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Politics Friday: Will the election loosen a historically knotted Minnesota Legislature?

Friday at noon, four Minnesota legislative leaders discuss the 2026 playing field and the issues they say are motivating voters with all 201 seats on the ballot.

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Oct 23 • 1:00 PM EDT • Politics • mprnews.org
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Report: Connor Hellebuyck Trade Talks Turn Serious

Elliotte Friedman says a Connor Hellebuyck trade is in the works, and it touches Detroit's goaltending. #RedWings

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Oct 23 • 11:29 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Free screening of 'Arrival' with expert panel to be held Nov. 4 at State Theatre

The Penn State Eberly College of Science and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics will host a free screening of the 2016 film "Arrival" at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the State Theatre in downtown State College as part of the college’s Science Matters Spotlight Sessions and Friedman Lectures in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Oct 23 • 11:10 AM EDT • Science • psu.edu
INDYCAR Announces Phase Two of 2027 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Schedule

New Marquee Race Weekend in Barcelona Highlights Action-Packed Summer, Furthers Series Momentum INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Oct. 23, 2026) – Following the histor...

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Oct 23 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • midohio.com
Friday Morning Football: Sanger High School
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Oct 23 • 10:36 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Carney rejects US election interference claims, criticizes Trump's ambassador to Canada

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday there is “no merit” to U. allegations that Canadian politicians are interfering in next month’s U.

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Oct 23 • 10:13 AM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com
Carney Rejects US Election Interference Claims, Criticizes Trump's Ambassador to Canada

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday there is “no merit” to U.S. allegations that Canadian politicians are interfering in next month’s U.S. midterm elections, expressing disappointment with Washington’s ambassador over the accusations. Speaking to reporters in Istanbul,

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Oct 23 • 10:13 AM EDT • Politics • usnews.com
AmEx lifts 2026 profit forecast, plans to cut 5% of workforce

By Manya Saini and Arasu Kannagi Basil Oct 23 (Reuters) - American Express raised its 2026 profit forecast above Wall Street expectations on Friday and announced plans to eliminate 5%

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Oct 23 • 9:48 AM EDT • Entertainment • lufkindailynews.com
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.

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Oct 23 • 9:10 AM EDT • Entertainment • pillarcatholic.com
Analyst: Rams should trade for Chris Godwin

Chris Godwin trade rumors and other bits of NFL news on a Friday

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Oct 23 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
There’s a Reason That Netflix’s Ad Business Has Underwhelmed

Somewhat lost in the company’s slew of firings and engagement warnings over the past few weeks was the fact that Netflix is scaling back its ad forecast for 2026 from $3 billion to $2.7 billion. That’s despite the fact that: CTV is growing by 14-15% this year This year saw a monster upfront Netflix is the biggest streamer out there this side of YouTube, and was the platform that for years brands were supposedly dying to be a part of In other words, that’s an alarming pull-back from Netflix. A Wall Street analyst I spoke with last week was blunt, calling Netflix’s ad business “disappointing.” To me, a red flag on the ad front is that Netflix has never revealed how many ad-supported subscribers it has. Because if I know anything about how big companies work, if they have a positive number that makes them look really good - they tend to share it. (How many subs does go90 have right now? We’re not saying just yet. How are ads going on ChatGPT? Oh, a billion run rate - I see). Yes, to date Netflix has shared some fuzzy ad numbers, such as the idea that the company’s ad tier ‘reaches’ 250 million users globally.’ Here’s why that figure gives me pause: a)they lead with global, and b) they don’t explain how they are calculated. (Are they based on average people in each room? Surveys of some kind?). Regardless, some insiders say that Netflix’s ad tier is scaling nicely - others not so much. Either way, one of Netflix’s biggest challenge on the ad front appears to have been its starting point. Remember, when Netflix launched ads in 2022, it had 73 million subs in the US and Canada. That’s 73 million people who were used to Netflix with zero ads. And when the ad product rolled out, the company clearly was going after new users - a limited pool of potential subscribers by default. That focus seems to have changed over time, as Netflix has tried to convert longtime subscribers to the ad tier. Historically Netflix subscribers are very sticky. But is the company’s low churn a problem? Not necessarily, according to Antenna data. Rather, Netflix’s consumer loyalty is a bit of a double-edged sword. “Netflix is the one streamer which actually has seen substantial “trade downs” but has much lower ‘win backs,’ said Antenna founder Jonathan Carson (win-backs being people who were on the ad-free plan, cancelled, then rejoined on the ad plan). “Netflix has lower churn and so has less opportunity to win back old subs with a lower cost plan option.” This all might explain why Netflix has been so slow to roll out all of these table stakes targeting options until just this week. It likely didn’t have enough users to carve up into various targets. etc. However, what really hit Netflix’s ad business was Amazon’s move a few years ago to turn on advertising for Prime Video by default. Suddenly the market was awash in premium inventory, and Netflix was playing catch-up on multiple fronts. Thus, the streaming giant appears to still be figuring out if if wants lead in ‘programmatic TV,’ or premium ‘upfront’ TV sales. “The CTV market now sorts into three businesses, and Netflix is not the leader of any of them,” wrote analyst Jack Myers. Ouch. So how does Netflix ratchet up its ads business? Get the next NFL package You’re gonna have to wait until 2030 unless one of the bigger media companies like Skydance opts out, but the easiest (not cheapest) way for Netflix to become a huge TV ads contender is to get one of the regular NFL packages, ideally Sunday afternoons. That way it can sell ads to its whole U.S. subs base overnight. Go FAST This one is risky, because to program a compelling FAST channel, you’d likely have to take some older Netflix exclusive shows and make them available for free to non-subscribers. But FASTs, for better or worse, are ad-inventory machines. Go full UGC I’m not sure I see this happening. There is something already off about Netflix carrying podcasts and shows for creators. The experience sticks out in what is such a produced, and generally non-communal environment. But Netflix could open up its platform by allowing creators to upload videos without having to be approved by the service. But that opens a whole other can of worms (policing brand safety, copyright infringement, overall quality). Make a huge RMN Deal I was going to suggest something crazy, such as ‘instead of buying Warner Brothers, Netflix should buy Target. But the company doesn’t want to be in the brick and mortar business. Yet for Netflix’s ad business to compete in an Amazon world, it needs to be able to connect ad exposures to shopping. What if, instead of letting Amazon target Netflix viewers with its DSP, Netflix inked a deal with Target, or even took control of Roundel, and created its version of the Amazon full-funnel for brands? Price us out. I hope they don’t do this, but Netflix’s price increases - while significant - haven’t been enough to push long-term customers out of the ad-free tier. But if they made those prices so prohibitive, it could push large swaths of consumers to trade down. Then again, that could also dent engagement - as binging becomes much less appealing once you bring ads into the equation. Or, they could just launch a bunch of hit shows and maybe everyone will quickly forget all this angst. More from Amazon unBoxed A few weeks ago, I recorded two podcasts live at Amazon’s unBoxed event in San Francisco. I was able to go really deep with several brand partners about how Amazon’s various data and ad products work - particularly the under appreciated Amazon Marketing Cloud. First, I talked with Laura Abadias Velilla, of the Amazon specialty agency Amerge, along with Amazon’s own Charlotte Maines, Vice President, Devices Content & Advertising, about how the two partners helped a very specific printer company Epson launch into a brand new category - high end projectors. It’s a great example of how brands connect audience data across platforms to make budget deployment decisions. Next, I chatted with Monks VP Head of Digital Investment for North America Tom Burchill about how the agency actually brought in data from Linkedin to help target B2B customers across various Amazon properties for the brand Quicken. Check it out: Check these out, or just listen:

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Oct 23 • 8:52 AM EDT • Business • mikeshields.substack.com
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Authorities investigating whether first Kenyan and Nigerian Ebola cases crossed paths

Nigeria this week recorded its first case of Ebola in the current outbreak, which has spread from the epicenter in Congo to several other African countries.

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Oct 23 • 8:41 AM EDT • Health • npr.org
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In brief: Fleetwood Mac documentary coming to Apple TV and more

The landslide is bringing them to Apple TV. Fleetwood Mac is telling their story in their own words in the Apple Original Films documentary Fleetwood Mac: The Chain. Apple announced the “unprecedented look” is the first fully authorized documentary about the award-winning, culture-defining band. It brings together the voices and memories of Fleetwood members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and the late Christine McVie. Fleetwood Mac: The Chain will debut Jan. 29 ...Ramy Youssef’s feature directorial debut has added some more star power to the cast. Amanda Seyfried will join Youssef and Sharon Stone in Martha & Muhammad, a new comedy for A24, according to Deadline. Youssef will direct from his own script, in addition to starring. Plot and character details are being kept under wraps, though The Hollywood Reporter previously described the project as telling the story of “a white widowed socialite in New York who develops a relationship with a young Muslim man” ... TNCMS.AdManager.render({region: 'fixed-big-ad-top-asset', slot: 1, fold: "above"}); Another book adaptation is coming to Prime Video. Amazon MGM Studios confirmed Thursday it has picked up Butcher & Blackbird, the bestselling thriller novel by Brynne Weaver. Emma Laird and Thomas Doherty are signed on to star in the new film, which follows vigilante serial killers who fall in love as they compete to take out the most targets ... Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Thank you for reading kmaland.comAt KMA, we attempt to be accurate in our reporting. If you see a typo or mistake in a story, please contact us by emailing kmaradio@kmaland.com.

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Oct 23 • 8:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • kmaland.com
More Than a Charcuterie Board: A Mother and Daughter Build a Business Around Gathering.

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Birch Bay Retirement Village. NORTHEAST HARBOR—Food’s ability to be a social cornerstone is one of the founding premises of one of Mount Desert Island’s newest, and perhaps most unique, endeavors in cuisine based catering. From intimate gatherings to large functions, Olive & Pearl creates charcuterie boards that can not only astound the tongue but also the eye. Many would agree that food can bring people together. In fact, culinary delights, and sometimes adventures, have been utilized as the centerpiece for social and business occasions of all kinds for centuries. Often times it even has the ability to start conversation, temper differences, and build new relationships. Settings can vary, from a multi-course sit down meal, a backyard barbecue, or a couple of bowls of chips and dip in front of a television, but the result can be the same. Humans come together, they share food, and the whole process is a catalyst for thought, communication, and a shared experience. Imagined and created by the mother and daughter team of Dr. Susan Scanlan (formerly MacCready) and Kayla Musetti, Olive & Pearl was started in June of this year and has been creating, delighting, and growing since. We gave the two an opportunity to answer some questions about themselves and their new venture. The love, passion, and pride for what they are doing and the fact that they are doing it as a mother and daughter team came through so strongly in their answers that we decided to present the question and answer session in its entirety. The Interview What did you do prior to Olive & Pearl? We’re a mother-daughter team, and food, family, and hospitality have always been a big part of our lives. Susan grew up in a large family in Pennsylvania, where the table was always at the center of everything. There were multiple dishes, little bites, stories, and plenty of conversation. Food was never simply about eating. It was about gathering, celebrating, and spending time together. After living in several Southern states, Susan relocated to Maine more than 20 years ago, and Maine has truly become home. She loves its sense of community, natural beauty, and connection to local food and makers. Professionally, Susan is a registered nurse and holds a doctorate in health administration. She has worked in a variety of clinical, nonclinical, and leadership roles and currently works as a faculty academic director. Building Olive & Pearl has been an exciting creative venture alongside her career. Kayla is also a registered nurse and works in the ambulatory surgery unit at Mount Desert Island Hospital. While healthcare is an important part of both of our professional lives, Olive & Pearl has given us an entirely different way to connect, collaborate, and create something together. Tell us about the business. Olive & Pearl is a mother-daughter charcuterie business centered around beautiful food, thoughtful presentation, and bringing people together. We create curated charcuterie boards designed for everything from intimate gatherings and dinner parties to weddings, showers, corporate events, boat days, and celebrations of all kinds. We think of our boards as more than food. They’re an experience and an invitation to gather, slow down, and enjoy time with the people around you. We’re intentional about quality ingredients, artful presentation, and personalization. Whenever possible, we also incorporate Maine-made and locally sourced products, including cheeses, jams, honey, seasonal produce, and baked goods. What inspired you to start Olive & Pearl? In many ways, Olive & Pearl grew out of something we had been doing our entire lives —bringing people together around food. We’ve always loved creating beautiful spreads for family and friends. There was something special about watching people gather around a table, graze, talk, laugh, and simply enjoy being together. Friends and family began telling us, “You should do this as a business,” and one day, we stopped laughing it off and started mapping it out. We realized we had an opportunity to combine our different strengths and create something that reflected what we both value: hospitality, creativity, quality, and connection. Charcuterie felt like the perfect expression of that. It’s beautiful and creative, but it’s also communal and approachable. At its heart, it brings us right back to where the idea began, a table filled with food and people gathered around it. Do you have a business partner(s)? Our business partner is each other! Olive & Pearl is truly a mother-daughter partnership, and building it together has been incredibly meaningful and sometimes hilarious! We know each other extremely well, which can be both a strength and, occasionally, a challenge. We have different personalities and strengths, but we’ve learned to lean into those differences and use them to our advantage. There’s a lot of trust between us, and we’ve learned how to communicate, collaborate, and occasionally laugh at ourselves along the way. We’re also building Olive & Pearl while continuing our careers in healthcare and education, so we’re taking things thoughtfully and growing the business one step at a time. We all have to start somewhere. One of the most rewarding parts has been having something that belongs to both of us. We get to learn from one another, celebrate the small wins together, and create something that we hope will become part of our family’s story for years to come. When exactly did you launch the business? Recently, in June 2026, we launched Olive & Pearl, turning an idea we had talked about for years into real business. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch something that started around our own family table and begin to find a place within the community. How is it going so far? How do you feel it has been received? It has been going very well, and we’ve been incredibly encouraged by how warmly Olive & Pearl has been received. As more people hear about us, our orders have continued to increase, and we’re seeing growing interest in boards for events and celebrations. It’s exciting to watch something that began as an idea between the two of us start to grow within the community. One of the most rewarding parts is hearing from customers after their events or seeing photos of our boards being enjoyed. Knowing that something we created became part of someone’s celebration is incredibly meaningful to us. Is there a brick-and-mortar location or is it all online? Olive & Pearl is currently an online business. We’re intentionally starting this way so we can build relationships with our customers, learn what they love, and grow thoughtfully. Our long-term dream, if the business continues to grow, is to eventually have a sit-down space where people can experience Olive & Pearl in person. Do you have any future plans if things go well/keep going well? Absolutely. For now, our focus is on continuing to grow Olive & Pearl, getting to know our customers, and becoming part of more celebrations and gatherings throughout the area. Long term, we would love to have our own physical space where people can come together and experience Olive & Pearl beyond the boards themselves. We can imagine a place that combines food, hospitality, creativity, and community. Ultimately, we want to build something that continues to grow while still feeling personal and connected to the people and community around us. Is there an aspect of the business that you really love? There are so many things we love about it, but the people and the connection are probably at the top of the list. We love creating something beautiful, but what really matters to us is what happens after we hand it over to the customer. We picture our boards on kitchen islands, at backyard gatherings, on boats, at weddings, or around a long dinner table—with people laughing, talking, and lingering a little longer. We also love the creative side. Every board is an opportunity to play with color, texture, shape, seasonality, and flavor. We don’t just want to fill a board, we want to curate an experience. And supporting local makers is especially meaningful to us. Whenever possible, we love incorporating Maine-made cheeses, local jams and honey, seasonal produce, and products from nearby bakeries and businesses. It allows us to showcase some of what makes Maine so special. Perhaps most importantly, we love doing this together. Building something as a mother and daughter has given us another way to spend time together, learn from one another, celebrate small wins, and create memories. Is there anything regarding any aspect of Olive & Pearl that you may think is important that is not reflected on the website? One thing that may not always come through online is just how personal this business is to us. Olive & Pearl isn’t something we created simply because charcuterie was popular. It grew very naturally from our family, our traditions, and the way we’ve always enjoyed gathering with people we love. There is a lot of heart behind every board. We think about the people who will be enjoying it, the occasion they’re celebrating, and how we can make the experience feel special. We also want people to know that we care deeply about supporting locals whenever possible. Using Maine products isn’t just about sourcing ingredients, it’s about telling a little story about where we live and the talented people who make and grow wonderful things here. Is there anything that we have not asked that you think is important/relevant that would like readers to know? We hope people see Olive & Pearl as more than just a charcuterie business. At its heart, it’s about gathering. Our goal is to make it easier for people to create those moments when everyone gathers around the table, conversations last a little longer, and people simply enjoy being together. We also hope people see the mother-daughter story behind the business. We’re building Olive & Pearl alongside our careers, one step at a time, and there is something incredibly special about creating a shared family legacy in the process. For us, success isn’t just about how many boards we make. It’s about becoming part of people’s special moments - birthdays, weddings, weekends with friends, quiet evenings at home, or a beautiful day on the Maine coast. If one of our boards helps people put down their phones, linger a little longer, laugh a little more, and enjoy the people around them, then we feel like we’ve done exactly what we set out to do. All photos courtesy of Olive & Pearl. LINKS TO LEARN MORE Olive & Pearl website Olive & Pearl Facebook Olive & Pearl Instagram RECENT PRESS RELEASES AND BRIEFS To see all the press releases, click here. To see our news, click here. For the full archive, click here. All of these are on our dedicated website. [ ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/pemetic-students-share-thoughts-on) [ Pemetic Students Share Thoughts on Declaration of Independence Oct 22 ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/pemetic-students-share-thoughts-on) [ Read full story ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/pemetic-students-share-thoughts-on) [ ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/fall-festival-at-the-noreaster-for) [ Fall Festival at the Nor’Easter for Mount Desert Nursery School, October 24. Oct 22 ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/fall-festival-at-the-noreaster-for) [ Read full story ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/fall-festival-at-the-noreaster-for) [ ](https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/explore-career-opportunities-where) [ Explore career opportunities where you make a difference for Maine’s natural resources—and the people who enjoy them. 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We’ve kept everything free because news should never be out of reach, but every one of our stories takes time to write, and your support keeps The Bar Harbor Story going. If you value our work, please consider a paid subscription, a founding membership, or a sponsorship. It truly helps us cover one more meeting, tell one more story, shine one more light. Even $5 a month makes a difference. Click here to become a one-time supporter now. Thank you so much for being here. Founding member information can be found here. Have questions about sponsorships? Just send Shaun an email at sfarrar86@gmail.com, he’d love to hear from you. Subscribe Share Bar Harbor Story Share Leave a comment

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Oct 23 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • barharborstory.substack.com
Whole Hog Politics: 5 House races that will tell the story of 2026

[Watch Whole Hog Politics Live: Hill Insider members can join us live today at 9 a.m. ET as Chris Stirewalt and host Bill Sammon go deep on this week’s political news. Members can join the discussi…

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Oct 23 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • thehill.com
Britain Politics

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, right, stands behind the counter with a staff member during a visit to discuss support for British businesses in Manchester, England, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026.

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Oct 23 • 7:50 AM EDT • Politics • postregister.com
Where to Buy iPhone Duo Today: Stores, Pickup, and Wait Times

Apple's first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, officially launched today, Friday October 23. Pre-order deliveries are arriving to customers, but supply is extremely tight, although anyone who didn't order in advance may still be able to buy one in person, depending on local availability. That said, Apple has said it expects supply to sell out quickly.

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Oct 23 • 7:10 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Why Is James Talarico’s Final Message to Voters ‘Friday Night Lights’–Themed?

The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate leaves it all on the field.

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Oct 23 • 6:49 AM EDT • Politics • texasmonthly.com
New Science Building Makes Big Progress

On January 13, 2025, a new science building was announced to be built next to Frich and Watkins Halls on the PennWest California campus, on the Monongahela river side. The construction is set to finish in the Spring 2027 semester. Executive Director of Planning and Construction, Eric Rosie, said it will likely be officially finished...

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Oct 23 • 6:20 AM EDT • Science • caltimes.org
How the brain handles uncertainty, and why resilience matters

The science of handling uncertainty, anxiety and stress

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Oct 23 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com
Hakeem Jeffries eyes speaker role as Democrats seek House control

Jeffries could become the first Black American to hold the role.

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Oct 23 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • ny1.com
Why a world without friction is a world without progress

Tribologists study friction: what happens when things rub together. It’s indispensable, from the wheel to the paths of stars

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Oct 23 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • aeon.co
Friday's BR 26, BuLi on OneFootball and +; today's fixtures 📲

Today's highlights 🔥Bundesliga (German League)15:30 – Stuttgart vs Borussia Mönchengladbach – OneFootball PPV Série A (Brazilian League)20:00 – Cruzeiro vs Remo – SporTV, Premiere Premier...

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Oct 23 • 5:42 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Sylvester Stallone discusses his role in ‘Frisco King’

FORT WORTH, Texas — At least one friendly face from “Tulsa King” will appear on “Frisco King.” The Taylor Sheridan-created and Samuel L. Jackson-led series premieres Dec. 18 on Paramount+.

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Oct 23 • 5:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com
Joyce Spencer: Community news for Friday, Oct. 23

Click for community news.

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Oct 23 • 4:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • herald-dispatch.com
Today's 5 headlines: Clásico preview; Spanish wins in Europe

Good morning and happy Friday. Yesterday brought the European and South American international action to a close. Here are the day's top 5 stories to keep you up to date with the football world. The b...

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Oct 23 • 3:22 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Messi sparks euphoria in Oviedo before Princesa de Asturias award

The Argentinian footballer has arrived in Oviedo with Antonela Roccuzzo, greeting hundreds of fans awaiting him. This Friday he will receive the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports.View on euronews

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Oct 23 • 1:27 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Greg Joswiak talks iPhone Duo in-store availability and demand ahead of launch

Friday is iPhone Duo launch day, and there are a lot of eager customers hoping to walk into an Apple...

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Oct 22 • 11:15 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
Oakland Coliseum hopes to become new sports, entertainment hub

(KRON) — The people working to purchase the Oakland Coliseum site say they are on track to close the deal before the end of the year. The African American Sports and Entertainment Group, alon…

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Oct 22 • 10:09 PM EDT • Entertainment • kron4.com
Health Organizations Release Revised Physician Practice Framework

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s revised framework for physician education and practice emphasizes health equity and technology.

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Oct 22 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • medscape.com
Stanford vs. NC State Preview: Will Cardinal Keep Momentum Rolling?

Coming off a 34-7 win over Elon, the Cardinal host the Wolfpack on Friday night, looking to keep their bowl hopes alive.

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Oct 22 • 6:44 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
SF: Health Officials To Discuss Recent Mgm-15 Related Overdose

San Francisco public health officials plan to release the city's latest data on accidental overdoses on Friday and also discuss a recent death linked to the kratom-derived opioid MGM-15.

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Oct 22 • 6:07 PM EDT • Health • sfgate.com
Why do we yawn? Discover your brain’s rinse cycle!

Investigate how a big yawn may help flush waste from your brain, and explore ways your body’s systems work together to keep you healthy.

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Oct 22 • 5:42 PM EDT • Science • sciencefriday.com
Triad Business Bank renews criticism of M&F Bank deal

Greensboro’s Triad Business Bank launched more criticism of the plan by Durham-based M&F Bancorp, to merge into a larger African-American-owned peer, Optus Financial of Columbia, South Carolina. M&F has rebuffed offers since August from Triad, which hopes to derail M&F’s combination with Optus in a transaction valued at about $105 million. M&F plans a Nov. […]

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Oct 22 • 4:05 PM EDT • Business • businessnc.com
4 Knicks Keys To Victory For Friday’s Matchup Versus Celtics

After falling in their season opener on Tuesday, the New York Knicks will travel to TD Garden to play the Boston Celtics on Friday. Boston lost their season opener in Detroit on Tuesday, so both of these preseason top Eastern Conference teams will be vying for their first win of the campaign. Here are four …

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Oct 22 • 3:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Giant iPhone Duo Displays Coming to Four Apple Stores

To celebrate the launch of the iPhone Duo this Friday, Apple has set up oversized iPhone Duo promotional displays at Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City, Apple Covent Garden in London, Apple BKC in India, and Apple Jing'an in Shanghai. The installations were already spotted under wraps, and Apple CEO John Ternus has since revealed what they look like in a photo of Apple Jing'an shared on his Weibo account today.

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Oct 22 • 2:50 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Northeastern graduate makes eco-friendly flower arrangements that last

Mohlia’s preserved flowers last for years and cut floral waste. Founder Simran Mohinani says her Northeastern co-ops shaped how she leads.

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Oct 22 • 2:14 PM EDT • Business • news.northeastern.edu
Sarah Palin announces boyfriend and former NHL player Ron Duguay’s death at age 69: ‘Love never ends’

Duguay played for the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings during his NHL career.

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Oct 22 • 2:12 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Waipahu catering business shut down over food safety violations

The Hawaii Department of Health shut down Adriana’s Kitchen Catering & Services LLC in Waipahu on Wednesday after an inspection found multiple critical food safety violations, including improper refrigeration and eggs left at room temperature.

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Oct 22 • 1:30 PM EDT • Business • staradvertiser.com
Entertainment this week: Tahoe City Zombie Crawl, Steely Dead and more

Friday, October 23 2026 Business Walks – Incline Village. Description Tahoe Property Center October 19-23, the Tahoe Prosperity Center and partners from across the region will visit businesses around the Lake for the 2026 Tahoe...

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Oct 22 • 10:54 AM EDT • Entertainment • sierrasun.com
Annual Health Fair for the Homeless Friday, October 23

Franklin Primary Health Center is holding their Annual Health Fair for the Homeless Friday, October 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Springhill Recreation

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Oct 22 • 10:49 AM EDT • Health • mynbc15.com
Tunisia proposes 50% insurance subsidy for Africa exports

Tunisia plans to cover 50% of the insurance premiums for business exports to African markets under its proposed 2027 budget bill, with the provisions applying for 12 months after the law takes effect…

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Oct 22 • 10:17 AM EDT • Business • businessinsurance.com
Judge blocks DHS investigations of noncitizen voting, citing flawed data

The judge put her order on hold until 5 p.m. Friday, giving the Trump administration time to appeal.

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Oct 22 • 9:47 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Liverpool Injury News: Szoboszlai, Munoz, and Frimpong Latest

Liverpool fans have been provided with a series of fitness updates following the team's pre-Brighton training session this morning. Multiple players face a race against time to be fit for the weekend's Premier League clash, with others set for longer layoffs.

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Oct 22 • 8:29 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
To Advance Sport & Entertainment Across Africa: Afro Nation's Dr King Smade Joins African Collaborations Group

African Collaborations Group (ACG), by its own admission "the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the

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Oct 22 • 8:14 AM EDT • Entertainment • news.pollstar.com
Overcoming Stage Fright: LSU Health Center hosts workshop for people with performance anxiety

Anxiety is something many people struggle with, whether it’s social or a specific phobia. However, some students may struggle with performance anxiety, commonly known as “stage fright.” Performance anxiety is beyond normal nerves and can show in many ways, triggering a fight-or-flight response with symptoms like sweating, nausea, shaky hands, or even irregular breathing. “Let’s...

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Oct 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • lsureveille.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.”

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Oct 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
The consumer-voter is killing German politics

Friedrich Merz's collapse in popularity owes less to his own failings than to the hollowing out of civic culture across the world's democracies.

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Oct 22 • 7:42 AM EDT • Politics • engelsbergideas.com
Giant iPhone Duo Installations Spotted at Apple Fifth Avenue

Apple is preparing what appear to be giant iPhone Duo displays outside its Fifth Avenue store in New York ahead of the device's launch on Friday, October 23. Photos from users on X show the structures on the plaza beside the glass cube. Their designs are hidden by wrapping and black covers, so it remains unclear exactly how Apple will present the device. October 21, 2026 The outdoor installations accompany a substantial retail push inside the store.

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Oct 22 • 7:02 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
How Caleb Williams' inner circle features Chicago star power

Bears QB Caleb Williams is part of a trio of young Chicago athletes whose friendship transcends sports.

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Oct 22 • 6:00 AM EDT • Sports • espn.com
Purdue leaders connect with NYC alumni to discuss the future of business

Two hundred New York City-based Purdue alumni and friends gathered Oct. 13 for a reception at the New York Athletic Club overlooking Central Park. Dubbed “Boilermakers in the Big Apple…

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Oct 22 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • purdue.edu
AI as the next political divide

We have a guest post today from our friends at Focaldata, with whom we have done polling before. They have been doing a lot of work on attitudes towards AI and how this is affecting politics on both sides of the Atlantic. In this post, they explore exclusive new polling – with a whole set of fascinating charts on how voters’ views are developing and why. In particular, the authors explore why the debate is currently so much more polarised by party in the US than in the UK, to the benefit of the Democrats. Subscribe Focaldata HQ is located in Shoreditch, east London. To access the office from the Shoreditch High Street Overground station, you have to walk under the bridge at Braithwaite Street. We mention this not as a navigational aid, but because the posters above caught our eye over the summer. Since June, the area has been the centre of a fiercely contested debate around the construction of a data centre on the Truman Brewery estate on Brick Lane, less than 200 metres from our office. It was one of the first ‘US-style’ protest movements around AI data centres the country has seen, and may not be the last. These protests served as the catalyst for our forthcoming report, examining whether AI could become the next political divide on both sides of the Atlantic. We wanted to understand what was driving the emerging politics of AI and whether the dynamics at play in the US offer clues as to how the British debate will evolve. Over the last month, we polled 3,851 people across the UK and US about their views on AI. Our research found striking similarities between the two countries: for instance, both electorates are evenly split on their views towards AI development, with just over a third in favour (37% in each country), a similar number opposed, and the remainder somewhere in the middle or unsure. Statistically speaking, there is no difference in overall sentiment towards AI between the UK and US. Under the hood, demographic patterns also look largely the same in the two countries, with millennials, degree holders, full-time workers and those who describe themselves as financially comfortable more pro-AI than the rest of the country. Despite this convergence in overall attitudes, there is a striking divergence in how much of a politicised issue AI has become. In the US, attitudes are increasingly split by political affiliation and the issue has become the latest front in the seemingly interminable culture war, playing a role in the upcoming midterms. This stark political polarisation of AI has not happened in the UK – at least not yet. In what follows, we test several hypotheses for why the two countries are so far apart on a political basis. Understanding which hypothesis is correct will give us an indication of where the British dynamics go next.

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Oct 22 • 4:43 AM EDT • Politics • samf.substack.com
BROWARD HEALTH MOBILIZES MORE THAN 500 WALKERS FOR BREAST CANCER AWARENESS - Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report

The Broward Health team at the 2026 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. October 21, 2026- Broward Health recently rallied 523 employees, friends and family members for the 2026 American […]

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Oct 22 • 1:01 AM EDT • Health • southfloridahospitalnews.com
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Friedman: Dodgers Offseason “Business As Usual”

The Dodgers are "business as usual" financially despite the investigations and questions about owner Mark Walter's financial situation.

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Oct 21 • 10:11 PM EDT • Business • mlbtraderumors.com
Theatre Guild presents ‘The Cemetery Club’ to end its season

PUNXSUTAWNEY — The Punxsutawney Theatre Arts Guild is staging “The Cemetery Club” on Friday, Oct. 23, and on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Presbyterian Church of Punxsutawney, located on Union

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Oct 21 • 8:49 PM EDT • Entertainment • punxsutawneyspirit.com
Arts District business owners launch youth mentorship after deadly First Friday
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Oct 21 • 8:11 PM EDT • Business • news3lv.com
Area establishments announce Halloween entertainment

IRON MOUNTAIN — Halloween is the perfect excuse to dress up, dance the night away and enjoy some spooky-season fun. Area establishments are embracing the holiday with a lineup of Halloween-themed entertainment. — Lakeside Bed & Breakfast of Florence, Wis., will host “Murder at the Costume Ball” on Friday and Saturday, featuring a four-course dinner, […]

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Oct 21 • 8:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • ironmountaindailynews.com
Josh Jacobs returns to Packers practice

Jacobs spoke to the media for the first time Wednesday since an altercation with his then-girlfriend in the spring. He was charged with battery and criminal damage to property after domestic abuse allegations.

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Oct 21 • 7:25 PM EDT • Sports • spectrumnews1.com
Los Angeles Dodgers Announce Shohei Ohtani Update After Playoff Exit

Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman announced an update on Shohei Ohtani after their playoff exit. The post Los Angeles Dodgers Announce Shohei Ohtani Update After Playoff Exit appeared first on HEAVY.

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Oct 21 • 7:21 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Nigeria’s first Ebola case matches DR Congo strain, health officials say

The Bundibugyo strain outbreak is the DR Congo's deadliest ever and has now reached West Africa for the first time.

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Oct 21 • 7:20 PM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com
Giant iPhone Duo installations spotted at Apple Fifth Avenue ahead of launch

While the iPhone Duo doesn’t launch until Friday, preparations are already underway at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York for the big day.

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Oct 21 • 7:16 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
ENTERTAINMENT: Zoo hosts Howl-o-Ween; CALS holds Dia de Muertos Festival

Celebrate Halloween early this Saturday with family-friendly fun at Little Rock Zoo's Howl-O-Ween event and the annual Day of the Dead Festival hosted by CALS.

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Oct 21 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • arkansasonline.com
Violent Femmes to perform pregame concert before World Series Game One

MILWAUKEE (WKOW) — The Milwaukee Brewers will host a pregame concert featuring Violent Femmes inside American Family Field before Game One of the World Series on Friday against the Tampa

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Oct 21 • 5:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • wxow.com
David Charvet brings up ex-girlfriend Pamela Anderson on “Special Forces” (exclusive)

“She was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

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Oct 21 • 5:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
5 cookbooks for a cozy fall

From a dinner party with friends to a solo night on the couch, these cookbooks offer cozy vibes for any occasion.

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Oct 21 • 4:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
The Daily Roundup: Kalispell Business Improvement District Looks to Replace Street Furniture Downtown

On Friday, we officially published our 2026 Election Guide, linked here, at the bottom of this newsletter and in the “Editor’s Picks” section of our website, where it will live throughout the rest of the election cycle.

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Oct 21 • 2:58 PM EDT • Business • flatheadbeacon.com
Science Hill volleyball advances to Friday's state championship match

MURFREESBORO — For the first time ever, Science Hill's volleyball team will play in the state championship match

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Oct 21 • 2:09 PM EDT • Science • johnsoncitypress.com
WoW Forever Beta Extended to Friday, Name Reservations Go Live Tuesday

The World of Warcraft Forever beta has been incredibly popular, but just like any other beta, it has to come to an end as the full launch approaches. But Blizzard has extended the beta by a couple of days.

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Oct 21 • 1:52 PM EDT • Technology • ign.com
How will World Series ratings fare for Rays-Brewers?

After riding high on the Los Angeles Dodgers for two consecutive World Series, Major League Baseball will likely fall down to earth a bit this season. The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers will start their best-of-seven series on Friday in what could be MLB’s last hurrah for quite some time as the league and…

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Oct 21 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
“Chicago Fire” prepares for ‘emotional’ goodbye to Joe Cruz in first look at 300th episode (exclusive)

“We couldn’t think of a better way to honor the milestone than by making ‘300’ a love letter to our dear friend and brother, Joe,” says showrunner Victor Teran.

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Oct 21 • 1:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce to conduct Seventh Annual Business Walk on Friday, October 23rd, 2026

The Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce, with Connect Greater Newport, the regional economic development division of the chamber, will be hosting its seventh annual Business Walk on Friday, October 23rd from 10:00am to 1:00pm to meet with business owners in Newport County and gather their input on the region’s business climate. Erin Donovan-Boyle, President and

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Oct 21 • 12:31 PM EDT • Business • newportthisweek.com
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Yankees' Max Fried: No health concerns entering winter

Yankees' Max Fried: No health concerns entering winter

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Oct 21 • 12:30 PM EDT • Health • cbssports.com
Berkshire author Hannah Fries finds poetry in the science of trees

Hannah Fries explores the science and poetry of forests in “A Forest Language.” What tree word changes how you see the Berkshires?

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Oct 21 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • berkshireeagle.com
2026 Honored Alumni Lecture: Science and Faith are Friends, Not Foes

Cellular biologist Jeff Stogsdill returned to BYU as the 2026 Life Sciences Honored Alumni and gave a lecture sharing how faith and science don't compete; they complement each other.

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Oct 21 • 11:10 AM EDT • Science • lifesciences.byu.edu
Morgantown native Emily Calandrelli brings science to Marvel's 'Iron Man and His Awesome Friends'

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For Emily Calandrelli, science is a superpower — one she hopes to inspire the next generation to discover for themselves.

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Oct 21 • 11:00 AM EDT • Science • wvnews.com
iPhone Duo Accessories Roundup: Cases and Screen Protectors From OtterBox, ZAGG, and More

iPhone Duo will start arriving to pre-order customers this Friday, and in anticipation of the launch we've gathered all of the best cases and screen protectors you can get for your new iPhone Duo. This includes accessories from popular brands like OtterBox, Speck, ZAGG/Mophie, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

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Oct 21 • 10:25 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
iPhone Duo will add Reachability feature ‘later this year’

iPhone Duo launches this Friday, but there’s one software feature Apple says won’t be ready until later this year: Reachability.

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Oct 21 • 10:10 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
Apple Stores Will Have 'Limited' Availability of iPhone Duo for Walk-In Customers

In a statement shared with MacRumors today, an Apple spokesperson said there will be "limited" availability of the iPhone Duo for walk-in customers at Apple Stores when the device launches this Friday, October 23. Apple's full statement: On Friday morning, our teams look forward to welcoming customers at Apple Stores to experience iPhone Duo and the incredible iPhone line-up for themselves.

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Oct 21 • 10:10 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Three friends bring “Dr. Adams’ House of Terror” to Warrenton

Longtime Warren County friends Douglas Carter and Jason Jackson have been bringing spooky Halloween fun to the local community for the past two years, first with “Frightmare,” and last year,

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Oct 21 • 8:47 AM EDT • Entertainment • warrenrecord.com
How Alzheimer’s and dementia patients teach Wisconsin’s next generation of health care workers

Through the New Friends program, students get experience connecting with people living with cognitive changes, and mentors get social connection during a particularly lonely time.

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Oct 21 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • wisconsinwatch.org
Reggie Burrows Hodges remixes the Old Masters for an L.A. homecoming

Reggie Burrows Hodges is the subject of three concurrent L.A. exhibitions at the Getty, the California African American Museum and Art + Practice. These will mark his first-ever solo presentations in his hometown.

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Oct 21 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
7 events in Lancaster County this week, from a Lancaster Fringe Fest show to PA Drum Show

There's entertainment in every nook and cranny of Lancaster County, if you know where to look for it.

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Oct 21 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • lancasteronline.com
Star-studded entertainment announcements feature Frankie Moreno, the Eagles, Alanis Morissette and Jim Gaffigan

Frankie Moreno, Alanis Morissette, Train, the Eagles and other acts announced Las Vegas shows Monday and Tuesday, with dates running from New Year’s Day into November 2027. Most tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday …

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Oct 21 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • lasvegassun.com
Swiss group agrees $390 million deal for medicines business with operations in North Africa

DKSH agrees to acquire NewBridge Pharmaceuticals in a $390 million deal, gaining a medicines platform with an established North African presence

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Oct 21 • 3:20 AM EDT • Business • africa.businessinsider.com
Rochester Grange #86 Presents "The 4 P’s of Honeybee Health" on 10/24

A message from Rochester Grange #86: Rochester Grange #86 presents a no-cost community lecture in conjunction with the Seacoast Beekeeper’s Association. The 4 P’s of Honeybee Health With a focus on Pesticides Neonicotinoid pesticides are all the buzz, but what are they? How can we help our six-legged friends? Date: October 24 at 3 p.m....

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Oct 21 • 1:30 AM EDT • Health • news.rochesternh.gov
Gracie’s Beauty Salon honored with Texas Treasure Business Award

Gracie Arguijo celebrated a special milestone on Friday, Oct. 9, when she was presented with the Texas Treasure Business Award from the Texas Historical Commission.

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Oct 21 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • pleasantonexpress.com
A 1960 Science Paper Set Doomsday for Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, and Its Population Math Held Up for Three Decades

A 1960 Science paper predicted doomsday on Nov. 13, 2026. There is no threat, but its population equation beat most forecasts until about 1993.

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Oct 21 • 12:18 AM EDT • Science • natureworldnews.com
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Prepare to be scared at Maggie Valley's ScreamFest

Ready for a frightfully fun Halloween weekend? Maggie Valley is turning up the scares with ScreamFest Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30 and 31, from noon-midnight both days, at Maggie Valley

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Oct 21 • 12:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • themountaineer.com
For young voters, political engagement is easier said than done

It’s a comfortably crisp Friday in October, and desperate for a win, University of Iowa fourth-year student Kasey Ludlow ambles up the creaky steps of one of Iowa City’s many historic homes. It’s one of 35 doors he’s knocked on that day, a tall task anywhere in such a politicized America, but perhaps even more...

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Oct 20 • 9:00 PM EDT • Politics • dailyiowan.com
Sanae Takaichi took on Japan’s male-dominated politics and won – can she survive a second year in power?

The straight-talking PM’s ability to manage Trump and stand up to China have endeared her to the public, but she may need friends closer to home to survive

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Oct 20 • 8:16 PM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
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First iPhone Duo Unboxing Video Appears Ahead of Friday Launch
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Oct 20 • 7:31 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Cattle futures higher ahead of direct cash business

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live and feeder cattle were higher, optimistic about the week’s direct business and looking ahead to Friday’s On Feed report from the USDA. December live cattle closed $2.15 higher at $230.17 and February live cattle closed $2.17 higher at $233.10. November feeder cattle closed $2.37 higher at $346.30 and January […]

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Oct 20 • 4:54 PM EDT • Business • brownfieldagnews.com
TV5, Great Lakes Sports & Entertainment Network to air Pistons-Heat game Friday

The Detroit Pistons will play the Miami Heat on Friday, Oct. 23, and there’s some new ways to watch.

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Oct 20 • 4:35 PM EDT • Entertainment • wnem.com
Atlanta Hawks strike in-market streaming deal with Prime Video

As the Atlanta Hawks prepare to tip-off their season Wednesday against the Orlando Magic, the team has moved to create one of the more fan-friendly streaming arrangements in the entire league. The Hawks announced Tuesday that all local broadcasts will stream on Amazon Prime Video for fans within the team’s regional footprint at no extra…

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Oct 20 • 4:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
TV5, Great Lakes Sports & Entertainment Network to air Pistons-Heat game Friday

The Detroit Pistons will play the Miami Heat on Friday, Oct. 23, and there’s some new ways to watch.

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Oct 20 • 4:29 PM EDT • Entertainment • wnem.com
Halloween fun with a slice of science

Halloween can be many things: spooky, enchanting, fun, creative, mysterious and…scientific? That last word is what Walking Mountains Science Center hopes to bring to light when kids and families attend Fright at the Museum on...

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Oct 20 • 4:04 PM EDT • Science • vaildaily.com
ChatGPT now lets you lock your chats

The company says the feature is designed for situations where users might be discussing something personal or planning a surprise and want to keep those conversations private when handing their device to friends or family to show them something in another chat.

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Oct 20 • 2:36 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Spurred by Pulitzer Prize-winner's visit, business leaders grapple with state's housing crisis

The capital of Georgia — a city of more than 500,000 people nearly 1,200 miles away, where African-Americans outnumber their white counterparts — bears a striking similarity to New Hampshire’s capital. In Atlanta, like in Concord and countless municipalities across the country, housing costs have far eclipsed what working people can afford. Brian Goldstone, journalist […]

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Oct 20 • 2:32 PM EDT • Business • concordmonitor.com
The Secret to Life on Earth Was What Made It Stop Being a Poisonous Ice Ball

Ancient South African rocks expose the chain reaction behind life’s first real growth spurt.

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Oct 20 • 2:00 PM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Sundar Pichai: Google’s Frontier Imperative, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products and Businesses

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has little patience for doubts about Google’s willingness or capacity to compete at the frontier of AI. His company’s latest Gemini 4 Argon model — long-promised and recently delivered — beats OpenAI and Anthropic’s latest public models on coding, math, science, and knowledge-work benchmarks and has placed Google’s AI back among the world’s best. Amid chatter that Google was fine with good-enough lightweight ‘Flash’ models, Pichai pushed back hard against any suggestion that company is limiting its research ambitions. “We won’t do it any other way,” he told me in a Big Technology Podcast interview recorded this week at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. Pursuing cutting-edge research is costly for Google, requiring compute and chips that otherwise could be sold at a high markup by its cloud business. But Pichai said allocating resources to frontier AI development is “ground zero” for Google. “Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development,” Pichai told me. In our conversation, we discussed Argon (which Pichai says processed three times as many tokens as Gemini 3 in the 72 hours after launch), AI’s role in developing better models, the AI interface of the future, competition with OpenAI, Google’s partnerships with Anthropic and Apple, data centers in space, and the nature of his optimism. You can read the full conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, below, or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice. Alex Kantrowitz: Google is back at the frontier with Gemini 4 Argon, which beats OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s public models on benchmarks spanning coding, math, science, and knowledge work. The conventional wisdom was that Google had given up on the frontier to focus on fast, good-enough models for its products. That was wrong? Sundar Pichai: Very wrong. Look, we are so committed to being at the frontier. It’s in our DNA. We won’t do it any other way. We’ve been thinking about the AI frontier for well over a decade now. The frontier is very dynamic. It’s very competitive. It’s very exciting. I couldn’t be more pleased with how Argon has come together. We took our time with it. We made sure we tested it safely and deployed it carefully. We took a bit longer than our other models, given its capabilities. Across the board, be it for agentic work, knowledge work, coding, creative tasks, Argon is one of the really good frontier models. The first 72 hours since we launched, it’s almost up to 25 trillion tokens used, which is about three times what Gemini 3.0 had in the first 72 hours. And we are capacity constrained as we are serving it. Excited, but there are always areas….. You know, the frontier is very dynamic, and you have to keep evolving the models. There are areas which we can see we need to improve as well. We’ll be at work on all of that as well. Which areas? On any given model, Argon would be across the board better at everything if you just look even two months back. But the space is so evolving. Even on coding, for example, there are pockets where we know we need to do better, and there’s clear feedback. We’ll make it better. The argument for standard models is that they’re already good enough to build great products, with the frontier valuable only for certain tasks. Meta built Muse with good models rather than the best, and Google could put standard models into Maps, Gmail, and Search. Why isn’t that sufficient? It’s definitely not how I have thought about it at all. We are deeply committed to driving the state of the art and actually pushing where this technology can go, all the way from transformers. That’s a journey we’ve been on. You will see us continue to do that. When you’re at the frontier, you get an earlier look into the emerging capabilities, earlier than others, which helps you better prepare for the future. We are fortunate to have a wide set of opportunities across consumer and enterprise. Some of our cloud customers, for sure, want the model at the frontier. The frontier models will be better at developing the next set of models in an era of recursive self-improvement. I would argue it matters there. Internally, we have definitely seen a steep point of inflection by deploying Argon to our developers. It definitely tackles problems which our previous models could not do. Being at the frontier puts you at the innovation frontier and helps you drive that as well. There is room for models of all sizes and capabilities. That’s why we did Flash, Flash-Lite, etc. I agree with you that you can develop very good product experiences with not necessarily the most frontier model, because they tend to be slower and more expensive too. But we care about the Pareto frontier, and we’re committed to doing all of that. You said developing frontier models gives you a look at what’s coming. What do you see on the horizon? What makes this moment so exciting is you build something which you think is a culmination of months of work, and you put it out. You already see clear headroom ahead. We’ve all been working on these agentic, long-horizon capabilities, but clearly the frontier is going to have multiple of these agents working together to do things. That’s an example of an exciting paradigm underway. It’s also clear to me that users, both in consumer and enterprise, will have access to some multi-agent framework for them, working all the time doing things. It feels like a moment of infinite possibilities. Sergey Brin said one of Argon’s core innovations was relying more on the model to help develop the model. Yet incidents involving OpenAI’s bots breaking containment and Google’s bots accessing a site they shouldn’t have suggest these systems still aren’t perfectly aligned. Isn’t there reasonable cause for concern about accelerating toward recursive self-improvement? There are three parts to your question. Let’s first talk about RSI itself. You’re right, Sergey mentioned RSI being a critical contributor as we are developing Argon. But to be very clear, today, in a continuum, we are pretty far from the end state of RSI or something like that. The right way to describe it is you have RSI loops along with AI researchers in various aspects of model development. You almost have agents helping AI researchers in some automated way work together to build these models. It’s good to at least understand where we are today, and it’s super exciting. I expect that continuum to keep making progress as we go into next year. The second question is around safety. Security comes from defense in depth. You’re talking about alignment, obviously. We all are doing a lot of work to make sure the models are as aligned as possible. But it’s an active area of research, and there are clear gaps. That’s not the only thing we rely on. You have the work you do on alignment, but beyond that, we put a lot of effort into real-time monitoring as these models are working. Making sure you have good telemetry into what’s happening so that you can intervene in real time if you see unexpected behaviors. How you do that, the architecture with which you do that, how you make sure it’s all sandboxed and isolated in a way that it can continue doing its job during real-time monitoring — these are all areas of investment. Obviously, when we deploy these models, giving customers, enterprises, control, both with real-time monitoring, but their ability to decide where they deploy, what type of data which models ever have access to, etc. All that work is very, very important, and we are doing a lot of that. As an industry, we need to constantly up our game and take the time to do all this stuff, including dedicating the compute required to make sure you can safely deploy these models. The third part is: Is it all enough? This is why there are a lot of conversations in the industry, and I think it’s reasonable to be worried. The right way to approach something you worry about is early on thinking about what more we can do. As an industry, you’re definitely seeing increased levels of work on alignment, testing for safety, etc., as we deploy these models. The next step would be developing better standards so there are cross-industry standards of how we do these things, including the ability to evaluate using independent evaluators. If you look at areas like financial controls, we have accounting standards, we have independent auditors. Those are all the next natural steps for us as an industry to work toward, and regulation will end up playing a role as we go through all of that as well. Google pursues both language models and world models, while some other AI companies like OpenAI have focused more heavily on LLMs as the path to AGI. Why is world-model research important to you? As humans, you obviously perceive the world around you, and you’re taking all those inputs. Making sure these models are able to understand the laws of physics, simulate the world in high fidelity. All that, I think, are key enabling blocks for intelligence. We are working across all possible applications of this. Take an area like robotics. It’s not an accident: If you look at embodied reasoning benchmarks, Argon is state of the art. That all comes from our experience building world models. Inherently, I would expect there will be architectures which will converge all of this in the future. But for us, we view this as, today, this jagged frontier that is intelligence. We want to be at the frontier of all the possible approaches, and that will help us both drive better research, better insights, and develop a much better AGI model, is how we think about it. Some people argue Google should focus on selling its computing resources rather than using them for AI research. Cloud wants to sell compute at a high markup, while researchers need a very big computer to build the best models. How do you balance those demands? Ground zero for us is making sure we are investing in the compute that’s needed to be at the AI frontier. In 2015, I set the company to be AI-first. AI is that key horizontal ingredient across everything we do, all the way from Search to Cloud to Waymo. That is ground zero for us, making sure both for research and developing the models that we have enough compute needed. Beyond that, we have these independent businesses which each have their own long-range plans. They’re using those long-range plans to project forward, and we plan for compute for all of them. The cloud team, they have a business and they have a projection and they have demand signals. They have committed contracts. With that help, we can plan on a long-term compute trajectory for them. We’re fortunate to have this wide set of opportunities. There’s no company in the world which isn’t making trade-offs at any given moment in time. But the first principles we operate on is making sure we have enough compute to invest in the frontier, and that’s non-negotiable, and everything else works on top. Remember, we are building our own compute, our own data centers. There are long lead times. The compute we have today is a function of decisions I made in 2024. Even if you think back to a year from today, last year the agentic coding takeoff hadn’t happened. Today, obviously, when you sit and look at anything, everyone is short—not just us, other companies—and everyone wishes you had two times what you had planned for. That comes with the territory. At any given moment in time, we are planning for what we would need two to three years out in the future. You’re going to find some decisions you make may look suboptimal two years out, depending on where the state of the art is. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The way I think about compute allocation is making sure Google DeepMind, both for research and frontier model development, is cutting edge in terms of compute access. After that, we plan for all our businesses. It’s great we can provide our compute to other people too, like we have done. It allows us to scale that up, get real tests for it in the widest application set possible, test it in the real world, and make sure we are at the cutting edge of technology at every layer of our AI stack as well. Ben Horowitz relayed on a podcast that Andy Jassy had said compute was sold out until 2028. Are you seeing the same thing? If today a customer is coming out and asking us for compute in ’27, that is incredibly difficult to do. Even last year we went out and leased some short-term compute to accommodate some customers and help them out. But yes, we are all dealing with similar timelines. Every major technology shift seems to involve overbuilding, from railroads to fiber. Do you think that’s happening here? It depends on the time frames you’re looking at. This level of build, if I take a long enough time frame, it makes complete sense to me. We are at early stages of the most consequential technology ever, and this is not like fiber. It’s not dark. We are using it. We are capacity constrained on a daily basis. The applications, the underlying technology is improving rapidly. But running a company, the way I work through the moment is you look at your demand signals. You look at your committed revenue opportunities that you’re getting in the form of contracts. You balance that with the underlying technical capability, or internally you balance how we are using it internally, the model trajectories. Based on all that, you take a disciplined approach—a confident, aggressive, but disciplined approach—to plan out compute. But when you talk about the broader economy as a whole, you’re having people operate with various levels of risk. I focus on what I can control as a company and plan through it. If your question is, can there be an overbuild? Yes, because you can have some constrained components. Remember, what matters is a set of everything you need to build out that compute. Memory, electricity, electricians…. Land. Like 2,000 components or more. You could get constrained at some point. There could be things which cause bottlenecks, and then you could have overbuilds. There could be external shocks to the economy. There are macro risks. All that is possible at any given time. But am I confident that the compute we are planning for, we will have uses for it given enough time? Absolutely, yes. I was in the room when you said AI would be as profound as fire and electricity. If you believe that, shouldn’t you give researchers the biggest possible computer, even at the expense of today’s cloud profits? We’re all doing some form of that. Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development. What you’re seeing is true already. But you want to be thoughtful. Even our AI researchers have some constraints, which are also good. That’s what inspires creativity. That’s what helps you come up with a more efficient algorithmic breakthrough, maybe to use less memory. What we are committed to is to invest what’s needed to stay at the frontier. OpenAI President Greg Brockman told me a few months ago that the ideal AI product might have no interface at all—just as natural as conversation. What do you think the interface looks like in the age of AI? Computing historically has been humans adapting to computing. With AI, it’ll be the other way around. The technology will adapt seamlessly to how humans live and go about their day-to-day life. You want to be able to speak to that AI when you want to. It has context. It can be persistently running somewhere, give you continuity. You’re not dealing with a lot of complexity. It’s natural. All that makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t have any interface, however. Nowadays, even on my phone, Gemini voice models are so good. I can just press the microphone button. I can just ramble. That’s why we call it Rambler. I can ramble. It intelligently corrects with my personal context. Even my friends’ names, weird names, it gets it right, even if it first guesses it wrong. It’s amazing. I’m not going in, backspacing, editing once I finish saying it. It’s remarkable how good it’s gotten. But there are going to be moments you will need an interface. You may want to entertain yourself. You may want to watch a video. You may ask your AI to create something, and you want to watch it, consume it. The way I think about it is, you want it to be as seamless and as natural as possible, and that you are not doing the hard work adapting to whatever the interface is. The technology is adapting to how you’re working at any given moment in time. When I asked Sam Altman about competition from Google, he argued that OpenAI was building AI-native products and implied Google was bolting AI onto existing ones. Do you accept that framing, and can a “bolt-on” compete with an AI-native product? First of all, it’s a very dynamic moment. We are all pushing each other. OpenAI has pushed us as a company too. This is not just we are doing something to them. Far from it. Yes, Google went into its own version of a code red too. In the AI moment, all of us have to respond with varying levels of urgency at any given moment in time. We are constantly building new products as well. Gemini was built from the ground up as a product—the Gemini app I’m talking about. Or tomorrow, as all of us are adapting to agents, are you bolting agents onto ChatGPT, or are they building it natively? How would you think about that? You can always put these questions back. I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as you want to build world-class product experiences that are AI-native and they are winning. Some of it is adapting products, some of it is rethinking new experiences. They will all be part of how you approach this moment. How do you expect to make money from these AI interfaces? If an agent recommends a product and I buy it, should it take a cut of the sale, even if that’s disclosed? I’m going to put enterprise aside. Consumers are going to increasingly value this technology. Take software developers today. Developers are willing to pay for these coding models because it really helps make them more productive. Nobody would want to code the way they were coding three years ago, or even the same time last year. When you’re delivering value, there’s value to be had. I’ve never seen examples where consumer products really scale to billions of users, where people are using it intensely, and haven’t had monetization to go along with it. If you’re providing value to people, there is inherent value to be had. The nature of it may change. You’re asking a scenario in which agents are doing stuff for you. At the end of the day, you will have commercial needs. The agents need to fulfill those commercial needs. The providers on the other side are going to see value in that. There’s going to be some mechanism by which it gets fleshed out. That’s what an efficient system does. But what matters is that you’re building those world-class consumer experiences. I promised myself one product feature request: Can you make Gemini-powered search in Gmail as good as searching Gmail through ChatGPT? What’s going on here? One of the exciting things we announced recently is the unified Gemini agent for enterprise, and we’re bringing that to consumers. These are persistent agents which run 24/7 in the cloud. We’re spinning up a micro VM effectively for every query, and from the runtime, the harness, the model—it’s all a headless service. It’ll work everywhere, and it has your context with you. You can address this agent whether you’re in Workspace, in Search, in Gemini. Agents are going to drive this unification from a customer experience, which people are looking for. When you have a broad product portfolio and you’re moving forward fast, there are always areas where you’re moving forward faster than some other areas. That’s valid feedback. But we are putting a lot of time and effort into making sure, as we build out our agentic experience, that unification and that capability works well across all these services. People have asked where Google’s equivalent of Muse or Dots is. Do you anticipate creating a new product to compete with them? Our goal with Gemini is to be a personal, proactive, and powerful assistant. That’s what we are working toward. You saw us describe the early versions of it at Google I/O this year with Spark. Effectively, already, if you open the Gemini app as a Pro or an Ultra user, you see Chat and Task, and they start giving you that agentic experience. With Argon now, that capability is dramatically accelerated. What we announced recently in our enterprise event, we are bringing that to consumers as well. Soon in Gemini, you will be able to ask something, and it’s a continuum. You don’t need to think about whether you’re asking a chat or an agentic task. It’ll just automatically do the right thing, and it can work persistently in the background securely and get things done for you. Already, empirically, when I look at what’s coming into Gemini in our app, last year you would have tagged them and most of them would have been chats. But a steadily growing percentage is already agentic tasks in Gemini. Yes, we are going to bring personal agents to our consumers. It’ll work in the Gemini app. It’ll work in Google Search. It’ll work in Gmail. You can address it, call it, etc. We want to make sure we’re getting it right. It’ll be powered by Argon, and we are very excited to bring it to our users. Google has invested and committed tens of billions of dollars to Anthropic. What do you see in Dario Amodei that makes you want such a deep investment and partnership? Very early on, when we looked at the founding team of Anthropic, it was very clear to us this was a world-class team which was involved in some of the earliest GPT models. We were quickly able to assess that they would be at the frontier. We’ve always tried to identify and partner with companies which would be at the cutting edge of technology. We’ve done that with SpaceX. We’ve done that with Anthropic. That’s what we saw, and we had a chance to partner. Is your partnership with Apple to license Gemini for Siri expanding, contracting, or standing still? For both us and Apple, that partnership was about translating the capabilities of AI into better experiences for users. I thought Apple has done a phenomenal job of incorporating—they customize these models and build it into Siri—and it’s been great to see the reception. We are committed to doing more. You’re going to do more with them? There’s nothing specific to comment, but it’s a partnership. It’s working well. What have you learned so far about the feasibility of data centers in space? It’s a very exciting project. Projects like this remind me—I still recall that moment in the desert for the DARPA Grand Challenge, watching the Stanley car compete in it, which ended up being the basis for Waymo. With all these technologies, you’re at a moment in time where it looks a bit like sci-fi, but 10 to 20 years down the line, it’s actually working in a meaningful way. I feel the same in space. We’ve always believed in betting big on these technologies. Quantum has been a great example of it. We’re probably 10 years into the journey. Waymo, we are almost 20 years into the journey. Space, we are two to three years into the journey. It’s clear to me that it’s an approach which will make a lot of sense in the future. Being in sub-synchronous orbits with 24/7 access to the most abundant form of energy we have access to will make a lot of sense for this exponential increase in compute that we are going to need. Having said that, this is a challenging project. The team has disciplined milestones. It was a super exciting milestone to send the TPUs up to space. Sometime, as we are speaking, we are expecting a “hello world” moment from them. I look forward to seeing that happen, and we’ll continue investing here too. You previously said 25% of the code written within Google was written by AI. What’s the number today? That number in our world today is meaningless in the sense that every part of what we now touch is influenced by AI deeply. What we are tracking with Argon, for example, it’s been a point of inflection. People are using Argon to really go tackle complex projects, including projects which affect millions of lines of code. In the four weeks since we have launched Argon, we have seen a 30% increase in CLs, and more importantly, almost a similar increase—a one-third decrease in rollbacks. People are writing code more productively and better code with it. We are tracking it with newer metrics now. How are you dealing with opposition to data centers? If you can’t build in the U.S. the way you want to, where else do you go? We’re very committed to building our data centers very responsibly. When I look at our largest data centers in some of the communities where we have been the longest, I visit them, I talk to people. There are people who come and tell us their kids have gone to college because of our investments in these communities, and we’ve grown in those communities. To me, this is about doing it right. Engaging with the communities early, doing it transparently. We are committed to making sure we are bringing incremental power, and we cover 100% of the cost of our power needs for these projects. It’s understanding the impact on neighborhoods and making sure you’re working thoroughly to address them. Done rightly, you can continue making progress. But we are constantly taking feedback into account. I do worry not everyone operates the same way. People have been surprised by data centers showing up in their backyard. Those are all important. As an industry, we should continue to do better. But part of the reason, in a 20-year time frame, we are thinking about things like data centers in space is making sure we are able to put these data centers where maybe the trade-offs will be different. What unproven area of AI is Google working hardest to crack? Is it continual learning—getting models to keep updating after release—or something else? There are multiple parallel paths. You saw with Argon we have a million output tokens. With our Gemini models early on, we had a one-million context window on the input side. These are all examples of breakthroughs we are constantly working on. How do you think about synthetic data? How do you think about continual learning? How do you think about more efficient architectures? We do dedicate a meaningful percentage of our compute to these research bets too. It always goes hand in hand, including our world models. Those are all bets we are placing. Sometimes, as part of these bets, there are ideas that emerge which just make their way into the mainline models. Maybe we don’t fully talk about it, but we have multiple steps in these areas. Working in technology requires optimism that building something will improve the world, but those bets can leave real consequences when they fail. I recently returned to a town in El Salvador where enthusiasm for Bitcoin had given way to unfinished construction and something resembling a ghost town. How do you maintain the optimism you spoke about in your Stanford commencement address while accounting for those risks? I genuinely have a deep conviction that improving technology and improving access to technology makes people’s lives better. It’s been my personal experience in my life, out of which comes that deep conviction, optimism. But with that, I’ve always felt humanity’s journey is always about working hard to harness that technology to make it work well for society. The optimism is not an optimism that you just build whatever you want, whenever. You work hard to make sure you’re building technology in the service of humanity, to make the human condition better. That’s got to be the defining goal as we are approaching it. With that framework, I’m very, very optimistic. We are in very early stages of the kind of progress that we are going to see on many areas. We’re all talking about areas like healthcare. A lot of the progress is ahead. The ability to make things in a fundamentally cheaper way on many things where things have been getting expensive for a long, long time, discovering new materials, etc., which really bend the curve—it’s tough to step today and understand the impact of all that, but they’re going to be very profound. I’m very optimistic, but we have to be rightfully concerned about all the ways this technology can go wrong. Sundar, I know you don’t do many of these. Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate it.

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Oct 20 • 1:47 PM EDT • Technology • bigtechnology.com