sale of Opry Entertainment Group
Corporation officials say they are exploring the possible sale of a 70 percent stake in the entertainment entity, but there are no agreements in place and ‘no assurances any transaction will occur.’
HHS Expands Secure Access to Health Records Through the TEFCA® Network, Announces Milestone of One Billion Health Records Exchanged
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT at HHS announced new steps to strengthen the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement™ TEFCA®
Business Owners Agree: The Road to Downtown Recovery Runs Through Facts, Not Nostalgia
State Street's commercial vacancy rate is lower today than it was before the pandemic. The highest vacancy rates remain on blocks that are open to vehicle traffic.
Ex-Trump adviser John Bolton expected to plead guilty in classified information case
Bolton to plead guilty charges that he unlawfully retained sensitive national security information in agreement that includes $2.25m fine
City council members request special meeting on planned Sports and Entertainment District
San Antonio Council Districts 1, 5 and 7 want a special meeting before Aug. 7 to guide public input on the Spurs arena’s $75M Community Benefits Agreement as the city considers a $489M Sports and Entertainment District.
University, State of Utah sign agreement for proposed south valley health campus
U of U Health has secured land for a proposed health campus that will serve as the health care anchor for the 600-acre master-planned development...
Moore links Maryland primary to Mamdani-backed wins; analysts disagree
Gov. Wes Moore says Maryland’s primary election showed voters rejected the status quo, but political analysts say the results reflect a more complicated picture.
NASA, US Small Business Administration to Announce Partnership
NASA and the U.S. Small Business Administration will sign a memorandum of agreement during a ceremony at 1 p.m. EDT, Monday, June 29, at NASA Headquarters in
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Merck KGaA to Acquire Bio-Techne for $11.3B, Expanding Life Science Tools Presence
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has agreed to acquire Bio-Techne for approximately $11.3 billion, the companies said today, in a deal designed to position the buyer as more of a leader across the life science value chain by expanding its presence in high-growth, next-generation life-sci markets with Bio-Techne’s tools, analytical technologies, and consumables.
Dave Roberts Gives Blunt Assessment on Dalton Rushing Controversy
Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing had a rough game on Wednesday, June 24th, behind the dish, getting into a disagreement with Shohei Ohtani.
Rubio’s spin on the Iran MOU sounds different from Trump and Vance
For more than a week, America’s top diplomat was conspicuously quiet about something that would have seemed very much in his wheelhouse: a nascent agreement with Iran. But now Secretary of State Marco Rubio is speaking.
How Caesars’ Expanded Tribal iGaming and Community Partnership Could Shape Caesars Entertainment (CZR) Investors’ Outlook
In June 2026, Caesars Entertainment Inc. announced that it had expanded its partnership with three Wabanaki Nations in Maine to cover online casino gaming, aiming to launch Caesars Palace Online Casino, Caesars Sportsbook & Casino and Horseshoe Online Casino in 2026, subject to regulatory approval and integrated with Caesars Rewards and a universal digital wallet. A distinctive element of this agreement is Caesars’ commitment to employ and train tribal members while providing financial...
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Health Care Professionals in New Jersey Ratify New Contract
Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 152 who work at Cape Regional Physicians Associates (CRPA) in New Jersey have secured a powerful new collective bargaining agreement.
Comcast's Sky to Buy ITV's Media and Entertainment Unit for $2.1 Billion
Comcast-owned Sky Group has reportedly agreed to acquire the media and entertainment business unit of U.K.-based ITV for $2.1 billion. The deal is expected to be officially announced in two weeks. Satellite operator Sky will absorb ITV’s broadcast network, linear free-to-air channels, and the ITVX subscription streaming service with 900,000 paid subscribers and 16.4 million … Continue reading "Comcast’s Sky to Buy ITV’s Media and Entertainment Unit for $2.1 Billion"
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
Kustom Entertainment Announces $5.5 Million Divestiture of Legacy Video Solutions Division to Cycurion, Advancing Live Entertainment Focus
Kustom Entertainment announces divestiture of video solutions division to Cycurion, enhancing focus on live events and ticketing.Quiver AI SummaryKustom Entertainment, Inc. announced a binding agreement to sell its legacy video solutions division to Cycurion, Inc., in a deal worth up to $5.5 million, including $1.25 million in cash and a $4.25 million promissory note. The transaction, expected to close in July 2026, will provide Kustom with finan
KUSTOM ENTERTAINMENT, INC. ANNOUNCES BINDING AGREEMENT FOR THE DIVESTITURE OF ITS VIDEO SOLUTIONS SEGMENT TO FULLY COMPLETE LIVE ENTERTAINMENT PIVOT
Transaction Structured to Provide Up to $5.5 Million plus 2,000,000 Warrants to acquire shares of common stock of Cycurion, Inc.; Follows Previously Announced Major Live Music Expansion Partnership with Gilley’s Park City OVERLAND PARK, KS, June 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kustom Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: KUST) (the “Company”), a live entertainment and music festival company, today announced it has entered into a binding agreement for the divestiture of its legacy video solutions division to
KUSTOM ENTERTAINMENT, INC. ANNOUNCES BINDING AGREEMENT FOR THE DIVESTITURE OF ITS VIDEO SOLUTIONS SEGMENT TO FULLY COMPLETE LIVE ENTERTAINMENT PIVOT
Transaction Structured to Provide Up to $5.5 Million plus 2,000,000 Warrants to acquire shares of common stock of Cycurion, Inc.; Follows Previously...
Germany's Merck to buy Bio-Techne for $11.3 billion
Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire biotech firm Bio-Techne for $11.3 billion, the German science and healthcare firm said in a statement on Thursday.
Germany's Merck to buy Bio-Techne for $73 per share
Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire biotech firm Bio-Techne Corp for $73 per share in cash, the German science and healthcare firm said in a statement on Thursday.
A new paper argues Microsoft exaggerated its quantum claims a year ago
A peer-reviewed critique of Majorana 1 claims Microsoft did not conclusively demonstrate a working topological qubit. Microsoft disagrees.
Sabres agree to send Alex Tuch to the Capitals, AP source says
In Buffalo, he had 139 goals and 309 points in 360 games in filling a top-line role.
Program Director Shares How Articulation Agreements Benefit Meredith Pre-health Post-Baccalaureate Students
Karthik Aghoram, director of Meredith’s Pre-health Post-Baccalaureate Program, recently spoke with Inspira Advantage about the program’s articulation agreements and why they are valuable for students seeking careers in health care.
Caitlin Clark's argument with her coach went viral. How did Indy sports reporters handle the story?
To anyone who’s familiar with WNBA coverage, it’s no surprise that a recent video of a mid-game disagreement between Caitlin Clark and her coach went viral.
Saipem to sell Saudi shallow-water drilling business to ADES for $285 mln
Italian energy contractor Saipem has agreed to sell its shallow-water offshore drilling business in Saudi Arabia in a deal worth $285 million, the company said on Wednesday.
Guthrie announces bipartisan online safety package
The agreement, months in the making, protects children and empowers parents, Rep. Guthrie and Rep. Pallone said.
Kyle Pitts, Falcons agree to new 3-year deal
The Falcons’ unicorn tight end is here to stay.
WATCH: Trump says nuclear inspectors will be able to enter Iran at 'appropriate time'
President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Iran agreed to United Nations watchdog inspections of its nuclear sites, but said there is "no rush."
Influence Media Agrees to Buy Anthem Entertainment's Music Assets
Influence Media has agreed to buy Anthem Entertainment's music assets for a price sources suggest is slightly over $650 million.
Alo Yoga primed for public offering or sale after owner's sale of wholesale T-shirt business
In a deal that attracted little interest from Wall Street, the owner of popular yoga clothing maker Alo agreed to sell its wholesale T-shirt division Bella+Canvas last month.
Trump keeps claiming Iran made concessions. Iran keeps denying them
Ever since releasing a memorandum of understanding last week that appeared heavily slanted toward Iran, the Trump administration has kept claiming Tehran agreed to other major concessions in ongoing negotiations.
Netflix’s New #1 Show Is a Crime Thriller Everyone Can Finally Agree on
A new Netflix thriller has taken over the number 1 spot, knocking a usual chart-topper down the rankings. Viewers are calling it binge-worthy, twist-filled, and impossible to pause once you start. Find out more here.
Louisiana Rastafarian man can’t sue staff who shaved his dreadlocks, Supreme Court says
Courts have largely agreed that the man’s religious rights were violated, but have said the law doesn’t allow him to sue state prison officials.
Appendix B: Classifying European political parties
Classifying parties as populist Although experts generally agree that populist political leaders or parties display high levels of anti-elitism, definitions of populism vary. We use three measures to classify parties as populist: anti-elite ratings from the 2024 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES), the 2023 Populism and Political Parties Expert Survey (POPPA) and the 2023 PopuList. […]
Walmart to Buy Vibe.co in Effort to Fuel TV Advertising Business
Walmart Inc. has agreed to acquire Vibe.co in an effort to expand its connected television advertising business, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Maine state workers ready to settle contract dispute
In a statement, the Mills administration said four other state employee unions have already agreed to a 2% increase in January of this year, followed by another 2% raise next month.
Backed by threat of clawbacks, feds wield tight grip on $50B rural health fund
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz praised states’ plans when announcing the rural health program awards last year and said his agency would help states “turn their ideas into lasting improvements for rural families.” But state officials and healthcare leaders said it’s also clear the agency wants to encourage specific policy changes and hold states accountable to the promises they made and rules they agreed to follow.
Opinion | What high schoolers get about politics that adults don’t
In high school debate, we can disagree about an issue without devolving into caricatures and misrepresentations of the other side, Eagan High School's debate captain writes.
Timberwolves reportedly trading Julius Randle to Nets in salary dump, agree with Ayo Dosunmu on $112M deal
Brexit Has Cost the UK Growth, Analysts Say, in the Decade Since the Vote
Citing lower trade and investment, analysts broadly agree that Britain’s economy is smaller than it would have been if the country had stayed in the E.U.
NBA Fans Are In Disbelief Over Julius Randle Trade
In a stunning turn of events, the Minnesota Timberwolves have traded away three-time All-Star Julius Randle. The Timberwolves have agreed to send Randle and the No. 28 pick in this year's NBA Draft to the Brooklyn Nets in a three-time trade. In order to make this deal work, the Chicago Bulls will ...
ANALYSIS: Fear not Britain, the EU doesn't agree on you rejoining either
Brussels heavyweights are clashing over whether Brexit can be reversed and on what terms
Judge agrees to set aside default entered against Jon Prosser in Apple lawsuit
Jon Prosser is getting a new chance to respond to Apple’s complaint over the leak of iOS 26 and the Liquid Glass revamp.
WATCH: Dems unite on anti-terror spying authority amid standoff over Trump's DNI pick
Democratic senators agree Congress should renew FISA Section 702 spying powers but raise concerns about Bill Pulte as acting intelligence director.
Vance says Iran agrees to nuclear inspections, as under Obama deal
Conversations with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency could occur as soon as Monday, the vice president said, as negotiations continue in Switzerland.
Vance says talks with Iranian officials set 'good foundation' for a deal to end the war
On Monday, Vance described the talks as rocky but productive, with some agreements reached.
Trump’s Iran agreement embraces sanctions relief, a policy he and his team once denounced
For years, President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance argued against deals that provided financial concessions to Iran, saying that giving the regime money fuels terror. But now the agreement they’ve reached to end the war with Tehran is poised to hand the regime billions.
VOTE: Do you agree with the entertainment zones?
The Fresno City Council passed an ordinance for entertainment zones.The ordinance would allow alcohol to be on the street during special permitted events.Howeve
CJ McCollum agrees to return to Hawks on 1-year, $21 million deal
McCollum was responsible for two of the New York Knicks' losses in the 2026 NBA playoffs during a first-round series with the Atlanta Hawks.
What the Iran war cost the Pentagon, the economy
With an agreement signed, the US war with Iran is at a halt, at least for now, and President Donald Trump is telling Americans they have won.
How Trump’s Fragile Agreement With Iran Is Shaping the Midterms
Democrats say the president started an economically painful war that resulted in nothing positive. Republicans are more divided, even as they show some signs of relief at falling gas prices.
Fee Gap Stands Between United and Fernandes Despite Terms Agreed
Manchester United have agreed personal terms with Mateus Fernandes (21), with Football Insider reporting that the Reds are now “making progress towards a full transfer agreement” – though a sign...
Broken Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire ; Latest on U.S. Politics; Ebola Update
Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah renew their ceasefire while Iran and the U.S. try to push ahead with negotiating a broader deal. We'll also look at how the preliminary agreement is being viewed domestically, and at President Trump's G7 appearance. Plus, we'll have the latest on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where aid is starting to arrive.
Week in Politics: U.S.-Israel ties; Trump and Vance oppose ceasefire critics
President Trump and his vice-president pushed back against critics of the agreement to extend the ceasefire with Iran. Some Republican lawmakers have found the agreement wanting.