SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " league " 4,582 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Phase 2 of restoration project underway at West Herr Performing Arts Center
Members of the Rochester Broadway Theatre League say this next phase of work includes expanding the theatre's Rothschild Lounge back to its original size.
Two Yankees Pitching Prospects ‘Turning Heads’ in Minors This Year
The old saying is you can never have enough pitching, which the New York Yankees have apparently taken to heart. The Yankees have a stockpile of potential starting-pitching arms in the minor leagues, including Elmer Rodriguez, and two “head turning” prospects, Ben Hess and Chase Hampton. The Yankees lead the majors in team ERA (3.30) […] The post Two Yankees Pitching Prospects ‘Turning Heads’ in Minors This Year appeared first on HEAVY.
Big Ten women’s sports are having a moment. What is the league doing to capitalize?
In the two years since Caitlin Clark left for the WNBA, the Big Ten has worked to keep its momentum.
Is Mega Skarmory good for Pokémon GO Raids?
Super Mega Skarmory Raid Day brings one of the new Legends: Z-A Mega Evolutions to Pokémon GO, and gives the undeniably cool Skarmory a new lease of life in the Raids meta. A popular / type from Gen 2, Skarmory has been a staple in the Little and Great League formats, but has never made […]
Real Madrid’s summer spending spree creates unexpected Champions League problem
Real Madrid have been one of the busiest clubs in the transfer market, but their impressive recruitment spree may have created a technical issue.Notably, Jose Mourinho has already welcomed four new si...
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
Caitlin Clark made the WNBA bigger. It’s still playing small
The league’s paltry one-game suspension of Alyssa Thomas after her fist to Caitlin Clark's throat barely begins to address the problem.
Injury-hit Warrington dig deep to beat Catalans
Warrington overcome injury problems to move level on points with Leeds at the top of Super League with a gutsy win over Catalans.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Ranking Big 12 recruiting classes via average commit distance
The Big 12 recruiting landscape continues to change as programs continue to shuffle throughout the conference. Texas Tech is pushing to sign the nation’s No. 1 class in the 2027 cycle and it firmly sits atop the league’s recruiting rankings. The Red Raiders are the only Big 12 team with a top-25 haul, per the […]
Fox Sports renews Gold Cup rights, adds Nations League
Fox Sports is going to remain a player in the international soccer game for several more years to come. Although the rights for the 2030 World Cup are up for grabs, Fox made the announcement on Wednesday night that the Gold Cup, the CONCACAF championship tournament, will remain with the company. In addition, Fox is…
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
TikTok and YouTube are reinventing sports viewership. Broadcasters are taking note
Leagues, teams and media networks are increasingly meeting younger fans on social media as platforms like TikTok, Roblox and YouTube capture most of their time.
TikTok and YouTube are reinventing how young fans watch sports
Sports TV ratings and live rights fees are soaring, but professional leagues and broadcasters are facing a new battleground for young fans. Social platforms like TikTok and YouTube are claiming an increasing share of viewing hours among Generations Z and Alpha. Sports clips, highlights and creator content can introduce younger fans to professional sport, but how do the major players cash in?
Keiser's Paul Dodson Voted 2025-26 SUN Sports Information Director of the Year
The Sun Conference is pleased to announce that Keiser University Assistant Athletics Director of Communications Paul Dodson has been named the 2025-26 Sun Conference Sports Information Director of the Year, as voted on by his peers across the league. The honor marks the third conference SID of the Year award of Dodson's career after previously earning the distinction in 2022-23 at Keiser University and 2018-19 while at Johnson & Wales University.
Tamworth sign duo Dyson and Bailey
National League side Tamworth sign midfielder Oliver Dyson and left-back Joshua Bailey.
Bologna open talks for Rangers' Raskin
Rangers midfielder attracts interest from Italy and England and Scotland goalkeeper could land move to Premier League giants...
FOX Sports Renews Concacaf Gold Cup Rights and Becomes New U.S. English-Language Home of the Nations League
FOX Sports and Concacaf extend partnership
Caitlin Clark Fans Outraged By WNBA 30th Anniversary Poster Snubbing
The WNBA is turning 30 years old this year. The women's basketball league, which launched 30 years ago, is celebrating three decades of ball in several different ways. One of them is a special WNBA 30th Anniversary poster, which went on-sale this week. "Bring a piece of WNBA history home. 🏀 ...
The NHL Is Considering Bringing More Teams to Texas
The NHL has expanded to new areas in recent years, as the North American hockey league has brought teams to Las Vegas, Utah and Seattle. More expansion could be coming. But while hockey is known for its footprint in northern U.S. states and Canada, the league is considering bringing more of it to ...
Online violence against women in politics: what shapes political party responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence?
Political parties have a primary role to play in tackling online violence against women and gender diverse politicians. While the prevalence and impact of TFGBV, such as coordinated disinformation campaigns, deepfake image-based sexual abuse or trolling are well documented, many parties are still building their knowledge on how to respond effectively and have not put in place internal practices and policies that respond to the rapidly evolving, poorly regulated digital ecosystem. About the ReportIn order to promote and protect fair and democratic participation in politics, this ALIGN Report explores what political parties are doing in response to TFGBV and what factors shape their action. The findings, based on existing literature and interviews with gender and politics professionals, indicate there are three sets of factors which donors, civil society and practitioners should consider when designing action to support political parties to respond to TFGBV internally. These are: (1) gender norms; (2) socio-political environment; and (3) internal party factors.Key messagesUnequal gender norms are ubiquitous across politics, shaping expectations of leaders to be strong and assertive, and practices of political parties to uphold masculinist values and sustain cultures of silence. These often lead to weak response to TFGBV against women politicians.The socio-political context can incentivise or disincentivise action, depending on the salience of gender issues, which are increasingly weaponised. Electoral competitiveness, domestic laws (i.e. quota requirements), and even the political system or global normative frameworks influence political will to act.Internal party factors that shape responses will vary across countries and contexts, but include: structures to enforce codes of conduct, policies and reporting mechanisms on (TF)GBV, political ideology, extent of centralisation of leadership, and crucially the meaningful participation of women in decision-making positions, not least through internal women’s wings.Party responses can be seen as a spectrum, with actions falling between active discouragement to address TFGBV to commitment to transform unequal norms and practices within the party.About the ToolkitTogether with the report, this ALIGN toolkit offers gender professionals and others working on democratic strengthening a set of guiding questions and reflection prompts to identify which responses could be most effective and suitable in different contexts. These actions can complement other solutions to TFGBV, such as regulations promoting safety by design. The assessment spans a broad range of factors including: (1) different manifestations of gender norms, (2) the socio-political environment and (3) internal party structures.Key messagesPolitical parties are duty-bound to take action internally to respond to the significant threats posed to women members and candidates, including from their own party colleagues, affiliates and political peers.Existing party approaches to TFGBV can be assessed along a spectrum which ranges from active discouragement and passive acceptance to minimal response and transformative change.To generate effective and context-appropriate solutions to TFGBV, it is important to consider how gender norms shape leadership expectations and internal party practices, while also analysing the impact of the socio-political environment. While actions to support women to stay safe online are very common, codes of conduct and measures to strengthen women’s voice and power in the parties are proposed as most transformative solutions.
Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Royals drop double-digit runs on Rays
Recapping how the Yankees’ top American League opponents fared on June 23rd.
Marco Palestra to Chelsea: Why Atalanta wing-back's dribbling and running power makes him a fit for the Premier League
Morning sports: summer leagues starting
Jefferson Community college hosts many of the leagues.
White Sox Minor League Update: June 23, 2026
Chicago’s affiliates swept in winless night across the farm
PFL signs former UFC bantamweight contender
Professional Fighters League continues to bolster the talent pool in its women’s divisons.
Circulating metabolites at the crossroads of lifestyle and brain health
Nature Aging - Circulating metabolites might provide early insights into brain aging before clinical symptoms appear. Ahmad and colleagues show that specific blood metabolites in midlife are...
Urban League targets business growth with new Ascension-St. James training cohort
The Urban League of Louisiana is expanding its entrepreneurial development efforts in Ascension and St. James parishes through a new cohort of its Scale Up! Louisiana program, designed to help established small businesses grow and become more profitable. Wednesday is the last day to sign up for the summer 2026 cohort, which will run from […]
Red Sox Sign Veteran Catcher to Minor League Deal
The Red Sox are bringing in 31-year-old Andrew Knizner to provide some depth in the minor leagues.
Christian Gonzalez Could Force Patriots Into Awkward Training Camp Standoff
There are no official deadlines in late June or early July in the National Football League. In New England, though, all eyes remain on the Christian Gonzalez contract situation and whether or not he becomes the next young, budding defensive superstar to be rewarded with a mega-deal. Gonzalez, the team’s first-round pick in 2023, has one Pro Bowl and one monster playoff run that has people talking about him like he's an elite corner.
Sportico Studio’s New Video Experience Debuts at Cannes Lions
Sportico this week launched Sportico Studio, a dedicated content and creative solutions offering for brands looking to engage the sports business community. The studio, featured on a new video page on Sportico’s homepage, will leverage Sportico‘s unique position at the center of the sports business ecosystem, connecting brands with influential decision-makers across leagues, teams, media, …
STRIKE FIGHTER LEAGUE ENTERS THE SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT ARENA AS WORLD'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL AIR COMBAT SPORT
/PRNewswire/ -- Strike Fighter League (SFL) is the world's first professional air combat digital sport that combines elite human performance and physical...
World Cup 2026: England v Ghana
Winger Antoine Semenyo's football journey began in the English lower leagues. BBC Sport charts his rise from Bath City to the World Cup, with Ghana poised to face England.
Jarred Kelenic takes his latest big league swing with the Texas Rangers
The promotion of Kelenic on Friday had the look of a shake-up for an offense that has underperformed and dealt with plenty of injuries.
This Week in Local Sports: WWAX & WAX Sports Stream Bring the Action Home
It’s a packed week of local and regional sports action, and WWAX and the WAX Sports Stream have you covered with five exciting matchups — from women’s soccer to minor league baseball to USL competition.
PWHL adds Kilmer Sports Ventures, Ilitch Companies as first outside investors
Just one month after completing its third season, the Professional Women’s Hockey League has added its first outside investment, the league announced on Monday morning. Kilmer Sports Ventures, which is led by Toronto businessman Larry Tanenbaum, and Ilitch Companies, the parent company of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and MLB’s Tigers, have joined the league as partners. Since its inception, the league has operated under a single-entity ownership model, meaning Mark Walter — the billionaire owner
From the center of U.K. politics to MAGA: Britain still can’t figure out Steve Hilton
Steve Hilton wants to run California. But the people who knew him best — former colleagues from David Cameron’s Downing Street — remember a barefoot disruptor who blew up every room he walked into. They’re impressed. They’re also a little skeptical.
PWHL announces Ilitch Companies will be among first outside investors
The Ilitch family will be one of the first two outside investors into the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL), the league announced Monday morning.
Utica ballpark to host its first music festival
The professional baseball league operator is bringing another entertainment option and revenue stream to the ballpark.
Rugby Premier League S2, Junior World Shooting Championship continue: Indian Sports LIVE, June 22
Here are all the updates from Indian sports on June 22, 2026.
Sunday night Appy League highlights and scores
TRI-CITIES, Tenn. (WJHL) – With the home teams sweeping the Friday night games, and the visitors taking every Saturday game, the Appalachian League saw several Father’s Day rubber matches on the diamond. Burlington Sock Puppets 7 vs. Johnson City Doughboys 8Danville Otterbots 11 vs. Greeneville Flyboys 2Kingsport Axmen 4 vs. Bluefield Ridge Runners 1Elizabethton River […]
Dolphins 90 in 90: Breaking down Seth Coleman’s roster position
Seth Coleman is looking to move from an undrafted free agent bouncing around the league last year into a rostered player this year as he heads into the Miami Dolphins’ 2026 training camp.
Dodgers on Deck: Monday, June 22 at Twins
The Dodgers have no more home games remaining in June after Sunday, as they start a nine-game road trip on Monday against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. This is the fourth consecutive series for Los Angeles against American League teams. Left-hander Eric Lauer gets the ball in the series opener, making his […]
UFL viewership stays level from Year 2 to Year 3
It seems as if the UFL, the upstart spring football league that just completed its third season, is finding somewhat of a baseline when it comes to viewership. The league averaged 674,000 viewers in its third season across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1, and NFL Network, up 1% versus average viewership in its second season…
How the WNBA went from survival mode to a billion-dollar future
As the WNBA celebrates its 30th anniversary, the once-fledgling league has evolved from its 1997 launch into a global fixture in women’s sports.
Roma reject Premier League approaches for wing-back Wesley
Serie A side Roma saw Wesley impress in the 2025/26 campaign and the wing-back is already attracting interest from clubs in England.This isn’t new for the Brazilian, who picked up an injury two week...
Juneteenth was celebrated across major professional sports leagues and teams
NFL teams nearly universally recognized Juneteenth after the league and some teams declined Pride Month posts, while the NHL stayed silent after acknowledging Pride Month.
Sky Sports: Brighton offer £45m to sign Premier League star
Brighton Step Up Pursuit of Luka VuskovicBrighton have underlined their determination to sign Luka Vuskovic after submitting an improved offer to Tottenham Hotspur, according to Sky Sports.The latest ...
Around the Empire: You gotta always protect the McNuggets!
Jazz playing a risky game; Righty catcher, bullpen top trade priorities; Strzelecki opts out of minor league deal
Series Preview: Padres kick off interleague matchup with Rangers
The San Diego Padres enter a weekend series with the Texas Rangers looking to maintain control of a wild card spot in a crowded National League playoff picture.
Women’s Football Is Ready for Its Tom Brady Moment
The league hit an inflection point in its just-completed seventh season.
'Flamboyant and polite' - Williams pays tribute to Roy
Former Sunderland midfielder Darren Williams says former team-mate Eric Roy "always had a smile on his face" during his short stint at the Stadium of Light. Roy, who was managing Ligue 1 club Brest, died on Wednesday. The pair played together in the 1999-00 season, helping the newly promoted Black Cats to an impressive seventh-place finish in the Premier League.
Cubs Minor League Wrap: Three HRs lead Smokies past Lookouts
Myrtle Beach scores 12 runs in one inning. Knoxville fights back into a 1st place tie.
Saints swept by Omaha in doubleheader
St. Paul was eliminated from first-half playoff contention Thursday evening after being swept in both games of a doubleheader against Omaha at CHS Field. With the losses, the Saints fell to 40-31 with three games remaining in the first half of the International League season. Game 1 Saint Paul knotted at 2-all through three innings before the visiting Storm Chasers put up four runs in the ...
Andrew Painter Left Phillies No Choice But To Demote Him
The Philadelphia Phillies decided to option right-handed pitcher Andrew Painter to Triple-A after another horrible start. Painter was the Phillies' top prospect last season and he was expected to make an impact this season for the big league team. However, the 23-year-old has struggled mightily as ...
MLB proposes massive draft overhaul in CBA negotiations, including eliminating high school eligibility
The league's proposal would also create an international draft and cut the number of draft rounds
The Knicks snapped their 53-year title drought. For the NYC area's other teams, the anguish continues.
The Knicks' NBA championship was vitally important because it marked the first title for a major North American sports league franchise based in the New York City area in 14 years.
What we observed as the Pirates played the A's in a (surprisingly pleasant) minor league ballpark
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — I hadn’t even made it inside Sutter Health Park when someone asked me what I thought of the stadium. Those conversations...
The science behind why we turn on our colleagues
Study explores why being around co-workers a lot may affect mental health.,,,European Commission
“How You Like Me Now?” Hurricanes Still Without a Superstar
One of the biggest criticisms in years past by the hockey experts around the league was that the Carolina Hurricanes did not have a superstar to take them to the next level. They did not have that all-time reliable player they could count on to score a goal when they absolutely needed it. The Canes […]
WNBA expands its season to 50 games
Interest in the WNBA has never been greater, so the league is giving its fans more. On Wednesday morning, the WNBA announced that beginning with the 2027 season, the WNBA’s regular season has been expanded to 50 games, up six games from the 44 regular season games that teams currently play. “Demand for the WNBA…
Social sport leagues heating up in Arizona as adults look to connect
Social Sports leagues are becoming a rising sports industry as Arizona adults look for new ways to connect.
The Culture Wars in Pro Sports Go On
But how long will major league sports retain their influence on mass culture?
NFL sees NIL chaos — and smells a threat to its empire
The NFL’s worst nightmare? Players with power before they arrive. That's why the league is throwing support behind Congressional action.
CLEVELAND MONSTERS UNIQUE PARTNERSHIPS AWARDED AT AHL TEAM BUSINESS…
The Cleveland Monsters are proud to announce the team’s front office received multiple awards at the 2026 American Hockey League Team Business Meetings,…
Villa's lethal weapon takes on the World Cup
The moment Youri Tielemans's opener burst the net in Aston Villa's Europa League triumph against Freiburg, each of Unai Emery's substitutes took a turn to embrace the man responsible for orchestrating another set-piece goal. Goalkeeper Emi Martinez chose not to celebrate with his outfield team-mates, instead racing over to the dugout to also show his appreciation to Scottish coach Austin MacPhee. Villa fans were heard chanting the name of the 46-year-old as their heroes on the pitch closed in on a 3-0 victory in Istanbul.
Arteta 'was the link between Wenger and the players'
Former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud says not winning the Premier League in his time with the club is the "only regret" of his career. Giroud scored 105 goals in 253 appearances across five and a half years with the Gunners but, despite winning three FA Cups, could not help Arsene Wenger to a final Premier League title.
Mariners minor leaguer gets big-league call-up despite hitting .190 at High-A
Against all odds, Curtis Washington Jr. is a big-leaguer.
Chronotherapy considerations in lithium treatment for bipolar disorder
Nature Mental Health - In this Perspective, Ray and colleagues review 50 years of studies on the effectiveness and toxicity of lithium and argue that its effects depend on dosing time. They propose...
JD Vance Taunts MLB Over League's Pride Night Caps 'Warning'
Vice President JD Vance isn't thrilled with Major League Baseball at the moment. During last Friday's game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, fans noticed that J.T. Brubaker, Landen Roupp and Ryan Walker wrote Bible verses on their Pride Night hats. It was later revealed that Roupp ...
Summit League expands partnerships with CBS Sports and Midco Sports
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Summit League announced expansions of its media rights agreements with CBS Sports and Midco Sports Tuesday that will keep both partners at the center of distributing the conference’s national linear and digital network content.
WNBA power rankings: Who’s struggling most with the league’s new whistle
The league has placed an emphasis on freedom of movement to address growing physicality and some teams have adapted better than others.
MLB issues warning to Giants pitchers for writing Bible verses on Pride caps
Major League Baseball issued a warning to three Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on the team's "Pride Night" caps, citing policy violations.
Spurs' Dylan Harper keeping 'positive attitude' after NBA Finals loss
Dylan Harper has separated himself as one of the best young guards in the league following his NBA Finals performance.
Brewers Teammates Share NL Player of the Week Honors
The Brewers had not one, but two players secure the National League Player of the Week Award.
Fitzgerald tells ‘UpFront’ Packers will be fine as he explores issues with NFL, Sports Broadcasting Act
Fresh off his hearing on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said the NFL may be violating the Sports Broadcasting Act and quickly dismissed concerns from the Green Bay Packers about any changes to the league's shared revenue model.
5 MLB pitchers underperforming based on their advanced metrics
Welcome back to another rundown of the league’s unluckiest arms in the 2026 MLB Season. From ERAs sitting near 9.00 to SIERAs hovering around 3.00 and expected wOBAs buried well beneath the real thing, we dig into five pitchers whose…
AHL hosting Team Business Meetings in Grand Rapids
The American Hockey League is holding the 2026 AHL Team Business Meetings presented by Victory Live this week, with more than 250 representatives from the league and its member clubs gathering at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.
'All or Nothing: Manchester United' documentary coming to Prime Video in 2027
Prime Video's access-all-areas docuseries will follow the Premier League's most successful club through a transformative 2026/27 season.
Diomande shows Iraola what the fuss is about
The task of filling the huge vacancy left by Mohamed Salah will be right at the top of Andoni Iraola's tasks when he settles behind his desk at Liverpool. RB Leipzig's 19-year-old Yan Diomande has been the name on the lips of many as the target to take the place of the 'Egyptian king'. Hs is one of Europe's hottest properties and showed exactly why Liverpool are being heavily touted - along with back-t0-back Champions League winners Paris St-Germain - as his next destination with a man-of-the-match performance rich in promise in Ivory Coast's 1-0 victory over Ecuador.
How Should Sport Identify Its Future Leaders?
Today’s guest column is from professors John Cairney and Rick Burton. Let’s admit it, the sports industry loves a familiar script. A Hall of Fame player retires and becomes an owner. A championship-winning coach moves into the front office. A celebrated team executive becomes league commissioner. A former elite athlete transitions into a leadership role managing or running …
Cucurella, Rashford... 5️⃣ stories beyond the World Cup
The summer transfer market exploded completely this Monday, stealing the spotlight from the World Cup itself for a few hours. Clubs from Europe’s top leagues don’t want to waste any time, and the ...
Mets Announce Starting Pitching Plan
After a stint in the minor leagues, the Mets are tapping Tobias Myers as their starter for Monday's game against the Reds.
NFL writer ranks Steelers T.J. Watt contract among league’s worst
The former Defensive Player of the Year has one of the worst contracts in the NFL.
Cubs Minor League Wrap: South Bend clinches 1st half title
South Bend clinches a title. Knoxville moves into a tie for first.
Why the revamped Pac-12 immediately moves to the front of the Power Six hiarchy
An overhauled Pac-12 will be back on the field this season, but where will it rank among the other leagues next season?
Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays can’t come back against Angels
A look at the action around the American League on June 12th.
Softball joins Oregon lineup of pro women’s sports with Cascade coming to Hillsboro
Athletes Unlimited Softball League, a six team professional women’s fastpitch league, will host games at the Hillsboro Ballpark.
Dodgers turn to surprising Shohei Ohtani replacement following knee injury
For 63 of the Dodgers’ first 69 games this season, Shohei Ohtani was their leadoff hitter. The two-time defending National League MVP was occasionally afforded a day of rest because of his pitching schedule. On June 12, he was given…
Drake Baldwin Set to Begin Minor League Rehab Assignment
The Atlanta Braves announce update on their injured catcher.
FAMU Places 141 Student-Athletes on 2025-26 SWAC Commissioner's Honor Roll
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Florida A&M University placed 141 student-athletes on the 2025-26 Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, the league office announced.
FAMU Places 141 Student-Athletes on 2025-26 SWAC Commissioner's Honor Roll
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Florida A&M University placed 141 student-athletes on the 2025-26 Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, the league office announced.
BIG3 BASKETBALL to Go Public Through Business Combination with Graf Global Corp.
BIG3 HoldCo LLC (“BIG3”), recognized as the world’s premier professional 3-on-3 basketball league, founded by O’Shea Jackson (Ice Cube) and Jeff Kwatinetz, a...
Angels Re-Sign Veteran Starter to Minor League Deal
After opting out earlier this week, Taijuan Walker has rejoined the Angels on a new minor league deal.
Shohei Ohtani leaves game with injury, Dodgers announce initial diagnosis
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani was well on his way to a third consecutive National League MVP award on June 11 when he left a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with an injury. Ohtani left the game with left…
Capitals Goaltender Logan Thompson Finishes 23rd In Hart Voting
The Capitals netminder had the best save percentage league-wide among goalies with at least 46 games played.
Politics: West Virginia’s children deserve better
A couple of state senators spoke in preparation for this weekend’s interim committee meetings and site tours at Canaan Valley State Park about what they hope to see addressed by the state and their colleagues. Both Sens. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, and Jay Taylor, R-Taylor, told WV MetroNews they are hoping for work toward reform of […]
Red Sox Pitcher Aroldis Chapman Addresses Trade Rumors
Aroldis Chapman is putting together another impressive season with the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are 27-39 and sit in fifth place in the American League East. The lefty has spent the past two seasons in Boston and has produced a 1 ERA over 81 innings with the team.