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Bucs' Biggest Training Camp Storyline Revealed
Beyond contract disputes, Tampa Bay's season hinges on Baker Mayfield’s health. After a brutal, injury-plagued year, can the quarterback find his ceiling and secure his future with the franchise?
Bucs' Biggest Training Camp Storyline Revealed
Beyond contract disputes, Tampa Bay's season hinges on Baker Mayfield’s health. After a brutal, injury-plagued year, can the quarterback find his ceiling and secure his future with the franchise?
Isanti County Fair teems with entertainment
Hazardous air quality, 90 degree heat, plus a few other glitches plagued this year's Isanti County Fair. However, between (or despite) all of that, the 2026 running of the summertime
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...
Messy primaries plague both major political parties, causing chaos and confusion in the midterms
As midterm campaigning heats up, both major political parties face unexpected challenges
Messy primaries plague both major political parties, causing chaos and confusion in the midterms
As midterm campaigning heats up, both major political parties face unexpected challenges.
Docs with greater clinical knowledge less likely to order low-value imaging
Wasteful tests and treatments, such as imaging for an uncomplicated headache, continue to plague the U.S. healthcare system, experts note.
United States Delivers Life-Saving Health Supplies and equipment to Madagascar
United States Delivers Life-Saving Health Supplies and equipment to Madagascar U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner presided over a handover ceremony to the Government of Madagascar, represented by President of the Refoundation Col. Michaël Randrianirina, marking the delivery of nearly one million mosquito nets, over 900,000 pieces of critical laboratory equipment, and 33 internet connectivity systems. The assistance – valued at more than $2.2 million – is part of a broader U.S.-Madagascar health partnership, outlined in our bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2025, totaling $134 million from the U.S. government from 2026 through 2030. “This assistance is clear and disciplined – it is a tool of strategic engagement, not global charity,” said Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner. “Every U.S. taxpayer dollar must show measurable results, reduce long-term dependence on U.S. resources, and support greater self-reliance. Stronger health systems in Madagascar help detect and contain infectious diseases before they spread across borders, protecting American and Malagasy families alike.” The assistance includes: 989,250 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets - worth $2 million – will be distributed to 63 districts and 1,661 community health centers across Madagascar. Malaria remains one of the leading causes of death in the country, claiming the lives of children and women at an unacceptable rate. The third and final delivery of these nets arrived in late June and will be distributed starting this July until mid-October, ensuring that those most at risk of mosquito-borne disease now have access to this basic but life-saving protection. U.S.-funded Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project will ensure the distribution. 908,523 pieces of critical medical and laboratory equipment – valued at $180,000 – including personal protective equipment, laboratory supplies, diagnostic tools, and cold chain equipment – along with a modernized digital surveillance system to Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health. This support through the STRIDES (Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems) program bolsters Madagascar’s ability to detect and respond to outbreaks of diseases such as monkeypox, plague, rabies, polio, and Ebola before they become regional or global threats. Over $30,000 of funding for the full procurement, installation, and first year of service for 33 Starlink satellite internet systems at priority districts and regional health offices across the country. These systems will allow health workers in remote and underserved communities to transmit health data quickly to central decision-makers – enabling faster, better-coordinated responses when disease outbreaks occur. U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) will implement this project. As the country’s largest bilateral health donor, the United States remains committed to the principle that a stronger, healthier Madagascar makes for a stronger, safer world – and a stronger, safer America.
Wild rat in New Mexico tests positive for the Plague, health officials say
World Of Warcraft Plague Kills Players, Makes Infected Spread Nasty Green Goo
World Of Warcraft's 'Corrupted Blood Incident 2.0' resulted in the game getting even more toxic than usual
Church services dull pain, and a new diabetes drug: science stories of the week
From new types of spider hunting techniques to the earliest-known plague victims, here are the most interesting recent scientific developments
Apple's first-ever foldable iPhone is as popular as the plague, as it turns out
Wait, wasn't the iPhone Ultra supposed to be a hit?!
Dragon Age Lead Writer Condemns AI As A 'Virulent Plague'
David Gaider doesn't hold back when explaining why genAI is so bad for games development
Milei Taps Lifetime Politician to Lead His Cabinet After Scandal
Argentine President Javier Milei tapped a seasoned politician he once openly insulted on the campaign trail to become the fourth cabinet chief of his government plagued by corruption scandals.
Arizona health officials investigate suspected pneumonic plague case
Health officials in Yavapai County are looking into a suspected case of pneumonic plague.
The Orlando Magic Waive Defensive Versatile Forward Jonathan Isaac
The Orlando Magic severs ties with the former lottery pick to avoid a looming salary guarantee, ending an injury-plagued nine-year tenure while seeking financial flexibility for a critical offseason.
Arizona health officials investigate suspected pneumonic plague case
Yavapai County Community Health Services said Friday that a county resident is thought to have contracted the infection.
Tony Goldwyn recalls Hollywood 'people that were mean' changing their attitude toward him after this hit film
Tony Goldwyn said that Hollywood colleagues treated him as if he 'had the plague' when he was an unemployed actor, and those same 'mean' people changed their tune after this hit movie.
The Year 536 AD Was So Bad It May Have Been the Worst Time in Human History to Be Alive
Volcanoes, famine and plague made 536 a leading candidate for history’s worst year.
Brooklyn coffee shop that targeted Jewish congressman faces DOJ probe after reported tax, health code issues
Poetica Coffee owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov donated to scandal-plagued candidate Graham Platner and reportedly faces tax debts and health code violations.
Trump claims vandals will force drainage of algae-plagued Reflecting Pool
(CNN) — President Donald Trump claimed Saturday, without providing evidence, that vandals damaged the algae-plagued Reflecting Pool on the National Mall and that the water will need to be drained
Earliest outbreak of the plague killed hunter-gatherer kids 5,500 years ago
Scientists have solved a mystery that puzzled them for decades: Why were so many dead children buried by hunter-gatherers in Russia 5,500 years ago? It turns out they were killed by the earliest known outbreak of the plague, revealing new insights about the disease.
A Deadly Outbreak of Plague, Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death
The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild.
Trump admin uses hydrogen peroxide, tiny bubbles against Reflecting Pool algae
Algae has plagued the site for more than 100 years, but Trump set his sights on addressing it as part of his aggressive push to beautify Washington
Workers seen adding hydrogen peroxide to treat algae-plagued Reflecting Pool
‘The Odyssey’ Has Been Plagued By Controversy. We Break Down Every Criticism Surrounding The Film.
From casting choices to “historical inaccuracies,” the star-studded film has caused widespread uproar.
Will Trump Spend His $350 Million War Chest to Win Texas? Republicans Are Worried
By Nolan D. McCaskill WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - Republicans want President Donald Trump to put his money where his mouth is: behind his scandal-plagued ally, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton ousted four-term Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff last month on the heels of Trump's ...
Health officials confirm first death related to plague in New Mexico
New Mexico health officials say a Santa Fe County woman died from plague, the state's first case in 2026.
One of fall's coolest games has been delayed to October to avoid a September crush
Last Sunday, a trailer that aired during an online Xbox event showed Valor Mortis, an upcoming action game that re-imagines the age of Napoleonic wars as a conflict with the plague-ridden undead. It’s a first-person game that mixes Dark Souls-style combat with parkour—it’s from the developers of the acclaimed, fast-paced cyberpunk wall-running Ghostrunner games—and a setting like nothing else that’s out there. Valor Mortis’ trailer concluded with a release date: September 24. But by the time it aired, the teams behind the game knew that was no longer Valor Mortis’ release date. Days ago, they’d learned the hard way that September 24 would be untenable and that they’d have to change it. Today, they’ve announced a new one, October 13, after speaking to Game File about getting out of the bind they recently found themselves in. “When we picked September 24th, it looked like a very, very clear date,” Blake Rochkind, head of publisher Lyrical Games, told me during an impromptu interview on Monday in Los Angeles. “Very quickly it became not such a clear date.” Lyrical and development studio One More Level had a feeling the deate might need to change, Rochkind recalled. But they had to lock in September 24 “many, many weeks” ago. Really, though, who could know if that was the right call when they made it? “There were so many unknowns,” Rochkind said. “This was before Sony State of Play, before Xbox Showcase, before Nintendo Direct, before Summer Games Fest.” Then on Tuesday, June 2, during a PlayStation showcase held just five days before their planned release date reveal, things changed. “As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date.” It wasn’t just the PlayStation showcase reveal of the release date for Remedy’s upcoming third-person thriller. There were others. And changing their own trailer this close to its airing, Rochkind would later tell me, wasn’t possible.
Republicans fear of 'fatal mistake' in must-win Platner race
The NRSC warns Republicans that scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner remains a credible threat to Sen. Susan Collins in Maine's pivotal Senate race.
Platner holdout floats emergency lifeline for panicking Dems if scandal-plagued candidate wins
Rep. Josh Gottheimer calls for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner to exit the race, saying he should get off the ballot and let a Democrat step in.
Low pay plagues Congo health workers
MONGBWALU, Congo -- The front line is wearing thin in Congo's battle with the world's latest Ebola virus outbreak, as low pay adds to the fatigue plaguing the nation's healthcare workers, says one medical authority.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy launches August 27
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on August 27, publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Asobo Studio announced. It…
Hunter Biden, in viral social media posts, reclaims his narrative
Former first son Hunter Biden was plagued by scandal, cast by critics as an X-rated troublemaker. Then, he started tweeting on X.
GOP senators torch scandal-plagued Platner while Dems stay silent on candidacy
Republican senators denounce Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner over Nazi tattoo and scandal allegations ahead of Tuesday's primary.
Science lays out future of snowfall
In the coming decades, the Mountain West could be plagued by limited snowfall on valley floors even though snowfall may increase at higher elevations, according to research published in the
Former primary rival resurfaces to challenge scandal-plagued Graham Platner in Maine Senate race
Maine Gov. Janet Mills reminds voters she remains on the ballot after suspending her Senate campaign, as rival Graham Platner faces mounting scandals.
Marathon's Big Free Season 2 Debut Plagued By Server Issues
Bungie's extraction shooter is facing outages on its biggest day since launch
Democrats break with scandal-plagued Graham Platner, warn of 'civil war' in party
Top Democrats break with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner over his Nazi-linked tattoo and online scandals, sparking what some are calling a party "civil war."
Trump's GOP purge claims Cornyn as Paxton wins: Texas runoff takeaways
Democrat James Talarico casts scandal-plague GOP nominee as the 'most corrupt politician in America' in a fall race that shakes up the 2026 Senate map
Semiconductor decoupling. Powell's politics. Industrializing Ogaden. Free trade and the Magna Carta.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 8th Army’s Front, Italy 1944 Semiconductor decoupling Source: FT One thing that Jerome Powell deeply understood is that chairing the Fed under current conditions is a deeply political job. “Powell has successes and mistakes to his name. But he stands out as having thought more carefully about the Fed’s democratic legitimacy than any chair since Paul Volcker,” said Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor at the Bank of England, referring to the Fed chair who successfully fought the great inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s. … While Powell was at the Treasury in the early 1990s, he watched Alan Greenspan build relationships within the government. That convinced Powell he needed to follow the former Fed chair’s lead and spend more time in Congress than his predecessors Yellen and Bernanke. “The accountability for the Fed runs through Congress,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Fed official who is now chief economist at New Century Advisors. “That’s not just about having people on speed dial — it’s answering questions, explaining policy and getting feedback.” Source: FT Ethiopia’s PM Abiy and Nigerian business tycoon, with Chinese engineering, are driving industrialization in Ogaden/Somali region of Ethiopia. - Michael Masri’s reporting for Africa Report if fascinating. Ethiopia has launched a cluster of large industrial schemes in the Somali region, laying foundation stones for a urea plant and an oil refinery in Gode while opening the first two phases of the Ogaden LNG project. Abiy Ahmed framed the push as part of a broader strategy to link energy, agriculture and industry. “These projects embody more than industrial growth,” he said. “They represent our shared responsibility to harness opportunities, strengthen co-operation and promote peace.” The Gode urea plant, backed by Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH), is designed for 3m tonnes a year. Dangote owns 60%, while EIH holds 40%. Officials say Dangote’s equity totals about $2.5bn, while the state provides land and implementation oversight. Gas from the Calub fields will be piped 108km to the site. Construction is slated for 40 months, with operations targeted for 2028. Ethiopia imports most of its fertiliser, spending more than $1.2bn a year for 1.5m–2m tonnes. Usage was roughly 1.7m tonnes in 2023, almost half of it urea, and demand for 2024–25 is put above 2.4m tonnes. If delivered on time, the Gode plant could cover domestic needs and allow exports to neighbours. Brook Taye, chief executive of EIH, called the venture “a significant milestone in the journey toward industrial self-sufficiency”. Dangote told the groundbreaking crowd that the complex would be integrated with gas supply and a polypropylene unit to support local inputs. He pointed to Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with a capacity of more than 5,000MW, and noted his group’s cement operations and expansion plans. The Gode refinery is being developed by Golden Concord Group of China. It is designed to process 3.5m tonnes a year of crude and condensate from the Hilala field, with associated storage. Backers say it will ease foreign-exchange pressure from fuel imports and anchor further industrial activity, including a proposed steel smelting site in Dire Dawa. GCL’s chair, Zhu Gongshan, cast the project as “a key step in Ethiopia’s path to energy sovereignty”, underscoring the Beijing–Addis ties. Financing details are still being finalised, but the refinery is central to the government’s energy-security narrative. Source: The Africa Report Dangote’s Ethiopian vision: Dangote began with cement. His crown jewel, Dangote Cement, dominates Nigeria’s market and has 10 operations in other nations in Africa. The formula has been consistent: identify sectors with chronic shortages – cement, fertiliser, sugar – commit massive local investments, and scale up to serve regional demand. Ethiopia was a natural extension of that model. In 2015, Dangote launched the Mugher Cement Plant outside Addis Ababa at a cost of $600m, with an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. The investment gave him a firm foothold in one of Africa’s fastest-growing construction markets. But success came with risks. In May 2018, violent unrest led to the killing of Dangote’s country manager and temporary shutdowns at Mugher. While other investors might have retreated, Dangote doubled down. Today, he is preparing to spend $400m to expand Mugher’s capacity to 5 million tonnes, alongside a new grinding unit near Addis Ababa. Cement is just one market Dangote is targeting. Ethiopia’s enormous state-controlled sugar industry, long plagued by inefficiency and debt, has struggled for years to reform. Its Omo Kuraz Sugar Development Project, touted as one of the continent’s largest initiatives, continues to face delays and mismanagement. … The most ambitious venture of all is the planned fertiliser production complex in Gode, Somali region. Publicised on 28 August 2025, the Dangote Group and Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) deal plans one of the world’s largest single-site urea manufacturing plants. The project costs an estimated $2.5bn and has an estimated capacity of 3 million metric tonnes annually, a rate that would not only render Ethiopia independent, but even a net exporter of fertiliser. EIH, the state wealth fund of Ethiopia, will hold 40%, while 60% is held by Dangote Group. … For Dangote, Ethiopia is a trifecta: Cement demand is projected to grow by 10% annually, its sugar consumption is growing with rapid urbanisation, and fertiliser demand is all but insatiable, given that farming supports the livelihood of 70% of Ethiopians. Source: The Africa Report The stakes for Abiy are high: For Addis Ababa, the $4bn fertiliser project in Ethiopia’s Somali region is no longer simply a manufacturing investment. It is increasingly being framed as a strategic state project tied to food sovereignty, import substitution and the government’s broader attempt to build economic resilience under mounting fiscal pressure. “Becoming self-sufficient in food is our main agenda,” Abiy says during the visit. “Land is needed; we have it. Water is needed; we have it. Human resources are needed; we have it.” The scale is enormous even by African industrial standards. Once operational, the plant is expected to produce three million metric tonnes of urea annually, potentially making it one of the continent’s largest fertiliser complexes. Ethiopian officials say the project now includes a 110km gas pipeline, a 120MW power plant, a polypropylene packaging facility and a two-million-tonne NPK blending plant. For a government grappling with chronic foreign exchange shortages, ballooning import bills and pressure on agricultural productivity, the numbers matter politically as much as they do economically. The decision to anchor the project in Gode is deliberate. Long viewed as peripheral to Ethiopia’s industrial economy, the Somali region is now being repositioned by the federal government as a future irrigation and agro-industrial corridor. Officials argue that the area’s vast land reserves and access to water could eventually support large-scale commercial farming capable of reshaping Ethiopia’s food economy. The government is simultaneously building housing infrastructure for about 5,000 residents near the plant, while officials project broader industrial expansion along the corridor. Abiy goes further, comparing the long-term revenue potential of the Gode development zone with Ethiopia’s flagship state enterprise. “The investments we are making in this Gode area, combined, will generate high revenue for Ethiopia, at par with Ethiopian Airlines,” he says. Source: The Africa Report Feliks Topolski 1907-1982 Topolski’s Chronicle, ‘Nazi Revival’, Vol. 8, Is. 1-2, 1960 HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Grim vision of drone warfare by Sylvie Kaufmann For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe The state of the art in Colbert-studies. Jean-Baptiste Colbert was Louis XIV chief minister from 1661 to 1683 and traditionally seen as an architect of absolutism and mercantilism. Alexander Hamilton later cited him as an inspiration in 1782. Now his legacy is disputed. Daniel Dessert, the chief critic, sees Colbert as the orchestrator not so much of an absolutist state as of an elite cabal. Would be great to have a good English-language review of this important debate. Source: lhistoire Didn’t know that the Magna Carta included free trade provisions Fighting for the right to the beach in Oregon in 1967: Source: Research Gate RAF Station – British and Polish Flags, c. 1940-45, The Ingram Collection Feliks Topolski, 1907-1989 ink and wash If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Inside Graham Platner’s Controversial Rise
The Democrats' hopes in November hinge on the scandal-plagued Senate candidate
Trump picks scandal-plagued Texas AG Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in Senate GOP primary
How outbreaks at sea have been helping to shape the global health system since medieval times
Outbreaks at sea are one of the oldest problems in public health. From medieval plague quarantines to modern times, they have repeatedly tested the ability to control infectious disease – and have played a key role in shaping the international public health framework in place today.
CDC Didn’t Tell New York About Resident on Hantavirus-Plagued Cruise
There’s no indication that the New Yorker was returning to the U.S. But public health experts said the city and state still should have been informed.
Castle Rock business says its customers are plagued by parking citations
Castle Rock restaurant says parking citations are hurting business
A Castle Rock business says its customers are plagued by parking citations from Parking Revenue Recovery Services.
ESPN's Tim Hasselbeck slams Bengals' organization, Joe Burrow's health
ESPN NFL analyst Tim Hasselbeck blasted the Bengals for underachieving during quarterback Joe Burrow's injury-plagued career.
He pitched military service with a promise of lifetime healthcare. When he needed it, the system failed.
More than a year after the military’s health insurance program transitioned millions of people to TriWest, problems continue to plague the program, leaving patients in limbo.
Steam Controller Quickly Goes Out Of Stock After Payment Processing Issues Plague Release
The launch of the Steam Controller did not go smoothly, as many were met with error messages before it went out of stock
State agency plagued with leadership turnover hired deputy commissioner accused of taking $99K from Colorado nonprofit
The former regional executive director of CASA of Adams and Broomfield counties was hired by the state Behavioral Health Administration in November
See How the Brewers Suffered Another Loss
The Milwaukee Brewers' skid has extended to four games, and a common theme continues to plague them.
Melania Trump’s Epstein statement stunned White House aides but was in keeping with a first lady who does her own thing
With war raging and midterms on the horizon, the White House seemed to have finally shaken the Jeffrey Epstein saga that plagued the first year of Donald Trump’s second term. But for first lady Melania Trump, the Epstein story was still all consuming.
Injury-plagued Lakers look to regroup vs. Warriors
The foundation is crumbling fast around the Los Angeles Lakers, who looked like championship contenders after going 15-2 last month.
🤔 Last season plagued by injuries: VfB star's future still unclear
His contract with VfB Stuttgart only runs until the summer. For many, it was surprising anyway that midfielder Nikolas Nartey had been given another contract by the Swabians last year. Above all, num...
‘Marathon’ Is Now Plagued With A Cheater Infestation
Marathon has many challenges, but its latest is dealing with a lot of cheaters infesting its higher-end matches.
‘Crimson Desert’ Has A Quest You Should Save Rollback To Avoid
Crimson Desert has a lot of quests, but there is one that you should avoid like the plague.
Xbox's State Of Decay 3 Finally Returns, Signups Now Live For Alpha Playtests
"A mysterious broadcast calls to all survivors of the blood plague"
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
New NFIB Op-Ed: Exploding Health Care Costs Leave Small Businesses in the Dust
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 1, 2026) – In a new op-ed published in The Well News, Tyler Dever, NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations, describes how Main Street continues to be plagued by the rising cost of health care. He explains how small business owners are finding it increasingly difficult
New NFIB Op-Ed: Exploding Health Care Costs Leave Small Businesses in the Dust
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 1, 2026) – In a new op-ed published in The Well News, Tyler Dever, NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations, describes how Main Street continues to be plagued by the rising cost of health care. He explains how small business owners are finding it increasingly difficult
Africa’s Biggest Fund Manager Seeks Buyer for Chicken Business
Africa’s biggest fund manager is seeking a buyer for Daybreak Foods (Pty) Ltd., its wholly owned chicken business in South Africa that has been plagued by scandals and a business-rescue process.
Mattel goes through another round of layoffs
The company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels plans to lay off 65 workers in May, the latest in a series of mass layoffs that have plagued Mattel in the past year.
Mental health issues plague new moms in the military. The Pentagon is supposed to help
By Jennifer Brookland The War Horse Shawna Bush had been blissfully ignorant during her pregnancy: happy, excited, and expecting the best out of motherhood. It took just two days for the wrecking ball of postpartum depression to demolish her joy and leave her sobbing on the couch. “It hit me like a train,” Bush said. […]
Cases of 'white plague' rising in US as doctors warn of 'rebound effect'
Tuberculosis, also known as "the white plague," is rising in the U.S. post-pandemic, with over 10,600 cases confirmed in 2024, the CDC reports.
My time with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has been plagued by one issue; these cheap contemporaries fix it
The battery problem
Watch: Affordability Plagues Health Care in Its Shift From Nonprofit to Profit Machine
On “What the Health? From KFF Health News,” distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, to talk about the likelihood of a national health care debate.
Plagued by early deficits, Wild turn page to meet Blackhawks
A three-game winless streak has done little to compromise the Minnesota Wild's solid playoff positioning.
Former scandal-plagued Illinois 'super mayor' eyes political comeback as a Republican in Georgia
Scandal-plagued former Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard switches parties, runs as Republican in Georgia after alleged corruption probe and FBI subpoenas.
Crucial Test: Will Courts Stand For Science Or Speculation?
A key case could deal a decisive blow to the junk science that has plagued our courts.
Braves' Chris Sale appreciates health after injury-plagued Red Sox tenure
In two seasons since the Sox traded him to Atlanta, Sale is 25-8 with a 2.46 ERA in 303⅓ innings.
Recap: Penalty-plagued Avalanche fall 5-2 to Wild
Avs fall in frustrating defeat to division rival.
From frog saunas to medicated baths: Scientists battle a global amphibian plague
What may sound like a spa day for frogs is all part of a global effort to fight the chytrid fungus — the deadly pathogen responsible for what scientists have called the largest disease-driven loss of vertebrates in recorded history.
Early woes plague Spartans again, upset at Minnesota
Another horrific start killed the Spartans on Wednesday, and a late run couldn't make up for it this time, falling to Minnesota.
Netflix cancels ‘Sons of Anarchy’ showrunner’s drama after just one month
The Western drama lasted only one month on the streaming service after viewership tanked and production troubles plagued the seven-episode first season.
Windows 11 hit by bevy of bugs to kick off 2026
Some of the bugs have been resolved, but others continue to plague Windows users.
Column | ‘Ball and gun’ gamers and the plague of uninformed expertise
Sports games and shooters are often excellent. But the conversation around them is a symptom of a wider culture that treats participation as knowledge.
Costs soar to more than $100K for Portland business plagued by repeated HVAC thefts
Montavilla Sewing Center in Southeast Portland is speaking out after the business’s HVAC units have been stripped of parts five times in the last four months.
Matthew McConaughey is trademarking 'alright, alright, alright' to stop unauthorized AI use
Matthew McConaughey has filed several trademarks in a bid to prevent misuse as unauthorized AI use continues to plague the Hollywood industry.
Trump officials see fraud everywhere. Here’s what we know
A 42-minute video from a conservative content creator in Minnesota has provided the Trump administration with yet another opportunity to argue that federal safety net programs are plagued by widespread fraud.
Saints used the second-most offensive line combinations this season
An injury-plagued New Orleans Saints offensive line was just as beaten up as it looked. Just one team has used more line combinations this season.
‘A state of crisis’: record number of Americans are pessimistic about US healthcare system
Costs, insurance delays and difficult-to-obtain mental health treatment plague the US health system
Ethics investigations, scandals plague Colorado Capitol
Over the course of the year, a series of investigations, allegations and controversies emerged at the state Capitol, drawing scrutiny to the behavior of elected officials and, in some cases, overshadowing policy debates. Here are some of the notable investigations, stories and accusations to come out of Colorado’s latest legislative session. Sonya Jaquez Lewis In […]
December 12, 2025
Over the past century, most cancer research has focused on the tumor itself. Rakesh Jain focused on the tumor’s environment instead. Plus, a glacier’s edge can be a dangerous place to do research. One team is using robots and sound samples to monitor the melting ice. And, when cases of plague pop up in the US, it can feel straight up medieval. It’s treatable, but how and why does it persist?
U.S. seizes oil tanker amid tensions with Venezuela and health care disagreements plague the GOP: Morning Rundown
Plus, a test of AI-powered children's toys reveals a not so kid-friendly side.
Depleted Trail Blazers wrap trip vs. struggling Pelicans
The injury-plagued Portland Trail Blazers will aim to end their five-game road trip on a high note when they visit the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday.
Scientists uncover a volcanic trigger behind the Black Death
A newly analyzed set of climate data points to a major volcanic eruption that may have played a key role in the Black Death’s arrival. Cooling and crop failures across Europe pushed Italian states to bring in grain from the Black Sea. Those shipments may have carried plague-infected fleas. The study ties together tree rings, ice cores, and historical writings to reframe how the pandemic began.
Chicago small businesses seek redo after snow-plagued Small Business Saturday
It’s not a secret Chicagoans are a hardy bunch in the winter, but we also have our limits. One week ago, the winter storm all but cut Small Business Saturday off at the knees.
Caitlin Clark enjoys lucrative year despite injury woes
Despite Caitlin Clark's injury-plagued 2025 WNBA season, the Iowa women's basketball legend still hauled in a lucrative year through her endorsements.
Massive volcanic eruptions may have actually caused the Black Death | BBC Science Focus Magazine
New research suggests that a combination of volcanic activity, cold summers and famine brought the deadly plague to Europe.
Medieval volcanoes may have ignited the Black Death
More than just rats and fleas added to the 'perfect storm' plague.
Volcanic eruption may have sparked Europe's Black Death plague, scientists find
The plague killed between a third and half of the European population in the mid-14th Century. But it's unknown what triggered the pandemic.
Analysis: Hegseth rides into controversies on a Trump-fuled storm of
When a scandal-plagued top official needs a public vote of confidence from a president, it’s usually a certain sign they’re headed for the exit.
Red Dead Redemption Out Now on Netflix, iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2
Experience John Marston's journey across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico to hunt down the remaining members of the Van der Linde Gang in Red Dead Redemption along with his fight to stop a virulent zombie plague in Undead...