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Texas Senate hopeful Talarico ramps up Black outreach efforts

The Texas Democrat acknowledges criticism that Democrats haven’t been doing enough to court Black voters.

Sep 4 • 3:00 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

iPhone Ultra Production Hitting Just 'a Few Hundred' a Day, Says Nikkei

Apple last month only managed to produce "a few hundred units a day" of its upcoming foldable iPhone because of the company's extremely high quality control standards, according to Nikkei Asia ($), citing supply chain sources. From today's report: "Production is ramping up slowly, with output currently at only a few hundred units a day in late August.

Sep 4 • 6:08 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Trump administration says agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian

The Trump administration has suggested federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian Institution if its leadership does not change, ramping up a monthslong pressure campaign to align the world’s largest museum complex with its views.

Sep 3 • 7:35 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Here's what to know about Launch Family Entertainment fun center

Launch Family Entertainment is set to open Oct. 16 with trampolines, bowling, dining and so much more fun for the whole family.

Sep 2 • 5:06 AM EDT • Entertainment • pnj.com

gamescom 2026’s Steam wishlist winners

gamescom wrapped up last weekend, and it was bloody fantastic. It really felt like the industry had a spring in its step again. The show itself was BUZZING, with 368K attendees (+3% over last year), maxed-out exhibit space, and Opening Night Live pulling over 78M online views (+7.5%). Let’s have a look at the games at the event that brought in the most new Steam wishlists between August 23 and 30. One quick thing before we start, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but wishlists are NOT a barometer for launch sales (they’re bookmarks, not baskets is what we always say over here at Alinea). With that aside, wishlists are a nice gauge of hype, so let’s dive in. Witche(r)s and Warlocks take the top two spots The biggest game of the event (by new wishlists, anyways) wasn’t a game at all. It was an expansion. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, nabbed 451K Steam wishlists by the end of the weekend. It’s a big example of something we bang on about constantly: proven IP with built-in fandom is the most powerful force in this market. But said IP can also ripple into other external success stories (more on that later!). Anyway, Songs of the Past debuted at Opening Night Live, and it’s the first Witcher 3 expansion in over a decade, landing next year after a full Witcher 3 remaster (free for existing owners!) arrives next month. The Witcher 3 has sold around 66M copies, and I’ll be one of those owners jumping back in to refresh myself on the core game (like there isn’t enough to play!), then play the expansion next year. This is all part of CDPR’s plan. The studio is clearly whetting everyone’s appetite for The Witcher 4 in 2028 via a classic bridge strategy. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Releasing a free 4K remaster next month – followed by a proper expansion in 2027 – keeps IP top-of-mind across a huge gap between content (games-wise, anyway). It kind of echoes Capcom’s evergreen catalogue strategy. And outsourcing co-development to Fool’s Theory (a studio led by trusted Witcher 3 veterans) keeps CDPR’s internal headcount focused on The Witcher 4. #2 by wishlists between Aug 23 and 30 went to another giant IP: Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast and developed by Invoke Studios (a team of ex-Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell devs). It’s due to launch in 2027, and it looks brilliant so far. It’s a dark-fantasy open world with third-person spell-slinging. It’s a very Witcher-ish aesthetic. As you might expect, 48% of Warlock’s Steam wishlisters have played Baldur’s Gate 3, and 46% have played The Witcher 3. One to watch. For sure! Mash-ups: Anime GTA (!?) and a city-builder for kids (and adults) Ananta took #3 with 302K new wishlists. It’s an open-world game that looks like GTA and Persona had a baby. It was published by NetEase, developed by Naked Rain, and got a trailer at Opening Night Live. I got hands-on at the show, and it wears its influences openly; there’s literal web-slinging (very Spider-Man) and a LOAD of mini-games (Like a Dragon). It’s free-to-play and out in January. For Ananta, Naked Rain is taking the free-to-play, cosmetics-only route. That’s certainly a choice for a single-player open-world game. Without gacha mechanics driving high ARPU, Ananta is betting purely on top-of-funnel reach and long-term retention. This puts pressure on skin appeal when there’s no multiplayer lobby to flex in (although, co-op is reportedly coming later). Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Then there’s Lego Skylines (273K wishlists between Aug 23 and 30), which does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a cosy Lego twist on the city-builder genre, as shallow or as deep as you fancy (five min quick sesh or ten-hour no-lifer session; latter for me). There’s some family-friendly stuff in there like couch co-op, which is only really viable on console. Iceflake Studios, which Paradox acquired back in 2020 is developing this one. So Paradox is probably looking for a family-friendly onramp to its rad Cities: Skylines games. The overlap there is plain, with 33% of Lego Skylines wishlisters having played Cities: Skylines and 16% Skylines II. There’s no doubt plenty of parents here (and uncles, ahem) planning to indoctrinate the next gen of city-builders. I’ll definitely be playing with my youngest nephew. This one could be big and educational. I’m very curious to see more. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Mature IP, new and old, rounds out the list As for the rest of the list of gamescom games by new wishlists between Aug 23 and 30: Heroes of Might & Magic III Remake got 189K new wishlists. It remakes the iconic 1999 turn-based-strategy classic in full 3D and 4K. It follows this year’s Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (~1.8M copies sold, as per our estimates), and around a quarter of the III Remake wishlisters have played Olden Era, including 7% of them this month. Wardogs – a $40 PvP shooter – added another 146K to an already massive pile (nearly 1.6M total). It’s published by Team17 and made by Bulkhead. It plays somewhere between the tactical squad stuff of … Squad and the all-out-chaos battlefield of … Battlefield. It’s up to 100 players, and it’s out in about 10 days. It’s already pre-sold over 500K copies on Steam ($16.6M), boosted by a pre-order-only beta. It sold another 70K copies during gamescom, too. Afterworld managed 121K new wishlists. It’s a Paradox-made post-apocalyptic grand-strategy game, and it was announced at the show. It’s a departure from Paradox’s usual historical stuff, and the studio’s first new setting in over a decade. The Paradox purists are into it, with over half its wishlisters having played Hearts of Iron IV (19% this month) and 41% Crusader Kings III (17% this month). Metro 2039 got 110K during the show, tunnelling its total past 1.3M. Nearly 40% of wishlisters have played 2020’s Metro Exodus, the previous mainline title in the series. The Metro novels are Russian, dev 4A Games is Ukrainian, and it’s set in Moscow, so it’s unsurprising that – after the US (17.3% of wishlisters) – the next two countries are Russia (12.7%) and Ukraine (10.0%). The Blood of the Dawnwalker drew in (the blood of) 108K new wishlisters, now totalling an impressive 1.7M (at a $70 price point, though). It’s an open-world dark-fantasy action-RPG set in 14th-century Europe (with vampires!), made by some former Witcher devs at Rebel Wolves. Again, it shows. Over half of Blood of the Dawnwalker’s wishlisters have played The Witcher 3, and its #2 market is Poland, home of Rebel Wolves. That’s that hometown-hero effect we keep banging on about again! And Blood of the Dawnwalker plays very well, by the way. While it looks like a Witcher clone on the surface, it actually brings a lot to the table mechanics-wise. I love the whole time-as-a-currency spin on RPG gameplay. It gives the game a different, refreshing pace. Essentially, you start Blood of the Dawnwalker with a pool of 480 action points spread across 30 days and 30 nights. As for how the game performs, we’ll be posting some numbers next week, so hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready. Subscribe The Witcher’s legacy ripples Make no mistake: on a high level, this was The Witcher‘s gamescom. The #1 game by wishlisters was a Witcher 3 DLC. Warlock is clearly Witcher-inspired – as is Blood of the Dawnwalker, which was made by ex-Witcher devs. There was a lot of other cool stuff on the floor that we’ll no doubt be covering in subsequent newsletters, though! As always, wishlists went through the roof for sequels, remakes, DLC, and licensed IP. As always, though, these wishlists will likely convert to about 5% to 10% of launch-day buyers, with the probable exception of The Witcher DLC – the exception that proves the rule. Either way, we’ve got a nice, diverse list here – one that is very Witcher-y, Paradox-y, and – if you’re a fan of great games on Steam – a bloody good list. We even got a bunch of new IP to get excited for. Great gamescom! Even if we are still processing that unfathomable number of mini Kölsch beers! One more thing: GTA 6 broke the internet (again) Move aside, Spider-Man and The Odyssey (I love you both, really). But the decade’s defining entertainment zeitgeist is round the corner. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Rockstar dropped an extended look at GTA 6 last week. It was INSANE, the most impressed I’ve ever been by a showcase like this. You can see the budget seeping through every second of the extended look, and this level of game is unobtainable for any other publisher. Everyone’s going nuts, and rightly so. GTA 6 is out in holiday 2026, and it’ll be the biggest entertainment release ever, full stop. For those without a PS5 or Xbox Series console, a $500-$900 console is a big ask in this economy, but GTA will pull a lot of last-generation-console fence sitters over the current-gen fence either way: The autumn timing puts GTA 6 on (digital) shelves for the holidays, meaning a PS5 or Xbox (let’s be honest, mostly the former) will be on many a Christmas and Hanukkah list. Demand will outweigh the struggling supply, though, and PS5 Pros are already sold out and being sold at a markup via scalpers. Every console that isn’t on a shelf is a sale deferred or lost, and worse, it hands scalpers the margin. GTA has cultural clout that reaches everyone. It’s been a mainstream fixture since 2001’s GTA III and its clout has only grown exponentially since then. There’s a touchpoint for every generation alive. The FOMO-word-of-mouth double punch does the rest. Loading... It’ll reactivate the lockdown cohort, the millions who picked up gaming in 2020-21 and churned. GTA 6 will bring them back. Remember when College Football 25 brought a bunch of US gamers to current-gen consoles? GTA will do that globally. Once they’re back (or upgraded), and all GTA’d out, the fresh current-gen-console folks will check out the rest of the current-gen catalogue they missed. GTA Online, if not free to play, will also lead to a boost for PS+ and Xbox Game Pass, another boost for the ecosystem players. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Even some of the smug PCMR 60FPS crew won’t be able to resist their FOMO and will bite the bullet on a console to play this one early (then double dip). The consoles cost the same as a decent stick of RAM these days anyway lmao… Don’t get me wrong, though. GTA 6 is no silver bullet for the mature console market, but it does prime the current gen for a couple of strong swan-song years. And it’ll also give the consoles more users from which to maximise ARPU. ‘’We are in the latter half of the lifetime cycle of [the PS5],’’ said Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki in a Wall Street Journal interview. ‘’That means we do not need to aggressively sell the console today; rather than that, we are focusing on the current revenue from the current user base.’’ The biggest, best premium games always arrive late in a console cycle, so getting more players aboard now, ahead of that content storm (the new current-gen-only Call of Duty included), is a clear win for the platforms. On the Netflix thing, though: let’s all chill out a bit, like. Half my LinkedIn feed was going bonkers treating the reveal debuting on Netflix like it’s the future of entertainment. It wasn’t. It was a six-hour head start, and Netflix left that detail out of the “first-of-its-kind partnership” press release. The extended look hit Netflix at 3pm ET on 27 August, then went up on YouTube and Rockstar’s site for everyone six hours later. And it was all over social immediately, anyways. This reveal was going to reach an untold number of people whether it debuted on Netflix, YouTube, a Times Square screen, or a group chat. The last trailer did nearly half a billion views in a day with no gatekeeper at all. Netflix just stood next to that audience for six hours, borrowing it. It’s was a tidy deal for Netflix, sure. But every outlet on earth was breaking the thing down frame by frame by the evening anyway. Anyway. I’m hype. And we’ll be covering some GTA numbers on the newsletter soon. So hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready! Subscribe The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]

Sep 1 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • alineaanalytics.substack.com

Launch family fun center bringing arcade, trampoline park to Davis Hwy soon

A new 31,000-square-foot family entertainment center will offer Pensacola food, a trampoline park, dodgeball, a ninja course and much more this fall.

Aug 31 • 5:03 AM EDT • Entertainment • pnj.com

San Diego ramps up Gaslamp enforcement, but businesses say more must be done

San Diego police are increasing their presence in the Gaslamp Quarter through “Operation Last Call” to combat rising violence and disorderly conduct, though some local business owners a…

Aug 28 • 8:09 PM EDT • Business • fox5sandiego.com

Local business steps up after wheelchair ramp stolen from Woonsocket church

Aug 28 • 4:52 PM EDT • Business • turnto10.com

San Ramon swim coach Ntatsos dives into city politics

Longtime San Ramon swim coach Paschalis Ntatsos is testing the waters of city politics this year, with the political newcomer's first-ever campaign for public office now underway as a three-way race for mayor ramps up ahead of the November election.

Aug 27 • 12:17 PM EDT • Politics • danvillesanramon.com

‘Maine has been through a lot’: Democrats sharpen pitch to women after turmoil in must-win Senate race

A month after he became the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, Troy Jackson is ramping up his appeals to women and voters who care about abortion rights, looking to sharpen a contrast with Republican Sen. Susan Collins that has long been at the center of the race.

Aug 26 • 12:00 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Multi-vehicle crash near ramp to Business US-220 causing delays in Roanoke

A multi-vehicle crash is causing delays in the City of Roanoke on Wednesday, according to VDOT.

Aug 26 • 11:04 AM EDT • Business • wsls.com

Apple Maps Ads Are Here, and There's No Way to Turn Them Off

Ads in Apple Maps are live in the United States and Canada, which means iPhone and iPad users will see them when searching for locations and when viewing Suggested Places. Apple announced plans to bring ads to the Maps app in March, and said the feature would roll out starting in late summer. Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac that ads began showing up for users over the last few days, with ad placement to ramp up in the coming weeks.

Aug 25 • 4:40 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Apple Maps launches ads on iPhone, here’s what’s new

Apple has officially launched ads in Apple Maps, with the rollout ramping up in the coming weeks. Here are the details.

Aug 25 • 2:33 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com

Will Trump interfere in the midterms? Democrats and their allies are preparing

Across California and the nation, Democratic leaders and voting rights advocates are ramping up coordination and gaming out responses to a raft of potential actions by the Trump administration to subvert the November vote or deny its outcome.

Aug 23 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • latimes.com

Asking the next question: Orton peels back curtain of science in new UGA podcast

The tiny studio is dark and cramped as Ginger Orton settles into her seat, the long arm of a microphone stand stretching toward her as if an overeager cub reporter hanging on her every word. In many ways, she’s surprised to be here. For one, she never really expected to be a faculty member at

Aug 20 • 9:55 AM EDT • Science • research.uga.edu

As Pa. measles cases persist, back-to-school vaccine efforts ramp up

As measles infections statewide reach nearly 300 cases, public health leaders are looking toward preventing disease in schools this fall.

Aug 19 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • whyy.org

Robin Williams’ kids reactivate his Instagram account to stop ‘rampant AI abuse’ of his likeness

Robin Williams’ three adult children reactivated his Instagram account to stop ‘rampant AI abuse’ of his likeness: ‘This is our way of sharing his unique talent and humor with the world.’

Aug 18 • 7:27 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Entertainment Listing: Aug. 19

Wednesday August 19 Hangar 9 • Carbondale Jazz in the Park – Ramp Station Jazz Band, 6 p.m. Karaoke, 8 p.m. PK’s • Carbondale Trivia, 8 p.m. Little Nashville • Marion Advertisement Trivia, 6 p.m. Thursday August 20 Booby’s • Carbondale Open Mic Karaoke, 8:30 p.m. Hangar 9 • Carbondale Stick Gilbert, 4 p.m. Loose...

Aug 18 • 7:22 PM EDT • Entertainment • dailyegyptian.com

Packers Training Camp Recap: Cornerback competition ramps up

Keisean Nixon, Brandon Cisse, Benjamin St-Juste and Carrington Valentine all played outside corner with the 1s today

Aug 18 • 2:27 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Trump blames vandals for damaged grass

Trump made the accusation in a social media post

Aug 17 • 10:12 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Trump blames vandals for damaged grass

Trump made the accusation in a social media post

Aug 17 • 10:12 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

5 Revealing Analyst Questions From Hims & Hers Health’s Q2 Earnings Call

Hims & Hers Health’s second quarter results were driven by strong subscriber growth and a ramp-up in its branded weight loss offerings, yet the market reacte...

Aug 17 • 1:32 AM EDT • Health • stockstory.org

Trump orders major cut to US-South Korea drills as North Korea ramps up missile tests

President Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, citing costs and a hostile signal to Kim Jong Un amid North Korea tensions.

Aug 16 • 7:14 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

Mega N.J. entertainment center auction offering trampolines, bowling lanes, virtual reality arena

The auction closes at 11 a.m. Aug. 20

Aug 15 • 4:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • nj.com

Where healthcare could sway voters, Democratic canvassers ramp up an old tactic: talking to people

In Wisconsin, voters weigh candidates who backed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and those who want to expand it

Aug 15 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com

Launch Family Entertainment in Denton targets fall opening date

An air basketball arena, dodgeball, soft play area, trampoline courts and bouldering wall will be some of the attractions found at the center.

Aug 14 • 3:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • communityimpact.com

Ahead of Bears Clash, Shedeur Sanders Addresses Possible Injury Concern

Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders has been steadily ramping up his preparations for his second NFL season. Sanders was drafted with the 144th overall pick in the fifth round of the 2025 Draft.

Aug 13 • 3:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Pre-Season Team News: Manchester United vs Leeds United

Leeds United ramp up their 2026/27 Premier League preparations this evening as they take on rivals Manchester United in the BOYLE Sports Cup, hosted in Dublin.Ahead of the clash, which is the first cl...

Aug 12 • 1:16 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ramp: Anthropic's Fable 5 lagged behind OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in July

Although OpenAI trails Anthropic in business adoption, it won a moneymaking battle in July with its most advanced model, GPT-5.6 Sol.

Aug 12 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

The Science of “Ramping Up”: Why Aaron Glenn Playing Starters is a Calculated Risk Worth Taking

For years, the conventional wisdom in NFL training camps was simple: wrap the starters in bubble wrap, hold them out of preseason games, save them for Week 1. And every September, like clockwork, the league watches soft-tissue injuries pile up anyway – hamstrings, calves, Achilles, all the non contact stuff that has nothing to do […]

Aug 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sports.yahoo.com

Galaxy Entertainment Group Q2 & Interim Results 2026

Leading Macau’s Non-Gaming Diversification Through MICE, Entertainment and Sporting Events Gaming and Entertainment Division on a Normalized Basis,Q2 2026 Net Revenue Grew 6%, Adjusted Property EBITDA Grew 9% and Adjusted Property EBITDA Margin Expanded From 30.5% to 31.4% YoY Announced Interim Dividend of $0.90 per Share Continued to Ramp up Capella at Galaxy Macau HONG KONG, Aug. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Galaxy Entertainment Group (“GEG”, “Company” or the “Group”) (HKEx stock code: 27) tod

Aug 12 • 4:23 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Pinellas County increases mosquito control in Palm Harbor following Department of Health-Pinellas Dengue Fever alert

Pinellas County Mosquito Control is ramping up efforts to reduce mosquito populations and urging residents to take actions to protect themselves in...

Aug 11 • 4:33 PM EDT • Health • pinellas.gov

The U.S. Healthcare System is Already Mostly Socialized

Now that Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, the outcome of this crucial race will depend mainly on two things: Whether Republicans succeed in demonizing El-Sayed because he’s brown and a Muslim, and whether they succeed in demonizing him as a left-wing radical. I will defer for the now the question of whether bigotry will be effective this year, although I will address it another day. What I want to address instead is El-Sayed’s signature issue — healthcare. Yes, El-Sayed advocates Medicare for All, a position the usual suspects denounce as “socialism.” I will get to the politics of his stance soon. Today, however, I want to talk about the substance. We should be clear that El-Sayed doesn’t even call himself a socialist. On the contrary, he explicitly disavows the label, saying “I’m a capitalist who just knows about capitalism”. In fact, as I explained in a previous post, the policies that El-Sayed advocates qualify him as a social democrat, not a socialist. Still, El-Sayed advocates a system under which the government would pay almost all medical expenses. Isn’t that socialism? Well, if that is the criterion then much of U.S. healthcare is already socialist. In fact, the government’s role is so large that U.S. healthcare is better described as partially privatized socialism than as anything resembling a free market. Let’s start with the raw numbers on health insurance, which pays the bulk of Americans’ medical expenses. Americans receive health insurance either from private companies or from public programs, overwhelmingly Medicare and Medicaid. Here’s what the breakdown of coverage and spending between private and public looked like in 2024: While a majority of Americans with health insurance get it from private companies, well over 100 million of us are covered by government programs instead. And these government programs pay more total dollars for medical bills than the private insurers do. Why do government programs that cover a minority of the population account for a majority of health insurers’ outlays? Mainly because Medicare covers seniors, and we’re expensive. Also, while Medicaid covers many younger Americans, disabled and elderly beneficiaries account for most of its spending. Even by the raw numbers, then, U.S. health insurance looks as much public as private. But that understates the government’s role: Private health insurance in the U.S. is both highly regulated and heavily subsidized. This is obviously true for the insurance coverage purchased by tens of millions of Americans through the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. But employment-based health insurance, which covers 161 million Americans, is far more of a government creation than most people realize. For employment-based insurance exists largely because of huge implicit government subsidies that come with major strings attached. Here’s how that works. If your employer pays you $10,000, that’s taxable income. But if your employer pays $10,000 toward a company health insurance plan that meets certain criteria, it isn’t taxable. That’s a huge effective subsidy, running at more than $300 billion a year. Take that subsidy into account, along with the more than $100 billion per year spent subsidizing policies purchased under the ACA, as well as the outlays on Medicare and Medicaid, and net effect is that the government pays for more than two-thirds of Americans’ health insurance. Granted, there are strings attached. Roughly speaking, employment-based health plans can’t discriminate based on medical history — that is, they can’t deny coverage to employees with pre-existing conditions — and they also can’t offer the plans only to highly compensated employees — a health plan that is only for the C-suite is considered taxable income. So given the restrictions of the federal tax code, employer-based health insurance is a lot like Obamacare, which also prohibits discrimination based on medical history and provides subsidies to make insurance affordable to lower-paid workers. The fact is that virtually all of private healthcare insurance is already well under some form of government control through regulation and tax subsidies. How should we think about this system? First of all, is Medicare socialist? Don’t tell anyone, but the way Medicare operates — it covers every senior’s medical expenses, whatever they turn out to be, while being funded by taxes that depend on one’s income — could be summarized by the old Marxist slogan “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” And back in 1961, when Ronald Reagan was the face of a last-ditch effort by the American Medical Association to block the creation of Medicare, he denounced Medicare as “socialized medicine” and warned that it would destroy our freedom. In reality, American freedom survived until Jan. 20, 2025, while Medicare is immensely popular, with an 82 percent favorable rating in the most recent KFF survey. Medicaid, government health insurance for lower-income Americans, comes in at 73 percent. This is in sharp contrast to public views about private insurers, who are widely disliked if not hated and accused of denying essential care. Furthermore, if Medicare is socialism, then the whole U.S. health insurance system, with the government paying most of the bills and placing conditions on private insurers, is almost equally socialist. If you insist on calling any program the government pays for and regulates socialist, then U.S. healthcare would best be described as a partially privatized form of socialism. And one must ask, what is the point of the part that is privatized? Do private insurers add anything positive? Or are they simply parasites, skimming off money that could have been paying for care? The case for viewing insurers as parasites is strong. Many Medicare benefits are now delivered via Medicare Advantage, that is, plans paid for by the government but run through insurance companies. MedPAC, an independent advisory commission, estimates that last year Medicare Advantage plans were overpaid by $84 billion, thanks to practices such as “upcoding,” in which patients’ health problems are overstated to get larger sums from Medicare. Assessing the waste from employer-based insurance is harder, but most evidence suggests that private insurers have substantially higher administrative costs than Medicare does. Furthermore, the complexity of private insurance, with multiple payers all trying to deny care when they can, is a huge burden both on providers — doctors, nurses, and hospitals — and on patients. What do private insurers offer to compensate for these costs? One must go through intellectual contortions to avoid the conclusion that they are, in fact, parasites. Which brings me back to El-Sayed. In supporting Medicare for All, he’s basically calling for an end to the partial, parasitic privatization of a healthcare system that is already hugely dependent on public funding. When one looks at it that way, it’s not at all a radical proposal. Admittedly, the political lift requires overcoming the opposition to higher taxes to pay for Medicare for All. Political realism rather than economics was the reason I and many other progressives supported Obamacare, with all its complexities, rather than demanding an immediate move to Medicare for All. But the political calculus may very well have shifted since the 2000s, as Americans are fed up with a system of unaffordable premiums, rampant claim denials, and byzantine claim administration. Moreover, funding healthcare insurance through taxation would allow for a much more progressive distribution of the cost. That is, compared to the present system, middle-income households would pay less as high-income households would pay more. And the U.S. would stop wasting large sums on pointless administrative costs. So let’s be clear: El-Sayed’s healthcare platform is perfectly reasonable on the merits of cost, fairness and health efficacy. And with private insurers never more hated, while millions of Americans are losing their health insurance, 2026 may be its time. MUSICAL CODA

Aug 11 • 6:33 AM EDT • Health • paulkrugman.substack.com

Insight: US fuel sales to Cuban business bring a glimpse of capitalism to Havana

Gasoline at $38 a gallon sold from cramped apartments. Diesel hawked on Instagram by a celebrity model to a reggaeton soundtrack. Six decades after Fidel Castro’s revolution, all of a sudden, capitalist cracks are appearing in Cuba’s communist energy sector.

Aug 11 • 6:05 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com

US Small-Business Optimism Rises to an Almost One-Year High

US small-business optimism rose in July to the highest level in almost a year as firms ramped up hiring plans and inflation pressures eased.

Aug 11 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • bloomberg.com

Trump urges GOP to keep Senate in session until college sports bill passes

President Trump on Friday ramped up the pressure on Senate Republicans to cancel part of their August recess, urging embattled GOP senators to stay in Washington until they pass a bill to reform ru…

Aug 7 • 6:04 PM EDT • Sports • thehill.com

Mary Means Business: Restaurant news rampant in Starkville

Restaurant news is rampant in Starkville this week, with food spots ranging from fried chicken and wings to Japanese ramen.

Aug 6 • 7:59 AM EDT • Business • cdispatch.com

Exclusive | Senate Panel Says It Has Obtained Copy of Fauci’s Covid-Era Phone

Republicans in Congress have ramped up scrutiny of the retired government doctor, and one panel could vote on holding him in contempt on Thursday.

Aug 5 • 7:13 PM EDT • Politics • wsj.com

ASUS Asks $5090 For RTX 5090 After Cancelling User’s Order Who Already Paid $4607

ASUS canceled an RTX 5090 order worth $4,607, raising the price to $4,982, reflecting growing GPU price inflation after the RAMpocalypse

Aug 5 • 8:01 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

WHO chief arrives in Congo to support Ebola response as cases near 4,000

The head of the World Health Organization has arrived in Congo to support measures being ramped up to slow the world’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak.

Aug 5 • 5:08 AM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com

Ariana Grande to take a break from the public eye

There has been rampant speculation online about her health and appearance

Aug 3 • 9:54 AM EDT • Entertainment • spectrumlocalnews.com

Did Trump Finally Find an Offramp for the Iran War? | WSJ Politics Newsletter for Aug. 3

Plus, Blanche rescinds ‘anti-weaponization’ fund, which could aid his confirmation, and comparing new Air Force One to older models

Aug 3 • 7:07 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com

Healthwatch: Staying hydrated as fall sports kick off

As fall sports ramp up, it’s more important than ever for student-athletes to focus on hydration.

Aug 3 • 4:35 AM EDT • Sports • wsls.com

Two-Way Jaguars Star Ramping Up Snap Count

Travis Hunter is defying conventional limits, logging heavy reps at both receiver and cornerback while vowing to stay on the field for as many Jaguars snaps as possible.

Aug 2 • 9:57 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Yankees news: New York still in on Goodman, Ward

Yanks keeping tabs on Ward, Goodman; Chisholm sits Friday after dealing with hamstring cramps; Mets start sell-off

Aug 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Chiefs Offense Continues To Change As Camp Ramps Up

Jul 31 • 9:13 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

ICE detains Hopkins public health researcher as agency expands airport arrests

A Johns Hopkins public health researcher and former Fulbright scholar was detained by immigration agents while boarding a domestic flight this week, the university confirmed, as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement efforts at airports.

Jul 30 • 6:37 PM EDT • Health • thebanner.com

Chrome Needs Twice-a-Week Patching Thanks to AI Bug Hunting

The two Chrome updates in June patched more bugs than the 23 updates before them. Now, Google is ramping up its patching schedule thanks to AI-assisted vulnerability discovery.

Jul 30 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • wired.com

‘Marathon’ Extends PvE Mode Trial As Its Pivot Ramps Up

If you wanted any further indication that Bungie’s Marathon is going to lean more and more heavily into PvE content, here it is.

Jul 30 • 9:53 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com

The new "science golden age" looks suspiciously like a grift

This edition of PN is made possible by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 The Trump regime is trying to usher in a “Golden Age in Science” where scientific research is run like a Trump family business, artificial intelligence is all that matters, profit is everything, and expertise is for chumps. Or at least that’s the vision emerging from a new 123-page “Report to the President” from Michael Kratsios, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In a normal administration, you could probably skip over learning about a science policy document — but this is no normal administration, and this is no normal science policy document. Instead, it’s Trump’s attempt to end the actual golden age of science that was kicked off in 1945 with the publication of '“The Endless Frontier” by Vannevar Bush. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) [ Harmeet Dhillon demonstrates danger of posting through it ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Liz Dye · Jul 29 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/harmeet-dhillon-portland) Bush, at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s request, laid out a vision of federal support for science that centered on funding universities to do basic research, saying that as long as those institutions were “vigorous and healthy and their scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems in Government, in industry, or elsewhere.” Kratsios’s report is supposed to be the successor to Bush’s, and even apes the format, but this isn’t really a document about science policy. It’s one about ending science research as we know it in favor of shoveling cash at big tech companies. While it might be temping to wave this away as an aspirational policy document, Trump has already begun to shift billions in research funds to AI projects and has taken a hatchet to science funding across the board. He’s teed up the shift Kratsios proposes here, and since neither Congress nor the Supreme Court seem inclined to stop him from doing whatever he wants with taxpayer money, it isn’t doomering or hyperbole to say we are staring down the barrel of a world where the only “science” the government intends to support is for-profit tech and defense advancements. Science for dummies Part of how you can tell this isn’t a document about science is that you are immediately faced with an absolute wall of business-speak of the worst sort. Did you know we must “tightly couple our science and technology enterprises to ensure that groundbreaking ideas invented in the United States are rapidly prototyped, tested, manufactured, and scaled domestically”? You do now! That tone isn’t surprising, because Kratsios has no background in science or research. He has a bachelor’s in political science and spent most of his career working for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital. After a stint in the first Trump administration as Chief Technology Officer, where he also did not do any science, Kratsios was tasked in 2020 with overseeing the Pentagon’s research budget for a brief time, a position that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “carries a great deal of power in terms of dictating investment allocations.” He spent the Biden years at Scale AI as “head of strategy,” which you will also note is neither a science nor a research job. But Scale AI has contracts with the Department of Defense and, as the Washington Post wrote in 2023, “has been aggressively pitching itself as the company that will help the US military in its existential battle with China.” And now you have the necessary background for our new golden age, which is going to be a golden age of taking money away from scientists and universities and giving it to companies like Scale AI. A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Lisa takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please become one to support our work. 👇 Subscribe In a genuinely galling move, Katsios spends a lot of time slamming universities because of “administrative burdens on researchers” and the “well-documented inefficiencies” in academia, the message being that those damn universities waste the time of amazing researchers with paperwork. Except it’s the administration that is attempting to impose inefficient, unnecessary burdens on those researchers with a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would require senior political appointees to approve every science grant and ensure it aligns with Trump’s personal priorities. Researchers would also have to seek prior government approval to attend conferences or publicize their research. And political appointees could terminate any grant at any time if they feel like it. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) [ The murder of expertise ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) Lisa Needham · Jun 11 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/omb-rule-science-funding) But when it comes to AI, we’re going to “restore permissionless innovation.” The report proposes to give lucky ducky innovators a pile of cash up front for grants lasting five years or longer, saying “awards should be fully-funded in year one, with all resources earmarked upfront, to minimize administrative burdens and reduce pressure for researchers to generate intermediate results to secure continued funding.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to have to make the Very Special Tech Bros show results or get money parceled out year by year like the plebes at universities. The report also proposes that we should have “fast grants” with “simplified applications requiring just a few pages of writing” because that is definitely how science works, just writing a bit off the dome and getting some cash. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) [ Tech elites are turning AI into ChatGPTrump ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Paul Waldman · July 29, 2025 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-ai-action-plan-altman-llms) Oh, and we should have prizes and challenges, where multiple teams compete. The proposed prizes include incentives like “advance procurement commitments,” which means the federal government agrees to buy whatever is being developed. There’s also “regulatory fast-tracking,” making sure all those great AI thingies don’t have to wait too long to be unleashed on a market. These aren’t incentives to do science. These are incentives to develop things with tax dollars that you can then sell to the government for more tax dollars. In the suggestion that might be the most unhinged, the most very opposite of how both government and research work, our new age will include “golden tickets.” That’s where an individual reviewer in an agency — yes, just one person — can “recommend unconventional proposals that may not pass consensus-driven review panels” because somehow this will “surface valuable ideas too divisive for committees and attract higher quality reviewers by empowering them to exercise independent scientific judgment.” Yes, that’s saying that a random person in an agency should be able to shovel money at some idea even if it can’t pass a review panel, and that the opportunity to do so will attract better employees because apparently all the best minds in science are chomping at the bit to be allowed to unilaterally fund AI research based on their personal vibes. But that isn’t at all how actual science works, and actual scientists aren’t unhappy about review panels. They work collaboratively, not siloed in some secret race to create the next AI chatbot. A 2020 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research examined whether peer review panels succeed in helping agencies predict which research ideas will best advance science. Peer review was better at finding “diamond in the rough” applicants than a single government program official. How about that. Trump always wants a taste It’s painfully clear that what Katsios is trying to do here is turn the whole of government science research and funding into the sort of “move fast and break things” paradigm that is the hallmark of big tech. That method works to line the pockets of tech executives, but it isn’t science. There’s a reason the government funds different kinds of research than private tech companies do. What Katsios either fails to understand or deliberately ignores is that the federal government is the main funder of basic research precisely because it can take a long time for it to bear fruit and is not intended to be profitable as such. “Basic” here does not mean rudimentary or simple, but rather research that is designed to advance scientific knowledge instead of achieving a specific outcome or product. Big tech companies don’t widely fund that sort of research, because it doesn’t make them money. Industry dollars account for only about 20 percent of basic research funding, while the government contributes around 60 percent. Big tech companies and startups do, however, rely on and benefit from that basic research. A 2019 study found that 35 percent of all patents obtained by venture-backed startups from 1976 to 2016 cited federally supported research. Basic research funded by the NIH contributed to every single drug the FDA approved from 2010 to 2016. [ ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) [ The Saudi nuclear farce and governance by whim and meme ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Noah Berlatsky · Jul 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-saudi-nuclear-deal) Unlike inventing the next ChatGPT, actual science is slow and iterative. Government funding of research that, on its face, would not appear to lead to any big new invention is actually what underpins those big new inventions. If the government hadn’t funded research into desert lizard venom, we wouldn’t know about semaglutide, and we wouldn’t have Ozempic. If research scientists hadn’t studied how bees optimize nectar foraging within a colony, we wouldn’t have the algorithm that assigns internet traffic across computer servers. The report assiduously ignores that a symbiotic, profitable relationship between the federal government, universities, and private companies already exists. Each federal research dollar generates about $1.50 to $3.00 in long-term economic benefits. The $36 billion the government awarded in NIH research funding in fiscal year 2025 generated $94 billion in new economic activity. Trump’s proposed new golden age is intended to strip those billions from universities, resulting in the dismantling of departments and the shuttering of labs. But Katsios has a plan for that: Universities should just become trade schools to churn out no-show STEM degrees! “Require universities and community colleges to embed practical technical training and externships into STEM curricula. Let hands-on experience and industry credentials count toward degrees.” It’s quite the feat to, on the one hand, strip schools of funding for scientific research while simultaneously demanding to control what is taught and, oh, also, colleges need to give degrees to employees at big tech companies just for being employees at big tech companies. The new golden age would also exacerbate the brain drain Trump’s policies have already caused. Nature found that in the first quarter of 2025, US scientists submitted 32 percent more job applications abroad than in 2024. A March 2025 poll by Nature of roughly 1,600 scientists found that over 1,200 said they were considering leaving the country. Europe is investing $565 million to make it a “magnet for researchers” and provide funding for scientists who relocate. The new golden age is also about embedding Trump’s xenophobia into the fabric of American science. The report complains of an “over-reliance on foreign students” that “creates a security challenge our institutions are ill-equipped to address” and that a “reliance on foreign talent sidelines American students.” This is, to put it mildly, nonsense. International students pay far higher tuition and often receive no financial aid. Their tuition dollars are what make it possible for American students to get financial aid. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the US economy and supported over 378,000 jobs. Those 1.1 million international students accounted for only six percent of the total number of students in higher education that year, but were such an economic engine that for every three international students, one job was created or supported. It’s impossible not to wonder whether part of Trump’s loathing for universities and their leading role in scientific research is that there is no way for him to corrupt the process and make money off it in the same way he can by giving millions and billions to Silicon Valley types who, in turn, give him millions in cash. There’s no way for his children to invest in universities that the government then gives no-bid contracts to, fattening the family’s bottom line, which is pretty much the Trump sons’ current venture capital practice. Trump and Katsios’s view of science is narrow, cramped, and wrong. We’re not in a crisis, we’re not a failed state. We’ve been a science superpower for decades, and the only thing that threatens that is Donald Trump. Tech bros are already living high off the hog in this administration. They don’t need any more of our tax dollars. Hopefully this new golden age never comes to pass. Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share We’ll be back with more tomorrow. If you appreciate today’s PN, please do your part to keep us free by signing up for a paid subscription. 🚀 Subscribe to PN 🚀 Thanks for reading, and for your support.

Jul 30 • 8:12 AM EDT • Science • publicnotice.co

Dodger notes: Shohei Ohtani, Edwin Diaz

T-minus four days until the trade deadline, and of course all of the conversation is revolving around who Tarik Skubal would be traded to, if he is, and will it be the Dodgers. The conversation has ramped up with Shohei Ohtani revealing that he is dealing with a biceps issue. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic […]

Jul 30 • 8:03 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Employment or autonomy? Comparing pathways and tradeoffs for PCPs

Primary care physicians who are on the payrolls of hospitals and health systems enjoy well-supported practice infrastructure and robust peer engagement. But they’re sometimes vexed by red tape and style-cramping oversight. Meanwhile independent PCPs …

Jul 29 • 8:36 PM EDT • Health • healthexec.com

167th Ozaukee County Fair; food, live entertainment, and midway rides

For 167 years, families have been flocking to Cedarburg to celebrate the summer with food, live entertainment, and midway rides. Brian Kramp has a first look at this year's Ozaukee County Fair.

Jul 29 • 11:14 AM EDT • Entertainment • fox6now.com

The Denver Broncos are back in business

The Denver Broncos begin their training camp festivities with back-to-back ramp-up practices followed by Friday’s official practice open to the public.

Jul 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • sports.yahoo.com

Willie Nelson urges communities to ‘fight against data centers’ that are ‘destroying the environment’

Willie Nelson called on Americans to fight against rampant data center construction. The Central Texas native urged his social media followers to “fight against data centers invading our land” and “destroying the environment.”

Jul 28 • 11:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

10 takeaways from Day 4 of Patriots training camp

After a slower walkthrough practice on Monday, the Patriots ramped up the pace on Day 4 of training camp.

Jul 28 • 3:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Campaign season boosts business for Tallahassee print shop

As campaign season ramps up ahead of Florida’s primary election, one Tallahassee print shop said candidates’ spending is providing an economic boost for local businesses.

Jul 28 • 12:37 PM EDT • Business • wctv.tv

Sports betting industry spending on US midterm elections surpasses $72 million

DraftKings, FanDuel and other online sports betting companies have ramped up election spending on the U.S. midterms to at ​least $72 million so far, the latest campaign election data shows, as prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket bring fresh scrutiny — and competition — to online betting.

Jul 28 • 6:03 AM EDT • Sports • reuters.com

NC political campaigns ramp up with 99 days until midterms

Though the U.S. Senate race between Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley has attracted the most attention, down-ballot contests could have significant implications for the state and nation.

Jul 27 • 6:38 PM EDT • Politics • abc11.com

What about nuclear options? Those take a long time to ramp up.

Even if the state moved aggressively, getting nukes online wouldn’t happen overnight, experts say.

Jul 27 • 9:45 AM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

F1 needs better balance between business and sport, says Norris

Lando Norris speaks up ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix with drivers feeling new regulations have cramped their speed.

Jul 25 • 9:03 AM EDT • Business • aljazeera.com

German Fest is back; three days of authentic food and entertainment

German Fest is back this weekend with three days of authentic food, entertainment, and a vibrant community atmosphere. Brian Kramp is on the grounds seeing why it’s grown to be one of the biggest German festivals in the U.S. over the past 45 years.

Jul 24 • 11:20 AM EDT • Entertainment • fox6now.com

Measles exposure at Beaverton trampoline park last Saturday, Oregon Health officials say

Oregon health officials say people who visited a Beaverton trampoline park last Saturday may have been exposed to Measles.People who were at Sky Zone Beaverton

Jul 23 • 9:00 PM EDT • Health • katu.com

AMD’s Zen 6 EPYC Venice Pictured as a 256-Core Monster, Massive Twin I/O Dies & First 2nm HPC Chip To Enter Volume Ramp

AMD has showcased its next-generation EPYC Venice CPU at the Advancing AI event, featuring a phenomenal core count of 256 based on Zen 6.

Jul 22 • 9:41 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Foxconn Ramps Up Hiring as iPhone 18 Pro Enters Mass Production

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models have entered mass production and are now in a production ramp-up phase, according to China Securities News. In a new report citing industry chain sources (via MyDrivers), Apple's main assembly partner Foxconn is said to have entered its peak recruitment period to prepare for large-scale production and stocking ahead of the fall launch. Hourly wages, base pay, and rehire bonuses have all been raised to attract workers amid the ramp-up.

Jul 22 • 7:16 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Ramp Opens Stablecoin Accounts and Payments to Business Clients

Financial operations platform Ramp says it has begun offering customers stablecoin accounts and payments. The new offering, announced Tuesday (July 21),

Jul 21 • 3:11 PM EDT • Business • pymnts.com

Dodgers' Ohtani Scheduled for Bullpen Session This Weekend

The Los Angeles Dodgers are ramping up Shohei Ohtani to pitch again this weekend.

Jul 21 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Tesla investors want answers about a potential merger with SpaceX

Tesla investors are responding to rampant speculation about a mega-merger with SpaceX, which raised $86 billion in a blockbuster IPO last month.

Jul 21 • 6:16 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

US data center protests go national as backlash grows

Opponents of the rapid buildout of data centers plan to ​hold protests on Saturday in at least 125 locations across the United States, the first coordinated national effort to channel anger at ‌the AI infrastructure expansion that has ramped up over the past year and roiled local politics.

Jul 18 • 6:06 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com

As Beijing ramps up exports, the world feels ‘China Shock’ 2.0

Trump’s tariffs have helped stem the flow of inexpensive Chinese goods to the U.S., but European factories are suffering under a flood of imported cars and tech.

Jul 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • washingtonpost.com

US Firm ABD Group Ramps Up Investment in Ivorian Health Infrastructure

ABD Group, the Africa-focused infrastructure development company, is expanding its investment in Ivory Coast’s health sector as the West African nation rolls out a new development plan.

Jul 17 • 2:08 PM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com

Sports without politics is a fantasy and the World Cup proves it

From ancient Greece to Nazi Germany, sport and politics have long been intertwined. Nevertheless, we still imagine that international sport can be kept above the fray and serve as a neutral arena where nations compete on merit alone. In this article, diplomacy scholar Geoffrey Allen Pigman argues the 2026 FIFA World Cup shows this is a dangerous illusion. When international sport is left entirely to revenue-maximizing private bodies like FIFA, it doesn't escape politics, but rather surrenders to its worst expressions. With the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics fast approaching, the IOC must decide whether to learn that lesson or repeat the same mistakes. The largest and most lucrative FIFA World Cup ever draws toward its climactic conclusion amidst a swirl of controversy. Team members, staff, fans, and spectators have been denied their right to enter the United States to participate, and US President Donald Trump intervened with FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to overturn a referee’s call that Trump believed disadvantaged the US national team. It is a moment to step back and reflect on what the purposes of international sport mega-events like the World Cup, and international sport more broadly, are, and what they should be. Does international sport serve public purposes? Is there a public interest? Or is it primarily a private endeavor organized by commercial enterprises to entertain the global public (and generate profit in the process), which is occasionally used by governments and leaders for raisons d’etat? Central to the idea of sport is the principle of fair play, which in the international context demands that games be free from political interference. However, it is impossible to separate sport from politics, all claims to the contrary notwithstanding. The most positive political use of international sport through the millennia has been to facilitate diplomacy. The use of international sport for diplomatic objectives has existed since at least the time of the ancient Olympic Games, around which was instituted the custom of the Ekecheiria, or Olympic Truce, between participating states to facilitate fair competition and diplomatic achievements by ensuring that participants could travel safely to the Olympiad. In his seminal work On Diplomacy (1987), diplomacy scholar James Der Derian characterized the objectives of diplomacy as overcoming alienation and mediating estrangement between governments and between peoples. One increasingly important diplomatic tool in the technology-infused media environment over the past century has been public diplomacy, under which governments and non-state diplomatic actors (e.g. transnational corporations) communicate to global publics about their international policy objectives and to shape their global brand image. Political scientist Michał Kobierecki, in his important book Sports Diplomacy (2020), views sports diplomacy as falling broadly within the ambit of public diplomacy, as international sport intimately involves the participation of global publics as spectators and consumers of global media. Diplomacy scholar Stuart Murray and this author, in a 2013 article, distinguish between international sport used for diplomatic purposes and international sport-as-diplomacy, which encompasses the range of diplomacy that occurs as teams and competitors, spectators and fans, and government officials all converge for international sporting events like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup. Diplomacy scholar H.E. Chehabi, in a 2001 article on US-Iran sports diplomacy, describes the interaction between spectators and fans at international sporting events as “people-to-people diplomacy,” in which relationships develop independently of governments and their objectives. Diplomacy by the aforementioned definitions is often unsuccessful. Moreover, all too often the tools of diplomacy may be employed by governments and other actors to thwart or oppose the objectives of diplomacy as characterized by Der Derian. Governments routinely use the tools of public diplomacy to disseminate propaganda, spreading misinformation in the attempt to deceive global publics about their objectives and to create misleading impressions about their brand identity. Within sports diplomacy, the term “sportswashing” has been coined recently to describe how governments invest in and promote international sport to create positive global public impressions of their nations and, in doing so, to distract the global public from their deficient records in areas such as human rights and democratic governance. Murray, in his 2018 book Sports Diplomacy: Origins, Theory and Practice, introduces the concept of sports anti-diplomacy, wherein governments intentionally use international sport to advance aggressive and nationalistic objectives. Obvious historical examples include Hitler’s use of the 1936 Berlin Olympics to glorify his Third Reich and the 1969 El Salvador-Honduras football “war.” SUGGESTED READING The beautiful game made ugly By Emily Ryall FIFA argues that it is and seeks to be apolitical in its stewardship of international Association Football (soccer). FIFA policies governing bids to host the World Cup require uninhibited and non-discriminatory access for players, team staff, and spectators of all participating countries to host nations and venues. It became clear soon after Trump returned to power in the United States in January 2025 that Trump’s political intentions and objectives to limit non-US citizens from living and working in the United States and, in numerous cases, even visiting the country, would collide with FIFA’s host nation policies. Beginning soon after the start of the second Trump administration, US federal authorities imposed restrictions on entry to the United States of citizens of between 20 and 40 countries for any purpose, with only limited exceptions. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began arresting non-US citizens in the United States, including persons with and without legal status, holding them in jails, concentration camps, and other detention facilities until they were deported to their home or third countries, where they faced substantive risks to their personal safety. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, in an effort to ensure the most successful and lucrative World Cup in history, engaged diplomatically with President Trump in an attempt to facilitate entry to the US for World Cup participants. Infantino did all in his power to ingratiate himself with Trump, to the extent of creating a FIFA “Peace Prize,” which he awarded to Trump in December 2025 at a ceremony in the then Trump-controlled John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on the occasion of the World Cup draw. The prize was an ersatz consolation for someone who aspired in vain to win the rather more prestigious and well-known Nobel Peace Prize. And in the run-up to the World Cup, conditions became worse. In February 2026, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a war of aggression against Iran, illegal under international law, under the false pretence that Iran’s government was preparing to attack the United States and Israel. During the US aerial bombardment of Iran, US planes bombed Azadi Stadium, the facility where Iran’s national football team trained. As the 2026 FIFA World Cup began, it was clear that Infantino’s efforts had been for naught: the Trump administration would not adhere to FIFA policies governing access to World Cup host nations. World Cup referee Omar Artan, a citizen of Somalia, was denied a US visa to enter the United States to participate in the World Cup. Trump’s government only granted US visas to Iran’s football team ten days before they were scheduled to arrive for the tournament. Numerous members of the support staff for Iran’s team were denied US visas. Iran’s team, which had been scheduled to train in Arizona, was directed to shift its training site to Tijuana, Mexico, notwithstanding that all three of their group stage matches took place at US venues. The US Department of Homeland Security only permitted the Iranian team to enter the US on the day before each scheduled match and then to return to Mexico immediately after playing. Members of Iraq’s and Switzerland’s football teams were delayed for hours by US officials at the US border, and an Iraqi team photographer was refused entry. Spectators and fans from Haïti and Iran were denied entry to the United States altogether. A large number of fans from a range of countries had their applications for US visas rejected. There were multiple off-ramps through which participants could have avoided the negative consequences of Trump’s decisions for the 2026 World Cup. Once it was clear that the Trump government intended to violate the established expectations for World Cup hosts, FIFA could have shifted the matches scheduled to take place in the United States to Mexico and Canada. The three nations were already designated as co-hosts, and host cities and venues had been selected. Once it was clear that FIFA, governed by FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s dependent and dysfunctional relationship with Trump, would never consider this option on its own, it fell to the national football federations to act. The national federations, particularly some combination of federations of the leading contenders (France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Morocco, England, Germany, etc.), could have refused to participate under the US-imposed conditions or, at the least, demanded an ironclad agreement with the Trump government that FIFA policies on access would be respected. ___ International sport is inextricably entangled with diplomacy of different sorts, for good or ill, it cannot be considered to be in the purely private realm and left to revenue-maximizing private actors. ___ Why did neither FIFA nor the national football federations act to protect the interests of players, team staff, referees, fans, and spectators? In essence, the relentless engines of capitalism prevailed over norm observance, ethics, and fair play. The revenue interests of FIFA, sponsors, global media, and host cities won out. FIFA’s managers viewed hosting another World Cup principally in the United States as a veritable pot of gold for FIFA and its collaborators. FIFA has estimated its own revenue over the 2023-26 budget cycle, which includes the 2026 World Cup, at $13 billion, revised up from an initial projection of $11 billion, and 72% higher than the previous revenue cycle. Of that total, FIFA is estimated to have generated $8.9 billion from the Cup itself in revenue from TV rights ($3.92 billion), sponsorships ($2.69 billion), ticket sales ($3.1 billion), licensing rights, and other sources. A joint study by FIFA and the World Trade Organization estimates that the World Cup will contribute over $40 billion to global GDP, including nearly $14 billion in direct visitor spending in the three host countries (but principally in the United States, which hosted the lion’s share of the matches). The FIFA World Cup is now reportedly “the single most lucrative recurring commercial property in global sport.” And yet, notwithstanding the Trump government’s uses of the World Cup for sports anti-diplomacy, and the climate of anxiety that this created for participants and spectators, diplomacy that did not depend upon governments was able to thrive at the World Cup. Examples of successful people-to-people diplomacy were legion, as citizens of towns and cities across the States, as well as in Mexico and Canada, welcomed team members, their families and supporters, to training sites across North America. Fans of different teams joined together in person in stadiums for matches, at watch parties and bars, and at welcome events sponsored by host cities. The joy and camaraderie shared between the citizenry of Boston and Scotland’s “Tartan Army” of fans is but one example of how the “Beautiful Game” brings people together. Friendships forged across continents are likely to endure well beyond the Cup final. Even those achievements cannot be seen as unalloyed, however. As South African football fan Byron Pillay commented to Al Jazeera, “Football is called the Beautiful Game for a reason, for its ability to unite people. But it’s hard to believe in that magic with the politics and war rhetoric off the field of play, especially when one of the tournament hosts is central to that.” Ultimately, the experience of the 2026 FIFA World Cup illustrates that, as international sport is inextricably entangled with diplomacy of different sorts, for good or ill, it cannot be considered to be in the purely private realm and left to revenue-maximizing private actors. As long as there is the possibility of diplomatic progress in mediating estrangement between governments or between peoples, there is a broad and overarching public interest in international sport. Likewise, as it would be difficult to put on an international sport mega-event without international sporting organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), global media firms, and companies purchasing sponsorships, public and private interests in international sport must coexist, most likely somewhere on a shifting spectrum between partnership and rivalry or cross purposes. As the World Cup wraps up, the IOC needs to consider its lessons before the scheduled 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if they want to avoid a media-hyped Trump version of the 1936 Berlin Olympiad. The IOC and the National Olympic Committees need to set conditions on and make demands of Trump’s government with clearly articulated consequences for non-compliance, up to and including cancellation of the Games. Time is running out for the IOC, as unlike with the FIFA World Cup, there is no at-the-ready alternate venue for Los Angeles.

Jul 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • iai.tv

Georgia political leaders push back on upcoming Trump address

Speculation is rampant that the president will use the speech to air allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, reportedly taking direct aim at the legitimacy of sitting Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

Jul 14 • 5:52 PM EDT • Politics • fox5atlanta.com

Trump revives his decades-old Iran warning as US ramps up military pressure: 'remarkably consistent'

A 1980 video clip shows Trump urging the U.S. to send troops into Iran during the hostage crisis, resurfacing as CENTCOM resumes a naval blockade.

Jul 14 • 4:09 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

Ramp co-CEO hired gamers with Minecraft side hustle

Ramp CEO Eric Glyman said he hired a candidate because of their Minecraft business. He said that Ramp wanted leaders of "bizarre fringe communities."

Jul 14 • 5:30 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

NASA selects four new Moon missions to build a permanent lunar base

NASA is ramping up its lunar ambitions by awarding nearly $600 million for four commercial Moon landings planned for late 2028. Each mission will carry the same trio of science instruments to improve lunar navigation, study dangerous dust kicked up during landings, and map the Moon's radiation environment. The agency also revealed plans for new rovers, communication satellites, and additional cargo missions as it lays the groundwork for a permanent Moon Base.

Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Halo Studios Head Accused Of Abuse And Mismanagement

Halo Studios head Pierre Hintze is accused of verbally abusing employees and rampant mismanagement, having been reported to HR numerous times.

Jul 12 • 9:41 AM EDT • Technology • thegamer.com

Six Flags coasts into record book for a third time

After the opening of Tormenta Rampaging Run, Six Flags Over Texas will house three record-breaking roller coasters.

Jul 9 • 11:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • theshorthorn.com

'We're an island': NKY businesses feel mixed impact 1 month into bridge ramp closures

Jul 9 • 6:00 PM EDT • Business • local12.com

Timberwolves 'Ramp Up' Pursuit Of LeBron James

Another free agency suitor for LeBron James has suddenly emerged this weekend. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, the Minnesota Timberwolves are "ramping up" their push for James. They're hoping to pitch him on the idea of leading the franchise to its first NBA championship. It certainly ...

Jul 4 • 10:45 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Health officials offer tick safety tips as summer outdoor season ramps up

Mesa County Public Health is reminding residents that while tick-borne illnesses are rare in the area, taking precautions during outdoor activities can help reduce risk this summer.

Jul 3 • 7:50 PM EDT • Health • kjct8.com

Extreme heat bears down as America 250 celebrations ramp up

The Great American State Fair, on the National Mall in Washington, shut down in the early afternoon Friday due to the heat

Jul 3 • 3:18 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Extreme heat bears down as America 250 celebrations ramp up

The Great American State Fair, on the National Mall in Washington, shut down in the early afternoon Friday due to the heat

Jul 3 • 3:18 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Extreme heat bears down as America 250 celebrations ramp up

President Donald Trump is heading to South Dakota for a speech and fireworks at Mount Rushmore on Friday night

Jul 3 • 8:47 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Extreme heat bears down as America 250 celebrations ramp up

President Donald Trump is heading to South Dakota for a speech and fireworks at Mount Rushmore on Friday night

Jul 3 • 8:47 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

FBI assigns 260 staff members to Georgia 2020 election probe

The FBI has ramped up its investigation into the 2020 election in Georgia by dedicating more personnel to what an internal memo refers to as a “priority,” a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

Jul 2 • 3:09 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Intel Expected To Restart Supply Of 10th, 12th, 13th, And 14th Gen Processors In Mainland China

Intel will reportedly focus more on the previous-gen processors to fulfill the current demand in the PC market. Intel is Reportedly Restarting Supply of Last Four Generation of Processors as Motherboard Vendors Ramp Up DDR4 Platform Production Roughly a month ago, we reported that some vendors are now restarting the production of DDR4 platforms, i.e., DDR4-compatible motherboards. This is to ensure the market gets DDR4 motherboards in sufficient quantity, as expensive DDR5 memory has made it unfeasible to build DDR5 systems on a budget. More reports are surfacing confirming the same report, and Intel appears to have prepared accordingly. Related […]

Jul 2 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Are your kids already bored this summer? Here’s a new entertainment option.

Sky Zone of Wichita is “an indoor trampoline amusement park,” as one of its owners put it, and is having a soft opening starting July 10.

Jul 1 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Are your kids already bored this summer? Here’s a new entertainment option.

Sky Zone of Wichita is “an indoor trampoline amusement park,” as one of its owners put it, and is having a soft opening starting July 10.

Jul 1 • 2:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • kansas.com

Microsoft eyes thousands of new job cuts in coming days

Microsoft is planning job cuts that are expected to affect areas such as sales, consulting, and Xbox as it ramps up AI spending.

Jun 30 • 7:08 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

GM hires talent from rivals to solve self-driving car problem

GM has made several key executive hires since 2025 and brought back Cruise alums to ramp up its self-driving tech development in personal cars.

Jun 28 • 4:41 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Europe heatwave breaks records as UN agencies ramp up health warnings

As a record-breaking heatwave grips large parts of Europe, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), national weather services and partners are mobilising heat-health action plans for millions of people facing dangerous temperatures.

Jun 25 • 1:05 PM EDT • Health • news.un.org

Pre-RAMpocalypse Steam Machine Pricing was ~30% Cheaper

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine is launching at possibly the worst moment for both PC and console gaming hardware, given the ongoing DRAM crisis, but Valve engineer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has recently shed light on the pre-RAM crisis pricing of the Steam Machine, revealing that it was neve...

Jun 23 • 2:06 PM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com