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At War With Iran Again, Trump Finds an Opponent He Cannot Easily Dominate

The president is accustomed to forcing other countries to bend to his will. But he is struggling to come up with a strategy to extract Iranian concessions as the cease-fire he brokered collapses.

Jul 14 • 7:01 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

County business park to get first infrastructure, new name

New Hanover County’s Holly Shelter Business Park could be getting its first infrastructure and a new name in the coming months. The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a $6.5 million infrastructure construction contract and renaming on Monday. Once developed, the approximately 300-acre master-planned industrial park is expected to accommodate more than 2 million square feet of industrial space. The construction contract was awarded to Carolina Civilworks, which submitted the lowest responsive bid for the construction of the infrastructure, Akin Akinola, the county’s engineer, told commissioners on Monday. In May 2023, the county approved a development agreement with Sidbury Land & Property Company to establish the business park. The firm then conveyed approximately 52 acres to the county, giving officials the option to purchase another 200 acres, Akinola said. “The county’s role is to construct the initial public infrastructure that will make the site ready for future development,” he said. “Today’s contract award represents the first major construction phase of that project.” The first phase of development will include approximately 2,750 linear feet of business park roadway, a water main and fire hydrants, along with a sanitary sewer pump station, sewer force main and gravity sewer. Other infrastructure will include a right-turn lane on Holly Shelter Road, along with associated drainage, utilities and traffic control improvements. “Completing this work establishes the backbone infrastructure necessary to serve future development and positions the site for future economic investment,” Akinola said on Monday. County staff, in consultation with Wilmington Business Development officials, are also recommending renaming the park as the I-40 Coastal Commerce Park, said Jennifer Rigby, the county’s chief strategy officer. The new name would emphasize the park’s proximity to I-40 and its location on the coast, she said. Several county commissioners also asked to add New Hanover County's name to the business park's name to commemorate the county's contributions. “We are hoping to achieve space for our businesses to grow and expand here in New Hanover County,” Rigby said. “We’ve had great success with out Blue Clay Business Park and this is another opportunity to really provide locations for our businesses to grow and expand.”

Jul 14 • 3:24 PM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com

Why the $9.99 price tag still rules retail

The $9.99 price point remains a powerful strategy because many consumers perceive products under $10 as noticeably more affordable than those priced at $10 or higher, even though the difference is only a penny, The Wall Street Journal reports. Companies are increasingly struggling to maintain these prices due to rising costs from inflation, fuel, tariffs […]

Jul 14 • 3:15 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com

The new currency of global health aid: data

As the U.S. reshapes its foreign assistance strategy, countries receiving health funding are sharing access to medical information.

Jul 14 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • marketplace.org

Plaza’s entertainment strategy

Plaza's entertainment strategy

Jul 13 • 8:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • reviewjournal.com

PHL’s Cassie Schmid Earns Philadelphia Business Journal Corporate Leadership Award

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) Chief Strategy Officer Cassie Schmid has been named a recipient of the Philadelphia Business Journal’s 2026 Corporate Leadership Award, recognizing the region’s most accomplished C-suite executives.

Jul 13 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • phl.org

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

Jul 13 • 4:19 PM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com

EPA’s children’s health advisory committee languishes

The advisory committee charged with advancing the agency's MAHA strategy has been defunct for months.

Jul 13 • 1:13 PM EDT • Health • eenews.net

Cosmos Health Accelerates Prescription Medicine Strategy with Libytec Partnership to Commercialize DIABIT-IS X in Greece

Cosmos Health will supply DIABIT-IS X (sitagliptin), while Libytec handles distribution and promotion in GreeceFive-year agreement expected to contribute to revenue and cash-flow visibilityAs a prescription medicine, DIABIT-IS X is expected to be accessible to patients through Greece's national health insurance system, broadening its potential reachDIABIT-IS X is a generic alternative to Merck's Januvia®, which with Janumet® generated approximately $4.5 billion in combined global sales in 2022Po

Jul 13 • 1:00 PM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com

Magic make host of promotions in business operations

The Orlando Magic have made several front office promotions in business operations, including Chief Strategy & Business Officer Jay Riola; CMO Shelly Wilkes; Chief Facilities & Operations Officer Alex Diaz; and EVP/Global Partnerships J.T. McWalters.

Jul 13 • 8:04 AM EDT • Business • sportsbusinessjournal.com

Business Owners: Learn How To Lower Your Energy Costs

With costs rising across the board, operating a profitable business in today’s economy is a true challenge. One area that’s caused considerable strain for New Jersey businesses since last summer is energy costs — but dramatic savings are possible with the right information and a smart strategy. On Tuesday, July 14, the Verona Chamber of […]

Jul 13 • 7:27 AM EDT • Business • myveronanj.com

Disney+ could soon add a free plan

After years of unrelenting subscription price hikes that have pushed viewers toward zero-cost platforms, Disney+ may be preparing its biggest strategy shift yet. Internal reports reveal that Disney le...

Jul 13 • 7:01 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Handover of Health Commodities

Joint Handover of Health Commodities Speech of Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner (…) Thank you for joining us. I am here today to demonstrate how U.S. foreign assistance under President Trump’s America First Global Health Strategy and our bilateral health MOU makes America safer and stronger while helping Madagascar build a more self-reliant health system. Through our bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2025 with the Ministry of Public Health, our two governments outlined shared priorities and responsibilities, including a strong focus on infectious disease threats and Madagascar’s increasing ownership and co-investment in its own health system. The MOU outlines the structure and terms of U.S. support to Madagascar’s health sector from 2026 through 2030, with a total commitment of $134,305,000 from the U.S. government and $41,216,252 from the Government of Madagascar to work jointly to address malaria, maternal and child health, polio and global health security issues. Stronger health systems help prevent instability and reduce the risk that infectious diseases reach the United States, making both our countries safer. America First foreign assistance is clear and disciplined: It is a tool of strategic engagement, not global charity. Every U.S. taxpayer dollar must show measurable results, reduce long-term dependence on U.S. taxpayer resources, and support greater self-reliance in recipient countries. Support must be efficient and targeted, with zero tolerance for fraud, waste, or abuse. This year, through the U.S.-funded Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management project, we are distributing: 989,250 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, worth $2,000,000 to 63 districts and 1,661 Community Health Centers across Madagascar, with the third and final delivery of these nets having arrived in late June. Through the U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, we are funding: The full cost of Starlink internet connectivity equipment procurement, installation, and one-year subscription for 31 priority District and Regional Health Offices. Through the U.S.-funded Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems project, we are supplying: 908,523 pieces of critical medical equipment and a modernized digital surveillance system to the Ministry of Public Health. These materials will strengthen health systems, improve response capabilities, and help those most in need of protection from mosquito-borne diseases — particularly malaria, which continues to claim the lives of children and women at an unacceptable rate. Deployed effectively, they will contribute to reducing maternal and newborn mortality in rural and hard-to-reach communities where the need is greatest. In these same underserved areas, Starlink connectivity will play a critical role in enabling the rapid transmission of health data and information to central levels, ensuring that decision-makers receive timely, actionable intelligence and can mount swift, coordinated responses to protect populations. For Americans, this support delivers concrete benefits. Stronger health systems in Madagascar help detect and contain infectious diseases before they spread across borders, protecting American and Malagasy families. More stable, healthier countries can expand trade and economic cooperation with the United States. Our goal is not permanent support; it is temporary, targeted assistance that helps Madagascar save lives while achieving greater self-reliance and independence from foreign assistance. To the health workers and community health agents here that will use the products we’re delivering today: your dedication and skills save lives. Your work exemplifies the kind of local ownership that will enable Madagascar to reduce dependence on foreign assistance and manage the country’s health challenges. This targeted support delivers results today while helping Madagascar build toward a future where it can sustain and expand those health gains independently, ensuring that today’s U.S. support leads to Madagascar’s self-sufficiency. Thank you, Misaotra.

Jul 13 • 4:49 AM EDT • Health • mg.usembassy.gov

MyFlyYatra is expanding its business class flight travel to Australia, Africa, Japan, Europe, Dubai by introducing enhanced coverage for global destinations as part of its ongoing growth strategy.

MyFlyYatra announces expanded business class flight booking options from the United States to Australia, Africa, Japan, Europe and Dubai.Germant...

Jul 13 • 12:00 AM EDT • Business • markets.businessinsider.com

Big-Box Retailers Have a New Strategy for Breaking Into Urban Markets

With their thirst for cheap, sprawling land, big-box retailers usually operate in the suburbs or on the outskirts of town. But in recent years, some have been ditching the traditional model of massive warehouses and vast parking lots in favor...

Jul 12 • 8:19 PM EDT • Business • seattletimes.com

Where you live could shape your dementia risk, massive study finds

Researchers analyzing data from more than 214,000 people found that dementia risk factors differ widely across countries, challenging the idea of a one-size-fits-all prevention strategy. At the same time, they uncovered surprisingly consistent patterns that could help shape smarter, more targeted public health efforts.

Jul 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

How Small Actions Can Build Health and Happiness - New York State Bar Association

There's a myth in the legal profession that success and personal well-being are a trade-off and that to build a thriving practice you have to sacrifice everything else. Attorney Jennifer Gillman knows this tension firsthand. Before building her own legal recruiting and strategy business, she was an AMLaw 100 lawyer working crazy hours that left

Jul 12 • 7:42 PM EDT • Health • nysba.org

Ukraine’s prime minister steps down as country ‘is changing its political strategy’

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reshapes his cabinet amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the eastern European country. In a…

Jul 12 • 5:08 PM EDT • Politics • thehill.com

The Return of the Democratic Manly Man

The party has a new campaign strategy: masculinity.

Jul 12 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • theatlantic.com

Big-Box Retailers Have a New Strategy for Breaking Into Urban Markets

As more states and municipalities continue their push to build affordable housing, companies like Costco and Target are riding along and getting their stores into crowded cities.

Jul 12 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • nytimes.com

Carrier Global (CARR) Completes $440M Sale of Riello Business

Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE:CARR) is one of the best stocks to invest in under $100. On July 1, Carrier Global Corporation announced the completion of the sale of its Riello business to Ariston Group for gross proceeds of approximately $440 million. This divestiture is part of Carrier’s disciplined portfolio management strategy, allowing the company to […]

Jul 11 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Previewing the Yankees’ MLB Draft strategy for 2026

The Yankees could go in a few different directions with the 35th overall pick.

Jul 10 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Health Innovations for the Restaurant Industry

Explore how CBIZ helped a restaurant identify, design, implement, and administer a revised health and benefits strategy.

Jul 10 • 11:50 AM EDT • Health • cbiz.com

This Is A Drill: Scenario Planning That Drives Business Agility

CFOs can use scenario planning, AI-enabled data and "break-glass-in-case" playbooks to sharpen strategy, manage risk and build agility for uncertain futures.

Jul 10 • 10:32 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com

The Power of Personal: The Surprising Business Strategy That Won Over Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney

As concert promotion became increasingly corporate, Louis Messina built a different kind of company—one rooted in personal relationships, artist autonomy, and long-term trust.

Jul 10 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • inc.com

Opinion | Northern Metropolis’ science and education focus key to Hong Kong’s future

Developing a ‘science and education city’ will put Hong Kong on course to support China’s national strategy.

Jul 9 • 9:30 PM EDT • Science • scmp.com

ASU's efforts to improve health outcomes for Arizonans lauded by US congresswoman

As the Arizona State University Congressional Dialogue Series with Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari began Wednesday morning, David Schwartz used three words to describe the health care system:Chaotic. Complex. Confusing.But then Schwartz, vice president of strategy and business development for ASU Health, explained in one sentence how those three Cs could turn into As, so to speak.

Jul 9 • 2:20 PM EDT • Health • news.asu.edu

Microsoft goes all in on new AI-powered Windows security strategy - what it means for you

An elite security team at Microsoft has built an AI-powered pipeline to find vulnerabilities in Windows and get them to engineers to build fixes.

Jul 9 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • zdnet.com

Globavend Expands Entertainment Business Through Strategic Investment in MAMAMOO 2026 WORLD TOUR <4WARD> Hong Kong, Securing Participation in Concert Economics

Investment strengthens company's live entertainment presence and advances its AI-powered digital entertainment strategy...

Jul 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • globenewswire.com

M+C Saatchi North America Launches Entertainment Marketing Practice

Little Black Book, Former WME executive Jen Bacchus joins to build the agency’s new North American capability spanning talent strategy, entertainment partnerships, brand integrations and branded content

Jul 9 • 4:41 AM EDT • Entertainment • lbbonline.com

Bluebird Banter 2026 MLB Draft Preview Part 2

Yesterday, I went over the details of the draft and the Jays’ potential strategy. Today, a quick review of the farm, the shape of the draft class, and some names. The Farm Baseball America refreshed their farm system rankings the day before yesterday, in anticipation of the draft. They currently have the Jays 18th. Fangraphs […]

Jul 9 • 2:13 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

How To Win on TikTok Shop

As beauty brands rethink distribution, TikTok Shop is becoming an increasingly important piece of the puzzle. On the final morning of The Business of Beauty Global Forum, TikTok Shop’s Ajay Salpekar and BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg joined BoF’s Shenel Wickramaratne to discuss where the platform fits within a modern channel strategy.

Jul 9 • 12:00 AM EDT • Business • businessoffashion.com

Meta wants its AI glasses to seem less creepy. Its AI strategy says otherwise.

Meta is adding a new safeguard to stop people from secretly recording others with its AI glasses. But the update comes as the company continues to expand how much personal data its AI products collect and use.

Jul 8 • 1:11 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

Delta’s Basic Business Offers Cheaper Luxury Ticket With Fewer Perks

The airline’s strategy reflects a push toward a la carte pricing even for premium tickets.

Jul 8 • 1:02 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com

Forestry scientists stay upbeat in face of federal turmoil

The Chinese word for crisis isn’t a combination of the symbols for “danger” and “opportunity” as some business strategy books once claimed. But if it did, it could be the

Jul 8 • 2:00 AM EDT • Science • bozemandailychronicle.com

Report: Microsoft will make even more of its games exclusive to Xbox — as multiplatform strategy totally fails. What's going on?

Xbox's loathed "Project Latitude" strategy which saw Microsoft support its biggest rival with content is ending, with CEO Asha Sharma doubling down on exclusives.

Jul 7 • 5:47 PM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com

Explaining The Comcast and NBCUniversal Divorce

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) I hope everyone had a happy Fourth of July in America, celebrating the country’s 250th birthday. Frankly, I am bummed the 250th wasn’t a bigger celebration, but that’s a different topic for a different Substack. While it was generally a quiet week on the entertainment/streaming/media business fronts, we still had some interesting news stories. Actually, that kinda undersells one of the stories, a huge, huge, huge divestment that could upend the entertainment landscape... So let’s get right to it. In today’s column, I’ll cover Comcast spinning off the rest of NBCUniversal, an entertainment company investing in an LLM company and an LLM-owner investing in a movie studio, the latest round of threats of digital tariffs, and more. Let’s dive in. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Most: Comcast/NBCU Breakup!!!! If I had to describe my reaction to Comcast spinning out NBCUniversal, it feels like a relationship ending, either breaking up or divorcing. Comcast’s decision to spin off the rest of NBCUniversal, after spinning off some of its cable assets into Versant last year, really does feel like a family breaking up under “irreconcilable differences”. Of my stereotypes of the entertainment moguls, my go-to for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts—heir to the Comcast fortune, but a man who’s been at the helm for 24 years now, and president for twelve years before that—is that he likes building empires. He cut his teeth acquiring cable rivals in the 1990s and tried to buy Disney repeatedly, then settled for NBCUniversal after a long court battle. (Contrast this with Rupert Murdoch, a man who also loved to buy, but would also sell when the price is right. Murdoch made Fox out of nothing, but then sold 20th Century Fox to Disney, arguably at the top of the market. So I understood why he sold.) But I don’t understand Roberts’ motivation to sell now. I have some explanations but no single, super-satisfying explanation. Strategically, it would just make more sense to have kept NBCUniversal in-house, especially for a one-time empire builder like Comcast. Yet one powerful force—arguably the decider in modern capitalism—likely overwhelmed all other considerations. At first, I thought I’d arrange my thoughts as a “Five Why” analysis, digging through each layer of the puzzle. But instead, I found myself asking, “But…why?” (And I only ended up with four sections.) So let’s look at Comcast from that angle. Then, at the end, I’ll give my biggest strategic recommendation for every company in Hollywood. It’s obvious, but sometimes, the obvious strategy is the most ignored. But…Why? The Stock Market, Conglomerations, and Sum of the Parts Analysis We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Why Comcast could never get a “tech company” valuation The not-so-secret motivation for Comcast What Versant has to do with all of this The key strategic advice I think every entertainment exec should follow (though it’s really obvious) Some big AI investment news… Whether we’ll see digital tariffs… And more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.

Jul 7 • 3:53 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Right Angle Entertainment Names Todd Rossi as First-Ever VP of Marketing and Revenue

Right Angle Entertainment appointed Todd Rossi to a newly created VP of Marketing and Revenue role, the company's first. Rossi brings over 20 years of live entertainment marketing and revenue strategy experience.

Jul 7 • 10:32 AM EDT • Entertainment • broadwayworld.com

Roundup: Walmart pricing / Recovery from Arthur / Turner Industries

Value-focused strategy: Walmart is lowering prices on thousands of items, including beef, Coca-Cola, produce and household goods, to help shoppers facing high food costs. The retailer says the cuts are part of its value-focused strategy, especially as grocery inflation remains a concern. President Donald Trump praised the move, though Walmart did not say the price […]

Jul 7 • 10:31 AM EDT • Business • businessreport.com

Lawmakers end multi-million-dollar hospital tax “loophole”

By Michelle Crouch Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger A little-noticed provision in the state budget that was approved last week aims to shut down a tax strategy used by at least one hospital system to exceed the state’s sales tax refund cap. The change would require nonprofit and public hospital systems to file a single […]

Jul 7 • 4:30 AM EDT • Health • northcarolinahealthnews.org

Sony leadership says AI tools are "an important foundational technology supporting our strategy"

"This is less about cost efficiency and more about improving quality and development speed"

Jul 7 • 2:41 AM EDT • Technology • gamesindustry.biz

Guest column: Louisiana’s broadband strategy is helping businesses compete

Every Louisiana business depends on reliable internet service, whether it is processing payments, managing inventory, communicating with customers or supporting employees. Broadband access now directly affects productivity, customer service, operating costs and the ability to compete in an increasingly digital economy. For years, many Louisiana communities dealt with limited internet options, inconsistent service and high […]

Jul 6 • 3:50 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com

FEP Integrates Diaphanum US Business for Global Growth

Family Enterprise Partners Diaphanum US integration reinforces FEP's global strategy. FEP Wealth LLC consolidates US expansion for independent wealth advisory

Jul 6 • 8:26 AM EDT • Business • fundssociety.com

AI Is Changing How Customers Choose Your Business

As AI increasingly mediates how customers research, evaluate, and choose suppliers, competitive advantage is shifting from direct customer understanding to managing AI-shaped interactions. Drawing on the experiences of three small-to-medium sized businesses they worked with, the authors show how firms can adapt. A manufacturer improved sales efficiency by screening AI-generated inquiries before investing engineering time in quotations. A boutique hotel learned to monitor how AI tools described its business and revised public content to improve accuracy and differentiation. A B2B software company replaced periodic customer reviews with continuous monitoring of customer feedback and AI-generated market perceptions. Across all three cases, the lesson is that firms must treat AI as a new intermediary in the customer relationship. Winning companies will not necessarily spend the most on technology; they will build systems for continuously listening, interpreting signals, and adapting strategy in markets where both customers and the information they rely on are increasingly AI-mediated.

Jul 6 • 8:25 AM EDT • Business • hbr.org

Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

Apple's Mac mini and Mac Studio have become the machines of choice for running AI agents, according to Doug Brooks, Apple's senior product manager of Apple silicon. Brooks made the claim while discussing Apple's chip strategy in a newly published interview with The Deep View conducted just prior to WWDC 2026 in June. Brooks says that the company has seen "incredible demand" for the two desktop Macs.

Jul 6 • 8:10 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Digital Science unveils AI-powered research strategy platform

Platform "designed to help research institutions answer complex strategic questions using verifiable evidence"

Jul 6 • 5:29 AM EDT • Science • researchinformation.info

Vandalia Health promotes AJ Hammond to vice president of external affairs and government relations

Vandalia Health promoted Albert “AJ” Hammond to vice president of external affairs and government relations, where he will lead legislative, public policy and government affairs strategy statewide.

Jul 5 • 8:22 PM EDT • Health • mybuckhannon.com

Apple’s Strategy To Minimize iPhone 18 Pro Price Rise

As memory costs push the iPhone 18 Pro retail price upward, Apple can rely on services such as online backups and connected accessories to prevent premium users from moving to Android.

Jul 5 • 7:03 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com

Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) to Buy Ultra I&C Mission Solutions Business for $720 Million

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (NYSE:BAH) is one of the 12 best industrial stocks with more than 50% upside. The company’s acquisitive growth strategy is making it a compelling investment case. On June 22, Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (NYSE:BAH) signed a definitive agreement with an Advent portfolio company, Cobham Ultra Group, to purchase its […]

Jul 4 • 10:24 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Xbox at a crossroads: 25 years later, Microsoft is done playing around

Microsoft is pressing its Xbox business for growth and stronger profits after 25 years of losses and thin margins. Here's the math and the strategy behind the reset, with Xbox layoffs expected as soon as next week.

Jul 4 • 4:40 PM EDT • Technology • geekwire.com

Ty Gibbs moves on from Sonoma strategy decision

SVG flipped the stages and it won him the race over the JGR No. 54

Jul 4 • 3:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

iPhone 18 Pro Strategy Tests Premium Brand Loyalty

As memory costs push the iPhone 18 Pro retail price upward, Apple can rely on services such as online backups and connected accessories to prevent premium users from moving to Android.

Jul 4 • 3:00 PM EDT • Technology • forbes.com

Yasam Ayavefe Highlights Long-Term Business Growth Strategy Built on Operational Discipline and Sustainable Value

Greece, July 4, 2026 -- Yasam Ayavefe has outlined a long-term business growth strategy centered on disciplined execution, operational consisten...

Jul 4 • 4:32 AM EDT • Business • markets.businessinsider.com

Scientists thought ravens followed wolves for food. A 2.5-year GPS study told a different story.

For decades, biologists believed ravens found their next meal by shadowing wolves across the landscape until the predators made a kill. A new study in and around Yellowstone National Park suggests the birds are using a far more sophisticated strategy.

Jul 3 • 3:41 PM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Long Reads for the Long Weekend

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Happy Fourth of July weekend! As has been a tradition of mine going back to the beginning of the EntStrategyGuy website, I’m sharing my favorite long reads of the last year, like I did in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025. Let’s dive right in! Subscribe “Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber and Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You“ by Derek Kravitz in Consumer Reports I don’t think surveillance pricing, like the kind described in this brilliant Consumer Reports article, is long for the world—it’s toxically unpopular—but we’ll see if either party takes on this issue. If I ran a political party focused on affordability, I would focus on a few pro-consumer and pro-market policies: Banning non-compete agreements. Ending surveillance pricing Eliminating junk fees (read more here...) Ensuring “right to repair” for consumer (and military!) products Capping excessive app store fees Stopping digital/algorithmic price-fixing tools. Preventing automatic subscription price increases. And more. If you want to fight inflation, there are a lot of great ways to do it quickly. Speaking of higher prices... “Secret Documents Show Pepsi and Walmart Colluded to Raise Food Prices Across the Economy“ by Matt Stoller in BIG Again, I think a political party should focus on lowering prices for consumers. And deals like this—Walmart making a deal/forcing Pepsi to offer the lowest prices at its stores and nowhere else—hypothetically lower prices at Walmart...but raise them everywhere else. “15 DUIs, still driving: California’s failure to take repeat drunk drivers off the road“ by Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler in CalMatters CalMatters does terrific reporting in California, something the Golden State desperately needs more of, and this article is a great example of that. “PugLips: The next insanely popular thing you’ve never heard of…” by Simon Carless in Game Discover Co I thought that this parody article (and yes, it’s a parody, but I was definitely unsure at first) was hilarious and totally nailed how much tech/business journalism feels these days. Actually, three of my favorite articles this year were on hype in the video game industry, including Georg Zoller’s “The Video Game Industries Very Dark Night”—which I linked to recently and wrote a follow-up here—and Owen Mahoney’s “Derek Zoolander, Videogame Exec”. In particular, I like Mahoney’s focus on user experience as a guide to what trends will actually grab hold of customers. “The Matrix Lies“ by Evan Shapiro in Media War & Peace Evan Shapiro’s first person account of his experience with AI was hilarious. I think LLMs capabilities have significantly grown from last summer, and yet...my editor/researcher just had an abysmal experience using an LLM to do a quite basic task (which our LLM normally does each week) and the LLM made a mistake on every single data entry...along with seven different mistakes affecting twelve of the twenty or so entries, including mistakes that are explicitly spelled out in the prompt. That’s a brutal failure rate. Again, if you use AI/LLM for data collection, you need to take a lot of extra steps to verify and check the data. “Ghosts in the Balcony: A Cross-Country Trip to 58 Theaters Fighting to Survive“ by Matthew Frank in The Ankler I thought Matthew Frank’s pitch to head across America to visit theaters sounded insane aggressive at the time—at least it felt that way to someone a decade older than him; man, to be in your twenties again, am I right?—but I knew the result would be great. And it was, a terrific feature by a great young writer. Also, I loved Matthew’s recent article on who’s getting the precious few entry level jobs in Hollywood. (Hint: nepotism.) “Disney erased FiveThirtyEight“ and “Did Las Vegas get too greedy?” by Nate Silver in Silver Bulletin I love media history and analysis, and there’s no one better to get the history of FiveThirtyEight than from Nate Silver, who wrote about his personal experience in one of my favorite pieces from this year. I also loved Nate’s breakdown of what’s causing Vegas’ woes, but I’ll offer one criticism, summarized as “Might I suggest antitrust?” Many centrists/center-right/libertarian thinkers (Nate is self-described as the latter) often don’t consider consolidation or antitrust as factors in policy issues like housing, America’s military readiness, or, in this case, Las Vegas. Even if libertarians want to debunk antitrust/consolidation concerns, I’d love to read that debunking. In this case, Vegas is incredibly consolidated (though it also has been for a long time) and I’d have loved to read Nate at least contending with this factor, since he addresses almost every other potential factor for Vegas’ decline. “Why Microsoft’s Carbon Removal Pullback Is Such a Big Deal“ by Robinson Meyer in Heatmap News I’m a big supporter of carbon removal efforts, but this nascent industry faces a lot of headwinds, including this big move most recently. I think it’s clear that solar panels and batteries should be able to get the world to its carbon footprint goals, but effective carbon renewal remains necessary to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. “AI is killing the cheap smartphone“ by David Oks LLMs and AI will impact the world in ways we’re not ready for, and already, third world countries are seeing the prices of cheap cellphones skyrocket due to the cost of chips skyrocketing. This article by David Oks is a terrific breakdown. “100 Days of Madness: Netflix, Paramount, Warner and the Future of Hollywood“ by Wade Major at Hollywood Heretic Wade Major dove deep into Hollywood/streaming’s financials in this must read piece. Not that I agree with everything in this article (read my take on Warner Bros./Paramount here) but the analysis is top notch. I think many people discount how quality thinking, regardless of the argument/conclusion, will make you a better thinker. “Erased by the UFC: Frank Shamrock, The MMA GOAT of the 20th Century“ by Nate Wilcox in The MMA Draw Newsletter Growing up playing the UFC fighting game on the Dreamcast, Frank Shamrock was my favorite MMA fighter, and this history/tribute to him was great. Other Fun Reads “The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt“ by Craig Fehrman at Defector “Unmasking the Sea Star Killer“ by Craig Welch at bioGraphic “What Could Save the Industry? Fin-Syn“ by Richard Rushfield in The Ankler Alex Rollins Berg in Underexposed on movie bumpers, pillow shots, Disney trash cinema, cult films, and Casablanca. David H. Montgomery in YouGov’s The Surveyor on punctuation marks, condiments, dinosaurs, and comic strips and kids media. “How Medium finally pivoted its way to profitability“ and “Why the best journalists on YouTube are all former Vox employees“ by Simon Owens in Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter “It’s Not Just You, Netflix Shows Have Gotten Slightly Shorter: Here’s What the Data Says“ by Kasey Moore at What’s on Netflix “Numlock Awards: How Diane Warren became the biggest loser in Oscar history“ by Nathaniel Rakich and “Numlock Awards: The Oscar Bait era is over. The Oscar Chum era is here.” by Walt Hickey & Michael Domanico at Numlock Awards

Jul 3 • 2:38 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Amazon Prime Members Get 12 Games For Free In July

RPGs, strategy, and escape rooms headline Amazon Luna in July.

Jul 2 • 1:32 PM EDT • Technology • gamespot.com

Apple Eyes 10 Million Foldable iPhones in Major Expansion Move

Apple's Foldable iPhone Strategy Just Got Bigger as Production Forecast Jumps

Jul 2 • 9:53 AM EDT • Technology • finance.yahoo.com

What Makes Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) a Good Investment Bet?

TimesSquare Capital Management, an equity investment management company, released its “U.S. Mid Cap Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Strategy fell 7.72% (net) in the quarter compared to -6.35% for the Russell Midcap Growth Index. In the first quarter, markets navigated geopolitical tensions and economic resilience alongside […]

Jul 2 • 9:16 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

Croatia criticised for ‘unambitious’ changes to 2022 science law

Croatia’s science ministry has been accused of a lack of ambition, and even incompetence, over proposed changes to the country’s 2022 science law. Critics say an opportunity has been missed to fix wider shortcomings in the research and universities system.“This law, like all the previous ones, will not significantly change the current state of science in Croatia,” Vlatko Silobrčić, a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences, told Science Business. “A small shift here and there will not have a significant impact.”The 2022 law introduced multi-year block grant financing of research, based on results, and changes intended to boost employment and career progression for researchers and lecturers. But implementation of the law has been uneven. “It became apparent that certain of its provisions were subject to different interpretations by higher education institutions and scientific institutes,” the science ministry said in its proposal for change. “This caused legal uncertainty in the system, administrative difficulties in implementation and, in certain cases, unequal treatment of teachers, scientists and students.”Most of the proposed amendments deal with technicalities in hiring and promoting staff, such as extending the committee deadlines from 60 to 90 days, or allowing applicants to cite all of their achievements and not only those since their last appointment.Both the ministry and Croatian media highlighted changes that would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 years and allow part-time students 15 year rather than 10 years to finish their studies.The change to retirement age has been criticised for reinforcing a weakness in the system. According to Matko Marušić, professor emeritus at the University of Split, this will “allow unproductive teachers to advance and work longer, while hindering and discouraging productive ones.”A longtime campaigner for excellence-based meritocracy, he sees little hope in the new legislation. “I am not optimistic that things will improve,” he told Science Business. “As recent changes to the law in Croatia show, the legal framework is becoming increasingly hypocritical and harmful.”For Marušić, who analyses Croatia's university system in a recently published book, the situation is “unfavourable and constantly deteriorating” due to the criteria used for academic advancement.“The key criterion for advancement should be scientific productivity,” he said. “In Croatia [. . .] scientific criteria are increasingly lowered, and ineffective and absurd criteria such as waiting times for promotion and age limits for remaining in a job are promoted.” He would also like to see better criteria for the quality of teaching at universities. “In practice, teaching is not monitored or evaluated,” he said, estimating that up to a third of teaching simply does not take place. “Under the guise of university autonomy and bad laws, universities and faculties are allowed to earn additional money by increasing enrolment quotas that have nothing to do with the needs of the labour market.” Lack of ambitionDora Kršul, a reporter at Telegram.hr who covers science policy in Croatia, finds the rationale for changes “bizarre.” “The ministry responsible for supervising the uniform application of the law is changing the law because it is being implemented unevenly,” she said. “This primarily speaks to the power relationship in the sphere of science and higher education in Croatia, that is, the question arises as to who actually manages this system.”Rather than raising quality, she continued, the changes appear to be designed to help vocational and applied universities who have not been complying with the law.The Independent Union of Research and Higher Education Employees of Croatia said that the changes were “unambitious” and represent a missed opportunity for more important changes. “We think some of the changes are even negative,” it said in its statement on June 25. One of these is introduction of an “assistant” job title that allows people to be hired only for the duration of a project. Related articles: Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in researchSlovakia revises R&D approach to increase focus on competitivenessLatvia pilots citizen engagement in research grant evaluationsThe union’s president, Tvrtko Smital, who was part of the 15-member working group tasked with drafting the changes, told the local media there was a “worrying lack of ambition” in the process, and “lack of competence” in terms of research experience and understanding the problems in the system.“There is no clear will to deal with the problems,” said Smital, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb. “It’s a combination of unambitiousness and incompetence,” he went on, expressing his “deep frustration” with the situation. “There is no strategy, no clear thinking, and money is not being spent optimally.”Croatia’s science ministry has not responded to requests for comment.

Jul 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

GMI Cloud CEO on Business Strategy, AI Ecosystem

Alex Yeh, Founder and CEO at GMI Cloud, discusses the company's business strategy and the outlook for the AI ecosystem. He speaks with Shery Ahn from the sidelines of the IVS2026 conference in Kyoto.

Jul 2 • 12:12 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Bayer Group to consolidate U.S. glyphosate business into distinct entity operating as Ruveon

Advances key component of Crop Science division’s Five-Year Framework strategy / Reinforces commitment to delivering trusted Roundup® brands and glyphosate products and services to U.S. customers

Jul 1 • 6:25 PM EDT • Business • bayer.com

Trump shifts strategy after major defeat on birthright citizenship

Jun 30 • 7:47 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

The End of Independent Federal Agencies Will Change Your Business

For executives, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Slaughter v. Trump will likely lead to less certainty and consistency for the regulated aspects of their businesses, with federal rules and their enforcement increasingly determined by political expediency rather than expert analysis. Specifically, there are five ways in which all U.S. businesses will be affected: regulation will become more informal and less transparent; consistency across administrations will disappear; oversight by Congress and the federal courts will be diminished; expert advice will be devalued; and politically-connected lobbyists will drive decision-making. In this environment, business leaders will need to plan accordingly, honing their ability to shift strategy, perhaps dramatically, after every election—and perhaps even during administrations.

Jun 30 • 2:00 PM EDT • Business • hbr.org

America 250 Is Rewriting the Business Case for Made in America

Naturepedic’s Arin Schultz examines why America’s 250th anniversary coincides with a fundamental shift in manufacturing strategy. Schultz argues that tariff uncertainty, supply-chain disruption and…

Jun 30 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • observer.com

Pilates Isn't Just a Workout Anymore. It's Becoming a Business Strategy.

Pilates has become the new marketing infrastructure, giving brands a trusted way to reach customers through shared experiences.

Jun 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • inc.com

Netflix and Superheroes Are Having a Rough Stretch on Streaming....

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) I have a quick prediction before we start today’s article: You might see this data in future news articles. Not my specific charts or analysis, but the core trend I’ve been monitoring—Netflix is having a lackluster Q2—will become inescapable. Often, folks want to know “What does the data say?” Well, that’s what it says. I haven’t seen this analysis hit the trades really yet, but I have a feeling some other outlets are going to start making this case soon. Remember, you read it here first. You probably have read about the problems facing superhero films at the box office this weekend. Well, this week, I explore whether superheroes are dying on TV as well! And the data says: definitely maybe! We have a lot to cover in today’s Streaming Ratings Report, which covers the two weeks of 18-May and 25-May. Today, I’m just looking at TV, like Netflix’s disappointing Q2, superhero shows underwhelming, a few TV shows dropping off the charts, The Pitt finally ending its epic run on the viewership charts (and whether “view counts” change its status as one of the biggest shows of all time), all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Tomorrow, I’ve got a great rundown of the film side of things. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, Showlabs, TV Time trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of May 18th to May 31st, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Netflix’s Q2 Slump Continues Having analyzed streaming ratings for going on half a decade, I have learned to trust my gut, but I’m always relieved when I can find actual data to back it up. For example, after a string of very popular shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Night Agent came out, week after week, in January and February, my gut wondered if Netflix had enough new and returning TV shows to sustain them throughout the year. Since then, Netflix’s post-March slate of shows has not impressed me. This week seemed to feature a potential new hit, but then, like a classic Duffer Bros. TV show, there was a twist. I speak of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest (and last) Duffer Bros. produced show. The pitch is “Stranger Things with older actors”. And it topped the Nielsen charts: With just two weeks of viewership, The Boroughs would have been a top 25 debut show last year: But here’s the twist: Netflix has already cancelled The Boroughs! What happened? Likely a few things. First, the show didn’t do as well globally as it did in the US. As What’s on Netflix showed, it lagged behind several other shows that got cancelled. Second, its completion rate was likely low; after an initial burst of interest, it quickly dropped off on the Samba TV and Luminate charts. Third, the Duffer Bros. left Netflix for Paramount, and that may have factored into Netflix’s decision here. (Though I tend to believe that if a show is doing well, Netflix would have kept greenlighting seasons.) Still, just because I can explain why Netflix may have cancelled this show doesn’t mean I’m justifying it. In particular, as I’ve noted before, Netflix is losing a lot of their bigger shows as they reach their natural ends, and they need to replace those shows. This show had the hallmarks of a big new genre show, and it’s their biggest hit of the last few months (in the US at least), but now it’s done. Netflix’s other show this week—The Four Seasons, the second season of the “hit” show from last year—definitely disappointed. Its sophomore season had about half the viewership of the first, only 12.7 million hours. It also only had a two week run on Samba TV, and its numbers were all down on Luminate too. In other words, even with two successes, the Q2 slump for Netflix looks real: I could add to the list of disappointments: Both Lord of the Files and Man on Fire had short runs on the Nielsen charts. Running Point’s sophomore season also opened to about half its viewership, similar to The Four Seasons. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s second season—see below—didn’t even make any of the three viewership charts I track, unlike the first season. Netflix is absolutely having a dismal second three months of 2026. If this Nielsen data is any indication, and I think it is, I think this will show up in Netflix’s engagement report, and maybe even their financial outcomes. And the rest of June doesn’t look much better. We have two hit shows coming back—Sweet Magnolias, one of their quietest big shows, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a big hit for them in 2024—but the other big swings are limited series crime thrillers i.e. no future season potential. Like I said above, sometimes when I uncover a juicy nugget like this, other outlets end up writing very similar articles mimicking the data without credit. We’ll see if that happens this time! Share Television - The State of Superhero Shows on Streaming When I first heard the pitch for Spider-Noir—a Sony TV show on Prime Video that binge-released eight episodes first on MGM+ then on Prime Video two days later—I had my doubts. It’s a live-action Spider-Man show set in the 1930s, starring Nicholas Cage, based on a cameo of a character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. No, seriously, that’s the pitch. That could either go terrifically well or horribly wrong. Great because, Spider-Man. He’s the biggest superhero we have. I’ve seen tracking numbers that put the new _Spider-Man: Brand New Da_y as the blockbuster of the year and initial pre-sales back that up. And yet this Spider-Noir pitch feels very esoteric. (Also, the eight-episode binge release feels very “Amazon copying Netflix” again.) So what’s the data say? And what does this say about the future of superhero shows?

Jun 29 • 5:43 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

How 'masculinism' is reshaping American politics

Can the new faultline in American political tribalism be broken down along the masculine question? Republican attacks against Texas Democratic Candidate for Senate James Talarcio falsely claim he's vegan as a challenge to his masculinity. While others in the GOP say they want to repeal the Woman's right to vote. What is he overarching strategy here. Why testosterone matters in today's politics.

Jun 29 • 3:10 PM EDT • Politics • tpr.org

As business concerns mount, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson taps Amazon, Microsoft and others to shape economic strategy

The group includes leaders from technology, aerospace, organized labor, higher education, tribal governments, ports and economic development organizations who will advise the governor on policies aimed at strengthening Washington's economy.

Jun 29 • 12:24 PM EDT • Business • geekwire.com

Hands On: R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos - How Does This Turn-Based PSP Pair Hold Up On Switch?

It's a bold strategy Cotton

Jun 29 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com

BT and Verizon to create new international business in $625mn deal

New 50:50 venture will be milestone in UK group’s strategy of refocusing on its domestic operations

Jun 29 • 2:01 AM EDT • Business • ft.com

The Extremely Online Senate Race Testing Democrats’ Midterm Strategy

In 2026, winning an election might mean winning the most attention online.

Jun 27 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com

Apple to skip the M6 Pro and Max chips and focus on boosting AI for the M7 generation

The M7 series of Apple silicon will be AI-focused. According to a report from Mark Gurman, Apple is planning a shift in its chip release strategy. The...

Jun 26 • 4:23 PM EDT • Technology • gsmarena.com

Apple to Skip M6 Pro and M6 Max, Jumps to M7 Series

Apple has reportedly canceled its M6 Pro and M6 Max processors, according to a recent note from Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman. Behind the scenes, there is a significant shift in Apple's silicon rollout strategy. The company is postponing the launch of its higher-end M6 SoC variants, like the...

Jun 26 • 5:02 AM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com

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.

Jun 25 • 8:21 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

Apple to Skip High-End M6 Mac Chips in Favor of AI-Focused M7 Line

Apple Inc. is making one of the biggest-ever changes to its Mac silicon strategy, preparing to jump ahead to a new artificial intelligence-focused chip generation for its next top-end processors.

Jun 25 • 12:35 PM EDT • Technology • bloomberg.com

David P. O'Brien

About five years ago, David P. O'Brien had a comfortable position at Marsh & McLennan Cos., where he held the top post at the financial giant's Louisville, Ky., office. Despite the lofty rank, Mr. O'Brien found himself longing to be at a smaller company that had to work a little harder to land business. That desire led him away from Kentucky five years ago and to Cleveland, where he serves as executive vice president at business insurance agency Oswald Cos. "I left Marsh before it was en vogue," he said, referring to layoffs and defections at Marsh over the course of this year that followed accusations of bid rigging at the big firm. Above all, Mr. O'Brien, 38, wanted to work at a company that relied on its inventiveness, rather than its name, for business. He said he has found that at Oswald. "It causes you to be more creative, to be more resourceful," Mr. O'Brien said. For instance, an Oswald client seeking to do business internationally might be directed to the network of offices abroad run by competitors such as Marsh and Aon Risk Services Inc. "We're going to use whatever access into the market that makes the most sense for our clients," he said. Of course, using such a strategy can be dangerous for Oswald if its client decides to further a business relationship with one of the firms Oswald recommended. "That's the obvious question and why it's nontraditional," he said. "I think if we're good, and if we're bringing value to the client, then there's no risk. I'm not threatened by it." Imaginative business solutions of that type made his career move to Oswald from Marsh worthwhile. "It's very much a challenge," he said. "It helps you keep your edge. I'm all for the competition." John Jacunski, currently vice president and corporate controller at York, Pa., paper company PH Gladfelter Co., met Mr. O'Brien four years ago when Mr. Jacunski was at WCI Steel Inc. in Warren. So impressed was he with Mr. O'Brien's work for WCI that Mr. Jacunski has retained the Oswald executive at PH Gladfelter. "He's a young guy for the position he has, but he's done a great job for us," Mr. Jacunski said. Among his roles at Oswald, Mr. O'Brien leads the firm's client retention efforts and also serves as director of its property and casualty group. "You don't have the same human resources," he said of the job jump to Oswald. "You don't have, obviously, the safety net a big company has." But sometimes, it can be difficult to ascertain individual contributions when working at a big company. "I wanted to be able to see the end results of my work and my efforts," Mr. O'Brien said.

Jun 25 • 9:03 AM EDT • Business • crainscleveland.com

Inside Notre Dame MBA Global Business Immersion in Santiago, Chile - Notre Dame Business Mendoza College of Business

Global MBA students gain firsthand exposure to global capital markets and international business strategy in Santiago, Chile.

Jun 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • mendoza.nd.edu

Startup’s strategy challenges EV industry assumptions

A new EV startup led by a former Amazon executive is betting that a low-cost, highly customizable pickup starting at just under $25,000 could help it achieve something that has eluded many EV startups: profitability, CNBC reports. The central goal for Slate Auto and CEO Peter Faricy is to make a full-size, practical truck accessible […]

Jun 24 • 10:37 AM EDT • Business • businessreport.com

Hollister’s First-Ever Target Collection Reveals a 3-Step Growth Strategy Any Business Can Copy

Hollister's first home collection is a move from closet share to lifestyle share, and a growth playbook any founder can borrow.

Jun 24 • 9:52 AM EDT • Business • inc.com

Derrick White takes role in Colorado

White was announced Tuesday as the president of basketball strategy for his alma mater, Colorado.

Jun 24 • 7:32 AM EDT • Sports • spectrumlocalnews.com

Walker's Point envelope maker Leader Paper thrives in digital era

Leader Paper has been a Walker's Point fixture for over a century amid technological shifts and changes in business strategy.

Jun 24 • 6:02 AM EDT • Business • jsonline.com

Roku May Help Fox Avoid Aggregeddon

(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Scrolling through links over the last week, I stumbled across this fun headline: Wow. Formula 1 (the sport, not the docu-series) is the perfect “dog not barking”. As a reminder, each week in my Streaming Ratings Report, I call out the shows that miss every viewership chart. I dub them “dogs not barking”—like the Sherlock Holmes mystery—because without any data, we forget they even exist. This is in contrast to something like, say, a film flop—cough The Mandalorian and Grogu cough—where even underperforming at the box office is widely discussed here, there and everywhere. In the US, Formula 1 is now in “no public viewership data, so not discussed” territory. After moving to Apple TV from its former home of ESPN, basically no one talks about it. Apple did publish an initial, unsourced, unsubstantiated, (dare I say unserious) datecdote claiming more folks are watching Formula 1 on Apple than ESPN, but we haven’t gotten any updates since. This stands in contrast to when the sport streamed on ESPN, and ESPN PR provided weekly viewership figures. Formula 1 was, at best, a niche sport in America—averaging 1.3 million viewers in the Big Data Plus era—but now it’s basically anonymous. (And yeah, after moving to Apple, I very, very, very much doubt its ratings increased.) Unfortunately, that story isn’t quite big enough to warrant a section in today’s “Most Important Story of the Week” column, but I wanted to call it out, because otherwise, no one else will! Certainly, no one will write articles about the silence/ratings decline, unlike when they wrote breathless articles connecting the rise in viewership to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, including Reuters just last month. (This is a topic I’ve tried to provide a moderate/nuanced/non-hyped take since 2022.) Anyway, on to this week’s issue. I was a bit worried I didn’t have a juicy topic, then the Murdochs went out and did their Murdoch thing: buying Roku. So that’s the story of the week, and it happens to touch on quite a few themes of the streaming wars and the disruption therein. I’ll cover that, plus why more consolidation in Hollywood media looks likely, more good news on the Hollywood labor front, whether we’ll see an uptick in production in Los Angeles, some Broadway and theme park news, cellphone prices going up in the third world (and possibly everywhere), and more. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Another Big Media & Entertainment Merger The story of the week is clearly Fox is buying Roku for $22 billion. I read a lot of good strategy takes on why Fox bought this streaming TV device maker—and I’ll have mine below—but what fascinates me more is how this deal connects to quite a few themes of the streaming wars, linking to everything from the pace of M&A to “aggregeddon” to Netflix’s recent M&A actions/inactions to the shift to advertising from pure play streaming and more. The only topic I can’t really connect it to is my old theory, “never bet against Rupert Murdoch” because he isn’t the one who did this deal; his son Lachlan inked it. (Do I think he provided advice, even at his 95 years of age? Sure.) That plus I have one additional piece of strategy for all entertainment players, inspired by this deal. So let’s dive into all those topics, starting with why I like this deal. Roku is a Great M&A Buy

Jun 23 • 2:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Microsoft Needs Its Own AI Strategy | AI & Business for June 23

Plus, tech job cuts, Sam Altman’s web of investments and Asia’s stock-market fever.

Jun 23 • 12:07 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com

Should the Yankees deploy a six-man rotation?

Do the Yankees have the pieces and the need to pull off a long-debated roster strategy?

Jun 23 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Former Lucid COO described robotaxi plan before cuts

Lucid's now-former COO, Marc Winterhoff, told Business Insider that the company's robotaxi strategy was designed to be capital-efficient.

Jun 22 • 9:58 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Ty Simpson’s Strange Way of Learning Rams’ Playbook

Los Angeles Rams rookie quarterback Ty Simpson has a unique—and intense—strategy for mastering the team's massive playbook this offseason. The post Ty Simpson’s Strange Way of Learning Rams’ Playbook appeared first on LA Sports Report.

Jun 22 • 8:01 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Watch Novonesis on Business Strategy

Ester Baiget, CEO of Danish biosolutions company Novonesis, discusses the firm's China business and growth strategy. She speaks with Minmin Low from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian.

Jun 22 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • bloomberg.com

Apple Will Equip The Outer Panel Of The iPhone Ultra With Samsung’s Cutting-Edge, Natively 10-Bit M16 OLED, While Retaining The Older M14 OLED For The Inner Screen

Apple is adopting an atypical, two-pronged display strategy for its upcoming foldable, tentatively dubbed the iPhone Ultra.

Jun 22 • 7:32 PM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Optum Behavioral Health names chief medical officer

James Polo, MD, will serve as chief medical officer for Optum Behavioral Health, according to a June 22 LinkedIn post. In his role, Dr. Polo focuses on clinical quality and policy, member experience, regulatory strategy, utilization management, affordability, innovation, and population health for various health plans. He will work with UnitedHealthcare, the rest of Optum, […]

Jun 22 • 3:46 PM EDT • Health • beckersbehavioralhealth.com

Uber's stake in Lime's IPO shows potential payday, business strategy

Uber is Lime's largest shareholder with a 24% stake. The scooter company filed plans for an IPO, targeting a price of $24 to $26 per share.

Jun 22 • 2:23 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Office of Naval Research rolls out new science and technology strategy

The office also wants closer ties to industry and troops to get new equipment to the field faster.

Jun 22 • 11:08 AM EDT • Science • federalnewsnetwork.com

Honkai: Nexus Anima ‘Evolution Test’ begins July 9

miHoYo will host the “Evolution Test” for creature-collector adventure strategy game Honkai: Nexus Anima beginning July 9 across PC, iOS, and Android, the company announced. An end date…

Jun 22 • 12:24 AM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com

Global business leaders back faster electrification shift

MORE THAN 100 COMPANIES INCLUDING ​NESTLE, UBER URGE GOVERNMENTS TO MAKE ELECTRIFICATION CENTRAL TO ECONOMIC STRATEGY

Jun 21 • 11:06 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com

ISRAEL’S GRAND STRATEGY – AND POLITICS? – AT AN INFLECTION POINT

Essays – Grand Strategy has been elegantly defined by John Louis Gaddis and others as the dynamic relationship between national goals – which can aim high – and

Jun 21 • 10:11 AM EDT • Politics • jstribune.com

Amazon's Prime Day has a problem: Almost everyone has Prime already

Amazon Prime Day has maxed out the addressable market for its membership, so it's changing its Prime Day strategy.

Jun 21 • 5:21 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com