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Flash flooding closes roads, impacts businesses across northern Connecticut
Flash flooding hit northern Connecticut hard Monday morning, closing roads, filling basements and sending restoration crews scrambling across the region.
Twins vs Mariners Highlights ⚾️ MLB on FOX
Watch the best highlights between the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners.
'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' scores second-largest global opening ever
"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" swung into the top spot at the box office and scored one of the highest-grossing opening weekends with an estimated haul of $355 million in the
New mental health clinic opens in east Lincoln
A new mental health clinic opened in east Lincoln on Friday.
Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson healthy and looking to regain Pro Bowl level
After a 2025 when two-time Bears Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson suffered through groin surgery and returned to play at less than 100%, the start to this training camp has been viewed as a chance to prove he is fully recovered.
Democrats’ factional battle hits a swing district in Michigan
Michigan’s 7th District swung to the GOP in the 2024 election after Democrats flipped it in 2018. Now, a fractious Democratic primary has drawn national attention and money.
Three Recent Chrome Releases Fix 1,442 Flaws, More Than Prior 23 Updates Combined
Google fixed 1,072 Chrome flaws in versions 149 and 150, more than the prior 23 milestones combined, as AI-driven discovery accelerates bug reports.
BP launches sale process for North Sea business as CEO pushes overhaul
BP on Friday launched a formal process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale, as new Chief Executive Officer Meg O'Neill accelerates a sweeping portfolio overhaul aimed at cutting debt and simplifying the oil company.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Elon Musk Plans at Least $100 Million in Midterm Spending to Help Republicans
Elon Musk, a year after a huge blowup with President Trump and the Republican Party, is said to be planning to spend in at least eight states to help them in November.
Samsung Electronics posted a record profit on AI chip demand — but its mobile business swung to a loss
The South Korean tech giant's memory chip division hit all-time highs on AI server demand, while elevated component costs pushed its mobile unit into the red
Trump’s support for Graham’s sister stirs GOP backlash in South Carolina
A field of Republican challengers is setting up another test of Trump’s political clout.
Charlotte’s growing passion for soccer fuels summertime business boom
Less than seven years after Major League Soccer awarded Charlotte an expansion team, the sport’s footprint in the Queen City continues to expand
Plane Jane reads Law Roach after ‘Project Runway’ exit: ‘Bus driver wig!’
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ alum Plane Jane reads Law Roach after her ‘Project Runway’ elimination, during which the ‘Drag Race’ judge dragged Plane’s look that she originally wore to the season 16 premiere.
North Star Health Alliance cuts draw community pushback at Carthage public hearing
Community members, elected officials, and a congressional candidate confronted North Star Health Alliance leadership during a Tuesday night public hearing.
Analysis | What the midterms mean for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2028 hopes
A Democratic sweep of Pennsylvania’s competitive U.S. House and state legislative races could boost the case for Shapiro in his party’s presidential primary.
The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think
A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment
MCP just got its biggest update ever — here’s what changes for AI agents
The Model Context Protocol’s biggest update yet makes MCP stateless, strengthens security and governance, and positions AI agents for large-scale enterprise deployment across cloud and Kubernetes environments.
Jimmy Smith: Entertainment value
Amusement Park Entertainment’s Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer discusses cultural storytelling, fearless ideas and why advertising must earn people’s attention.
Private Claude Chats Exposed in Google and Bing Search Results
The screwup shows how tricky it can be to stop web crawlers from making ostensibly private conversations with AI chatbots entirely too public.
GLP-1s can affect how often some people need to take time off work, study finds
An analysis of employees in Denmark finds that diabetics taking Ozempic had fewer absences from work.
Robert Downey Jr. reacts to Ryan Gosling joining the MCU (exclusive)
Robert Downey Jr. is thrilled that Ryan Gosling is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and he has an inspired idea for a Ghost Rider team-up.
Wu-backed state Sen. candidate is Beacon Hill lobbyist, secured millions for nonprofit
A Democratic state Sen. candidate backed by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is a registered lobbyist who has secured tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for the nonprofit organization she works for.
The shrinking world of former president Joe Biden
Cancer treatment has sharply limited Biden’s post-White House life even as his upcoming memoir threatens to reopen debates over his health and presidency.
The shrinking world of former president Joe Biden
Cancer treatment has sharply limited Biden’s post-White House life even as his upcoming memoir threatens to reopen debates over his health and presidency.
What's next for Bronny James after LeBron leaves Lakers for 76ers
LeBron James has officially moved on from the Los Angeles Lakers but has Bronny? Here's the latest.
Culture Fest 2026 brings lectures, entertainment and art to Africatown
Events were held at multiple venues across the community.
Arsenal plot shock Vinicius Jr move
Arsenal explore move for Vinicius Jr, Inter Milan interested in Cristian Romero and Real Madrid bid for Yan Diomande rejected, plus more.
Car crashes into business in Cohasset
The investigation determined that the driver was pulling into a parking space directly in front of the business when the driver’s foot reportedly became caught on the accelerator while attempting to brake.
Health officials seek diners after rabid bat lands on California restaurant table
San Diego County health officials are searching for anyone who may have touched a rabid bat after it landed on a family’s table inside the Yellow Deli Restaurant in Vista, California.
ESPN lines up six European preseason matches following World Cup
The World Cup may be over, but ESPN is betting that viewers are still interested in soccer by televising six preseason matches featuring European clubs touring the United States. The matches will see Liverpool FC, Wrexham AFC, Leeds United and Sunderland AFC playing in Nashville, New York City, Chicago, Tampa, and Philadelphia. Of the six…
F1 needs better balance between business and sport, says Norris
Formula One has been driven too much by business decisions and needs to remember it is a sport, according to McLaren's world champion Lando Norris.
#paramount #streaming #entertainment
Paramount Skydance isn't waiting around for its planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to bolster its flagship streaming service. Paramount's streaming leaders have told employees that they're planning major upgrades to Paramount+ in the coming weeks. An internal presentation, which was unveiled during a streaming town hall this week and viewed by Business Insider, shows "Product Priority Highlights" for Paramount's streaming business this quarter. These initiatives are part of Paramount CEO David Ellison's plan to improve the tech of a 114-year-old media company that trails Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney in streaming subscribers. Buying WBD would help Paramount catch up quickly and give it over 200 million streaming customers, the company has said. Read more about Paramount’s streaming projects on Business Insider: https://lnkd.in/eKfn9wyH (Credit: Getty Images) #paramount #streaming #entertainment
AI web browsers 'aren't ready for the public,' scientists warn as they highlight massive security red flags
By enhancing the functionality of agentic browsers, they have become insecure and could be sharing personal information.
Hope Returns: Why Sunderland Fans Can Dream Again
For years, Sunderland supporters expected the worst. But has the club finally reached a point where hope outweighs fear and anything feels possible again?
Asia's rich swap sponsorships for stakes in sports as dealmaking hits record
Asian wealthy families and fund managers are increasingly moving beyond sponsorships and charity-linked sporting events to invest directly in sports assets, betting that growing audiences and rising media-rights fees will drive longer term returns.
Teen plaintiff suing Meta over mental health harms drops his claims against company days before trial
A Florida teen whose lawsuit claimed Meta’s platforms were to blame for his depression and anxiety dropped his case against the company just days before the trial in Los Angeles was set to start, the company said.
Alaska Air says underlying business strengthened despite fuel-hit quarter
Alaska Air Group returned to profitability in June with a double-digit pretax margin despite fuel prices running nearly 70% higher than a year earlier, CEO Ben Minicucci said on the carrier's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
Hackers Exploit Windmill Flaw to Read Arbitrary Server Files Without Authentication
VulnCheck says attackers are exploiting Windmill CVE-2026-29059 to read server files, with about 170 vulnerable systems exposed in 24 countries.
‘Incapacitated’ Pilot Put on Oxygen Mid-Flight After Health Emergency
The pilot required oxygen at 30,000 feet during a 10-and-a-half-hour flight.
British robo-wingmen are "very much today's business"
The U.K. recently revealed the Storm Fighter, Storm Fire and Storm Chrome projects.
Analysis | How a Democratic candidate’s volatility could shape a key Senate race
Troy Jackson has a tough road ahead.
Is AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) Fairly Valued After Its Q2 2026 Results?
AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) just posted its second quarter 2026 results, giving investors fresh detail on how the cinema operator is performing on both revenue and profitability after a busy movie slate. See our latest analysis for AMC Entertainment Holdings. At a share price of US$2.20, AMC Entertainment Holdings has swung sharply in recent sessions, with a 7 day share price return of 12.24% after Q2 headlines, yet a 1 month share price return down 22.26% and a 1 year total shareholder...
Florida Gators Legend Tim Tebow Makes Major Career Move
Former Florida Gators superstar quarterback Tim Tebow has made a major move in his career.
Spain’s World Cup win gives Las Vegas tapas restaurant a business boost
Spain’s World Cup win gives Las Vegas tapas restaurant a business boost
Player Availability Report: #SKCvMIN
Player Availability Report is SportingKC.com’s look at the latest status updates around the team ahead of upcoming matches and is presented by Saint Luke’s. All details listed are from the league’s official Player Status Report that is submitted the day prior to the match. Sporting Kansas City returns home for
Dolphins, Jordyn Brooks agree to extension
The Dolphins locked up another core piece as they continue their roster rebuild.
Future Healthcare Professionals Explore Careers at Health Careers Institute
Illinois high school students learn alongside MWU student mentors on the Downers Grove Campus
GW Law Hosts Symposium with Global Blockchain Business Council | GW Law
The Business and Finance Law program and The Bernard Center partnered with the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) to host a day-long symposium.
New Super PAC with ties to Boston Mayor Wu draws rebuke from the senator she’s trying to defeat
A new Super PAC that appears to be aligned with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has emerged ahead of the state primary, where two Wu-backed challengers are vying to expel the two senators Wu blames for killing her tax bill.
WordPress wp2shell Exploitation Grows as Public Exploit Fuels Mass Scanning
Attackers are exploiting two WordPress flaws as wp2shell, chaining them for unauthenticated RCE and deploying web shells and malicious plugins.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom arrives in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer
Robert Downey Jr. is officially revealed in the ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer. The Marvel veteran returns as comic-book villain Doctor Doom after playing Iron Man for a decade.
I Tried a Sensory Float Pod to Quiet My Mind—and It Was One of the Best Things I’ve Done For Myself in Years
After a four-day solo darkness retreat helped quiet my anxiety, I began seeking other wellness practices. Here’s what I learned.
AMC Entertainment delivers record Q2 results as summer releases boost results
AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) shares rose 11% after the movie theater chain reported second-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations,...
How PayPal went from Wall Street favorite to unwilling merger target
Five years ago PayPal was a Wall Street favorite and a leader in digital payments. Since then the stock has plunged, Apple Pay dominates payment services in the U.S. and PayPal is facing a takeover bid it does not like. What happens next?
Why AI and TikTok could make the youth mental health crisis even worse
With expert mental health help too often out of reach, teens are turning to TikTok in search of answers.
Kenton County Mayors: Rick Wurth of One Quest Health talks about expanded vision and need to 'transform health'
By Patricia A. Scheyer NKyTribune reporter Rick Wurth is the chief executive officer for One Quest Health, formerly the Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky, and he visited the July monthly meeting of the Kenton County Mayors, held in Ludlow, to give an update on the new vision for the organization. He said the new identity...
Foreign entrepreneurs find business opportunities and a home in Yiwu
A report from People's Daily:
Why the Orlando Magic Aren't A Championship Team Yet
The Orlando Magic are talented, but they are not nearly good enough to compete for a championship.
Unity Pond Pottery marks 40 years in business
A local pottery business marked its 40th anniversary Saturday with a community celebration, bringing together longtime customers and new visitors alike.
Canadiens Former 20-Goal Scorer Could Find Home in Central
A former Montreal Canadiens 20-goal scorer might find a new home in the Central Division, despite potential headwinds. The post Canadiens Former 20-Goal Scorer Could Find Home in Central appeared first on HEAVY.
Sporting KC acquires two 2026 international roster slots
Sporting Kansas City announced today that the club has acquired two 2026 international roster slots in a pair of trades with the Philadelphia Union and the Seattle Sounders. Sporting has acquired an international roster slot and the 22nd spot in the Waiver Order from Philadelphia in exchange for the first
The greatest editorial cartoonist? The case for Pat Oliphant.
No one who held power was safe from his pen.
ACA and Medicaid changes hang over health earnings
Insurers and health systems already are feeling the effects of significant enrollment drops and changes in who's paying for care.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Rosie O’Donnell says Michelle Trachtenberg ‘was in pretty bad shape’ before her death
Rosie O’Donnell wishes she ‘could have done more’ for her ‘Harriet the Spy’ costar Michelle Trachtenberg who died at 39 in 2025, but says she was ‘inaccessible’ in her final years.
New ClickLock macOS Stealer Kills Apps Every 210ms Until Victims Type Their Password
ClickLock Stealer kills macOS apps every 210 milliseconds until victims enter a password, then steals browser credentials, cookies, wallets, and Keych
ZeniMax Online Studios leadership to exit as part of Xbox cuts
There are major changes happening atop Maryland-based ZeniMax Online Studios, developer of the Elder Scrolls Online, Game File has learned. Joe Burba, a 14-year veteran of the studio who was appointed to run it last July, is departing, along with ESO executive producer Susan Kath, studio game director Rich Lambert and production director Ala Diaz. Their roles were listed among hundreds of others cut last week from the Maryland offices of ZeniMax, in a WARN letter sent to the state by ZeniMax and obtained today by Game File. Tonight, BUrbam Kath, Lambert and Diaz notified Zenimax Online Studios workers of plans to “transition” to a new leadership team consisting of promoted ZOS veterans. That transition will occur “over the next few months,” they told workers, according to a copy of the notice reviewed by Game File. “We will remain in place during the transition period to help ensure a smooth handoff.” Last week, Microsoft laid off of 1,600 workers across its vast gaming teams in locations around the U.S. and abroad. Just who has been impacted and how hard various studios have been hit has been emerging day by day. Game File reported last week that Microsoft/ZeniMax notified officials in Maryland that 379 gaming jobs were being cut across the state. They tallied cuts in two locations: one for ZeniMax Media Inc. (covering Elder Scrolls/Starfield/Fallout-maker Bethesda Game Studios and central Bethesda game publishing) and one for ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online). More than 200 jobs were cut at the latter. Last week’s totals did not reveal job titles, nor did Microsoft announce any leadership changes in the ZeniMax group. That has now happened. Earlier today, Game File obtained from Maryland officials a breakdown of the 379 impacted roles, which, extraordinarily, included “studio head.” Microsoft later confirmed to Game File which studio head that referred to: ZeniMax Online Studios’. Microsoft has since has notified studio employees and internally announced new leadership. ZOS will now be run by Josh Henderson, previously head of business operations at the studio, and Nick Giacomini, who was promoted to game director for ESO last August. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Last week’s news of 200+ cuts at ZeniMax Online Studios generated public sympathy for those workers and questions about the long-term viability of the Elder Scrolls Online. ESO is a massively multiplayer online game that inherently persists on the strength of new content being developed for it. Earlier today, fans and workers in Maryland protested the cuts at the ZeniMax teams in a rally organized by the Communication Workers of America, the union that represents many of the impacted employees. Regarding concerns around the game, a community manager stated on Saturday: “The plan is still to deliver great content, and we will hopefully have an update soon.” In their note to the studio today, the outgoing leaders of ZeniMax Online Studios predicted “growth” for the game: We have tremendous confidence in Josh and Nick, the future of this studio, and the continued growth of ESO. With exciting experiences still ahead for our players as we wrap up work for Update 51 and beyond, we believe that your passion, creativity, and commitment to each other and the community will continue serving as the heartbeat of ESO. The list of jobs cut in the ZeniMax WARN notice in Maryland includes several very senior roles, including: Studio Head Studio Operations Director Studio Game Director Studio Audio Director Studio Art Manager Vice President and Controller VP, Global Sales & Business Development While some of those job descriptions match the exiting ZOS leadership team, Game File couldn’t verify if all were from that studio. The full list of cut roles shared by Maryland officials also covers workers at Bethesda Game Studios and its central publishing office. The following is an excerpt: The list of 379 eliminated ZeniMax jobs in Maryland also includes: four animators three bilingual CS (community service) leads for Chinese, Italian, and Japanese a creative director for the Elder Scrolls Online Player Life Cycle two food service workers seven producers more than 60 senior QA testers. and many others The WARN notice states that almost all of the 379 workers were notified of their layoff on July 6. In fine print, it states: “Approximately 9 employees were notified of the elimination of their position prior to July 6, 2026.” A 2021 mega-merger scaled back Microsoft announced in 2020 that it intended to buy ZeniMax and its network of game studios in 2020, and closed the $7.5 billion deal in March 2021. The purchase, which preceded Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, added several award-winning studios to Microsoft’s portfolio, including Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), Arkane (Dishonored), and id Software (Doom). The studios’ output since then included a 2024 Game of the Year contented from MachineGames in the form of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle along with Starfield from Bethesda and the poorly-received Redfall from Arkane Austin. In recent years, a Microsoft repeatedly in cutback mode closed ZeniMax’s Tango Gameworks (which was reconstituted by Krafton) and closed Arkane Austin. The Xbox cuts last week have hit the ZeniMax group hard, with 158 jobs eliminated in Texas, many of them at id, and 379 from the ZeniMax teams in Maryland. Xbox also said last week that it would be entering a consultation process around Arkane Lyon, a process expected to end in a sale, shutdown or other form of divestment. The Lyon team has been working on a game tied to Marvel’s Blade vampire-hunting super-hero.
Lionel Messi fuels Argentina’s stunning late rally past England into World Cup final
With two late, heart-stopping goals, Argentina caught and passed England in the World Cup semifinal, winning 2-1 in yet another miraculous, come-from-behind triumph.
House Republicans release $95 billion spending bill with no offsets, which could endanger support
Republicans are racing to get money for the Pentagon and farm aid, but fiscal hawks have been asking to balance the budget request.
9 explosive behind-the-scenes feuds between costars
From blockbuster blowups to slow-burning rivalries, these celebrity feuds show that sometimes the real drama unfolds behind the scenes.
Neutrogena puts science above virality with ‘Break the Rules’ campaign
The Kenvue brand is using similar tactics to competitors CeraVe and Dove in an effort that spans TV, social, creators and experiential.
India's ICICI Prudential Life reports quarterly profit jump on strong premium growth
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance reported a 27.8% rise in first-quarter profit on Wednesday, supported by strong premium growth from its high-margin products.
Microsoft Patches Record 622 Flaws, Including Two Zero-Days Under Active Attack
Microsoft fixes a record 622 CVEs, including two exploited SharePoint and AD FS zero-days, while a Kerberos RC4 change could break service account log
Yum shares fall after report US health authorities investigating Taco Bell in cyclosporiasis outbreak
Yum Brands' shares fell as much as 4.5% on Tuesday after the Washington Post reported federal and state health officials were investigating whether lettuce served at Taco Bell may have been associated with an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness.
USA TODAY Sports college football experts are correct on Lincoln Riley
Preseason coaching rankings correctly have Lincoln Riley outside the top 15. It's up to Riley to do the job he was hired to complete: Make the CFP
Five Players I'm Letting Someone Else Draft This Season
That means somebody else's opportunities are going away. When I look at the Raptors, RJ Barrett is the player I'm most worried about. He'll still score.
US Small-Business Optimism Rises by Most in More Than a Year
An index of US small business optimism rose in June by the most in more than a year as lower oil prices offered firms some relief.
Payback politics? Wu backs challengers to state senators who blocked her tax plan
In a highly unusual move in the insular world of Massachusetts politics, Wu is the first mayor in recent memory to openly campaign against state senators who have blocked her priorities.
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician
In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
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