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The Not-So-Secret Winner in Netflix and YouTube’s Streaming Wars Battle
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Here’s a good piece of advice: when someone tells you a company has “won” the streaming wars, just assume they haven’t. Remember the narratives about the streaming media over the last few years: 2024 - Netflix has won the streaming wars! 2025 - YouTube has won the streaming wars! Yet…in 2026, I’d categorize it as… 2026 - Netflix and YouTube are battling for talent! Netflix and YouTube are aggressively fighting for top creators, marking a fierce new battle in the streaming wars. For two companies that “won”, that certainly doesn’t seem like winning behavior. If you win, you don’t have to fight for talent, because talent has to come to you. This is a good reminder that, if the streaming wars are a war—and I think they are—we should know what type of war they are. So it’s worth revisiting one of my big theories of the streaming wars, that the war these battles most represent is… The Thirty Years’ War1 I prefer this war to other, simpler wars, because, while it featured two “sides”—based on religion—and the current war has two main sides—tech versus entertainment—it also featured a lot of smaller players battling it out, sometimes switching sides. And that’s still the case for entertainment and media, despite the above headlines. I’d recommend this truism: if someone has to tell you they won the streaming wars, they probably haven’t. To wit, if someone told you they were fighting in the Thirty Years’ War—and no, they didn’t call it that at the time—and in year five, they told you they won, well, obviously they had 25 more years to go. That’s a lot of preamble to say, the story of the week is the latest battles between YouTube and Netflix. Their battle for talent says a lot about how hard this war will be to win. All that, plus The Curse of the Mogul in action, Netflix providing more (theatrical) data, whether Apple TV is in trouble, AMC getting in on distribution, and a whole lot more. Subscribe Today’s article is sponsored by… Substack is hosting a live Emmys watch party, starting at 5PM on the East Coast (2PM on the West Coast) on Monday, 14-Sep. Check it out! Tune In Most Important Story of the Week - Who’s the Big Winner in the Netflix vs YouTube Showdown? Netflix spent a lot in 2025, and then even more in 2026 adding a host of “creators”—both podcasters and YouTube stars—to their TV lineup. Frankly, for years, I’ve thought that more major studios/streamers/channels should look to YouTube as the launching pad for future stars and IP. Either by poaching proven talent—albeit at good prices—or by treating YouTube as an arena for your “A&R” reps to scout new talent and emerging voices. Netflix started executing the former strategy—which I thought was smart—while Focus Features did the latter with Obsession. So what changed? YouTube finally responded! Yikes. That’s a strong response, and stronger than I’d argue most narratives about YouTube suggest. People often describe YouTube as a self-reinforcing flywheel of success. Get on YouTube or perish. So why did YouTube have to respond? Because other folks poaching their top talent could really damage their business, implying their flywheel is a pinch more rickety than most analysis suggests. Clearly, creators can envision a life off YouTube and potentially a much more lucrative one. The Curse of the Media Mogul is Playing Out In Real Time We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Who is the big winner in the Netflix versus YouTube battle… The biggest question about YouTube… Plus why YouTube’s saber rattling should worry talent… Why I’m skeptical that a U.S. federal tax credit for film will happen… What key change could pull Apple from the streaming business. AMC getting in on distribution… Some great reads on the Warner Bros.-Paramount merger... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.
Heart damage may occur from getting too much light at night, study finds
Darkness should be recognized as one of the vital signs for health, researchers suggest.
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Requires A Download Instead Of Shipping Complete On Multiple Discs To Avoid Compromising The 'Fidelity' And 'Quality'
Director Naoki Hamaguchi defended the move amid the current uproar over physical games
Billy Joel assures fans he’s much better after brain surgery
NEW YORK — Billy Joel says that he’s doing better after getting a shunt in his brain. The 77-year-old New Yorker worried fans last year when he canceled a string
Housing, addiction, politics and the touchy subject of homelessness
Accountability means little if we blame the wrong people for the wrong results. Monique DeSpain has made the case for judging Oregon’s homelessness system by results. But the burden is hers to explain what she would change through Congress — and how voters should decide if it worked.
St. Thomas Aquinas' Tyler Reid named USA TODAY Sports Super 25 Playmaker of the Week
Reid scored four touchdowns in St. Thomas Aquinas' top-10 win over Columbus.
No. 2: Benjamin Netanyahu: Shaping Israel’s politics and global image for a generation
Netanyahu has become more than Israel’s prime minister for many. Abroad, for instance, he has become Israel’s symbol and the lightning rod for much of the hatred directed against the Jewish state.
An uplifting season - Illinois Times, the capital city's weekly source of news, politics, arts, entertainment, culture
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not much of a sports fan. The idea of the Women’s Professional Baseball League playing its inaugural season in Springfield was interesting as a historical happening. But it was not until Lucky Horseshoes Chief Storyteller Jamie Toole spoke at our neighborhood association meeting that I committed to going […]
ESPN expanding Women’s Sports Sundays this fall
When Sunday Night Baseball moved from ESPN to NBC this year, it left a gap in ESPN’s lineup that had provided consistent Sunday-night programming for much of the year. In its place, the worldwide leader in sports unveiled a theme of Women’s Sports Sundays. And even though the calendar is shifting from summer to fall,…
Scientists May Have Cracked the Mystery of the Moon’s Unequal Hemispheres
Chang’e-6 samples suggest the Moon’s two very different sides may have formed when uneven heating drove magma from one hemisphere to the other. The Moon presents two dramatically different faces. Its Earth-facing hemisphere is rich in dark volcanic plains, while the farside is dominated by older highlands and a much thicker crust. New analyses of
Lil’ Drug Store Products acquires Navajo’s Health, Beauty and Wellness business
Lil’ Drug Store Products, Inc. (LDSP), based in Cedar Rapids, announced the completed acquisition of Navajo Incorporated‘s Health, Beauty, and Wellness business. The acquisition was completed Sept. 4, according to a release. Opened in 1974, the family-owned Lil’ Drug Store Products provides distribution, category management, and brand partnerships across various retail channels such as health […]
Lil’ Drug Store Products acquires Navajo’s Health, Beauty and Wellness business
Lil’ Drug Store Products, Inc. (LDSP), based in Cedar Rapids, announced the completed acquisition of Navajo Incorporated‘s Health, Beauty, and Wellness business. The acquisition was completed Sept. 4, according to a release. Opened in 1974, the family-owned Lil’ Drug Store Products provides distribution, category management, and brand partnerships across various retail channels such as health […]
Seahawks Considering Sam Darnold Roster Move Amid Injury Concerns
The Seattle Seahawks may be forced into making a touch move involving Sam Darnold after he suffered a hip injury in their Week 1 win. The post Seahawks Considering Sam Darnold Roster Move Amid Injury Concerns appeared first on HEAVY.
Little Mercury may be shrinking faster than scientists expected
The shrinkage represents a loss in diameter of as much as 14 miles.
Little Mercury may be shrinking faster than scientists expected
The shrinkage represents a loss in diameter of as much as 14 miles.
Shorthanded No. 1 Stanford Faces Massive No. 3 Duke Challenge
A win would prove Stanford women's soccer can beat anyone. A loss would underscore how much the Cardinal are missing some of its top players.
Jesus Garcia named new math and science principal at South Jamaica charter school
Jesus A. Garcia has been named the new principal of Advanced Math and Science IV at United Charter High Schools (UCHS) in South Jamaica, which is part of one
The scale of 9/11's health impacts, visualized 25 years later
2,977 people were killed on 9/11. Twenty-five years later, the number affected is much higher. Here's what the impact looks like.
What to Expect From Coby White This Season in Charlotte
Here is something worth knowing before worrying too much about what to expect from Coby White this season. In his 309 minutes with LaMelo Ball off the floor last season, Charlotte actually outscored opponents by 10.4 points per 100 possessions. What Charlotte Fans Should Expect From Coby White This Season The Hornets' true shooting percentage …
Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 Have Increased RAM Without Price Increase
MacRumors has confirmed that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 have increased RAM compared to the previous-generation models. Both new models are equipped with 4GB of RAM, according to Apple's developer tool Xcode 27. Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 models are equipped with 2GB of RAM, so the Series 12 and Ultra 4 have twice as much memory.
You might be eating too much protein
Proteinmaxxing isn't always healthier, especially as we age.
Mercury may have shrunk much more than we thought, new study hints
Mercury may be shrinking much faster than we thought — and that could reveal new clues about its violent origins.
Hormone Therapy For Menopause Might Have Heart Health Benefits
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Sept. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hormone therapy started during menopause might reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study says. For common menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, which affect as many as 80% of ...
Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's Director Says He Wanted To Show 'That Final Fantasy Doesn't Have To Be A Traditional-Style JRPG'
Naoki Hamaguchi talks about pushing past franchise limits
An Unknown Trick to Identifying High-Probability Fantasy DST Bargains
Is there a new way to identify a high-probability fantasy DST bargain? Yes there is, and here's how.
‘Not Here for Entertainment’ – 76ers Star Jaylen Brown Reveals a Different Kind of Legacy He Wants to Be Remembered By Once It’s All Over
Jaylen Brown‘s immediate goal right now is to become a two-time champion, and it has become more possible for him now that he is with the Philadelphia 76ers. Sixers fans rejoiced last July after they acquired one of the best players of the 2025-26 season without giving up that much. They received Brown in exchange [...]
'Final Fantasy VII Revelation' Game Director Interview
Square Enix game director Naoki Hamaguchi talks about the expansive world of the Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, character risks and TV show potential
How geopolitical rifts cut scientific collaboration
Researchers have measured how worsening geopolitical relations hobble scientific collaboration, at last quantifying the impact of rifts between governments on cooperation between labs. Over the last decade, a tenser world has thrown up new barriers to cross-border science. Collaboration between the US and China has dimmed as the two countries have sunk into an ever-deeper rivalry. Links between Russia and Europe have collapsed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But while a concern, the magnitude of the damage is less than might be expected. For all the geopolitical turmoil of the last decade, international scientific collaborations are near a record high. “Some part of the story is positive,” said Shreyas Gadgin Matha, a social scientist at Harvard University and an author of the new study. “Research collaborations are largely resilient.” Matha and colleagues looked at data on cross-border research papers and patents in the period 2000-23, and analysed how they were impacted by countries’ political relations, as measured by how often states voted together in the United Nations. They found that when states drift apart at the UN by the median difference in votes between all countries, joint scientific papers decline by 3.1% over the next three-year period. To put that in context, over the last decade, the US and China have diverged by around a third of that difference in votes every three years. In other words, on average, it takes quite a significant diplomatic rift even to trigger a small single-digit percentage drop in joint papers. “In the short term, even something like a 3% reduction [in joint papers] is, in some ways, not that big of a number,” said Matha. Research remains more international than ever, according to an analysis extending to 2023 released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2025. We’re still living in an era of unprecedented scientific globalisation, the analysis says, with 27% of papers in OECD countries written across borders. In 1970, just 2% of articles had authors from different countries. Longer-term damage?However, this trend towards increasing international collaboration “has lost momentum and might be partly breaking down,” the OECD analysis says, largely due to a fall in the intensity of US-China joint papers since 2018. Matha and his colleagues stressed they are not complacent about the global science system. For now, “it's pretty resilient,” said co-author Muhammed Yildirim, director of academic research at Harvard’s Growth Lab. But if links are weakened, through the denial of study visas, for example, then this could have a much longer-term effect, cascading through generations of scientists, he added. Related articlesChina becomes Russia’s biggest collaborator after war decimates science ties with the west US scientists prefer German to Chinese collaborators, study finds Horizon Europe is now truly global. But what comes next? Another finding of the study, Burning bridges or bridging divides: Geopolitics and collaboration in research and innovation, is that trust appears easier to destroy than create.The hit to scientific collaboration when countries drift apart is around three times as big as the growth in joint papers when they move closer, the paper finds. “It's far easier to break these ties than to mend them, and that that also perhaps has some larger policy lesson,” said Matha.PatentsThe results around patents were less clear cut. Some methods of analysis found a statistically significant link between a diplomatic rift and a drop in co-patenting, but others did not. According to Yildirim, patents with cross-border inventors are often developed by multinational companies, which may have invested heavily in global R&D facilities, so are less likely to change how they operate simply due to a change in the geopolitical weather. “That's why we might not be seeing the effect immediately in technology,” he said.By contrast, researchers might be more sensitive to geopolitics, because visa policies can quickly affect who meets who at academic conferences, he went on. International collaboration on patents is much lower than for academic articles, the study shows. It peaked at around 10% in 2010, and has since fallen back to around 8%. This could be because China dramatically ramped up domestic patents in the 2010s, said Yildirim, squeezing the international share.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation Director Explains Why the Physical Disc Version Requires a Download to Play
Final Fantasy VII Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi has offered an explanation for why the physical disc version of the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox requires a download to play.
How geopolitical rifts cut scientific collaboration
Researchers have measured how worsening geopolitical relations hobble scientific collaboration, at last quantifying the impact of rifts between governments on cooperation between labs. Over the last decade, a tenser world has thrown up new barriers to cross-border science. Collaboration between the US and China has dimmed as the two countries have sunk into an ever-deeper rivalry. Links between Russia and Europe have collapsed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But while a concern, the magnitude of the damage is less than might be expected. For all the geopolitical turmoil of the last decade, international scientific collaborations are near a record high. “Some part of the story is positive,” said Shreyas Gadgin Matha, a social scientist at Harvard University and an author of the new study. “Research collaborations are largely resilient.” Matha and colleagues looked at data on cross-border research papers and patents in the period 2000-23, and analysed how they were impacted by countries’ political relations, as measured by how often states voted together in the United Nations. They found that when states drift apart at the UN by the median difference in votes between all countries, joint scientific papers decline by 3.1% over the next three-year period. To put that in context, over the last decade, the US and China have diverged by around a third of that difference in votes every three years. In other words, on average, it takes quite a significant diplomatic rift even to trigger a small single-digit percentage drop in joint papers. “In the short term, even something like a 3% reduction [in joint papers] is, in some ways, not that big of a number,” said Matha. Research remains more international than ever, according to an analysis extending to 2023 released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2025. We’re still living in an era of unprecedented scientific globalisation, the analysis says, with 27% of papers in OECD countries written across borders. In 1970, just 2% of articles had authors from different countries. Longer-term damage?However, this trend towards increasing international collaboration “has lost momentum and might be partly breaking down,” the OECD analysis says, largely due to a fall in the intensity of US-China joint papers since 2018. Matha and his colleagues stressed they are not complacent about the global science system. For now, “it's pretty resilient,” said co-author Muhammed Yildirim, director of academic research at Harvard’s Growth Lab. But if links are weakened, through the denial of study visas, for example, then this could have a much longer-term effect, cascading through generations of scientists, he added. Related articlesChina becomes Russia’s biggest collaborator after war decimates science ties with the west US scientists prefer German to Chinese collaborators, study finds Horizon Europe is now truly global. But what comes next? Another finding of the study, Burning bridges or bridging divides: Geopolitics and collaboration in research and innovation, is that trust appears easier to destroy than create.The hit to scientific collaboration when countries drift apart is around three times as big as the growth in joint papers when they move closer, the paper finds. “It's far easier to break these ties than to mend them, and that that also perhaps has some larger policy lesson,” said Matha.PatentsThe results around patents were less clear cut. Some methods of analysis found a statistically significant link between a diplomatic rift and a drop in co-patenting, but others did not. According to Yildirim, patents with cross-border inventors are often developed by multinational companies, which may have invested heavily in global R&D facilities, so are less likely to change how they operate simply due to a change in the geopolitical weather. “That's why we might not be seeing the effect immediately in technology,” he said.By contrast, researchers might be more sensitive to geopolitics, because visa policies can quickly affect who meets who at academic conferences, he went on. International collaboration on patents is much lower than for academic articles, the study shows. It peaked at around 10% in 2010, and has since fallen back to around 8%. This could be because China dramatically ramped up domestic patents in the 2010s, said Yildirim, squeezing the international share.
Juventus evaluate contract u-turn for Gonzalez
Juventus are considering an unexpected contract extension for Nico González, completing a remarkable turnaround after the Argentine spent much of the summer on the transfer list.The 28-year-old was w...
Trump Mobile's T1 Phone Now Costs $250 More
Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone, which an iFixit teardown revealed to be pretty much identical to an HTC handset, got a $250 price hike.
Drake Maye’s epic Week 1 meltdown raises 3 major concerns for 2026 NFL season
One ugly quarter cost New England a winnable opener and exposed problems that could last much longer.
Packers get clear Aaron Banks update ahead of Vikings opener
The Green Bay Packers still view Aaron Banks as the leading option at left guard for Week 1, but his availability remains uncertain because of his knee injury. Banks is set to take part in Wednesday’s practice on a limited basis after the issue restricted his involvement throughout much of training camp and the preseason. [...]
Vance appears to walk back Trump’s offer of $5,000 ‘dividend’ if Republicans win midterms
Vice-president suggests payment would not go to all and would be paid for by tariff revenues despite supreme court rulings against much of Trump’s program
India gets one of world's steepest iPhone price hikes
Apple raised prices on its existing iPhone lineup in India by as much as 41% within hours of unveiling newer models, bucking its usual practice of discounting older variants and marking one of the steepest hikes in any market where it has repriced this year.
Tunisia: Authorities must immediately release Rached Ghannouchi amid severe fair trial violations and serious health concerns
Tunisian authorities must release prominent opposition politician Rached Ghannouchi, quash his convictions and end the politically motivated prosecutions against him marred by significant due process violations, Amnesty International said today. The organization is also urgently calling for him to receive access to adequate healthcare pending his release. The 84-year-old leader of the Ennahdha party and former Speaker of Parliament has been held in arbitrary detention since his arrest in April […]
Thursday Dawg Bites
We are off and running, quickly making our way into week 2 of the college football season. Our beloved Georgia Bulldogs got off to a good start with a dominating Week 1 win over Tennessee State, but like a cheap hotel breakfast buffet, I didn’t take much from it. The offense was clean like you […]
Has inertia set in for the Yankees’ playoff races?
There’s so much up in the air in the AL, but it feels like the Yankees’ fate is more or less lined up.
Pirates have already surpassed last year’s win total
The Bucs are better. But by how much?
Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn: The Narrative is Shifting
With just two days to go before this much anticipated clash for the WBC Welterweight title, new questions are being asked about the fighters' preparation
Want to Do Business With the Chinese? Here’s What You Need to Know
China’s growing commercial footprint across the Global South is creating new opportunities, but major knowledge gaps remain over how Chinese businesses build trust, negotiate, and form partnerships. Guanxi, institutional norms, and long-term relationships can matter as much as contracts and competitive pricing. At the same time, Chinese companies are still ...
Jaxon Smith-Njigba picks up where he left off
Despite the early switch from Sam Darnold (hip) to Drew Lock, Jaxon Smith-Njigba still topped 100 yards and scored Seattle's lone touchdown.
Catching up with: Eric Frickle, Kitchen Engine co-owner
When first walking into The Kitchen Engine store inside the historic Flour Mill building in Spokane’s North Bank neighborhood, it's not immediately noticeable that the cookware and appliance shop offers patrons much more than culinary products and equipment.
Slanted Cartography: The Politics of Mapping
There is much in the nature of a map. The very drawing of a line signifies an assertion, an acceptance, or even a repudiation of power. Borders are
Letters: Is there such a thing as too much sports news?
I just finished reading the digital edition, Sept. 3, and as always, my thoughts on this newspaper are that it is nothing but a sports tabloid. I find a shortcoming
Patriots news: Mike Vrabel sums up doomed Drake Maye-led drive vs. Seahawks
The New England Patriots had a chance to avenge their Super Bowl loss in Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks. They were driving down the field while trailing by three. With seconds remaining in the game, Drake Maye attempted to throw a touchdown. That is when disaster struck. Maye’s pass was intercepted by Josh Jobe in the end zone. The Seahawks […] The post Patriots news: Mike Vrabel sums up doomed Drake Maye-led drive vs. Seahawks appeared first on ClutchPoints.
2027 Infield Landscape Ever Changing
At one time, Leo De Vries was on such a fast track that it seemed inevitable that he would be a big factor by the 2027 season. One torn labrum later (shoulder surgery scheduled this weekend) and he won’t even be back on a minor league field until mid-May. So the presumptive starters along side […]
Xi's India visit to help diplomatic thaw, but business ties bound by suspicion
Chinese President Xi Jinping's much-anticipated visit to New Delhi this week, his first to India in seven years, should further the diplomatic thaw between the giant neighbours, but there are few signs as yet that their business ties will improve.
CNBC Daily Open: Apple's new iPhone bends. Bond vigilantes, not so much
Loads of new features, but guess what people were looking for? The crease, and how visible it is.
Who is Eli Raridon? Patriots rookie catches first NFL touchdown from Drake Maye
Unexpected first touchdown of the season.
CEO politics may shape how companies compete
Decisions such as whether to cut prices, launch a product, open a new facility or make an acquisition are among those companies that consider in pursuit of a competitive edge. New research from Texas ...
Florida Gets Love From ESPN After Week 1 Blowout Win
It was a very impressive opening game for Florida and Jon Sumrall, even if it was against Florida Atlantic. I don't love giving up 21 points, but Florida put up 66, and if the offense can keep doing what it did for much of the game, it will be in a very good spot to compete at a high level through the rest of the campaign.
Viewpoint: Unlocking Europe’s wildfire data
Europe is already investing in the science, technology and infrastructure needed to understand, prevent and fight wildfires. Copernicus provides satellite-based Earth observation and environmental information, while the European Forest Fire Information System provides information on fire danger and forest fires across Europe. Weather and climate systems add forecasts of heat, drought, wind and humidity; historical fire databases show where fires have occurred; and researchers generate increasingly detailed knowledge about fuels, fire behaviour, forecasting, modelling and risk management. Meanwhile, new European research projects are adding digital twins and other tools to this growing ecosystem.However, these data do not necessarily sit together, nor are they necessarily described, structured or governed in ways that allow them to be used together. Much of the information is public, but some is commercially held. Some is sensitive. Some is subject to legal, security or operational restrictions. Even when data can be legally accessed, different systems may use different formats, terminology and rules.Europe therefore faces an unusual paradox: we have vast amounts of relevant information to respond to the wildfire challenge, but not the means to bring it together. For example, a wildfire researcher or emergency service might need to ask whether a particular combination of vegetation, drought, wind and topography has historically been associated with rapid fire spread. The relevant information may exist in several institutions, using different systems and subject to different conditions of access.The challenge is to conduct an authorised analysis that interacts with these sources, combines the results and respects the rules imposed by each data custodian.An important part of the answer can be found in the Fair principles, the idea that data should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Developed more than a decade ago, these principles have become a central reference point for modern data stewardship, making it easier for people and machines to find data, understand what it means and determine whether it can be reused.Readability by machines is essential, since AI systems will be key to meeting the data challenge. Bring analysis to the dataThe proposition is not to give an AI system unrestricted access to sensitive databases. Quite the opposite. The goal is to make it possible for approved algorithms to go to the data, rather than requiring sensitive data or large datasets to be copied to wherever the analysis happens.Imagine an analysis asking a series of questions of different data stations. At one station it might examine weather and climate data; at another, historical fire records; at another, experimental measurements of fire behaviour. The algorithm does not need to download everything. It can operate within the environment permitted by each data custodian and return only the results that the rules allow to leave.This is sometimes described as data visiting, and related approaches already exist in areas such as federated analysis and federated learning.Sensitive data should therefore not be treated as a free-for-all for machines. This requires appropriate governance at multiple levels. Access needs to be authenticated and authorised. The purpose of an analysis should be defined. The code or model being run should be controlled. Data custodians should be able to specify what can be queried and what results can leave their environment. Activities should be auditable and human oversight should remain where the consequences require it.In other words, the objective is not to trust AI with the data. It is to design systems in which AI never has more access than it needs.As open as possible, as closed as necessaryFair data should also not be confused with open data. Some wildfire data should be openly available. Other information may legitimately need to remain restricted because it concerns critical infrastructure, security, commercial interests, privacy or operational capabilities. The principle should be: as open as possible, as closed as necessary.The important point is that restricted data should not automatically become unusable data. If machines can discover what information exists, understand its meaning, establish where it came from and determine the conditions under which it can be used, authorised analyses can potentially be carried out without the underlying data ever leaving the environment in which it is protected.Restricted data can still be Fair and machine-actionable.This is also an important question of data sovereignty. European institutions should not have to surrender control of their data to a handful of technology platforms in order to benefit from AI. Nor does Europe need to start again by building one giant repository for every piece of wildfire information. The better approach is to connect what already exists.This is the principle behind emerging approaches such as Tryangle, developed through the Leiden Initiative for Fair and Equitable Science. Rather than creating another centralised data warehouse, the approach seeks to provide an interoperable layer through which approved algorithms can visit distributed data sources while respecting the rules of their custodians.In this way, a data station can remain where it is. Its custodians can retain control. Existing databases and applications do not have to be abandoned. What changes is their ability to communicate with other systems through common, machine-readable descriptions, access rules and interoperability mechanisms.But approaches like this need data that meets the Fair principles. Only then can an interoperable ecosystem safely begin to turn fragmented information into collective intelligence.Data infrastructure is wildfire infrastructureThe implications of this approach are entirely practical. Firefighters could gain better intelligence about local and evolving risks. Land managers could test prevention strategies using more comprehensive information about fuels, weather and past fires. Researchers could compare evidence across ecosystems without repeatedly moving huge datasets between institutions. Smaller regions and resource-constrained teams could access analytical capabilities without having to build large data infrastructures themselves.Europe is already investing heavily in satellites, databases, research programmes, forecasting systems and scientific expertise. The question is whether we will connect those investments well enough to turn them into actionable intelligence.That requires policymakers and funders to treat data infrastructure as seriously as physical infrastructure. Data generated or supported through European public funding should be Fair, verifiable and machine actionable by design, wherever legally and ethically possible.Related articlesData Corner: Europe’s burning need for wildfire mitigation researchClimate monitoring must remain a global enterprise, experts sayIn practice, that means funding not only the production of data, but also the infrastructure that makes data usable across systems: metadata, provenance, interoperability, access mechanisms and governance. Where data must remain restricted, we should ensure that it can still be securely discovered, verified and used for authorised analysis.Initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud offer an existing framework through which these principles can be put into practice. What is needed now is to accelerate implementation and make them a standard part of how Europe funds and builds research and innovation systems.We do not need another generation of disconnected databases. The data is already there. The opportunity is to make it work together, securely, responsibly and quickly enough to help prevent the next fire, rather than simply document the last one.Jean-Claude Burgelman is professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and editor-in-chief at Frontiers Policy Lab. For more than 20 years he held leading roles in research and innovation policy at the European Commission.
Bears Gifted Massive Advantage Heading Into Regular Season
The Chicago Bears face the toughest schedule in the NFL, but they have it much easier than their opponents in another important way. The post Bears Gifted Massive Advantage Heading Into Regular Season appeared first on HEAVY.
Booger McFarland will hold Week 1 game against Michigan in potential CFP debates
The Michigan Wolverines officially get credit for a win over Western Michigan in Week 1, but most of the sports world now believes they were rescued by an improper ruling from referees who put time back on the clock and allowed for a last-second Hail Mary touchdown. The NCAA reportedly will not entertain an appeal…
Henry Winkler details rift with Tom Hanks over “Turner & Hooch” firing: ‘I am still working on my perspective’
“I guess at that time, being insecure, I talked too much,” the “Happy Days” star reflected.
Arsenal edge Napoli as Odegaard continues fine start to season
Martin Odegaard maintained his superb start to the campaign as Arsenal opened their Champions League journey with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Napoli.The Gunners dominated much of the contest but we...
Santa Barbara Chamber Players Opens With Shostakovich, Mozart
Cellist Jakub Omsky will be a soloist at Santa Barbara Chamber Players concert. (Bob Houchens photo) The Santa Barbara Chamber Players will open its 2026
Apple Adds AppleCare One Family Plan for Up to Six People
Apple today announced AppleCare One Family, a new option for U.S. customers that extends AppleCare coverage to every eligible device across an Apple Family Sharing group of up to six people for one fixed monthly price. AppleCare One Family costs $49.99 per month and includes all of the same benefits as AppleCare+, such as coverage for accidental damage like drops and spills, battery replacement service, and priority support from Apple Experts.
Trump’s Convention Offers an Unusual Fund-Raising Opportunity for Republicans
Republicans are hoping to use the Dallas extravaganza as a fund-raising opportunity, with some local parties charging as much as $20,000 to be an “honorary delegate.”
Georgia Tech’s Season Could Get Ugly Fast
Georgia Tech has a problem. The Yellow Jackets entered 2026 hoping to build off last season and potentially become a legitimate ACC contender. Instead, they’re 0-1 and already facing a massive game. Georgia Tech’s 14-13 loss to Colorado was ugly. The offense didn’t score a single touchdown, Tech managed just 51 rushing yards , committed…
Héctor Socas, astrophysicist: ‘If a more advanced civilization contacted us, they should be more afraid of us than we are of them’
Artificial intelligence, extraterrestrial life, the climate crisis, the future of work and global governance. This science communicator uses the lens of science to tackle a much broader question: what kind of civilization do we want to be?
Why Trump’s Republican Midterm ‘Convention’ Isn’t a Real Convention
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With these easy changes in the kitchen, you can boost long-term health while also celebrating Latin American culinary traditions
To help you create healthy and balanced meals, we spoke with two Colorado chefs about the significance of food in Hispanic culture and their recommendations for elevating flavors while also cooking healthy dishes.
Serco appoints second CEO in 12 months
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The ‘Sacred Science’ has another way to deal with death
The next time someone asks why you’re on your phone so much, tell them you’re just working on your Immortality Project. It’s a concept from cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker’s 1973 book “The Denial of Death,” which posits that most of what humans spend our time on is meant to pretend the inevitable isn’t waiting for […]
Oklahoma @ Michigan Preview And Prediction
I’m not overthinking this one. Oklahoma is going to beat Michigan comfortably. The No. 11 Sooners travel to Ann Arbor on Saturday after completely destroying UTEP 51-0 in their season opener. Oklahoma scored on its first eight possessions, while John Mateer threw for 225 yards and three touchdowns. Michigan’s opener couldn’t have looked more different.…
Game 146: Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers
First Pitch: 12:10 PMTV: Twins.TVRadio: TIBN, WCCO 830, The Wolf 102.9 FM, Audacy AppKnow Yo’ Foe: Bless You Boys (Traditionally, “Blessed Assurance” has three verses. This cover has two, while the lyrics below account for six; feel free to replay the song as much or as little as you choose to account for them all.) […]
Elections won’t fix America’s political divisions
If you think politics in America could not be more acrimonious than it is right now, don’t bet on it. It’s about to get much worse, unless we, the American people, do something about it.
U Researcher Featured on Huberman Lab, a Top Global Health Podcast
Most of us learned that mitochondria are the “powerhouses of the cell.” Jared Rutter wants people to know they are much more interesting than that....
Vrancken has captured imagination of Hearts fans
There was a sense of inevitability about Hearts' late winner against Dundee on Sunday. Much of the credit for Hearts' recent form must go to Wouter Vrancken. The Belgian's style of play has captured the imagination of the Hearts support and, just as importantly, the players have fully embraced his football philosophy.
Seahawks Reveal 'Aggressive Timetable' For Zach Charbonnet's Return
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Why Texas Republican donors give — and why the state matters to GOP fundraising
As the Republican National Committee gathers in Dallas, Republican donors and political experts explain why Texas raises so much money.
Former DINK: My lifestyle changed less than I expected after baby
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The moon may have formed in just 5 hours, new simulations suggest
Novel simulations, which reassessed the ancient collision between Earth and the protoplanet Theia, suggest that the moon could have emerged from the aftermath of this impact much more quickly than scientists previously thought.
As Apple prepares to make a splash, a brief history of foldable phones
The first iPhone in 2007 mainstreamed touch-screen technology, years after it was developed. Now Apple is betting its maiden foldable phone can do the same for a format stuck in a niche despite years of efforts from Samsung and Chinese rivals like Huawei.
Apple Shares Mysterious Teaser Video Before 'iPhone Duo' Event Today
Apple will be holding an event today starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with the company expected to unveil new iPhones and much more. Ahead of the event, Apple's new CEO John Ternus just shared a mysterious teaser video. The short clip appears to show a beam of light that is shining onto the edge of an iPhone. The light is coming from a hexagonal shape that changes size, which could hint at the iPhone 18 Pro's rumored mechanical aperture upgrade.
Cosmos Update
Become director of a space station, join a galactic alliance, construct a space base and discover deep-space marvels in No Man's Sky Cosmos. Navigate space with a new star system map, strip colossal hulks for parts before hull integrity fails, recover and haul physical salvage to remote space outposts, celebrate 10 years of No Man’s Sky in the Our Journey Continues expedition, and much, much more
The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity
Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026
The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity
Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026
No Man's Sky 10th anniversary update is here, and that means orbital bases, space station ownership - and yes, you can finally fly to the sun
After much speculation, No Man's Sky's Cosmos update is finally here, and, yup, it's a big 'un.
Mental health survey finds Yampa Valley residents struggle with loneliness, substance use disorders
The Steamboat Springs City Council heard a sobering assessment of behavioral health in the Yampa Valley on Tuesday: Despite strong awareness of local resources and a reputation for community support, many residents still face loneliness,...
Military Toxic Exposures Appear to Affect Both Mental and Physical Health in Veterans
Environmental hazards encountered during military service, such as Agent Orange and toxins from open-air burn pits, are known to be linked to adverse physical health outcomes. The VA recognizes them as presumptively service related under the Agent Orange Act of 1991 and the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022.
Seminoles Surrender Back Breaking Play in 4th Quarter
FSU suffered a blow in the fourth quarter when SMU wideout Yannick Smith caught a 79 yard touchdown. Even though FSU responded, it was the biggest explosive play of the game, and the one that sticks out the most when you consider SMU had three plays of 50 yards or more, and eight plays of +15 yards.
Dutch scientists pipe office urine into bacteria-filled cells that generate electricity and recover nitrogen and phosphorus, while a related system can produce hydrogen
Pee breaks are one of the most relaxing times in the office when you finally get to have some sane moments to yourself. Which is why most employees take numerous such breaks within a day.
Why Treasury Yields Near 5 Percent Are Keeping Your Mortgage (and Business Loan) Expensive
Everyone watches the Fed for lower interest rates. But Treasury yields can matter just as much.
Epic v. Health Gorilla: “Working as Designed”
We’ve been on a bit of a legal bender since just before Labor Day, so let’s keep a good thing going! As predicted, Epic does not want its case against Health Gorilla consolidated with the data breach cases, so it filed a motion to vacate the conditional transfer. And because they had to explain to the Panel why this case is different, they put a good chunk of previously unseen Epic v. Health Gorilla discovery record on the public docket! Roll the tape! The Case Against Consolidation Before we get to the fun stuff, let’s do the housekeeping. Epic's motion boils down to three arguments (sorted in ascending order of how well they land): A judge has already decided this. Judge Olguin declined to relate the fraud action to another ELU case (Patterson v. UVA Health), holding that the two do not call for determination of substantially similar questions of law or fact. Epic asks the Panel to treat that (a Rule 42 ruling) as law of the case. The overlap is thin. The three common questions Health Gorilla and the Panel identified are neither numerous nor complex (the qualities the Panel looks for before centralizing). Moreover, they are outnumbered by the questions unique to each side: The breach cases turn on security architecture, notification timing, and patient-level access. The fraud action turns on false treatment attestations and breaches of the framework agreements. Consolidation costs more than it saves. 17 of 21 parties in the fraud action do not appear in a breach case. The cases are also at very different stages: Olguin has a scheduling order running through a January 2028 trial while the breach actions are much more nascent. I like the last two more than the first because they attack the basic economics of an MDL: there just may not be enough shared discovery here to justify dragging all the defendants and a relatively mature fraud case all the way to Florida. On the other hand (while I know exceedingly little about MDL and Rule 42), I have a hard time seeing why a district judge's decision about his own docket would control what the Panel does with the separate § 1407 question. I might be reading between the lines too much, but I sorta think Epic's own brief half-concedes this, framing the two provisions as "two sides of the same coin" but then adding "respectfully submit" (which is often lawyer speak for “we know this is a reach”). The Ladder Gets More Rungs Anyway, the arguments are not why you're here (aside from the lawyers, maybe). Back in June, we discussed how Epic was using the smaller defendants to build an evidentiary ladder toward Health Gorilla and Unit 387. Turns out discovery has been adding a few rungs of its own.
Google warns of new Chrome zero-day bug exploited in attacks
Google has patched 230 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, including another actively exploited Chrome zero-day bug, the seventh such vulnerability patched since the start of the year.
Slanted Cartography: The Politics of Mapping
There is much in the nature of a map. The very drawing of a line signifies an assertion, an acceptance, or even a repudiation of power. Borders are
Dabo takes offense at question about ‘roster construction’
SPARTANBURG, SC(WSPA)-Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke as much about this past Saturday’s rout at LSU, a 51-10 loss, as he did about the upcoming opponent, Georgia Southern (Saturday, 7:30pm, Death Valley) at his weekly Tuesday news conference. The last question he was asked during the session, from Chapel Fowler of The State, centered on […]
New York Yankees clinch 34th straight winning season but have much bigger goals
For the New York Yankees, clinching their 34th consecutive winning season was a milepost rather than a milestone. “We're the Yankees, and we're going to win,” captain Aaron Judge said after New York beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 on Tuesday night for its 82nd victory. New York’s streak is the second-longest in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues behind the Yankees’ record 39 winning seasons in a row from 1926-64.
Reaction: “Fabio looked dangerous from his first touch”
(in the mixed zone): “He had circulation problems (regarding the substitution of Konstantinos Karetsas, ed.). There had been no sign of it. He went to the hospital for further examinations. It would...
Much-needed mental health resources to open soon in Anchorage
A pair of crisis stabilization centers are under construction in the University-Medical District and an intensive case management facility is planned for downtown
“Parachute science” is failing the tropics, home to more than 80% of insect species
Insects quietly hold much of the natural world together, yet conservation efforts are overlooking the tropical regions where more than 80 percent of insect species live. Monash University researchers have developed a global framework to close this gap by combining scientific studies with museum collections, local expertise, citizen science, social media records, and new technologies.
Seahawks Announce Nick Emmanwori’s Final Injury Status for Patriots Rematch
Nick Emmanwori has spent much of the offseason recovering from offseason ankle surgery. Will he be able to suit up for the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1? The post Seahawks Announce Nick Emmanwori’s Final Injury Status for Patriots Rematch appeared first on HEAVY.
18 Sports Commentary – the first day of the school year
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – It’s time for another special 18 Sport Commentary. On this edition, we discuss the very first day of school in the New York region of The Southern Tier. The first day of school symbolizes much more than just being the first day to go back to the classroom. It’s symbolic of […]
The 98 Biggest TV Show Flops, Bombs and Misses in the First Half of 2026
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) In July, I updated my look at how the “streaming bubble” popped since 2023, showing the decline in streaming TV shows over time. But after compiling and analyzing and writing about over one hundred TV show flops in the first half of 2026—I counted 99 “nominees” and there are even more honorable mentions—I couldn’t have told you that the number of shows is going down. When it comes to scripted, English-language TV shows, it feels like we have as many bombs as ever. I don’t keep a specific count, but some streamers probably had as many flops as they’ve ever had.1 That’s right, it’s time for part two of my analysis of the biggest flops, bombs and misses on streaming in the first half of 2026. Two weeks ago, I took a look at films. Today, TV shows. If you want to read the full methodology for how I assemble this list, you can find it at the bottom of this article. In short, this list is… ...scripted and unscripted TV shows,...from the nine major streamers,...in the US (using US-only ratings),...excluding true crime, kids and foreign-language shows,...that got no/poor ratings,...from Jan-2026 to the end of June-2026. Reminder: this article does not represent my personal opinion—many of these shows are great!—but I follow the data, and a miss is a miss and a bomb is a bomb. Also, price matters. If a TV show costs north of $100 million, it needs to get lots and lots of streaming viewership to justify that budget. As with past editions, I ordered this list by streamer, going from best (fewest flops) to worst (the most misses)—taking the size of the flops into consideration—and like the last edition, three or four streamers vied to take the win/loss of having the most flops. (But the actual winner is no surprise.) I try to avoid tooting my own horn too much, but seriously, in just under 5,000 words (including the methodology section) I provide a mostly comprehensive overview of the eight major streamers (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and Apple TV) for the first half of the year, mentioning most of their hits and all their misses. It summarizes the entire first half of 2026! If you want to support this work, please subscribe. Subscribe Tubi Big Mood Boarders The Freak Brothers Twenty Twenty Six Honorable Mentions: Busted on Bodycam, Deestroying the Pitch, Destination World Cup 2026 I don’t think that Tubi spends all that much making or (mostly) licensing these original TV shows—Big Mood, Boarders and Twenty Twenty Six all come from the UK—but they’re not free and they didn’t chart anywhere. Winner: The Freak Brothers Have you even heard of this show? It’s an animated comedy...that’s on its third season! And Pete Davidson, Woody Harrelson, John Goodman and Tiffany Haddish all provide voice talent for it. Yes, animated shows don’t cost as much as live action shows, but cheap isn’t free! So a show with this level of talent needs to perform better. Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord Honorable Mentions: Behind the Attraction, Donna Hay Coastal Celebrations, We Call It Imagineering Disney+ doesn’t make all that many original shows anymore. They had two flops, and one was animated. Their one not-a-miss show, Wonder Man, got just good enough viewership to not be considered a “miss”...but it’s since been cancelled. At this point, Disney has pivoted entirely away from making big budget TV shows for Disney+ to making...almost nothing for Disney+? Sure, Disney’s spending circa 2019-2022 was unsustainable, but now they’re pivoting too far in the other direction. At some point, Disney needs to stop shifting strategies so wildly. Really, Disney should have made fewer shows for Disney+ at launch and the shows they did make at that time needed to be made at more reasonable budgets. And they should adopt that strategy now. Winner: Daredevil: Born Again Daredevil, the Marvel Comics character, is on my personal Mount Rushmore of favorite superheroes, so it pains me to give him the win/loss today, but this show deserves it. I’ll repeat my hot take from last spring: “Based on his popularity, Daredevil should be in movies, and probably ones that cost a lot less than the MCU’s usual price tag. Disney/Bob Iger/Ike Perlmutter (who, based on reporting, made the decision) made a huge mistake selling TV shows to Netflix in the 2010s, thus limiting this character to the small screen. Daredevil could have anchored Marvel’s post-Infinity War plans, and if he did, the MCU would probably be in a better place than it is now.” HBO Max We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… What four streamers had the most misses... HBO’s strong start to 2026… The caveat to Peacock’s turnaround this year... Paramount+’s key man problem… What country isn’t delivering hits for Netflix or Hulu... The cavalcade of stars on a streamer where no one is watching their shows... Across nearly 5,000 words of analysis… And a lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you’d like to read more about why you should subscribe, please read this article about the Streaming Ratings Report, why it matters, why you need it, and why we cover streaming ratings best.