Search headlines

Pope hope, that’s entertainment, and getting ahead in the CIA

Happy Friday friends, I want to start by just breathing for all of us a big long collective sigh of relief at the news this week that the pope’s doctors have basically blown the all clear for Leo’s health. Going from knowing nothing to him declaring to the world he needed surgery, to a cancer diagnosis, to bouncing out of the hospital in barely even days, to ringing the bell in less than two weeks is whiplash inducing. But in the best possible way. We are living in a world in which the Roman pontiff, by dint of history, biography and circumstance, is once more at the epicenter of global affairs. Not just conversations about religion, or Christian and post-Christian values, but the bleeding edge of the most pressing issues of human affairs. Think I am exaggerating a touch? Consider the images of the crowds who greeted Leo in Paris just weeks ago, and juxtapose them with the absolute photo negative scenes unfolding there recently. Ask yourself how many world leaders are talking about AI right now and directly citing the pope as they do so. Try to name a country who has had as many top-ranked diplomats in and out of both Russia and Ukraine in the last three years as the Vatican has in the last three months. It has been fascinating to watch Leo XIV emerge as not just a kind of pop culture reference point or totem to be cited (Francis was often name-checked this way) but as a kinetic force in global conversation. Given the state of things, we need global figures of gravitas and values, even better if they have real wisdom behind what they are saying. So news of Leo’s illness was, it seemed to me, a tremor with potentially Richter Scale implications. That not only has the worst not come to pass but instead we’ve had the best of outcomes announced is something to really be grateful for. Humanity, it seems to me, is entering one of its irregular but cyclical phases where the pace of change — technological, social, and geopolitical — outstrips the ability of previously settled norms and received wisdom to cope. Such periods – and I think the first decades of the last century were a similar such time – throw into question the viability of all kinds of institutions. And many of ours have been straining to breaking point for a few years now. The papacy has the power and the potential to be a steadying pole in all of this. That’s my hope, anyway. It’s a lot to freight the office with, though it is arguably its ultimate purpose from its founding, to be a steadying rock on which all that matters can be anchored. It’s also, of course, an intolerable weight of responsibility to place on a single man. But I am encouraged to have hope in – and for – Leo. The apostle whom he succeeds, after all, was famously unequal to some moments, failed some tests of faith, and resiled from taking the road which led ultimately to the circus on Vatican hill. Human frailty and limitations, of health, of character, of temper, can open us to Christ, whose strength is greatest in our weakness, so St. Paul learned. That gives me hope, and I am sure it consoles Leo, too. And so I will continue to pray for him. Because we need apostles of rock right now. Here’s the news. Subscribe The News The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued yesterday a new document “Venite ad me: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change.” It’s not a short document, and it is at pains to stress this isn’t a doctrinal note from the dicastery, either. Rather, it brings together reflections on an important issue from the Church around the world. Some of it I actually found really rather powerful. It is, however, 25,000, which is a lot for a busy reader to get through on a weekday. So, you can read our busy reader’s summary right here. — News broke yesterday of an Oct. 22 meeting of U.S. bishops with President Donald Trump. The meeting was organized by an official at the Heritage Foundation, according to several sources close to the meeting. Video of several U.S. bishops praying in the Oval Office over President Trump was posted on social media Thursday afternoon, first by White House Communications Advisor Margo Martin, and then by the official twitter.com account of the Archdiocese of Denver. The meeting has drawn sharp criticism because of its proximity to the upcoming midterm Congressional elections, in which Democrats are widely expected to win control of the House of Representatives, while control of the Senate remains closely contested. Sources close to the bishops’ conference told The Pillar that some USCCB senior officials were surprised by the existence of the meeting when video of it first emerged online. And a source close to conference president Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City told The Pillar that the archbishop was “deeply frustrated” by the occasion of the meeting. An official conference spokesperson told The Pillar that the meeting was “not organized with or by the USCCB” and was “not affiliated with the conference.” You can read the whole story here. — The next National Eucharistic Congress will be held in Indianapolis in 2029, a return to the city that hosted the last gathering in 2024. You read it here first. By here, I don’t mean this newsletter, I mean at The Pillar. We broke the story this week. It’s a big deal, in as much as the last congress was a roaring success and the next installment has the potential to be a real focal point for evangelizing efforts in the coming years. Read all about it here. — As Pope Leo prepares for the longest trip of his pontificate, Church leaders in Uruguay say the pontiff will encounter a highly secularized culture, in a country with a very different Catholic history than many of its South American neighbors. The nation has not had a papal visit since 1988, and leaders who spoke with The Pillar say it has a dire need for evangelization, even amid the prospect of a small revival in faith. This is real reporting on the Church in the country, and frankly a story you simply are not going to be able to read anywhere else. Read the whole thing. — The Archdiocese of Detroit announced this week a plan that would see the vast majority of its parish priests reassigned next summer, amid a restructuring process expected to dramatically shrink the number of parishes in the archdiocese. Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said this week that the plan “asks much of our priests,” but is a “sacrifice they are making as brothers of one, unified presbyterate.” The thing is, as JD pointed out in an analysis yesterday, pastors of parishes have a legal right to stability in office, so the only way this kind of wholesale reassignment goes ahead is if all of the archdiocesan clergy agree to resign. That creates its own kind of legal issues, though, and re-raises longstanding questions about the effectiveness of canonical due process protections for priests when dealing with coercive exercises in authority. Read the whole thing here. — More than three months after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its decree declaring the excommunication of the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X, questions remain about the full effects of the society’s schism. Specifically, the DDF’s July claim that marriages witnessed and confessions heard by SSPX priests are now invalid remains contested — and it emerged this week it appears that the Vatican’s own legal experts don’t agree. You can read my whole analysis of the situation and what it means here. All I would add is that the DDF’s undeveloped, some would say unsubstantiated, claim about the invalidity of some SSPX sacraments came in their July Explanatory Note on the schismatic consecrations by the society that month. It touches directly on both papal acts of governance — indeed it purports to nullify them — and the most intimate pastoral encounters possible in a parish setting. If there is one aspect of the Francis-era style of governance I would like the curia to finally cut out, root and branch, it would be these attempts to try to effect extraordinarily sensitive legislative acts via a note. — At least a dozen French bishops have spoken out following an eruption of violence on the country’s streets Oct. 17. Not surprisingly, they unanimously condemned the violence, but the length and content of their interventions varied significantly. Several sought to distinguish between the actions of rioters and what they suggested were the legitimate concerns of peaceful young protesters. Many also evoked Pope Leo XIV’s Sept. 25-28 visit to France, suggesting it offered a powerful counter-image to the scenes of looting and destruction. A number of bishops also stressed their solidarity with law enforcement officials who struggled to contain the disorder, as well as the owners of the roughly 3,000 damaged or looted businesses. What’s the background to the nationwide unrest that the French media calls “les violences du 17 octobre”? And what exactly are the bishops saying? Read all about it here. — A Polish bishop called for the firm defense of unborn children as well as compassion for their mothers this week, as the lower house of Poland’s parliament passed two bills seeking to liberalize the country’s abortion laws. The bill on decriminalizing assistance in an abortion passed by 217 votes to 213, while the abortion in cases of fetal abnormality bill passed by 233 to 203, thanks to the government’s majority in the lower house. Both bills will now move to the Polish Senate, the upper house of parliament, where the ruling coalition has a larger majority. The fetal abnormality bill is symbolically significant because if it became law, it would effectively overturn a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal that a 1993 law permitting abortion for a severe and irreversible disability or a life-threatening incurable disease was unconstitutional. Read the whole story here. Subscribe **[The St. Paul Center App | Bible Study On-The-Go Read and understand the Bible with St. Paul Center’s new app! With today’s leading Catholic Scripture scholars as your guides, the St. Paul Center app empowers you to read the Bible](https://stpaulcenter.com/app?utm_source=pillar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=applaunch)** from the heart of the Church. Download the app for free at either the Apple or the Google app stores. https://stpaulcenter.com/app That’s entertainment I have written before about my deep and sincere reservations about the celebrity exorcist subculture which has taken root in American Catholicism. And, because I am very ill at ease with the entire thing, I try to keep a weather eye on the phenomenon without being drawn into the kind of online back-and-forth which these figures sometimes generate. Earlier this week, JD noted that one such celebrity exorcist type, Fr. Chad Ripperger, has undertaken, on the request of his bishop, a year’s fast from interviews and public speaking. I’m sure that will be salutary for him, if for no other reason than that receiving with docility requests from one’s rightful ecclesiastical superiors always comes with graces. Then a second thing happened this week which caught my eye. Apparently, another fixture in the celebrity exorcist world, Fr. Carlos Martins, has initiated a lawsuit against two lay men — apparently associates of Rippenger, though I am unclear in what way, exactly — for allegedly defaming him and his ministry on a podcast. It seems the suit was initiated nearly a year ago and is now pending. At issue, I read, is that the two men described Martins on a podcast as “not who he says he is” with regard to his exorcism ministry and that he “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” These statements Martins considers to be false and defamatory and, his suit claims, “directly affected the sale and reception of [his] The Exorcist Files book that was newly released at the time these episodes aired.” I don’t want to get too into the weeds of the details here, but a couple of things struck me about all this.

Oct 23 • 9:10 AM EDT • Entertainment • pillarcatholic.com

Five Steps for BYU to Avoid Letdown vs. UCF

Exhale. What a weekend in Provo. From College Gameday to storming the field as the final pass fell incomplete to beat No. 2 Notre Dame, that was perhaps the single most perfect day in the history of BYU sports. The task at hand? Shake off the cobwebs. Get the celebratory Swig out of your system […]

Oct 22 • 5:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

The One Chart That Explains Why Netflix Cleaned House

(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.) Yeah, I’ll be honest: I went with a clickbait-y headline today. One chart? That explains everything? That’s as clickbait-y as it gets. But let’s be real. I’m analyzing a dataset that I’ve built over six years, and c’mon, I never write articles which feature just one chart! If you think this article—which includes a level of data detail unheard of in journalism twenty years ago—is clickbait, fine by me. Really, what I’m doing is using data to explain Netflix’s recent strategy changes, since the story of the month is the turbulence at Netflix. First, head of content Bela Bajaria was fired. Then head of film Dan Lin followed her to the unemployment ranks. (Along with, sadly, 1,000 other Netflix workers.) And then Netflix delivered a “sub-optimal” earnings report, which continued their year-long stock price slide. Then came a flood of articles explaining why all this is happening. (Mine’s coming shortly, rest assured.) I realized I had the perfect chart to explain Netflix’s woes. Specifically, Nielsen’s weekly top ten charts. Usually I focus on one or two weeks in my Streaming Ratings Reports, but sometimes it’s worth stepping back to look at the larger story. And hoo boy, what a story. This article is my annual (plus three months) follow-up to one of my most popular articles of last year. (And a topic I’ve been visualizing for the last half decade.) Subscribe Netflix’s Share of The Nielsen Charts Continues to Decline

Oct 22 • 5:03 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Brain scans reveal 'number line' that's used to mentally compare values

Although whole numbers and fractions are processed differently in the brain, when you compare their values, a single "mental map" akin to a number line lights up.

Oct 22 • 2:00 PM EDT • Science • livescience.com

A nanoparticle revealed the tiny impact of a single gas atom

The force exerted by a gas usually results from many atoms or molecules at once. But scientists isolated the force of a lone particle.

Oct 22 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencenews.org

Question 3 would create all-party primary

Ballot Question 3 would eliminate political party primaries in Massachusetts and establish a single, all-party primary.

Oct 22 • 12:07 PM EDT • Politics • westernmassnews.com

Introspection required if EU Inc fails, says start-up lobbyist

European start-ups have a new voice in Brussels. Startups for Europe, created from the merger of lobby groups Allied for Startups and the European Startup Network, is hoping to harness the momentum behind EU-Inc, a campaign that united start-ups and investors behind demands for a new pan-European company regime.At a launch event for the new association in Brussels on October 1, the mood was remarkably upbeat compared to a typical Eurobubble gathering, more Silicon Valley than Schuman roundabout.When asked whether this reflects a feeling that Europe is on the right track, chief executive Serena Borbotti-Frison said it’s a “scary” moment as the continent looks to boost its competitiveness amid a new technological arms race.“What is at stake is quite intense, and the way we can answer is by delivering, but also with hope,” she told Science|Business. “It’s what our industry does. It’s not about identifying a pain point and then saying it’s too hard.”For many in the start-up community, that sense of hope is dwindling. In March, the European Commission presented its proposal for EU Inc, naming its initiative after the grassroots campaign.EU Inc was meant to be a gamechanger: the ability to incorporate within 48 hours for less than €100 and scale up across Europe; a harmonised stock option regime enabling start-ups to compete for talent; and simplified insolvency procedures for innovative start-ups to reduce the cost of failure.However, haggling by EU governments has raised concerns that EU Inc will be stripped of the very features, including stock option harmonisation, that are meant to make it attractive for companies.“I fear we are proving to ourselves that the model doesn’t work,” Borbotti-Frison said of the policymaking process. “Everyone agrees we should have EU Inc. Everyone agrees it’s hard to scale and we need to scale to answer the competitiveness [challenge], and still we cannot deliver? [. . .] What does that say about ourselves?”The Commission has made EU Inc a cornerstone of its single market reform, and has agreed with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to target an agreement by the end of 2026. However, several points are currently holding up an agreement, including national rules around employee participation in management decisions, and the provision that employee stock options always be taxed at the point of sale. Some EU governments have reportedly pushed back on the Commission’s choice of legal basis, contending that anything related to taxation requires unanimity in the Council.Trade unions have also protested against EU Inc, fearing it will be exploited by companies looking to undermine workers’ rights.“If this doesn’t work, it’s introspection time, on the way our institutions work, maybe the way our lobbies work, and maybe the way the cooperation between them works,” Borbotti-Frison said.“Is it in the national interest? Is it a gap between political will and technical ability to operate? Is it speed? I don't know, but something needs to be fixed.”Ahead of last week’s European Council meeting, EU-Inc campaigners tried a new strategy: appealing directly to EU presidents and prime ministers. In an open letter, they urged EU leaders to “step in and give your negotiating teams a clear mandate to change course and reverse their objections to the Commission’s original proposal.”Lessons from EU-IncLike its predecessors, Startups for Europe will represent national start-up associations, but it is also targeting investors. The founding sponsors are venture capital firm Atomico and EQT, the investor selected earlier this year to manage the €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund.It also wants to harness the knowledge and cross-border experience of European success stories. “Take the list of the 100 biggest unicorns in Europe. We are speaking to all of them,” Borbotti-Frison said. The association plans to publish a full list of supporters following the Slush tech conference in Helsinki in November.Andreas Klinger and Simon Schaefer, two key figures in the EU-Inc campaign, are both on the board of the new association, and Startups for Europe wants to take the lessons from their campaign.What was unprecedented about EU-Inc was “how rooted it was, and how strong it was in bringing everyone on board behind one clear pain point and solution to fix it,” Borbotti-Frison said. “This is an inspiration for us, and then we need to turn it into something more systematic, more bridged in Brussels, more connected to the policymaking game, and to scale it.”If it’s possible to unite such a broad coalition, it’s because the European start-up ecosystem is now mature, she said. “Maybe it was not ten years ago. Maybe it was not five years ago. But now, it’s mature to speak with one voice.”Open and liberal EuropeThe association plans to campaign on files related to three “pain points,” Borbotti-Frison said: “start and scale in Europe, fundraise and invest in Europe, and making Europe the most innovative continent.”As well as EU Inc, she cited public procurement, the EU’s simplification push, the Savings and Investments Union, and files related to AI adoption and technological sovereignty as priorities for the coming months.What these files have in common is that they relate not to subsidies but to the framework conditions influencing the availability of mostly private, or in the case of procurement, public, funding.Related articlesEmployee participation disagreement delays MEPs’ vote on EU IncCommission urges EU governments not to water down EU IncEU’s ‘ultra-fast’ €5B scale-up fund is set up to win, says its fund managerThe budget dispute over the next Horizon Europe programme will also impact start-ups, which are supported notably through the European Innovation Council. But EU innovation funding is a drop in the ocean compared to venture capital and public procurement budgets.“If competitiveness and innovation are a priority, then the [EU budget] should reflect it,” Borbotti-Frison said. However, she added that the main question is not how much public money is invested, but “how do we create the right conditions for the market to solve the problem?”The Scaleup Europe Fund mixes both approaches, using €1 billion in EU funding to crowd in private investors and address Europe’s lack of large-scale, late-stage growth funds. “It’s a proof of concept. Ideally, then the market will do it itself,” Borbotti-Frison said.Startups for Europe is also focused on bringing an alternative political narrative. Amid competing visions for open, global markets on the one side and a protectionist Europe on the other, it wants to offer “a third voice, to say we can be proudly European and build a strong continent in a liberal economy, open to the world, and global.”It can be tempting, when thinking about how Europe can better support innovation, to look across the Atlantic. But while it’s important to compare statistics to see where Europe needs to catch up, that’s where the comparison should stop, Borbotti-Frison said. “On everything else, we need to do it our own way. We don't have the same history. We don't have the same political model. We don't have the same way of life.”Many of the key files that could benefit the start-up community, including EU Inc and the Savings and Investments Union, rely on closer integration within Europe, making it easier to operate across borders.While the Commission has made deepening the single market a political priority, support at national level is more precarious. The coming months will see pivotal elections in Spain and France, while the German government has also been coming under pressure domestically. In each country, far-right parties have been gaining ground.When asked if she was concerned the political situation could jeopardise this progress, Borbotti-Frison responded: “Of course. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t.” However, she continues to believe that cooperation is the only way forward. “Doing it alone is not the solution. It’s also not who we are, it’s not the model we are building, and it’s not the scale we need.”

Oct 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

Scientists trapped a single antimatter particle for months

The scientists captured a single positron and confined it using carefully controlled electric and magnetic fields.

Oct 22 • 6:22 AM EDT • Science • techexplorist.com

[COVER STORY] Kids on stage: How young is too young to debut in K-pop?

A2O LITE, a K-pop act that debuted last week, gained attention not only because its debut single "Neon" topped Melon's Top 100 chart about 29 hours...

Oct 21 • 10:34 PM EDT • Entertainment • koreatimes.co.kr

iPhone Duo Reviewers Really Miss Face ID

Touch ID on the iPhone Duo might end up being frustrating for some users, based on media reviews that came out today. Multiple reviewers found Touch ID to be slow to unlock, which can be jarring coming from Face ID. According to Marques Brownlee, Apple added an intentional delay to "every single" Touch ID unlock. After you touch a finger to the side button to unlock, it pauses on the Lock Screen. If you keep your finger there, it continues to the Home Screen. It's technically smart.

Oct 21 • 7:27 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

How Integris Health became OKC's largest hospital network

Integris Health grew from a single hospital to Oklahoma City's largest hospital network. Here is a look at its 67-year history in photos.

Oct 21 • 4:51 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com

Rice County Public Health urges vaccination as measles cases climb in Minnesota

By Rich Larson Rice County has not reported a single case of measles, but Rice County Public Health officials said they are concerned an outbreak could arrive soon as cases rise across Minnesota. In a news release issued Oct. 15, the department said 25 measles cases have been identified since

Oct 21 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • kymnradio.net

Texas Republicans Used to Debate. Not This Cycle.

With early voting already underway, we're likely to close out this election cycle without a single debate between top-of-the-ticket candidates. Why?

Oct 21 • 6:44 AM EDT • Politics • texasmonthly.com

Resident Evil: Requiem made more money on PlayStation discs than on Xbox in total, reportedly, as Sony's march to a discless future continues

Single-player blockbuster PlayStation games still sell in notable quantities on disc, statistics show. In Japan, the desire for physical is even higher.

Oct 21 • 5:21 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Australia’s Live Industry Feels The Pinch From Escalating Costs

Australia’s concerts industry posted small single-digit declines in 2025, due to rising costs, changing ticket-buying behavior and more.

Oct 21 • 3:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • billboard.com

Sphere Entertainment jumps as investors appear to bet on a short-covering rebound

Sphere Entertainment Co. (SPHR) is up 9.4% today. Here is some analysis on what might have caused this price movement.Analysis: There does not appear to be a single fresh company announcement driving Tuesday’s move, so the rally looks most likely tied to short covering and bargain hunting after a steep pullback earlier this month. Investors may also be revisiting Sphere’s underlying growth story, including strong performance from its Las Vegas ve

Oct 20 • 5:20 PM EDT • Entertainment • quiverquant.com

People who've finished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on the new YOLO, single-life difficulty share experiences and tips for doing so

In COD: Modern Warfare 4's new YOLO difficulty, any game over screen takes you back to the very beginning of the game. But there are some tips for beating it.

Oct 20 • 8:57 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Fall 2026 Update on Vaccine Views

The latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds about half of parents mistakenly believe spacing out vaccines is healthier for children, while confidence in many long-standing childhood vaccines is high across partisans. These findings take on new relevance following President Trump's recent executive order calling for changes in U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations, including splitting the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—currently given as a single combined shot—into three separate vaccines across multiple visits.

Oct 20 • 8:30 AM EDT • Health • kff.org

GTA 6 is so detailed no single Rockstar employee has seen it all - which is exactly how we got shrinking horse testicles in Red Dead Redemption 2

The infamous Red Dead Redemption 2 horse testicles were an unplanned feature because Rockstar staff apparently work autonomously, which bodes well for GTA 6.

Oct 20 • 7:20 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

New-to-science seahorse is one of three long-misidentified species

Scientists have identified a new-to-science seahorse species from the Indian waters, which has helped resolve the taxonomy of a group misidentified for over a century. In 1856, zoologist Johann Jakob Kaup described the thorny or spiny seahorse, Hippocampus histrix, based on samples from Japan. Since then, this seahorse has been thought to be a single, […]

Oct 20 • 3:09 AM EDT • Science • india.mongabay.com

FNCS Solos Last Chance Qualifier in NA West: Session 1

Keep your FNCS Solos journey alive in the Last Chance Qualifier! LCQ Round 1 is open to eligible players who participated in an FNCS Solos Qualifier Round 1 session but have not already advanced to the LCQ Final or the FNCS Solos Finals. Players will compete in a single three-hour session with up to 11 matches. After the session concludes, the top 70 players in each region will advance to the LCQ Final. The LCQ Final lasts approximately two and a half hours and features up to five matches. Every match provides a direct path to the Finals: the player who earns the Victory Royale will receive 1,000 points and immediately qualify for the FNCS Solos Finals. Once qualified through a Victory Royale, that player may not compete in any remaining LCQ Final matches. After the LCQ Final concludes, the next 17 highest-scoring players who have not earned a Victory Royale will also advance to the FNCS Solos Finals. This is your last chance to secure a spot—good luck and have fun!

Oct 19 • 9:00 PM EDT • Technology • fortnitetracker.com

Bridges, Colorado Dems have embraced every tax hike

Kevin Grantham, the Republican nominee for state treasurer, exposed the single most important issue that defines Colorado Democrats during a debate with his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Jeff Bridges. Grantham is a Fremont County commissioner and former state senator from Cañon City who served as president of the Colorado state Senate when Republicans controlled the […]

Oct 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com

Streaming’s Biggest Show Returns…and a Buzzy Genre Struggles

(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.) Obviously, the big news of the week (if not month) is Netflix letting go of executive Bela Bajaria, their chief content officer. I’m going to cover this in my next “Most Important Story of the Week”, but I also have a data angle that I might publish before then. (Too much news this month, am I right?) But first, I have a bonus Streaming Ratings Report issue for you. Today’s article is a bit of a grab bag of topics I’ve wanted to write about, but couldn’t squeeze into the (already very long) Streaming Ratings Report issues. The NFL drives huge viewership numbers, so I’ve got a look at that. A whole bunch of TV shows returned to the traditional broadcast channels, and I have thoughts. And I have a quick look at adult animated shows, since a couple flopped earlier this month. Plus, the Emmys aired earlier this month, and we got some fun data bout how popular those nominated shows are and why I’m not optimistic about the show’s future. That’s a lot, so let’s dive right in. Subscribe Sports - Football Remains the King of Streaming Over the last two Streaming Ratings Reports, I sorta ignored the biggest “show” each week. (I was tempted to say “piece of content” but I know that word bugs folks.) In my database, I call these “specials”, and they sure are special. I speak of the king of American TV: football!!! Streaming football is back and, unlike some other sports, it routinely dominates all viewership. Probably the best way to show this is to update one of my favorite graphics, the “40 Million Hour Club”1 since football games have joined that club each week they’ve premiered: (Yep, that’s the data through 28-Sep, the first four weeks of the season. As a reminder, I take the average minute audience provided by Nielsen, factor out a percentage of linear TV viewers in home markets, and multiply the run time by the three-hour runtime.) Again, the numbers are huge. Let’s start with Netflix. They grabbed the rights to the bonus opening week NFL Kickoff game (which was on YouTube last year) and it put up 18.5 million viewers on average. That nets out to 47.4 million hours of estimated streaming hours. That’s good! Though, notably, it’s well below Christmas Day games from previous years. Compared to other streamers/broadcasters, that’s a bit of a mixed result. On one hand, Netflix’s 18.5 million average is about what YouTube claimed last year, though Nielsen used a bespoke methodology at that time, so I trust this viewership figure more. So that’s good. (The game also shifted from a Friday to a Thursday and that could have helped the viewership as well.) And Netflix continues to best Prime Video in total viewership—as you’ll see next—though Netflix has had much higher-profile (opening week and Christmas Day) games. NBC/Peacock’s opening game the night before averaged 25.1 million average viewers, which is just much bigger than Netflix (or Prime Video). That’s the big caveat to all streaming viewership records: even in success, they can’t compete with traditional linear TV. Previously, I called this my “hierarchy of viewership”, and the data keeps supporting that thesis. The downside for NBC is that this game’s viewership was down compared to previous years, though it may be a counting issue. Here’s a great chart from Sports Media Watch: Indeed, looking at all the opening week games across all windows, Netflix still lags the other primetime windows, but does well compared to the afternoon games: I saw a few folks make the case that streamers still lag traditional broadcasters in reach, and I’d add they really lag compared to “broadcast plus streaming” options like NBC/Peacock, ESPN/Disney+ and CBS/Paramount+. The best data I saw for this came from Samba TV, who charted reach through the 2025 season, and, wow. (Samba TV’s numbers are historically lower than Nielsen’s, so don’t compare their household figures to Nielsen’s hours, but use them as a proxy for the relative reach of the streamers.) The good news is Prime Video is NOT having a down year. Their opening Thursday Night Football game reached 18.6 million viewers (about what Netflix got), but that’s a high for Prime Video on Thursdays and the biggest Thursday night game since 2015. The TNF games the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep continued this streak, getting 43.1 (16.8 million average viewers) and 42.5 total hours (16.6 million average viewers), which were both up from last year. Still, that continues the (typical) season slide: (For those new-to-streaming-football-numbers folks, the viewership declines for Thursday Night Football as the year goes along.) Overall, it appears as if Prime Video is now part of the “football habit”, be it for customers at home or out at places like bars and restaurants. And its viewership is slowly catching up to broadcast. One last chart shows this. Last season, Nielsen started adding out-of-home viewership to the charts, so I try not to do season-to-season comparisons as I did for the first few years. And while Nielsen added Big Data viewing this year, I’m going to compare the last two seasons. Here’s that chart, which shows the season-over-season gains: When it comes to streaming football, we have to keep a few seemingly contradictory thoughts in our head… First, streaming doesn’t come close to matching broadcast’s reach and, thus, viewership. Second, even with that gap, football is still the biggest “thing” on streaming. It’s very, very popular. Third, while some methodology changes have likely helped Prime Video’s numbers, their viewership does appear to be growing. Lastly, yeah, the NFL started the season off poorly, with week one dragging down the numbers in year-over-year comparisons. However—and again, methodology changes may have helped this—the viewership grew compared to previous seasons over the next couple of weeks. So football is still king. On streaming and off. Television - Adult Animation Continues to NOT Make the Streaming Charts In the last two reports, two adult-animated shows whiffed: Netflix’s animated comedy, Dang! Paramount+’s Sega-video-game-inspired fantasy/comedy, Golden Axe. Neither made the charts, but that’s usually the case for animated shows. I mean, here’s literally every animated show that’s made the Nielsen Original charts since the start of 2025: And one of those shows is G_abby’s Dollhouse_! A kids show! The problem with charts like this is that they don’t give you a sense of how many shows miss the charts. Netflix had at least eleven animated flops, including comedies like Big Mouth (a show everyone assumed was popular in the pre-Streaming Ratings Era), Long Story Short, Haunted Hotel, Mating Season, Strip Law, and Alley Cats, and action shows like Blood of Zeus, Castlevania: Nocturne, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Prime Video had at least six animated misses, two in the same universe (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss), three more comedies (#1 Happy Family USA, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy and Kevin) and an action show (The Mighty Nein). Disney+ had MCU and Star Wars animated misses (Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Star Wars: Visions, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld) but I can’t tell how many of those shows were geared towards adults. HBO Max had Harley Quinn and Hulu had Solar Opposites. None of these shows made the charts! That’s a lot of misses! If I remade the chart with all those misses, here’s how it would look: Listen, I know the counter arguments. First, it’s cheaper to produce animated shows than live action. Fair enough, but with viewership this low, even that cheaper price point starts to not matter. Second, just look at the acquired charts. Hit animated comedies can generate viewership for years! Shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers do really, really well. Fair enough, but streaming has failed to recreate the dynamic that Fox has mastered so well. That’s a problem for streaming still. Television - Emmys! The annual Emmys broadcast was a few weeks ago, and I’ve got data on how the nominees performed on streaming, plus hot takes on this year’s viewership (and the big news about the broadcast’s, er, streamcast’s future). 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… The top Emmy-nominated shows… ...why I’m worried about the future of the Emmys telecast... ...the pros of broadcast television ...and the cons... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue (since the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep were so light), but then I’ll be all caught up after a deluge of streaming ratings data from Nielsen in September. In the meantime, I’m going to try to take a look at Netflix’s stats to explain why Bela Bajaria is out. But even light weeks give me plenty to talk about. The Great British Baking Show returns to Netflix and Apple TV has a buzzy new star-studded comedy. And Netflix has a controversial-but-appears-to-be-popular new game show. Plus big films like Toy Story 5, Backrooms and The Breadwinner head to streaming. And is East of Eden a hit? After that, The Kardashians return to Hulu, Prime Video has a reboot of Carrie, and Netflix has a horror show, Below. Disclosure Day heads to Peacock, The Housemaid heads to HBO Max_,_ a new Ben Affleck film, Animals, lands on Netflix, and Apple TV has a new John Cena action film based on, checks notes, Hasbro’s Matchbox toys. Okay. Longterm, some interesting TV production news. HBO Max ordered How to Survive Without Me, starring Kaley Cuoco, Joshua Jackson, Ray Romano and Rita Wilson, for fifteen episodes! I love that some streamers (or, at least, HBO Max) are finally ordering TV shows with more than eight episodes. In less wise production news, Landman does not appear to be coming back this year, since it just started production. Frankly, I don’t love this (get your shows out on time) but Landman is so popular, I doubt it matters.

Oct 18 • 3:59 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Is Universal Health Services (UHS) Fairly Valued Or Is More Upside Left?

Universal Health Services: Stock Performance Snapshot With no single headline event driving trading, Universal Health Services (UHS) has been moving on recent performance data, including a last close of US$185.10 and mixed short and longer term returns. Over the past week the share price gained 4.4%. The move builds on a gain of 4.8% over the past month and 22.9% over the past 3 months, set against a year to date decline of 15.8%. For investors tracking the bigger picture, Universal Health...

Oct 18 • 6:33 AM EDT • Health • simplywall.st

Opinion: The hidden billing practices raising healthcare costs

Written by Tom Stephens, Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of Health Plans The hidden billing practices raising healthcare costs Sophisticated new mark-up schemes, provider consolidation, and dated diagnosis criteria are all impacting Kentuckians There is no single explanation for America’s high healthcare costs. But any serious effort to control them must start with hospitals. […]

Oct 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • linknky.com

Why BioWare's Neverwinter Nights still has thousands of active players

The single-player is just OK, but according to the players, that doesn't matter.

Oct 17 • 7:00 AM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

How Rockmaster Entertainment Group tailors DJ services to every single need on Coast Live

Marshall Everett, VP of Entertainment for Rockmaster Entertainment Group, shares how the company helps create memorable events of all kinds with professional service, flexibility, trust & dedication.

Oct 16 • 2:37 PM EDT • Entertainment • wtkr.com

Kim Kardashian cried ‘every single night’ on “Dancing With the Stars ”and was ‘praying to get kicked off’

“It’s traumatized me for life,” she said of her 2008 stint on the show.

Oct 16 • 2:20 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Judicial retention | Judges on the ballot in 2026

This November, voters statewide will decide whether to retain 123 judges for terms ranging from four to 10 years. Unlike other races on the ballot where multiple candidates are seeking a single position, judicial retention requires voters to select either “yes” or “no.” Here are answers to some common questions about retention elections. Q: How […]

Oct 16 • 2:00 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com

What Impresses Titans the Most About RB Nick Singleton

Coach Randy Jordan reveals why the Penn State rookie’s explosive physical tools offer a high-upside solution as Tennessee navigates looming contract decisions for its veteran backfield.

Oct 16 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Plague is stoppable. The next health threat may not be.

The word plague is scary. Centuries ago, the Black Death killed tens of millions of people and changed the course of history. Plague still kills people around the world, and the word still evokes catastrophe. New fears of plague surfaced on October 2, when a lab worker in Irkutsk, Russia, died of pneumonia. Reports suggested that she may have contracted plague through a laboratory exposure. Understandably, people were alarmed. On October 7, the World Health Organization called for the Russian Federation to be transparent about what it knew. WHO issued an update on October 10. Russian authorities told WHO that testing did not identify plague and that investigations found no laboratory release. WHO said confidence in its risk assessment remained limited and that further clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory information was needed. The cause of the woman’s illness remains unknown, and WHO says a laboratory-associated exposure cannot be excluded. As I explained in a recent interview, this incident is very unlikely to lead to a pandemic. Plague is still active, including in the U.S., which sees a handful of cases each year. But it is a disease we can prevent and treat. Plague doesn’t spread readily, and it responds to antibiotics. The standard response—isolate the patient, trace contacts, and administer antibiotics and monitor for symptoms among contacts for seven days—works. We have even planned for antibiotic-resistant plague. At CDC, we developed a playbook for antibiotic-resistant plague and ran exercises on how to find and stop it. CDC guidance anticipates engineered resistance and recommends two different classes of antibiotics if there’s reason to suspect it. There is no evidence that resistance—or even confirmed plague—is involved in this incident. We have thought through how to address plague, but we’re not ready for the next major health threat that emerges from a lab or from animal spillover to humans. What should concern people is how little stands between the world and the next pathogen to get loose. Since peak COVID, epidemic preparedness has fallen off the political agenda, but the risk is greater than ever. More labs handle dangerous pathogens with more ways to make those pathogens deadlier, and more people live and work in close contact with animals. There are actions we can take now: We need better lab safety in every country. The number of labs that work with dangerous pathogens has increased worldwide over two decades, but there’s no enforceable international standard and no inspection regime; the Biological Weapons Convention, fifty years on, still has no verification mechanism. Labs that study dangerous germs need strong safety systems, training, and oversight. We need to reduce spillover events. Three in four emerging human infections start in animals, and there’s a lot we can do to reduce spillover risk, but the world is doing very little of it. Live-animal markets are one place to act. For instance, closing live-bird markets helped control H7N9 influenza in China. Reducing opportunities for people to encounter infected animals can prevent infections before they become outbreaks. In The Formula for Better Health, which is now out in paperback along with the hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook versions, I argue that labs do too many risky experiments with too many dangerous pathogens in too many institutions, and that every experiment should first answer one basic question: Is the likely benefit greater than the risk? Spillover risk can also be reduced: In the book, I discuss how Brazil cut its deforestation rate by 70% from 2004 to 2012 while increasing agricultural production and reducing risky contact between people and forest animals. We need faster detection and response. Delay costs lives. Strong surveillance, good labs, and trained responders can turn a single case into a small cluster of infections instead of an epidemic. Resolve to Save Lives has worked for nearly a decade to help countries find and stop outbreaks faster. The 7-1-7 target, which Resolve to Save Lives developed with partners in Uganda and elsewhere, provides a clear standard: detect within 7 days, notify within 1 day and complete all essential early response actions within 7 days. In Uganda’s Kasese district, for example, a review of a measles outbreak using 7-1-7 identified shortages of accessible funds, fuel, and vehicles that delayed the response. District leaders established funds they could access quickly. When, a few months later, the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever appeared, the district detected it in three days, notified authorities in one, and mounted an effective response in two. Only one case was confirmed, and the patient survived. Because funds were available before the emergency, authorities were prepared and able to act. This kind of preparation can’t wait until the next crisis begins. Plague is an old disease we that know how to stop. The next threat may be harder to recognize, harder to treat, and easier to spread. Safer labs, less risk of spillover, and faster outbreak detection and response need sustained investment now, while we still have time to prevent the next emergency. Share

Oct 16 • 8:57 AM EDT • Health • tomfrieden.substack.com

Nigeria: ICRC-supported health facilities see 18 per cent rise in malnutrition cases

In north-east Nigeria, admissions for malnutrition have risen by nearly a fifth in a single year at six health centres and four hospitals supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They went from around 17,000 cases between January and September 2025 to almost 20,000 cases over the same period this year.

Oct 16 • 1:10 AM EDT • Health • icrc.org

Dodgers veteran confirms he’s retiring immediately after NLCS

The 37-year-old singled in his final career plate appearance.

Oct 16 • 12:22 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Single 2D crystal transforms into transistor with built-in insulation and electrical contacts

A transistor normally requires several fundamentally different materials—a semiconductor to carry current, an insulating dielectric to control it and metallic contacts through which current enters and ...

Oct 15 • 4:40 PM EDT • Science • phys.org

SPINE ‘Customization Announce’ trailer, screenshots

Nekki has released a new trailer and screenshots for single-player story-focused action game SPINE introducing the game’s customization features.

Oct 15 • 3:57 PM EDT • Technology • gematsu.com

IP Saves the Day 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.) Before we get started, I wanted to highlight a new idea I saw from Real Good AI, proposing a ratings system for AI use. (H/T to Anthony Kaufman’s article highlighting this.) It would look something like this: In general, I think that this is a solid, middle-ground solution that should appease both the pro-AI camp (who love AI) and the anti-AI camp (who wants to know if what they’re watching didn’t come from humans). Regardless of your feelings on AI/LLMs—I’ll never use it for my writing—transparency is often the best solution to many problems. In general, I think way more media outlets need to be using way more AI disclosures. My quick “Yes and...” to this idea: what about ads? In particular, I hate it when I see or hear ads that are obviously AI-generated, but a person or voice says, “I used this product”. AI doesn’t use products! Just today, I watched a YouTube ad where a “person” said they use some sort of rain wind chime...but that’s not a real person! They didn’t use this product. (Especially since the video of the wind chime itself also appeared to be AI-generated...) I believe most traditional advertising already has standards like this anyway.1 Okay, on to this week’s issue. We’re covering the week of 14-Sep, and then next issue, I’ll be fully caught up with Nielsen’s new release schedule. In the future, I plan to put out Streaming Ratings Reports each Monday after Nielsen’s Thursday releases. Overall, we had some big new shows this week, like Prime Video’s Reacher spinoff_, Neagley_, which is off to a big, big start, and Netflix’s latest in its Monster anthology, which is their largest opening since June and the second-largest since One Piece came out in March. All that, plus Slow Horses returns, the trio of returning shows (Lioness, Reacher and Ted Lasso) continue to dominate the top tens, Paramount+’s latest crime drama, a big whiff for a Netflix original film and a precipitous drop for Netflix film charts, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. 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, JustWatch and Reelgood interest 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 September 14th to September 20th 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - IP For the TV Win Can I use the dirty word of entertainment journalism right now? IP. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone I said it. But IP works at the box office, and we’ve seen some evidence it works in TV too. Not as well, and not all the time—no absolutes here!—but often enough. And glancing at the Nielsen top ten…it worked this week! Take Prime Video, who has a monster hit in the crime drama Reacher. Would a spinoff work for that show? Yep! They binge-released Neagley, about a detective from the original Reacher series, and its eight episodes debuted to 29.6 million hours. Here’s how it stacks up to Reacher, one of Prime Video’s biggest shows: That’s great. Nearly as strong as Reacher’s opening! (Both shows started with eight, binge-released episodes, so this comparison is apples-to-apples.) Notably, Prime Video scheduled the debut of Neagley to overlap with Reacher’s most recent season, to help drive tune-in. Obviously, I love smart release strategies like that. And even though I wrote “obviously”, it’s not really that obvious, since streamers don’t often take advantage of natural overlaps like this_._2 Other data backs how well Neagley performed. It opened at second place on Samba TV for two weeks and got 51.7 million hours on Luminate. That’s the eleventh biggest opening on Luminate since May of 2024 and tied with Bridgerton’s third season opening. That’s a huge opening! Its IMDb is solid too, a 7.7 on 24K reviews. Netflix’s latest edition in the “Monster” series—which started with Jeffrey Dahmer and comes from Ryan Murphy—did well too, opening to 24.7 million hours. That’s the biggest opening for Netflix since I Will Find You in June, and second biggest since March. Unlike the Reacher series, this franchise is trending downward, though. The first Monster show—Dahmer - Monster—was giant. More than anything, I think this reflects that Netflix running out of extremely popular—if that’s the right word?—serial killers to feature. Still, the data says this is a very good opening. It made it to third place on Samba TV for two weeks. It also opened to 40.0 million hours on Luminate. That’s not quite as elite as Neagley, but still very, very strong. I’ll be honest: my priors coming into any given week are that IP works to help drive buzz for new shows, but TV shows need to stand on their own even more than movies, so they will succeed or fail based on their quality. But these two spinoffs definitely worked. Quick Notes on TV The top show, film or special this week? Football, again. Specifically, Prime Video’s season opener of Thursday Night Football. The games run long (three hours) but mainly a lot of people watch each game. That adds up to a lot of viewership. Paramount released the second season of MobLand on an unusual day for that service, a Friday! Often, they put their new shows out on a Sunday, as they did last year with a run of shows (Lioness, Tulsa King and Landman). MobLand didn’t make Nielsen in its first week, but on Samba TV it got to eighth and seventh place. Luminate had a smaller opening too, only 5.3 million hours. MobLand missed the Nielsen charts for its first eight weeks, so this season is off to a stronger start. (Bonus note: the first season streams on both Prime Video and The Roku Channel, but I only have it as Paramount+ on those charts.) I’ve mentioned a few times that foreign-language originals do lower numbers than English-language originals on Netflix most of the time. But I don’t usually emphasize what country those originals come from, and observationally, they tend to be from Western or Northern European countries, in general. So credit to Not a Stranger, a Turkish Netflix original, for breaking through on Luminate, getting to 7.9 million hours in its first full week on those charts. As I mentioned last issue, Crew Girl ended up making the Nielsen charts in its second week. That’s still a soft performance compared to many shows, but again this, one looks affordable. And if you’re curious, here’s how it stacks up to some other sports romance shows: 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… …about a new data source and how it drives streaming viewership… ...what reality show is struggling in its latest season…. ...what Netflix film bombed…. ...How Reacher, Ted Lasso, and Lioness are doing on the charts… ...what obscure sport put up great viewership numbers… …how far streaming films are falling… …all the flops, bombs and misses for the last week… …and more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue, then we’ll be all caught up with Nielsen’s data. Yes! The goal is to have my report out on the Monday after I get Nielsen’s data. So next issue, I’m looking at East of Eden, The Great British Baking Show, a Willy Wonka game show (that people are upset uses AI, but viewers might not care), and a Cosby show spinoff reboot on Netflix, and Brothers on Apple TV (starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey). That’s about it for TV, but who’s going to win the streaming week, The Breadwinner or Backrooms on streaming? Answer: Toy Story 5. Plus Netflix has a Unabomber film and a new Tyler Perry film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma tries to repeat The Substance’s run on MUBI, and Paramount+ has Jackass: Best and Last. Long term, Netflix is remaking Lonesome Dove. I love this choice, but man, there are a lot of westerns on TV right now. And they’re making Sega TV shows, including a Crazy Taxi TV show and Sonic show with an “edge”.

Oct 15 • 3:32 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

NASA Satellites Observe Historic 2026 El Niño

A phenomenon rarer than a solar eclipse and more powerful than any single storm system is unfolding this fall, and NASA is tracking it closely.

Oct 15 • 1:59 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov

Guns, F-bombs, fortune cookies. What do wild campaign ads actually say?

A single mom who shot a home intruder. A pet alpaca. Chicago voters throwing around profanities. This cycle's campaign ads are fluffy, funny and profane.

Oct 15 • 10:53 AM EDT • Politics • usatoday.com

Louisiana lands in the top 10 for business competitiveness

VOICE YOUR OPINION What is the single most important step Louisiana should take to develop the workforce needed to support major economic development projects? Vote here in today’s poll. Louisiana ranks ninth nationally among the best states for doing business in 2026, according to a new report from economic development publication Area Development, […]

Oct 15 • 10:11 AM EDT • Business • businessreport.com

Apple Announces Deadline to 'Get Ready' to Pre-Order the iPhone Duo

Apple today announced that customers have until 9 p.m. Pacific Time today to "get ready" for their iPhone Duo pre-order. By completing this process via Apple's online store or the Apple Store app, Apple said customers can "check out with a single click" when iPhone Duo pre-orders go live on Friday, October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. Pacific Time.

Oct 15 • 9:10 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Spill the tea, face the judge: Inside the ‘Judgy’ series by NowThis

Welcome to "Judgy," a social media series from NowThis that transforms everyday confessions into bite-sized courtroom comedy. Hosted by Singletary, the series

Oct 15 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • amny.com

Blondie to return with the new album 'High Noon' next year and you can have a taste of it now

Blondie is set to release a new album, “High Noon,” early next year, a decade after their last outing. The band dropped the first single, “Spectral Eyes,” on Thursday, written

Oct 15 • 3:13 AM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com

Blondie to return with the new album 'High Noon' next year and you can have a taste of it now

Blondie is set to release a new album, “High Noon,” early next year, a decade after their last outing. The band dropped the first single, “Spectral Eyes,” on Thursday, written by Johnny Marr,...

Oct 15 • 3:13 AM EDT • Entertainment • newstimes.com

Former Flyers Coach Suddenly Departs the NHL

Right now, things aren’t going right for the Philadelphia Flyers, who have yet to win a single game to begin the 2026-27 NHL campaign and are in dead last place in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division.Right now, there is speculation building about the job security of head coach Rick Tocchet.But another notable former Flyers head coach […] The post Former Flyers Coach Suddenly Departs the NHL appeared first on HEAVY.

Oct 15 • 1:49 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

iPhone Duo's A20 Pro Chip Benchmarked Ahead of Launch

The iPhone Duo unsurprisingly offers performance similar to the iPhone 18 Pro, according to an early iPhone Duo benchmark shared on Geekbench 7. Both devices are equipped with Apple's 2nm A20 Pro chip with a 6-core CPU and a 7-core GPU. The benchmarked iPhone Duo (iPhone19,4) is running iOS 27.1, as expected, and it had a single-core score of 3986 and a multi-core score of 11067. That's in line with multiple benchmarks collected from iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models.

Oct 14 • 8:20 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Your Business Probably Has More Data Than Insight by Nathan Tayloe

Most businesses know more about themselves than they ever have. Leaders have access to financial reports, sales pipelines, customer data, employee metrics, website analytics, and dashboards for almost every part of the organization. CRMs track every stage of the sales process. Marketing platforms report results in real time. AI can analyze and summarize enormous amounts of information in seconds. Yet I've sat in plenty of meetings where all of that information is available, and some of the most important questions are still surprisingly difficult to answer. What's actually working? Why are customers choosing us? Where are we losing opportunities? What should we do differently? Having the data and understanding what it means are two very different things. More Information Doesn't Always Create More Clarity Over the past decade, businesses have invested heavily in visibility, and that's a good thing. We can understand performance with a level of detail that would have been unimaginable not long ago. But there's an unintended consequence. The easier something becomes to measure, the easier it is to assume it must be important. Website traffic goes up, so that looks positive. Leads increase, so marketing appears to be working. Sales activity climbs, so the pipeline looks healthy. Maybe. The numbers tell us what happened. Understanding why it happened, whether it matters, and what we should do next still requires judgment. Not Everything That Matters Fits on a Dashboard Consider a customer who ultimately contacts your company through Google. The data may attribute that lead to search. What it may not show is that the customer heard about you from a colleague six months earlier, saw your company mentioned in an industry publication, followed one of your employees on LinkedIn, and read several reviews before finally searching for your company. Google may have produced the click. It didn't necessarily create the decision. This happens throughout a business. Some of the things that matter most are difficult to reduce to a single metric: Why your best customers stay Why talented employees choose your company Why a prospect trusts one provider over another Why one service is gaining momentum while another isn't Why the market perceives your business the way it does Data can help answer those questions, but it needs context. Better Decisions Start With Better Questions One of the easiest traps for leaders is starting with the information in front of them rather than the decision they're trying to make. Instead of opening a dashboard and asking, "What does the data show?" it can be more useful to start with a different set of questions: What are we trying to understand? What decision are we trying to make? What would we need to know to make that decision confidently? That changes the role of data. Instead of looking at every number available and searching for meaning, you're using information to understand something specific about the business. Information Still Requires Judgment More sophisticated analytics and AI will continue to give leaders access to better information, faster. That's valuable, but I don't think it reduces the importance of experience and judgment. If anything, it increases it. Someone still has to decide which numbers deserve attention, which patterns matter, what context might be missing, and when the data isn't telling the whole story. The goal isn't to know more about your business simply because you can. It's to understand your business well enough to make better decisions. Good data can tell you what happened. Good leadership has to decide what it means. — Learn more about how we help organizations turn business, customer, and marketing insights into smarter strategies at tayloegray.com, or reach out directly at nathan@tayloegray.com.

Oct 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com

Johnson survives City Council veto override attempt by a single vote

The failed veto override comes a week before Johnson unveils his plan to close a $882 million 2027 budget gap

Oct 14 • 2:25 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

Gemini 4 Argon Arrives With Big Claims for AI Agents and Scientific Discovery

Google just released the new Gemini 4 Argon, which it claims can generate up to a million tokens in a single run, a big jump for long code migrations and multi-step agent work. Competitors top out around 128,000 output tokens per request, so based on that claim, Argon’s 1 million is roughly 8x higher. Argon […]

Oct 14 • 1:12 PM EDT • Science • hpcwire.com

Cam Heyward singles out Gabe Rubio after key Steelers performance

Pittsburgh Steelers captain Cameron Heyward praised rookie defensive lineman Gabe Rubio for stepping up during a thin rotation against Indianapolis.

Oct 14 • 12:10 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Archaeologists Found a Lost Roman Oracle—and Decoded the 56 Baffling Messages Inside

The Roman-era “Magic 8 Ball” answered everyday questions with a single throw of knucklebone dice.

Oct 14 • 8:30 AM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com

BUSINESS UPDATE: Port Perseveres Despite Tariffs’ Negative Impact

‘We are hanging tough ... in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now,” the port’s director says By Stefan Yablonski Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have hurt the Port of Oswego by slashing Canadian aluminum cargo volumes and reducing revenue. “We’re doing good. We are hanging tough. It is a tough time for our line of business in general, you know with these tariffs and the amount of Canadian aluminum that we see through our docks,” said the new executive director, Tom Drumm. “Compared to 2025, we are doing exceedingly well in traffic coming in; not necessarily the volumes we were seeing, but yeah we are hanging tough in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now.” “I don’t know where people get these numbers to be honest. We have never publicly stated how much our revenue is down or up or left to right. We don’t have a strong sense of those revenue numbers until the shipping season really closes up. We won’t have an accurate picture of the revenue standpoint until after the shipping season, typically in late November,” he added. “What I can tell you is several of our Canadian vessels that carry the aluminum cells — the volume of aluminum on those vessels we have seen decreasing. That is attributed to a few factors. One is where Novelis is in in their restart process. Novelis is rocking and rolling right now. They are starting to pull a lot of aluminum from the port of Oswego, the aluminum that they roll down into coils. “Another factor plainly is the tariffs. Canadian aluminum is tariffed at 50%. So, on those vessels we are seeing lower numbers than we would like. We’d like to see vessels carrying roughly 10,000 metric tons of aluminum. Over the course of this year, we have seen more in the range of 4,000 to 6,000. “Every piece of that aluminum that we receive here by vessel at the port is from Canada and is subsequently hit with the 50% tariff. It directly affects us because we’ve received less volume than we would traditionally see pre-tariff times.” When the port receives less aluminum from those vessels it means less hours for the ILA (International Longshoremen Association) as far as folks that work on the dock, he said. When cargo declines, it affects everyone, fewer hours for longshoremen, fewer loads for truck drivers, fewer rail shipments and less business for local suppliers. “Outside of the aluminum that comes in by vessel, the port topped out at having roughly 4,600 aluminum ingots stored on site at the port. That project had never been done before. The port of Oswego had never had that many of those size ingots in our yard,” he said. “It has been a busy summer for the ILA. Would we like to see more work for them? Sure. They are working all those barges when they come in, but as opposed to working 15 hours they might be working seven or eight hours. It hasn’t been a distinct decline in ILA hours. There has been plenty of work to keep our guys busy throughout the summer.” More salt “We just brought salt back to the port in several, several years. Around Harborfest time at one point we had a salt barge here with about 24,000 metric tons of rock salt and we had an aluminum barge here the same week. We had close to 40 men working,” he said. “Yeah, the other products definitely keep us busy. The salt project was a massive project, one that we are proud of. I’ve got 24,000 metric tons of salt on site that has to go somewhere — that’s going to be another project.” It is important for the port to continue to look at different products, different commodities to try to diversify some of its revenue, he said, adding, “We have done a pretty good job of that in my first five months here … particularly with the rock salt we have on site right now. It is important to continue to try to stand out and work through some projects outside our usual business. I enjoy it. It is a challenge every single day we put our head down and we try our best.”

Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com

SPECIAL REPORT: Tough Business

A string of vacant restaurant buildings shows that many restaurants in the region are struggling — and several are closing By Stefan Yablonski [caption id=attachment_11132 align=alignright width=401] Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill on Route 31 in Clay closed its doors in April. It had been in operation since at least 2008.[/caption] By their nature, most restaurants have a limited life. An astonishing 60% go out of business within three years of opening, largely due to fundamental flaws in the planning of the operation. But even restaurants that experience years of success almost always face eventual closure. The restaurant business is very hard and because of both personal factors and external factors beyond anyone’s control, restaurants don’t last forever. For many restaurants, age is a big factor, according to Kenneth Walsleben, professor of practice, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at Syracuse University. “The owners have been at it for 20 or 25 years, if not longer, they want some time to themselves,” he said. Such was the case for Jocko’s Famous Ritz Diner in Oswego. Jocko Reitz bought the building in the late 1970s from Robert Shapiro. However, when he stepped away from the business, it eventually closed. [caption id=attachment_11142 align=alignright width=402] For nearly 80 years, Vona’s Restaurant passed through three generations of family in Oswego. It closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2025.[/caption] For nearly 80 years, Vona’s passed through three generations of family in Oswego. Vona’s Restaurant officially closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2025, when no family member wanted to take over. It is on the market. The Ruby Tuesday in Oswego operated for about two decades before permanently closing in April 2026. The restaurant faced multiple temporary health department closures in 2024 and 2025 due to persistent fruit fly and foundation pest issues. Management posted a final closure notice on the doors in mid-April 2026 and the building was put up for sale. The same pattern has been happening in Onondaga County. The big building once used by Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill on Route 31 in Clay remains empty, more than six months after the restaurant closed its doors in April. It had been in operation since at least 2008. [caption id=attachment_11130 align=alignright width=401] Ruby Tuesday in Oswego operated for about two decades before permanently closing in April 2026.[/caption] Just down the road from Smokey Bones, the popular Outback Steakhouse closed in August 2024. Another restaurant took its place, La Cocina Mexican Restaurant, but it closed shortly after. The building sits empty. Other very popular restaurants in the northern suburbs of Syracuse have recently closed. Among them, Fireside by the River in Baldwinsville and Primo Nestico’s Bistro Bar in North Syracuse. “I haven’t really paid attention to the Syracuse area. There has always been some turnover, but there probably has never been a tougher time to be a restauranter than now. It’s just brutal,” Walsleben said. In the first year, roughly 20% to 25% of restaurants close or change hands, according to the National Restaurant Association. [caption id=attachment_11122 align=alignright width=401] Outback Steakhouse closed in August 2024. Another restaurant took its place, La Cocina Mexican Restaurant, but it closed shortly after. The building sits empty.[/caption] “Depending on what statistics you look at, you’ll find that any business has a high mortality rate in the first year. That is just the nature of entrepreneurship,” Walsleben said. “There are certain ones that are getting hit hard while others are more fruitful. “And when you look at the restaurant industry you have to factor in labor which is a large part — typically a third of your expenses — and those costs are going up. And there is always turnover which means investing money to train people. Then you’ve got food costs, which is also a third of the typical restaurant budget. Since the pandemic labor has gone up 41%, food costs have gone up 35%. That’s a big tight squeeze righty there. That’s two-thirds of your budget that has gone up 35% to 40% in the last few years. And then the only way you can make that work is to raise the prices.” The National Restaurant Association reports menu prices are up 36% since February of 2020. In a survey released by the association, more than eight in 10 restaurant owners reported that their food, beverage and labor costs are now higher than before the pandemic. You have to deal with the reality of are the customers willing to pay for that? Walsleben added. Restaurants historically have very thin margins; their profit margin is about 5%. “You have a third that goes into food, a third that goes into labor and about 28%, 29% that goes into everything else — overhead, insurance etc. So that brings you down to your 5% leftover,” he said. “Everything is going up. Customer expectations are going up and people aren’t going to spend that much more. So, you have a tight squeeze here,” Walsleben continued. “Restaurants who use delivery apps, they pay a fee to those guys. Those guys don’t work for free. So, you can kind of see where the squeeze comes from.” Stuck in the middle There are pockets of opportunity; the two extremes of the market can make a profit. But the middle gets squeezed out. “If you are a low-end fast-food kind of place, there is room for that. People have changed their budgets. They are still going out, but they are not spending more,” according to Walsleben. “The high end remains positive. If you have a restaurant that brings a specific experience … a great food product or you are catering to high end customers who aren’t so budget conscious, those patrons are going to expect a high-end experience. They expect excellent food every time. They are expecting excellent service. If you can meet those expectations there is room for you at the top. It’s just the guys in the middle are getting the squeeze from both ends. Tough competition, customer expectations, costs are up. Menu items, you can’t raise the prices as much as you need to. That is why you are seeing a lot of restaurants baling out.” The ones that can adapt quickly are the ones who are doing OK. “Success is heavily dependent on the strength of a restaurant’s concept development and the planning of its execution. Eventually things aren’t always new. Things change. So, if you are in the restaurant business you have got to change your menu — keep things new, fresh and update your meals. It is very fickle industry. One year carbs are out, the next year berries are out. Everybody’s diet changes — constantly chasing the latest phase. You have got to adjust your menu and move with those modifications. If you have a static menu that you have used the last couple years that hasn’t changed except for the pricing, you’ve got a problem,” he said. A lot of times these buildings are singular purpose, he added. “You have a commercially viable kitchen and you got a seating area. There is not a lot of other businesses that cater to that type of a layout. So, it’s pretty common to see another restaurant slide in,” he said. One of the things a banker learns early on is you don’t lend money to restaurants … because they fail so quickly. It is very hard to predict who the winners will be. So, if you are a restaurant in addition to all the other challenges, it is very difficult to get loans, according to Walsleben. “You might work really well in the kitchen. But that doesn’t mean you are a great businessperson,” he said. “Restaurants can fail because the owner didn’t know how to manage things properly. There are a lot of challenges. “There is opportunity at the high end and the low end. But in the middle, that’s the death valley. There are just so many things working against you. You really need to have something that will pull people in and continue to pull people in because you to constantly have to change. Think about a theme and a product that is unique to the area people don’t travel that far these days you have to be able to deliver it in an innovative fashion and keep updating to keep people coming in the door.” Out of Business? How Fast? Do nine out of 10 restaurants fail in their first year, as commonly claimed? No. Survival analysis of 1.9 million longitudinal microdata for 81,000 full-service restaurants in a 20-year U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics non public census of business establishments in the western US shows that only 17% of independently owned full-service restaurant startups failed in their first year, compared with 19% for all other service-providing startups, according to ResearchGate. The median lifespan of restaurants is about 4.5 years, slightly longer than that of other service businesses (4.25 years). However, the median lifespan of a restaurant startup with 5 or fewer employees is 3.75 years, slightly shorter than that of other service businesses of the same startup size (4.0 years). What Makes a Restaurant Successful? Opening and maintaining a successful restaurant is not as easy as creating a great menu and serving excellent food. It takes more than that, according to local restaurant owners who have been in business for decades in the region. They all agree that there are some guidelines to running a successful restaurant. • Quality food: Successful restaurants know exactly what they serve and who they serve it to. Delivering the same great taste every single time builds loyal customers. • Smooth operations: Friendly greetings and attentive staff make guests feel welcome from the moment they walk in. Hiring staff for personality and training for skill ensures reliable, caring service. • Smart marketing: Exceptional food and experiences naturally get people talking and sharing online. Word of mouth can help entice customers. Consistent social media and targeted advertising brings in new and repeat guests also. The menu is what keeps patrons coming back to Mimi’s Diner in Fulton, located at 201 N. Second St. “We locally source our produce and our meats. Our chicken and biscuits is a popular, popular special,” said Richard Tagliareni, the third-generation owner and general manager. “It’s all homemade. We have consistently served quality food.” His grandfather started the business more than 55 years ago. Mimi’s is engrained in the community. They cater to the community and are very involved in everything from the schools to local events. The first Mimi’s Drive-In opened in Mexico. Then a second in Oswego and then Fulton. Fulton’s Mimi’s is the only one left. “The last couple of weeks have been kind of slower than normal. October is usually a busier month for us People will start coming back around again. Also, the price of gas is affecting some things,” Tagliareni added. “We try to keep our prices in line. You go out to eat, you’re going to spend about a hundred bucks or so for two people for dinner. You come here to Mimi’s you are probably for two people for dinner it’s between $50 and $60. We are trying to keep our prices in line. We did have to increase our prices a little bit but things are looking OK.” For the Press Box, 29 E. First St., Oswego, it’s also about great food and a family atmosphere. “Our sports bar and restaurant was established in 1984,” said Alison Canale Scanlon, manager. “I think putting the time into everything makes a big difference and treating people like family when they walk into your restaurant. That’s how we have always operated since 1984.” “It’s the family oriented aspect,” she added. “Consistency, quality and presentation of our food — that’s the secret to a successful restaurant. We try to be very consistent with it. We treat people like family when they come in; because we know how we want to be treated when we go to a restaurant. We treat people the same or better.”

Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com

Mom-and-Pop Business Owners Grapple with Harsh Times

Report shows small business owners in NYS less optimistic about the economy. Taxes, inflation, labor costs and competition from larger businesses are major concerns right now, they say By Aaron Gifford [caption id=attachment_11067 align=alignright width=300] Ashley Ranslow is director for New York state at The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).[/caption] Owners of mom-and-pop businesses in New York state have been less optimistic lately than their peers in other parts of the country, a recent report indicates. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), based on a survey of 11,000 of its members in the Empire State, reported that taxes, inflation, labor costs and competition from larger businesses are major concerns right now. “Indeed, while taxes are a major problem in New York and the United States overall, New York small businesses notably are struggling more with the state’s onerous, multi-level tax burden,” Ashley Ranslow, NFIB’s director for New York state, said in the July report. Compared with surveys of business owners in other states, far fewer New York respondents rated their businesses as in excellent or good health. The report also said labor costs here are about 25% higher than the national average and are the “single most important problem” facing businesses. One respondent to the New York-specific survey complained that too much red tape, taxes and laws that restrict high-yielding companies have stifled their operation’s growth. Others said high disability and workers’ compensation insurance costs, alarming increases in utility rates and excessive building regulations are discouraging. Statewide, New York has a gross domestic product of $2.53 trillion (third in the nation, followed by Texas, $2.90 trillion; and California, $4.25 trillion), a per capita income of $90,500 (sixth) and an unemployment rate of 4.6% (34th). There are 2.4 million small businesses that employ 3.9 million people. [caption id=attachment_11112 align=alignright width=451] Member of the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce gather at one of the several functions the chamber organizes monthly. “Everyone in this business community encourages each other to shop local. Everyone just wants to see each other succeed,” says Megan Wilmot, the chamber director[/caption] “New York state boasts one of the largest, wealthiest and most diverse cities in the world — and that’s still only about half the state’s population,” the report said. “In other words, the state is both its iconic city and so much more — geographically, demographically, economically. But New York is not without its challenges, challenges that include notably high taxes and other weaknesses that impact the small business environment,” it said. The report includes an optimism index that compares responses from New York (NFIB) members with those of their peers in other states across several categories. This ranges from plans to increase employment to expectations for higher sales, to plans to increase inventory or expand. The scores for Empire State business owners were lower in most categories, but they did score higher than the national average in noting that they have current employment openings, and that they are hopeful that the economy will improve. “The metrics so far paint a picture of a state with a series of challenges for small businesses, from a slightly below national average Optimism Index to a more seriously below national business health to very substantially below national Employment Index. What is going on with businesses that are creating these differences?” the report stated. In Central New York, the regional labor force comprises nearly 398,000 workers. The median household income here is $71,463, and the gross domestic product for the region last year totaled $61.3 billion, according to the CenterState CEO economic development and research organization. About half of the region’s labor force works for small and mid-sized businesses, although the number of people employed in that sector has decreased by 7% since 2010, according to CenterState’s 2026 economic forecast report. “While record-high employment in large-scale enterprises provides a strong foundation for Central New York,” the report says, “the long-term health of communities depends on a thriving small business sector to serve as a stabilizer.” Area employers identify several barriers to Central New York’s anticipated growth, including lack of specialized or skilled workers, government regulations, unaffordable housing options and long-term construction disruptions. In the city of Syracuse, the number of jobs in retail trade decreased by 1,500 or 4.7% between July 2025 and this past July. By contrast, the number of jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector increased by 2.5% or 700 jobs, in the same annual period, according to the New York State Department of Labor. Still, there’s plenty of interest for new businesses across Central New York. U.S. Census figures show that the number of applications for new businesses in all four counties increased significantly in the past 20 years. In Cayuga County, there were 324 applications in 2005 compared to 470 last year. In Madison County, the number increased from 385 to 480; Onondaga County, from 2411 to 4132; and Oswego County, from 553 to 836. Downtown Cazenovia is exemplary of Madison County’s trend: In the past year, the village welcomed a bait shop, a thrift store, a vitamin infusion center, a pizzeria, a Pilates studio and an Italian restaurant. A candy store is scheduled to open on the main drag in the months ahead. Oswego’s list of interesting new businesses in the past year includes a bubble tea shop, a hot dog eatery in Fulton, a specialty grocery store that features New York state products in Mexico, a beauty and esthetics studio in Hannibal and a hardware and farm supply store in Sandy Creek. In Onondaga County, the Liverpool area has also enjoyed a steady stream of new shops and eateries in recent years. That suburban community is unique in that, unlike neighboring communities, most of the restaurants are family-owned and not part of a national chain. [caption id=attachment_11116 align=alignright width=300] Megan Wilmot is the executive director of the Greater Liverpool’s Chamber of Commerce.[/caption] Megan Wilmot, executive director of the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, said independent business owners in her community maintain a strong sense of pride in holding their own against national companies. The chamber helps boost morale with red carpet events, ribbon cuttings, coffee hours and five-year anniversary celebrations for participating businesses. “We have built such a strong community,” Wilmot said. “Everyone in this business community encourages each other to shop local. Everyone just wants to see each other succeed.” In Syracuse, the downtown retail occupancy rate last year was about 82%, a slight improvement from 2024, according to the Downtown Syracuse Committee’s most recent annual report. Buildings with the largest amount of vacant space included The Galleries, One Park Place, and Equitable Towers, though not all of those spaces are designated for retail use. New businesses that opened in downtown Syracuse last year: Better with Time Clothing, Dakshin Curry & Biriyani, Havana Tattoo Society, Milano Bean Café, Miss Daisy, Pausa Coffee, Sweets for Babe, The Society CNY and Yafah Beauty Studio. The Destiny USA mall’s occupancy rate decreased from 80% in 2023 to 72% by the end of 2024, according to Integra Realty Resources. That leaves more than a quarter of the mall’s retail space vacant. “Looking ahead, the retail market is expected to see minimal rent growth, with vacancy rates likely remaining stable in community and neighborhood centers but continuing to rise in enclosed malls,” Integra’s report said. “New construction activity is low and redevelopment plans for former malls like Shoppingtown and Great Northern are still in the planning stages. The proposed Micron chip plant may spur development, but challenges remain in finding co-developers for large-scale projects.” Nationally, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expects that small businesses will remain resilient and see their sales and revenues eventually improve. That organization, in a recent national survey, found that 25% of small business owners expect the economy to improve in 2027, while 45% indicated that they plan to increase employment in the next 12 months. And 69% said they believe their small business is in good shape and 70% said they are comfortable with their current cash flow. Thirty-one percent of small businesses reported raising their prices in July and 28% are planning to raise their prices within the next three to four months, the report said. Twelve percent indicated that this is a good time to expand their business. “Small business owners voice optimism for future revenues and hiring,” the report said. “High costs continue to be a wet blanket on reinvestment.” The NFIB reported in July that Main Street, despite gas price hikes, “is OK … for now.” Its small business economics trend report said sales across the country have been strong compared to last year, but continued inflation and higher prices from mom-and-pop establishments are causing some “cracks” to show. “If costs stay this high for much longer, reduced investment will have a tangible economic impact,” the report said. “The status quo is OK, but the outlook? The outlook is uncertain.”

Oct 14 • 8:23 AM EDT • Business • oswegocountybusiness.com

Fairphone’s latest repairable earbuds are smaller, lighter, and longer-lasting

You can swap the buds’ batteries without a single tool.

Oct 14 • 7:00 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Nicolò Tresoldi makes UEFA Champions League history

Germany U21 youth international Nicolò Tresoldi made UEFA Champions League history on Tuesday night, becoming only the second player to score a hat-trick in a single match at the San Siro as Club Bru...

Oct 14 • 4:21 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

HomePod Mini 2 Works as Default Speaker With Select Macs

The new HomePod mini 2 can be used as a default speaker on all Mac models with Wi-Fi 6E or later, according to Apple. You can use a single HomePod, or a pair for stereo sound. The previous-generation HomePod mini can also be used as a Mac's speaker via AirPlay, but it cannot be set as the default audio output. The previous-generation HomePod mini can also be used as a Mac's speaker via AirPlay, but it cannot be set as the default audio output.

Oct 13 • 5:19 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Epstein, Trump and trucks: Why political ads for a single Colorado race are flooding TV screens

Millions of dollars in spending have poured into north and central Colorado, flooding television commercial breaks with near-ceaseless political advertisements for a swing congressional seat.

Oct 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • denverpost.com

"I was forced to ship the game" - Glen Schofield blames Krafton management for The Callisto Protocol's problems

PUBG company Krafton was allegedly not ready to enter a single-player game space, and The Callisto Protocol apparently paid the price.

Oct 13 • 4:40 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Tobey Maguire officiates wedding of ex-wife Jennifer Meyer

Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer finalized their divorce and were declared legally single on September 21, a decade after their separation.

Oct 13 • 1:11 AM EDT • Entertainment • abs-cbn.com

Dems push Medicare for All as Republicans, including Sen. Cruz, slam single-payer plan

From New York to Michigan, Medicare-for-all has become a major campaign issue this election cycle, drawing sharp opposition from many Republicans.

Oct 12 • 10:04 PM EDT • Health • katu.com

Dems push Medicare for All as Republicans, including Sen. Cruz, slam single-payer plan

From New York to Michigan, Medicare-for-all has become a major campaign issue this election cycle, drawing sharp opposition from many Republicans.

Oct 12 • 10:04 PM EDT • Health • idahonews.com

Franklin County coroner announces measles-associated death, state Health Dept. still investigating

If confirmed, it would mark the sixth measles-associated death in Pennsylvania this year. That’s the most in a single year since 1991, when there was an outbreak in Philadelphia.

Oct 12 • 5:48 PM EDT • Health • penncapital-star.com

Kelly Clarkson, Brooklyn store clash over $15,000 mechanical bird price tag

Kelly Clarkson is engaged in a public dispute with a Brooklyn business over an encounter at its store, drawing strong reactions on social media from people taking both sides.

Oct 12 • 2:47 PM EDT • Entertainment • scrippsnews.com

No Man's Sky is somehow coming to mobile, and Hello Games says it's partly thanks to Light No Fire

No Man's Sky is coming to iPhone and iPad devices with every single update, and "some of those changes have come from Light No Fire."

Oct 12 • 2:20 PM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Broadcom Is Building an AI Business Unlike Nvidia’s. Here’s My Price Prediction

Broadcom competes with Nvidia without selling a single GPU to the general market, and that unusual strategy has locked in hyperscaler contracts stretching years into the future. Whether the stock has already priced in that advantage is the question worth answering.

Oct 12 • 1:30 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

The SEC in a Sentence

It’s that time again, time to cram all that happened this weekend and will happen next weekend in the nation’a premier college football conference into a single sentence that will make our English teachers wonder what the point even was. It’s the SEC in a Sentence. It’s prettier than an Arch Manning interception, except when […]

Oct 12 • 1:05 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Fremantle Takes Singapore Dating Format ‘Wingman’ Global in Mediacorp Deal

Fremantle has signed an exclusive deal with Singapore broadcaster Mediacorp to license “Wingman,” a dating show in which singles hand their romantic decisions over to their closest friends. Fremantle ...

Oct 12 • 9:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

CA-AHF-MORRISON-HOTEL

AHF celebrated the acquisition of the historic Morrison Hotel, a 1913 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) building in downtown Los Angeles, on Tuesday, December 19, 2023. The Doors and photographer Henry

Oct 12 • 8:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com

Real Madrid veteran starts new business venture that links him with his grassroots

Real Madrid’s win over Villarreal was not as tidy as Jose Mourinho would have hoped, but the team did manage to take all three points without conceding a single goal.For a team that had kept only on...

Oct 12 • 2:40 AM EDT • Business • sports.yahoo.com

Wizards HC Keefe Credits Detroit Pistons’ Physicality In Preseason Game

The Detroit Pistons suffered a tough single-digit overtime loss at the hands of the Washington Wizards on Saturday night

Oct 11 • 11:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Jaylen Warren Made Steelers History in Win Over Colts

The explosive playmaker ignited a 34-22 victory, becoming the first Steeler to record both a rushing and receiving touchdown of 50-plus yards in a single contest.

Oct 11 • 6:24 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

KINGPIN Says NVIDIA Tried To Force A Single Power Connector On RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN, Screwing Up Its Production Timeline

Vince "KINGPIN" Lucido reveals NVIDIA's single 12VHPWR connector limit delayed the RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN, which launched at $2,500.

Oct 11 • 9:33 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Squadron 42 opens for Steam wishlisting ahead of a planned Q2 2027 release

Cloud Imperium's single-player space epic Squadron 42, starring Mark Hamill and Gary Oldman, is now on Steam for wishlisting ahead of a Q2 2027 release.

Oct 11 • 7:43 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Tim Samuelson: Altering the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry’s entrances will destroy its essence

When originally constructed as the Palace of Fine Arts for Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair, the building was singled out for being perfect.

Oct 11 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • chicagotribune.com

One income, two retirements: How couples can protect their future

Single-earner families should look beyond today’s budget and consider retirement savings, emergency funding, workforce reentry, and future Social Security benefits.

Oct 11 • 1:30 AM EDT • Business • telegraphherald.com

Zeynep Sonmez - Sinja Kraus 2-0

WTA - SINGLES: Wuhan (China) - Qualification, hard - Final

Oct 10 • 8:23 PM EDT • Technology • flashscore.com

At one of WA's busiest ERs, each day brings teamwork and ‘an element of chaos’

Good Samaritan is the only hospital in Puyallup, the single emergency trauma center serving a large swath of central and east Pierce County, meaning staff members have to get creative.

Oct 10 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com

Expected Isaias losses unlikely to tip the market: Brokers

Preliminary projected insured loss estimates for Hurricane Isaias range in the mid-single-digit billions, as it moves toward the Eastern Gulf Coast on Friday, according to a reports by reinsurance…

Oct 9 • 2:45 PM EDT • Business • businessinsurance.com

Winning Nikon Small World in Motion video disqualified for AI use

New winner is Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam for video of a roundworm and single-celled Dileptus.

Oct 9 • 2:44 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

Singleton’s ‘Downtown Economic Growth Program’ Would Stimulate Business Development in Small Towns

TRENTON – The Senate Economic Growth Committee advanced bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senator Troy Singleton and Senator Parker Space that would establish the “Downtown Economic

Oct 9 • 9:44 AM EDT • Business • njsendems.org

South Korean 'robot dog' became first to run a marathon on a single battery charge

A quadruped robot scampered more than 26.2 miles of uneven, hilly terrain alongside human runners without needing to be recharged.

Oct 9 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

‘Breathtaking,’ ‘Devastating’: Mathematics Reels After New OpenAI Release

Hundreds of new A.I.-generated findings moved the frontiers of higher math in a single day — dispelling any doubt that the field is forever changed.

Oct 8 • 5:53 PM EDT • Science • nytimes.com

The ripple effect: Why one business event rarely stays in one department

A single sanctions alert can move through compliance, legal, tax, and risk within hours. See why financial institutions and insurers need one trusted evidence base to keep up.

Oct 8 • 11:10 AM EDT • Business • legal.thomsonreuters.com

Google Cloud introduces Gemini agent for work as AI race heats up

Alphabet's Google Cloud on Thursday introduced the Gemini agent, a single AI agent for work ​that can answer questions, handle tasks, create content ‌and write code.

Oct 8 • 11:08 AM EDT • Technology • reuters.com

Google is launching a one-stop Gemini agent for your work tasks

The enterprise-focused Gemini agent handles work from a single interface.

Oct 8 • 10:28 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

One Doctor, Eight Billion Patients: After Stepping Back From The WHO Race, What I Stand For In The AI Society

The core of my policy manifesto, One Doctor, Eight Billion Patients, is a single proposition: Universal Intelligence Coverage (UIC) for health. Universal

Oct 8 • 8:53 AM EDT • Health • healthpolicy-watch.news

Meta VP: AI in advertising and the rise of single-person billion-dollar company

Businesses must stop using AI to optimize old processes and start reimagining how they compete.

Oct 8 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • fortune.com

Why single Ebola death in Kenya has sparked fears of wider African spread

Oct 8 • 1:34 AM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com

Living Planet Report 2026

Every plant, animal, fungus and microorganism on Earth is part of a single living system, and we are part of it too. Biodiversity, the variety of life and the ecological relations

Oct 7 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • wwf.eu

One game, fifty different rulebooks

The U.S. has no single framework for online entertainment platforms, leaving states with different rules, licensing systems and access for consumers.

Oct 7 • 12:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • jpost.com

Single

Your employment history may impact the health of your brain. A new study found that steady employment in midlife was associated with better memory and thinking

Oct 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • alzinfo.org

High school sports roundup for Oct. 3-5, 2026

Boys Tennis Lynnwood defeated Archbishop Murphy 7-0 Singles: Aryan Jadal (L) defeated Charles Leichman (AM) 6-2, 6-1 Kevin Phan (L) defeated Max Tsang (AM) 6-1, 6-0 Jaren Sayavong (L) defeated Leo […]

Oct 6 • 7:04 PM EDT • Sports • myedmondsnews.com