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47 revelatory hours with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced
To review this month’s supposed remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I must first correct the record. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced isn’t a game about pirates (and assassins) in the 18th century Caribbean. Sure, sure, that’s what the trailers would have you believe. They’ve go their clips of Edward Kenway swinging his swords and steering his pirate ship into cannon-blasting combat against British frigates. Is Resynced truly a pirate game? Of the 47 hours I spent playing Resynced over the past few weeks, I will admit I spent maybe 44 (?) of them collecting plunder with Blackbeard, drinking rum with Anne Bonny and debating the pros and cons of the lawless pirate-run settlement Nassau with Benjamin Hornigold. I may in fact have spent dozens of hours sailing to remote islands, reading treasure maps, opening messages left in bottles, sinking the odd Man o’ War with a well-timed broadside, collecting sea shanties for my crew, befriending a pet monkey, and hunting whales. I am nevertheless neither so Gullible nor so Narrow-Minded as to call the magnificent Resynced a “pirate remake.” Oh no. Forget any reviews of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced you may have read. Forget what you yourself may have played, if you’ve spent any time with the game since its launch. What Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is really about I’m here to give you the scoop (spoilers for Resynced’s Animus menu lore, which many players are probably not going to see): Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the new game whose development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, is set in the year 2096. It’s about a societal split, about revolution, about an old Assassin’s Creed adventure repurposed in the series’ distant future as propaganda or samizdat. It’s about the overheated future of 2096, essentially conquered by the series’ well-established nefarious Templar-run company Abstergo. (In this future, Abstergo is, among other things, remaking a 2013 pirate movie called Devils of the Caribbean, but this time in VR. The VR version will be backed by a marketing plan that involves AI influencers, a 10,000-avatar “metaverse premiere event” and that manufacturing of memes aimed at “50 million VR nodes.” See what I mean about Abstergo being evil?) Resynced is about a late 21st-century population mollified by the widespread use of Abstergo’s Animus devices which let people experience the lives of historical figures culled from “genetic memories.” It’s about an insurgent faction of Assassins. And it’s about a plan to wake the population into revolutionary fervor by showing them the memories of 18th century pirate Edward Kenway, who—as depicted in the original Black Flag and again in Resynced—gradually comes to an understanding about the Assassins of his day and their centuries old fight for freedom. Resynced is also about an AI developed within the late 21st-century Animus, called Ego. It has found a way to alter genetic memories, to create and show Animus users false ones. The game is about Ego’s efforts to tell the people experiencing Edward Kenway’s memories that Kenway was wrong, that fighting against order is folly, that we should crave a world where “compliance is rewarded with power.” Who are we in this game? We’re an unnamed Animus user in 2096 who experiences Kenway’s journey virtually. At four moments during Kenway’s exploits in the Caribbean our virtual jaunt can be interrupted for 10-15 minutes, as we explore Animus “rifts” where Ego explicitly tries to tell us how wrong Kenway was. None of this is what 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was about, of course. That was a different game, even if you also spent dozens of hours pirating as Kenway in that game, across missions and a map that’s been faithfully reintroduced and rebuilt for Resynced. The 2013 Black Flag was about you playing as an unnamed researcher newly hired in 2013 by Abstergo Entertainment, the video game development wing of the Templars’ evil-corp. In that game, you were assigned to use the Animus to dive into the genetic memories of Desmond Miles, a man who died in Assassin’s Creed III and who was descended from a long line of Assassins (and at least one Templar) whose adventures were featured across the prior AC games. In 2013’s Black Flag, your mission was to plumb the Edward Kenway experience for material that Abstergo could use in productions such as the motion picture Devils of the Caribbean, though the Templars had some ulterior motives for the assignment. Resynced is therefore not a remake of 2013’s Black Flag. It’s a sequel. It is a new game about a new exploration of Edward Kenway’s pirate/assassin journey, set 83 years after the framing sequences of the original game. Resynced provides a new narrative framework that, thanks to the concept of an AI that wants to alter historical memories, arrives with creative justification to tweak a now-classic 13-year old game. That makes Resynced, already a hot seller, a tantalizing hint of where Ubisoft could go with a line of Assassin’s Creed remakes. They could remake the first game, the Ezio games, even the recent ones set in ancient Egypt and Greece. And for each, they could not just modernize the graphics and controls but expand and alter their sequences of events to use them as reference points for a conflict set in the late 21st century, as rival factions try to weaponize historical memories. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, even when that work consists of ravings about Assassin’s Creed’s modern day plot, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe A story most players will probably miss If you didn’t know any of this, I’m not surprised. If you played the game and still didn’t catch it, I’m not a bit shocked. If Ubisoft has no plans to do more of this, I won’t fall down. Almost all of what I’ve described is optional and missable in Black Flag Resynced. I nearly missed it myself, as I planned for a breezy playthrough of an old Assassin’s Creed favorite. Instead, I found myself in a 40+ hour hunt for the “real” story, buried deeper in Resynced than any gold-filled chest. The story of 2096 is Resynced’s meta-story, told in two remote pockets of the game: 1) four optional playable “rifts” that players may find as they proceed through Resynced’s pirate fantasy , 2) in dozens of text files tucked three menus deep in the game’s barely-interactive Animus hub. Assassin’s Creed games have almost always had a meta-story about people in the 21st century (usually matching the game’s release year) and their connections to the main history portions you play. Those meta-stories have always been squeezed into the margins, though seldom as severely and as, uh, graphiaclly simple, as in recent games. Back in 2013, the modern-day exploits of you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee were prominent. They were portrayed via first-person portions that occasionally interrupted the third-person Kenway experience and could be explored for hours, complete with their own missions, side quests and puzzles. Resynced’s 2096 story—of Assassin “Watchers” vs. Abstergo/Tempar goons, of rogue AIs, of panicking scientists, of a woman wondering why her Animus-addicted husband is muttering about Mary Read (“What does he mean by Assassins?”), of a fight for the population’s hearts and minds via varying interpretations of Edward Kenway’s life choices—is mostly told through unlockable text files. The files are interesting. Offered via diary entries, intercepted chats and news reports, they present varied perspectives of a world in crisis. One set works as a narrative puzzle as it reveals the Rashomonic interpretations of a massacre, or was that a successful Assassin hit? Another favorite reveals the rising bitterness of a person who, through Edward Kenway’s journey, now shakes at the ignored evil around him. One surmises that Ubisoft is averse to putting the Assassin’s Creed’s meta-story in the way of more marketable pirate playgrounds and ninja/samurai epics. Instead, we get a better-than-nothing text-in-menus approach introduced in 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In Shadows, players unlocked the meta-story text files largely via time-gated missions that called on the user to kill X number of enemy type Y, clear three enemy castles, re-win a three-phase fighting tournament, and other grinds. Time restrictions on accessing these missions and unlocking the files meant it could take players months to access the full story in-game. But even in the most hardcore Assassin’s Creed hangouts, the fanbase instead seemed to throw up their hands rather than grind to keep up. In Resynced, Ubisoft has shown some mercy, diminishing the amount of new text files that are tied to timed grinds. Now, most of the text-based 2096 lore are associated with “data file” collectibles that players can find in the world. That includes a batch of written entries that explain a historical link between the feudal Japan era in Shadows and the piracy adventures in Black Flag. Players who explore a lot will find dozens of data files, though the game does not appear to offer any in-game tracker for finding each one. You just need to keep looking for them. As of this writing, I have most of them, but not all. I can’t find any full guide for them online. And even Ubisoft’s optional $5 microtransaction that reveals lots of items in-game does not appear to reveal the locations of the text files (at least the official description omits them from its collectibles list). That’s not a huge bother, because tracking the data files down compelled me to re-explore the waves and islands of Black Flag. That was a thoroughly pleasant task to do for the first time in a dozen years. I expect many players, though, will be content to wait for the files to be reproduced in an online AC wiki somewhere, the easier to read on a web page. It may not seem enticing to play a video game in order to gradually unlock pages of text to read. Why not, you may ask, just read a book, where they put the pages in order? For one, they’ve not tucked this latest installment of Assassin’s Creed’s meta saga in a book. I also enjoy the unordered delivery, the dawning comprehension of a story about 2096’s desperate people and questionable tech, which I glimpsed first at its middle, then the end, then the front, then other moments in between1. I am also enamored with the idea of the Assassin’s Creed games I’ve previously played, including Black Flag, being repurposed for an information war. The ideas in Resynced’s meta-story, which builds off characters and ideas in Shadows’ chunks of text, are strong. The potential of where they could go with it is exciting. As for the pirate stuff? Looks great, controls pretty well, is fun to play and oh so speedy in terms of how much of a good time you can have with each sit-down. It never gets old to chase a new shanty page across a rooftop, bombard a fort with upgraded mortars or use a diving bell to explore sunken wrecks (hats off to the team at Ubisoft Barcelona that worked on the underwater portions in Resynced; that team is now facing layoffs, such is the misery of modern gaming and oft-troubled Ubisoft). New pirate missions in Resynced involving new ally characters are brief, dramatic and add more to Edward’s story, even if the gameplay perks they provide barely enhance the gameplay. A new denouement for high-class pirate Stede Bonnet is affecting; a new hunt for Blackbeard’s treasure is a welcome extra moment. A new epilogue to hunt down a pirate killer, on the other hand, over-complicates Kenway’s character. The ending credits remain my favorite of any game I’ve ever played. Black Flag provides great source material. The revisit is well-made and a great sign of what could be. It is offered in a different wrapper that hints at an opportunity for more interesting remakes to come, should Ubisoft choose to pursue such treasures—and as we brace to resist or comply with an Abstergo future. 1 The messages that Edward Kenway finds in bottles tell another out-of-order story, one about a man reckoning with the strange memories and voices he’s heard in his head since he was a boy. That tale was also in the 2013 game and develops into one of Black Flag’s most compelling character arcs. In Resynced, it has lost its climax, because the bottle story previously paid off in the halls of the first-person Abstergo Entertainment, which is exclusive to the older game. An altered resolution, written by the 2013 game’s lead writer is fine, doesn’t invalidate the 2013 version, but makes for an inferior final note.
PS5 Emulator Can Now Boot Up GTA V's Menus & Some 3D Games
A few different PS5 emulator teams seem more motivated than ever
Xbox Project Helix Vs. PS6 - Data Firm Reveals Its Forecasted Sales Figures For Each
But also warns that the outcome "could look very different"
Timberwolves Emerge as LeBron James Fit That Rivals 76ers’ Pitch
Philadelphia is publicly pursuing LeBron James, but Minnesota’s new-look lineup could offer the 41-year-old a distinctly different path to another title. The post Timberwolves Emerge as LeBron James Fit That Rivals 76ers’ Pitch appeared first on HEAVY.
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician
In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
Four small businesses to compete in finals of Verizon’s Small Business Super Pitch
Selected from a nationwide competition, four businesses will make live pitches to judges including soccer legend and entrepreneur Carli Lloyd, then head to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ FinalNEW YORK, July 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, July 17, 2026, days before the world’s top two soccer teams battle for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, a different kind of high-stakes championship is taking place just minutes away. Four American small businesses will gather at the Antique Loft in Hoboken, NJ to g
New dark matter theory could solve multiple cosmic mysteries at once
Dark matter may be far more complicated than scientists once believed. A new study suggests it could consist of at least two different kinds of particles that slowly separate over time, with heavier particles sinking toward the centers of galaxies and lighter ones drifting outward. This simple idea could explain several puzzling cosmic observations that have frustrated astronomers for years, from unusually diffuse dwarf galaxies to surprisingly dense dark matter clumps that bend light through gravitational lensing.
The World Cup showed me sports fans are the same everywhere
The players were different, the songs were different and the sport was different. The hope, heartbreak and belief? Those felt just like home.
The new* Home Run Derby, plus Pulisic’s future
The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Watch your swings today. Coming up: ⚾ Vintage HR Derby 🎾 Sinner’s silky serve 🇺🇸 Pulisic’s future The Home Run Derby returns tonight from Philadelphia, where All-Star festivities are happening this week. It will be a radically different experience than what we’ve seen in recent memory. But that doesn’t mean it’s new. Quick catch-up before we get to opinions: Instead of outs, hitters will get a limited number...
How Mick Jagger Strikes A Balance When It Comes To Politics In Music
The Rolling Stones rocker told the New York Times that he likes to sneak "small doses" of real-world issues into his songs but takes a different approach when it comes to concerts.
Spider-like creatures help uncover the surprising origins of fatherhood
Citizen scientists have helped researchers solve a long-standing mystery about how parental care evolved in harvestmen. Using photos and observations from iNaturalist, scientists more than doubled the known cases of egg-guarding behavior and discovered that maternal and paternal care followed different evolutionary paths. The project, completed in just days with help from public data, shows how citizen science is transforming biological research on a global scale.
This Philly business started by making dinners for doctors. Now it’s selling thousands of meals a week.
Meal kit companies have struggled to retain customers. Home Appétit is competing in a different league of food delivery.
SEGA talks importance of Sonic, failing to reach its goal, wanted new game to sell more
As part of a wide-ranging Famitsu interview with SEGA, president Shuji Utsumi touched upon a number of different topics, including Sonic the Hedgehog. The Japanese magazine published a lengthy discussion with the executive in this week’s issue. During their talk, Famitsu mentioned that Sonic the Hedgehog plays a pretty big role in the transmedia business. Utsumi said in response: “Sonic...
Northland Community and Technical College to hold Liftoff Health Summer Camp July 15
The free one-day event allows attendees ages 12 and up an opportunity to explore different health and human services careers.
Mario Bautista vs. Cory Sandhagen prediction, pick for UFC 329
Mario Bautista and Cory Sandhagen meet in a rematch on the UFC 329 main card. Will anything be different the second time?
New restaurants and businesses are in the works or expanding in popular downtown area in CT town
The city center is full of activity with multiple businesses at different stages joining the already impressive retail stores and restaurants.
Second pregnancy changes the brain in surprising new ways
Researchers found that every pregnancy rewires the brain in its own way, with a second pregnancy bringing a different pattern of changes than the first. The discoveries could lead to better ways to recognize and treat maternal mental health challenges, including peripartum depression.
Businesses claim a California bill is a threat to discount programs. Is it?
Retailers — including groceries, gas, restaurants and clothing — are pushing back against a measure to prevent businesses from offering different prices based on personal data.
What Xbox's layoffs, massive reboot says about the gaming industry
Microsoft plans to reduce Xbox by 3,200 jobs over the next fiscal year, calling it “the most significant restructuring in Xbox history.” While the gaming industry has seen many boom and bust cycles, experts say this moment is different.
Previewing the Yankees’ MLB Draft strategy for 2026
The Yankees could go in a few different directions with the 35th overall pick.
From Vision to Joint Health: A Full-Body Guide to Staying Well
When you think of wellness, what comes to mind? Is it eating healthy? Exercising regularly? Or going to the doctor when you’re feeling under the weather? Wellness can mean many different things depending on who you ask, but to the healthcare providers at The Baton Rouge Clinic and Affinity Health Group, true wellness comes from […]
Men found ‘Love Island.’ Then they started betting on it.
Prediction market apps are turning America's hottest dating show into a different obsession — and bringing a new audience into the villa.
Suwanee announces new headliner for August Concert
The show will go on, but with a different headliner, the city of Suwanee announced on Friday.
The Power of Personal: The Surprising Business Strategy That Won Over Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney
As concert promotion became increasingly corporate, Louis Messina built a different kind of company—one rooted in personal relationships, artist autonomy, and long-term trust.
Bombing Iran, Then a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C?
The administration appears to be reverting to an all-stick, no-carrot approach. But it has yet to answer why it believes economic warfare and bombing will yield a different result this time.
A career worth the call: After 52 years in four sports, umpire Rene Arsenault hangs up his gear
When Rene Arsenault began his career behind the dish as an umpire, things certainly looked different across the landscape in the country. It was 1974 in Fitchburg. He was a plucky high school graduate. The average home cost about $21,000. Gas prices hovered around 30 cents a gallon and a loaf of bread listed for […]
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Work
OpenAI on Thursday unveiled ChatGPT Work, an agent in its popular chatbot designed to execute tasks across different applications and files, marking the startup's latest push into workplace automation.
New robotic heart mimics common, mysterious condition to help researchers study it
A new robotic heart can recreate different stages of heart failure, potentially giving researchers a new way to test treatments before they reach patients.
Trying store-bought mayonnaise to find best one: ranking, taste test
I compared Miracle Whip and different Kraft, Kewpie, Duke's, Hellmann's mayonnaises, tasting them on their own and in chicken salad to find the best.
8 actors who walked away from Hollywood
From Grace Kelly to Leelee Sobieski, these eight actors traded Hollywood for a different life.
5 Ways Small Businesses Can Profit From America's Staycation Summer
Consumers enjoying a “staycation” aren't necessarily spending less; they’re looking to spend differently and locally. Here's how small businesses can tap in.
Business travellers are carrying the office everywhere they go, according to Holafly for Business's latest research
Corporate eSIMs for Business Travel Holafly A modern professional stays securely connected on the go. According to Holafly for Business, 81.3% of travellers report a positive impact on productivity when using a corporate eSIM. Today, business travel is about carrying your entire working environment with you. DUBLIN, July 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The modern business trip looks very different from the one most companies designed their travel policies around. Airports have become workspaces, ho
Does a Sex Assault Claim Kill a Political Career? It Depends.
The swift exit of Graham Platner from the Maine Senate race followed Eric Swalwell’s similar exit from the California governor’s race, but Republicans have taken a different tack.
Minority business office & health equity office are abolished in NC’s new budget
Gov. Josh Stein says NC shouldn’t be “blind to the fact that different health concerns impact different populations differently.”
Google Play Store will look a little different the next time you open it
Google appears to be widely rolling out a few new UI changes for the Play Store, affecting the Games and Apps tabs.
Persona 4 Revival Producer Confirms Changes to Yosuke to Fit Today's Era
In a recent interview with Anime Corner during Anime Expo 2026, Persona Team General Producer Kazuhisa Wada spoke about different changes made to Persona
Scientists used AI to crack one of water's biggest mysteries
Water’s odd behavior becomes even more dramatic when it is supercooled, but scientists have struggled to compare the many different ways of describing its microscopic structure. Researchers at the University of Osaka used an AI model trained on computer simulations to evaluate 16 different structural descriptors. The system identified the most effective ways to distinguish between water’s two competing liquid states, providing a clearer framework for studying one of nature’s most mysterious substances.
Academic Excellence Award Winner
Academic Excellence Award Winner Erin shares her experiences as a Public and Community Health Major, with double minors in Legal Studies and Health Policy and Management:"I came to Ithaca from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts knowing that I wanted an education that would allow me to change the world in a positive light. Admittedly, I was unaware when choosing the public health major just how much of an impact I could make, but through my experiences in this rigorous program, I know public health is where I am meant to be. Being a public health major during the COVID-19 pandemic was a unique experience. My education granted me the opportunity to work on and off campus with different populations to provide support during the pandemic. Professor Srijana Bajracharya was my professor for Research Methods in Health. She encouraged her class to create research projects that would benefit our communities. She was a mentor for me and helped me find my passion in research, which I have brought with me to my job as a research assistant for Rescue - The Behavior Change Agency. I thank Professor Bajracharya for her guidance and support throughout my time as a public health student."
Explaining The Comcast and NBCUniversal Divorce
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) I hope everyone had a happy Fourth of July in America, celebrating the country’s 250th birthday. Frankly, I am bummed the 250th wasn’t a bigger celebration, but that’s a different topic for a different Substack. While it was generally a quiet week on the entertainment/streaming/media business fronts, we still had some interesting news stories. Actually, that kinda undersells one of the stories, a huge, huge, huge divestment that could upend the entertainment landscape... So let’s get right to it. In today’s column, I’ll cover Comcast spinning off the rest of NBCUniversal, an entertainment company investing in an LLM company and an LLM-owner investing in a movie studio, the latest round of threats of digital tariffs, and more. Let’s dive in. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Most: Comcast/NBCU Breakup!!!! If I had to describe my reaction to Comcast spinning out NBCUniversal, it feels like a relationship ending, either breaking up or divorcing. Comcast’s decision to spin off the rest of NBCUniversal, after spinning off some of its cable assets into Versant last year, really does feel like a family breaking up under “irreconcilable differences”. Of my stereotypes of the entertainment moguls, my go-to for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts—heir to the Comcast fortune, but a man who’s been at the helm for 24 years now, and president for twelve years before that—is that he likes building empires. He cut his teeth acquiring cable rivals in the 1990s and tried to buy Disney repeatedly, then settled for NBCUniversal after a long court battle. (Contrast this with Rupert Murdoch, a man who also loved to buy, but would also sell when the price is right. Murdoch made Fox out of nothing, but then sold 20th Century Fox to Disney, arguably at the top of the market. So I understood why he sold.) But I don’t understand Roberts’ motivation to sell now. I have some explanations but no single, super-satisfying explanation. Strategically, it would just make more sense to have kept NBCUniversal in-house, especially for a one-time empire builder like Comcast. Yet one powerful force—arguably the decider in modern capitalism—likely overwhelmed all other considerations. At first, I thought I’d arrange my thoughts as a “Five Why” analysis, digging through each layer of the puzzle. But instead, I found myself asking, “But…why?” (And I only ended up with four sections.) So let’s look at Comcast from that angle. Then, at the end, I’ll give my biggest strategic recommendation for every company in Hollywood. It’s obvious, but sometimes, the obvious strategy is the most ignored. But…Why? The Stock Market, Conglomerations, and Sum of the Parts Analysis We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Why Comcast could never get a “tech company” valuation The not-so-secret motivation for Comcast What Versant has to do with all of this The key strategic advice I think every entertainment exec should follow (though it’s really obvious) Some big AI investment news… Whether we’ll see digital tariffs… And more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.
What could Democrats have done differently about Graham Platner?
She recruits progressive candidates for a living. We asked what went so wrong here.
How first-down passing fuels Mike McCarthy's philosophy — and the best offenses in the NFL
When Mike McCarthy’s Steelers offense takes the field against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1, its aims are going to be different than in recent years. Back...
Grace Ueng: What stayed with me from my 35th Harvard Business School reunion
Thirty-five years after arriving at Harvard Business School as a nervous first-year student, Grace Ueng found herself standing at the front of the classroom leading a very different conversation.
T.I. Reveals He Never Wanted His Kids to Get Into Entertainment: ‘We Got a Thousand Rappers’
T.I. spoke out on Arian Simone's podcast about the betrayal he's seen in entertainment and why he wanted different paths f...
YouTuber Builds 25-Foot Rideable RC Battleship for $400, and It Shoots Fireworks
When most gearheads and DIYers get the itch to hit the water, they look into buying a used jet ski, a small john boat, or maybe a kayak. But YouTube creator Julius Perdana had a slightly different vision. He wanted…
iPhone 18 Pro Max vs Pro: Leak reveals Apple’s plan to differentiate models
Apple sometimes gives iPhone Pro Max models a special advantage over Pro, and a new leak indicates that might happen with the iPhone 18 line.
AI Is Changing How Customers Choose Your Business
As AI increasingly mediates how customers research, evaluate, and choose suppliers, competitive advantage is shifting from direct customer understanding to managing AI-shaped interactions. Drawing on the experiences of three small-to-medium sized businesses they worked with, the authors show how firms can adapt. A manufacturer improved sales efficiency by screening AI-generated inquiries before investing engineering time in quotations. A boutique hotel learned to monitor how AI tools described its business and revised public content to improve accuracy and differentiation. A B2B software company replaced periodic customer reviews with continuous monitoring of customer feedback and AI-generated market perceptions. Across all three cases, the lesson is that firms must treat AI as a new intermediary in the customer relationship. Winning companies will not necessarily spend the most on technology; they will build systems for continuously listening, interpreting signals, and adapting strategy in markets where both customers and the information they rely on are increasingly AI-mediated.
As socialism rises in popularity, GOP turns to a new attack: ‘Communists’
As more Americans take on a positive view of socialism, and those candidates win elections, more Republicans are using a different label: communist.
CBS Sports Names Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of Three Different Decades, and It's Hard to Argue
Spanning the 1930s to the 2010s, the Crimson Tide outpaced every other powerhouse to claim historic dominance across three distinct eras of gridiron excellence and consistency.
How Trump is turning NATO into a cash machine
The U.S. president has refashioned the alliance into something far different from its original intention.
America has been deeply divided before. Here’s why today’s divisions are different
At 250 years, America’s fault lines are showing. Partisan and regional divisions rival the most intense internal conflicts it has faced since the Civil War.
Best and worst long-haul airlines, from someone who only flies economy
I've tested a dozen different airlines to find the best for long-haul travel. Etihad Airways exceeded expectations, while China Eastern wasn't for me.
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Stock May Trade At A Discount On Cash Flow While Earnings Look Rich
Sphere Entertainment stock has produced a very strong share price gain over the past few years, yet its valuation signals are pulling in different directions, with a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value pointing to some upside while traditional market multiples suggest the shares are expensive. Over the last 3 years, Sphere Entertainment has delivered a return of about 3.9x, which puts extra focus on whether today’s price still leaves room for further upside. Recent attention on Sphere...
Opinion | The science of the Declaration of Independence
On our 250th anniversary, a different look at America’s founding document.
Months after Mayo Clinic left, some rural towns adjust to a ‘completely different health continuum’
With impending federal changes to Medicaid, workforce issues and the increasing cost of American healthcare, many rural healthcare providers are in a period of uncertainty.
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Stock May Be Cheap On Cash Flow Yet Pricey On Earnings
Sphere Entertainment has delivered very strong share price gains over the last three years, yet the valuation signals are pulling in different directions, with the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate pointing to some upside while market based multiples look stretched. Sphere Entertainment has returned roughly 387.2% over three years, which puts a spotlight on whether recent gains already reflect most of the good news in the story. Expectations around demand for The Wizard of...
Dragon Quest 11 S details Nintendo Switch 2 frame rate and resolution
Following up on the recent announcement of Dragon Quest 11 S on Nintendo Switch 2, Square Enix provided more information including frame rate and resolution details. The company previously confirmed that two graphical options will be included. Players can choose between different optimization modes, allowing them to prioritize graphics or performance. When going with Performance Priority Mode, Dragon Quest 11...
State Street Health Care ETF Tops Invesco Pharma on Cost and Size
Compare sector breadth, yield, and recent performance as these two healthcare ETFs take different approaches to growth and income.
Inside New Balance’s World Cup: Testing, inventing and supplying players’ families with kit
New Balance are not one of the 13 manufacturers supplying kits to the 48 competing nations so are approaching the World Cup differently
The science behind fireworks and their brilliant colors
Fireworks displays on Independence Day are created by the combination of different metal salts, which emit light at unique wavelengths to produce vibrant colors.
Firework chemistry: the science behind firework colors
Different chemical compounds create the brilliant reds, blues, greens and golds you see bursting overhead.
Scientists thought ravens followed wolves for food. A 2.5-year GPS study told a different story.
For decades, biologists believed ravens found their next meal by shadowing wolves across the landscape until the predators made a kill. A new study in and around Yellowstone National Park suggests the birds are using a far more sophisticated strategy.
Long Reads for the Long Weekend
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) Happy Fourth of July weekend! As has been a tradition of mine going back to the beginning of the EntStrategyGuy website, I’m sharing my favorite long reads of the last year, like I did in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025. Let’s dive right in! Subscribe “Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber and Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You“ by Derek Kravitz in Consumer Reports I don’t think surveillance pricing, like the kind described in this brilliant Consumer Reports article, is long for the world—it’s toxically unpopular—but we’ll see if either party takes on this issue. If I ran a political party focused on affordability, I would focus on a few pro-consumer and pro-market policies: Banning non-compete agreements. Ending surveillance pricing Eliminating junk fees (read more here...) Ensuring “right to repair” for consumer (and military!) products Capping excessive app store fees Stopping digital/algorithmic price-fixing tools. Preventing automatic subscription price increases. And more. If you want to fight inflation, there are a lot of great ways to do it quickly. Speaking of higher prices... “Secret Documents Show Pepsi and Walmart Colluded to Raise Food Prices Across the Economy“ by Matt Stoller in BIG Again, I think a political party should focus on lowering prices for consumers. And deals like this—Walmart making a deal/forcing Pepsi to offer the lowest prices at its stores and nowhere else—hypothetically lower prices at Walmart...but raise them everywhere else. “15 DUIs, still driving: California’s failure to take repeat drunk drivers off the road“ by Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler in CalMatters CalMatters does terrific reporting in California, something the Golden State desperately needs more of, and this article is a great example of that. “PugLips: The next insanely popular thing you’ve never heard of…” by Simon Carless in Game Discover Co I thought that this parody article (and yes, it’s a parody, but I was definitely unsure at first) was hilarious and totally nailed how much tech/business journalism feels these days. Actually, three of my favorite articles this year were on hype in the video game industry, including Georg Zoller’s “The Video Game Industries Very Dark Night”—which I linked to recently and wrote a follow-up here—and Owen Mahoney’s “Derek Zoolander, Videogame Exec”. In particular, I like Mahoney’s focus on user experience as a guide to what trends will actually grab hold of customers. “The Matrix Lies“ by Evan Shapiro in Media War & Peace Evan Shapiro’s first person account of his experience with AI was hilarious. I think LLMs capabilities have significantly grown from last summer, and yet...my editor/researcher just had an abysmal experience using an LLM to do a quite basic task (which our LLM normally does each week) and the LLM made a mistake on every single data entry...along with seven different mistakes affecting twelve of the twenty or so entries, including mistakes that are explicitly spelled out in the prompt. That’s a brutal failure rate. Again, if you use AI/LLM for data collection, you need to take a lot of extra steps to verify and check the data. “Ghosts in the Balcony: A Cross-Country Trip to 58 Theaters Fighting to Survive“ by Matthew Frank in The Ankler I thought Matthew Frank’s pitch to head across America to visit theaters sounded insane aggressive at the time—at least it felt that way to someone a decade older than him; man, to be in your twenties again, am I right?—but I knew the result would be great. And it was, a terrific feature by a great young writer. Also, I loved Matthew’s recent article on who’s getting the precious few entry level jobs in Hollywood. (Hint: nepotism.) “Disney erased FiveThirtyEight“ and “Did Las Vegas get too greedy?” by Nate Silver in Silver Bulletin I love media history and analysis, and there’s no one better to get the history of FiveThirtyEight than from Nate Silver, who wrote about his personal experience in one of my favorite pieces from this year. I also loved Nate’s breakdown of what’s causing Vegas’ woes, but I’ll offer one criticism, summarized as “Might I suggest antitrust?” Many centrists/center-right/libertarian thinkers (Nate is self-described as the latter) often don’t consider consolidation or antitrust as factors in policy issues like housing, America’s military readiness, or, in this case, Las Vegas. Even if libertarians want to debunk antitrust/consolidation concerns, I’d love to read that debunking. In this case, Vegas is incredibly consolidated (though it also has been for a long time) and I’d have loved to read Nate at least contending with this factor, since he addresses almost every other potential factor for Vegas’ decline. “Why Microsoft’s Carbon Removal Pullback Is Such a Big Deal“ by Robinson Meyer in Heatmap News I’m a big supporter of carbon removal efforts, but this nascent industry faces a lot of headwinds, including this big move most recently. I think it’s clear that solar panels and batteries should be able to get the world to its carbon footprint goals, but effective carbon renewal remains necessary to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. “AI is killing the cheap smartphone“ by David Oks LLMs and AI will impact the world in ways we’re not ready for, and already, third world countries are seeing the prices of cheap cellphones skyrocket due to the cost of chips skyrocketing. This article by David Oks is a terrific breakdown. “100 Days of Madness: Netflix, Paramount, Warner and the Future of Hollywood“ by Wade Major at Hollywood Heretic Wade Major dove deep into Hollywood/streaming’s financials in this must read piece. Not that I agree with everything in this article (read my take on Warner Bros./Paramount here) but the analysis is top notch. I think many people discount how quality thinking, regardless of the argument/conclusion, will make you a better thinker. “Erased by the UFC: Frank Shamrock, The MMA GOAT of the 20th Century“ by Nate Wilcox in The MMA Draw Newsletter Growing up playing the UFC fighting game on the Dreamcast, Frank Shamrock was my favorite MMA fighter, and this history/tribute to him was great. Other Fun Reads “The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt“ by Craig Fehrman at Defector “Unmasking the Sea Star Killer“ by Craig Welch at bioGraphic “What Could Save the Industry? Fin-Syn“ by Richard Rushfield in The Ankler Alex Rollins Berg in Underexposed on movie bumpers, pillow shots, Disney trash cinema, cult films, and Casablanca. David H. Montgomery in YouGov’s The Surveyor on punctuation marks, condiments, dinosaurs, and comic strips and kids media. “How Medium finally pivoted its way to profitability“ and “Why the best journalists on YouTube are all former Vox employees“ by Simon Owens in Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter “It’s Not Just You, Netflix Shows Have Gotten Slightly Shorter: Here’s What the Data Says“ by Kasey Moore at What’s on Netflix “Numlock Awards: How Diane Warren became the biggest loser in Oscar history“ by Nathaniel Rakich and “Numlock Awards: The Oscar Bait era is over. The Oscar Chum era is here.” by Walt Hickey & Michael Domanico at Numlock Awards
Liverpool install new Jota memorial
Liverpool have installed a permanent memorial outside Anfield in tribute to Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva to mark the first anniversary of their death. The 'Forever 20' memorial, created by renowned sculptor Emma Rodgers, is centrally a flowing heart sculpture, an acknowledgement of the forward's goal celebration. From different angles it also shows the numbers 20 and 30, the brothers' shirt numbers, and includes the lyrics to Jota's song, which has been sung in the 20th minute of every match since his death in a car crash on 3 July 2025.
Bigger fireworks, bigger politics: The fight over America's 250th
Presidents have always shaped Independence Day. Critics say this year’s celebration is different in scale, funding and politics.
The real cause of a common stroke may have been missed for decades
Scientists have discovered that a common type of stroke may have a very different cause than doctors once thought. Instead of fatty plaque clogging arteries, the strongest link was found with enlarged and damaged blood vessels deep within the brain. The finding helps explain why standard treatments like aspirin are often less effective and is driving the search for new therapies that target the brain’s tiny blood vessels directly.
AMERICA AT 250: COMPETING CELEBRATIONS REFLECT NATIONAL POLARIZATION, SAYS SMU POLITICS EXPERT
DALLAS (SMU) – As the nation marks its 250th anniversary with separate celebrations in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson says the split reflects a deeper reality about modern America: the absence of a shared national narrative. Wilson argues that what should have been a unifying moment of national pride has instead become a symbol of the country's growing political polarization, with rival groups promoting fundamentally different visions of Amer
The 20 best Peacock original series you can stream right now
This streamer has everything: a human lie detector, a fabulous Scottish reality show host, two (!) different girl groups, and "SNL" content galore.
‘I feel violated’: Burglars target Northwest Side salon; 4th different beauty business targeted
Burglars broke into a hair salon at The Rim shopping center this week. The crime shares similarities with others recently.
Two different parties, two strikingly similar immigrant stories. Lawmakers from both parties share what being American means
iPhone 18 Pro Could Use Qualcomm Modem in the US and C2 Elsewhere
Stolen data from Apple manufacturing partner Tata Electronics appears to reveal that the iPhone 18 Pro will use different modem chips depending on the market it is sold in, with U.S. models retaining Qualcomm hardware while international models will feature Apple's in-house C2 modem. The finding emerged from a wide-ranging cyberattack on Tata, which alongside Foxconn assembles the iPhone.
Stars' 2 signings set up surprise Jason Robertson ending
Dallas seems to have a different plan up their sleeve.
Croatia criticised for ‘unambitious’ changes to 2022 science law
Croatia’s science ministry has been accused of a lack of ambition, and even incompetence, over proposed changes to the country’s 2022 science law. Critics say an opportunity has been missed to fix wider shortcomings in the research and universities system.“This law, like all the previous ones, will not significantly change the current state of science in Croatia,” Vlatko Silobrčić, a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences, told Science Business. “A small shift here and there will not have a significant impact.”The 2022 law introduced multi-year block grant financing of research, based on results, and changes intended to boost employment and career progression for researchers and lecturers. But implementation of the law has been uneven. “It became apparent that certain of its provisions were subject to different interpretations by higher education institutions and scientific institutes,” the science ministry said in its proposal for change. “This caused legal uncertainty in the system, administrative difficulties in implementation and, in certain cases, unequal treatment of teachers, scientists and students.”Most of the proposed amendments deal with technicalities in hiring and promoting staff, such as extending the committee deadlines from 60 to 90 days, or allowing applicants to cite all of their achievements and not only those since their last appointment.Both the ministry and Croatian media highlighted changes that would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 years and allow part-time students 15 year rather than 10 years to finish their studies.The change to retirement age has been criticised for reinforcing a weakness in the system. According to Matko Marušić, professor emeritus at the University of Split, this will “allow unproductive teachers to advance and work longer, while hindering and discouraging productive ones.”A longtime campaigner for excellence-based meritocracy, he sees little hope in the new legislation. “I am not optimistic that things will improve,” he told Science Business. “As recent changes to the law in Croatia show, the legal framework is becoming increasingly hypocritical and harmful.”For Marušić, who analyses Croatia's university system in a recently published book, the situation is “unfavourable and constantly deteriorating” due to the criteria used for academic advancement.“The key criterion for advancement should be scientific productivity,” he said. “In Croatia [. . .] scientific criteria are increasingly lowered, and ineffective and absurd criteria such as waiting times for promotion and age limits for remaining in a job are promoted.” He would also like to see better criteria for the quality of teaching at universities. “In practice, teaching is not monitored or evaluated,” he said, estimating that up to a third of teaching simply does not take place. “Under the guise of university autonomy and bad laws, universities and faculties are allowed to earn additional money by increasing enrolment quotas that have nothing to do with the needs of the labour market.” Lack of ambitionDora Kršul, a reporter at Telegram.hr who covers science policy in Croatia, finds the rationale for changes “bizarre.” “The ministry responsible for supervising the uniform application of the law is changing the law because it is being implemented unevenly,” she said. “This primarily speaks to the power relationship in the sphere of science and higher education in Croatia, that is, the question arises as to who actually manages this system.”Rather than raising quality, she continued, the changes appear to be designed to help vocational and applied universities who have not been complying with the law.The Independent Union of Research and Higher Education Employees of Croatia said that the changes were “unambitious” and represent a missed opportunity for more important changes. “We think some of the changes are even negative,” it said in its statement on June 25. One of these is introduction of an “assistant” job title that allows people to be hired only for the duration of a project. Related articles: Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in researchSlovakia revises R&D approach to increase focus on competitivenessLatvia pilots citizen engagement in research grant evaluationsThe union’s president, Tvrtko Smital, who was part of the 15-member working group tasked with drafting the changes, told the local media there was a “worrying lack of ambition” in the process, and “lack of competence” in terms of research experience and understanding the problems in the system.“There is no clear will to deal with the problems,” said Smital, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb. “It’s a combination of unambitiousness and incompetence,” he went on, expressing his “deep frustration” with the situation. “There is no strategy, no clear thinking, and money is not being spent optimally.”Croatia’s science ministry has not responded to requests for comment.
Bonus 236: A Term of Self-Inflicted Wounds
Within minutes of the Supreme Court handing down the birthright citizenship ruling on Tuesday and rising for its summer recess, its defenders were pointing to that decision (alongside the late-arriving mail-in ballots ruling on Monday and the tariffs ruling from February) as decisive proof that the Court really is “above politics,” and that criticisms of the justices for behaving more like politicians in robes than like judges are thus unfair. For a particularly thoughtful version of this claim, see Professor Will Baude’s opening response to the latest New York Times written roundtable about the Court with Baude, Professor Kate Shaw, and me. In that roundtable, I already offered one of the two major arguments against this thesis—that it’s an assessment of the numerator without regard to the denominator, and that a full account of the Court’s behavior throughout OT2025 suggests that the Court behaved even more politically during the current term than during even the previous (highly politicized) one. Just to take one of many data points, last term (OT2024), there were six rulings in argued cases in which all six Republican-appointed justices were in the majority and all three of the Democratic appointees were in dissent (along with a slew of such rulings on the emergency docket). This term, there were … 13. (Along with two 6-3 summary reversals and 10 rulings on the emergency docket from which the three Democratic appointees all dissented.) Today’s bonus issue addresses the flip side of that coin. In particular, below the fold, I identify four different moments in which the justices could have acted in ways to specifically defuse charges of political behavior—and opted instead to lean all the way in. As much as end-of-term narratives focus on what the Court did, and on the takeaways from individual rulings, consider today’s post an attempt to identify opportunities that the Court missed, as well. At least in the examples discussed below, by opting for the outcome that made the Court look more transparently political, the Court inflicted a series of (unnecessary) credibility wounds on itself. For those who aren’t paid subscribers, we’ll be back Monday with our regular coverage of the Court. For those who are, please read on.
Does Trump Worry About Conflicts of Interest? ‘I Found Out That Nobody Cared.’
American presidents have generally tried to avoid appearing to profit from the office. President Trump has chosen a different path.
Vance and Rubio take different approaches as Iran tests their 2028 prospects
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches to carrying out President Donald Trump’s national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party.
WHO Health Emergencies EPI-WIN webinar: Strengthening the governance of national public health agencies for emergency preparedness and response
This webinar will provide a platform to present the main findings of the cross-country study on governance of National Public Health Agencies for emergency preparedness and response and bring country perspectives from different governance models on how governance arrangements shape emergency action in practice.
The Case for Performance-First Management
What began as a crisis-driven response to the Covid pandemic laid the foundation for today’s dominant management paradigm: people-first management. But today’s business demands a different approach, as performance and productivity have replaced engagement and retention atop the CEO agenda. Performance-first management represents a gentle shift toward an approach where managers empower their teams to deliver high-impact results within a complex and evolving reality. It keeps people at the center, but reorients the manager’s role around enabling performance, not just supporting satisfaction. Gartner research shows that managers who shift toward a performance-first approach are up to 21% more likely to deliver the business results that are expected of them. And employees who say that their managers are performance-first report higher overall satisfaction with their employee experience.
Wyoming Department of Health Warns Residents About Spoofing Calls
CHEYENNE, WY — The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is alerting residents to a recent phone scam where bad actors are “spoofing” official department phone numbers to solicit personal information. “Spoofing” is a form of scamming where a bad actor manipulates a caller ID to display a different phone number, often displaying the information of […]
Wimbledon: The Serena comeback was beautiful, thrilling and probably impossible
Four years after we last saw her on a singles court, it was hard to tell whether Williams' return to Wimbledon was the beginning of a new chapter or an attempt to author a different end.
Family keeps Nowata fireworks business open while owner recovers from serious injuries
For nearly four decades, Trinity Fireworks has been a family tradition in Nowata. This Fourth of July, that tradition is continuing, but under very different ci
Are the 49ers better or just a little bit different?
The 49ers added Mike Evans and Raheem Morris, but are they better?
The John Rogers Contrarian Playbook: How Envista, MSG Entertainment, and Smucker Stack Up for Retirement Investors
John Rogers built his fortune hunting unloved stocks that the market abandoned too soon, but three of his favorite contrarian bets look very different when filtered through the lens of retirement income and low volatility.
Goodman: He could have been an international spy, but chose a different path
The soccer culture of Birmingham, Alabama, that produced Chris Richards has an unlikely origin story.
Evidence points to potential new LCD screen for Nintendo Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 screen could be getting a revision, based on the latest evidence. On a Chinese resale site, a listing recently appeared for a a new model of the system’s LCD panel. Sharp would apparently behind the updated screen. The current Nintendo Switch 2 features a panel from Innolux. This new screen has a different circuit, connector, and...
Patriotic movies to stream to celebrate America's 250th birthday
Patriotism on screen comes in all different forms. It's politicians, athletes, soldiers, pilots, journalists — people from all walks of life, coming together in ordinary and extraordinary ways and making
She traveled to China to see family; different parenting styles
A visit home to China made Grace Cong Sui realize that the parenting habits she'd adopted in the US differed from those she grew up with.
She traveled to China to see family; different parenting styles
A visit home to China made Grace Cong Sui realize that the parenting habits she'd adopted in the US differed from those she grew up with.
Poll: Everyone has a different idea of what counts as MAHA
The POLITICO Poll shows that the Make America Healthy Again umbrella includes people with opposing ideologies and different politics.
‘Odyssey’ fever grips the Classics world
(CNN) — As fans of Christopher Nolan eagerly await the July 17 release of his take on “The Odyssey,” a different kind of enthusiast is also bristling with anticipation: scholars
Gunnar gives back: O's shortstop surprises local kid with specialized cleats
BALTIMORE -- The story of 11-year-old Declan Lefevre’s youth baseball career is inspirational. When Declan was about 4 years old, a doctor noticed his legs were different lengths. And it wasn’t something he would grow out of, either, which is something his parents -- father Jeff Lefevre and mother Nichole
Venezuela's quakes proved Android's earthquake alerts matter. What about iPhone?
The alert leans on a sensor you already carry, but Apple takes a different path.
"Playhouse For Predator": Epstein Used 'Fake' Science Office As Prison Escape
The Florida Science Foundation was presented as a legitimate organisation focused on supporting research. But a review by The Telegraph of more than 1,000 documents connected to the company painted a different picture.
So many colorful Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 bands leaked ahead of launch
Anyone opting for the new Galaxy Watch9 or the redesigned Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 after July 22 will be spoiled for choice. Lots and lots of watch bands in different styles and colors will be available from Samsung at launch, as roughly 60 images leaked in advance shows.
Supreme Court ruling on Roundup points to a confusing difference between the law and science
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Roundup shows science and law use the same word — causation — while asking different questions, writes epidemiologist.
In Trump’s America, two very different views of Christianity in politics emerge
Adherence to organized religion is falling in the United States, but defenders of the religious right are ascendant in positions of power in the Trump administration.
Driving A New Ford Mustang Mach-E After 5 Years Feels So Much Better
The 2026 Ford Mustang Mach-E isn't drastically different from its original 2021 version, but small improvements and a price dip make it a better EV purchase.
DNC plans weekend of local events to focus on affordability concerns under Trump
Two years ago, Democrats were the ones accused of being indifferent to Americans’ anger about rising prices. Now they're pointing the finger at Trump, who has downplayed the impact of lingering inflation.