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The infamous post-9/11 ad that reshaped Georgia politics and unseated a war hero

In the terror attacks’ emotional aftermath, a dispute over civil service rights was weaponized to frame a decorated veteran next to Osama bin Laden.

Sep 11 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • atlantanewsfirst.com

Probiotic Use Spikes In US, But No Improvement In Gut-Healthy Diet Habits

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Sept. 11, 2026 (HealthDay News) — The use of probiotic supplements has skyrocketed in the United States, but people’s pursuit of a healthy gut still doesn’t extend to their daily diet, a new study says. Probiotics increased by 287% among U.S. adults from ...

Sep 11 • 6:30 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Chris McDonald’s ‘unrelenting’ science focus raises concerns

Concern among senior arts and humanities leaders follows new science minister’s 'very odd' comments suggesting that he will exclusively make the case for science R&D

Sep 11 • 6:06 AM EDT • Science • timeshighereducation.com

9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think

Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all

Sep 11 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

"I don't think it's worth any amount of money" - Controversial real-life GTA 6 advertising campaign passed by City of Miami, but brand can only appear "discreetly"

A City Commission Meeting for Miami Beach has approved negotiations with Rockstar Games for an upcoming marketing campaign set in the seaside locale.

Sep 11 • 4:56 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Commentary: If we oppose puppy mills, why do they still exist?

A Massachusetts couple chose a breeder recommended by a friend. They received photos and videos of the puppy they wanted and paid a substantial amount for her, believing they had

Sep 11 • 4:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com

The haka, and the cultural battleground over sport’s most famous pre-match ritual

The All Blacks' ceremonial pre-game dance will be showcased in Baltimore tomorrow, and comes freighted with history - and controversy

Sep 11 • 12:30 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

Fact check: Trump, RFK Jr. and others make false claims on night 2 of GOP convention

(CNN) — President Donald Trump delivered another rapid-fire series of false claims on the second night of Republicans’ midterm convention on Thursday. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did his own barrage of wrongness. And various other speakers uttered statements that were untrue, misleading or missing critical context.Here is a fact check of some of the assertions from the final day of the convention. This is not intended as a comprehensive list of Thursday’s falsehoods.Trump’s many false claimsTrump made numerous false claims, some of which he also made in his longer speech Wednesday.Trump claimed that there were “no empty seats” in the Dallas arena as he spoke Thursday, which was visibly untrue. CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene, who was there, wrote in a live chat right after Trump made the claim that “I’m looking at rows of empty seats” and that “the idea that there are ‘no empty seats’ is just laughably untrue,” though she also said the room was mostly full. Trump has for years made false claims about supposedly never having had an empty seat.Trump further inflated one of his favorite fictional figures, claiming Thursday that “$22 trillion” in investment has come into the US; on Wednesday, he had put it at “over $20 trillion,” and even that lower figure has no apparent basis in reality. As of the time he spoke Thursday, the White House’s own website claimed there had been “$11.2 trillion” in “major investment announcements” this term, not “over $20 trillion,” and the White House figure was itself a major exaggeration of actual investment.Trump, talking about elections, lied that “there’s never been bigger cheaters” than Democrats; there is no basis for broadly describing Democrats as election cheaters. For the second straight night, Trump falsely claimed that the Biden administration allowed “25 million people” to pour into the country, though that number is nowhere close to correct. Trump again falsely claimed that former President Joe Biden and other Democrats “created the worst inflation in American history,” though even peak Biden-era inflation, 9.1% in June 2022, was far from the all-time record of 23.7%; it was a 40-year high, but the rate then fell sharply before Trump returned to office.Trump also baselessly claimed that Democrats would “defund the police” and give “voting rights and welfare to 25 million illegal aliens” if they won the midterms. Republicans will still control the White House in 2027 and 2028 and the president would be in position to veto any such changes if a Democratic-controlled Congress sought to make them, but there is no indication that Democrats want to do so. Also, even groups favoring strict immigration policies estimate that the total undocumented population is far less than “25 million” or even 20 million.As he did Wednesday, Trump claimed the US now has the world’s lowest prescription drug prices. The assertion is so broad that it is unclear what exactly Trump is referencing. But experts told CNN they highly doubt that the prices for brand-name drugs in the US are generally less than they are in other countries, and the Trump administration has not provided details to prove the claim.“It’s tough to claim that you’re getting the lowest prices anywhere in the world and then also not have any evidence to support that,” said Andrew Mulcahy, a senior health economist at RAND, while Diederik Stadig, senior healthcare economist at financial institution ING, said, “To say that the US now has the lowest drug prices in the world is at this moment not true.”And as he did Wednesday, Trump said “more Americans are working today than ever before” – which is true but nearly meaningless, since the number of people working in the US generally rises over time simply because the population rises over time.“There are more Americans working because there are more Americans. That’s the entire analysis,” Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, wrote in his newsletter in August.RFK Jr.’s false claims on the pandemic, Trump’s record and moreFalse claim about Democrats and the 2024 electionKennedy unsuccessfully ran for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination before withdrawing to run as an independent and then eventually endorsing Republican candidate Donald Trump. In Kennedy’s Thursday convention speech, he complained of how the Democrats handled the nomination race.At one point, he said, “For the first time in history, they cancelled their own convention. No voter ever cast a primary ballot for Kamala Harris, no elected delegate was ever consulted; the party of ‘No Kings’ simply anointed a queen.”Kennedy is entitled to express unhappiness about how quickly Democratic leaders coalesced around then-Vice President Harris after Biden unexpectedly dropped out of the race in July 2024, after the primaries were over and less than four months from Election Day. But it’s not true that the party canceled its convention or that delegates didn’t get any say.The convention was held; it was a four-day event in Chicago in August 2024. Democratic convention delegates officially nominated Harris in a virtual roll call vote in advance of the convention. It’s true that Harris was the only candidate on the roll call ballot, but that’s because she was the only candidate who gathered enough delegate signatures to appear on the ballot.It’s clear that party elites’ backing of Harris played a key role in the unusual nomination process. But Kennedy’s specific allegations that the convention was abandoned and delegates were cut out of the process are not true.False claim that Democrats closed ‘every church’ during the Covid-19 pandemicWhile attacking Democrats, Kennedy claimed that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, “They closed every church in our country for a year.”It’s not true that every church in the country was closed for a year, nor even that every church in a Democratic state was closed for a year.Every state issued some type of guidance or order about social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, but many states – including some led by Democrats and some led by Republicans – incorporated religious exemptions into those limitations on social interactions.According to a Pew Research Center analysis from April 2020, 15 states allowed religious gatherings to continue without a limit on their size. That set of states included Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which all had Democratic governors. And at least two states with Republican governors, Alaska and Idaho, were among the states that prohibited religious gatherings at least briefly.False claim that Trump ‘ended nine wars’Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has ended “eight wars.” Kennedy went one higher on Thursday, declaring, “President Trump has ended nine wars.”That’s false. Trump hasn’t even ended eight wars.Trump’s list of eight includes two situations that were never actually wars during his tenure: a diplomatic dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia and a mysterious supposed situation between Serbia and Kosovo. The list also includes a war, involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that hasn’t actually ended despite a peace agreement brokered by the Trump administration.In addition, the list includes the war between Israel and Hamas, but Israel continues to conduct frequent attacks in Gaza despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement. And it includes the brief 2025 conflict between Israel and Iran, though Israel proceeded to join the US in starting another war against Iran in 2026.Claim about reversing a decline in longevityKennedy speaking of the Trump administration, claimed Thursday: “We have now reversed a 30-year decline in longevity. “Kennedy referenced preliminary data that he said he had received from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, but it’s unclear what metric of longevity he’s referring to.CDC data shows that US life expectancy had been steadily increasing for decades before a sharp drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. Life expectancy had already started to rebound in 2022, under the Biden administration, and reached a new record high in 2024 before Trump’s second term began.Preliminary data shared by the CDC in July suggests that life expectancy probably hit another record high in 2025.CNN has reached out to HHS for clarification on Kennedy’s comments.Claim that Democrats ‘lost 360,000 children’Speaking about Democrats, Kennedy said: “They somehow lost 360,000 children and they turned our federal government into the biggest child trafficking operation in world history.”Trump and other Republicans have made similar claims. But there’s no basis for the assertion that Democrats “lost” so many children or that the federal government was engaged in human trafficking.A 2024 report from the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement had reported that more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children failed to appear as scheduled for immigration court hearings after being released or transferred out of custody between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 – a period that, notably, includes two years and four months under the first Trump administration. The report also said that 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children during this period were not given notices to appear in court.The report said that ICE had “no assurances” these children “are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” But it did not say all the children were actually “lost” and did not definitively assert that any of them were trafficked – let alone that the government was somehow involved in a trafficking operation. And, again, the report spanned parts of both a Republican administration and a Democratic administration.Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told CNN in 2024: “Long story short, no, there are not 320,000 kids missing. 32,000 kids missed court. That doesn’t mean they’re missing, it means they missed court (either because their sponsor didn’t bring them or they are teenagers who didn’t want to show up). The remaining 291,000 cases mentioned by the (Office of the Inspector General) are cases where ICE hasn’t filed the paperwork to start their immigration court cases.”Vance on inflation, crime and taxes on Social SecurityA false claim about the media and Biden-era inflationVice President JD Vance mocked the media during part of his speech on Thursday. But he made a false claim about Biden-era inflation while lampooning how the media supposedly challenged him over another false claim on that subject.Vance said: “The president and I would go during a campaign, we’d say, ‘You know, inflation is as high as it’s been in 100 years,’ and the fake news would say, ‘No, no, no, it’s as high as it’s been in 68 years.’ That ain’t good, ladies and gentlemen.”Mainstream journalists, at least, wouldn’t say that inflation under Biden was as high as it had been “in 68 years.” Rather, CNN and others noted that peak inflation under the Biden administration, 9.1% in June 2022, was the highest in about 40 years.Vance is entitled to make his general point that this correction still doesn’t make Biden-era inflation sound good, but his specific number was, again, wrong. And he didn’t acknowledge that inflation fell sharply under Biden after hitting the 40-year high, declining to 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump and Vance were inaugurated.The rate was 3.4% in July 2026, the most recent month for which data is available.Trump didn’t end taxes on Social SecurityVance claimed, “We’ve ended taxes on Social Security.” Several other convention speakers, including Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania and Ohio House candidate Derek Merrin, similarly said the administration has achieved “no tax on Social Security.”It hasn’t. The big domestic policy bill Trump signed in 2025 did create an additional, temporary $6,000-per-year tax deduction for individuals age 65 and older (which phases out for individuals earning $75,000 per year or more), but as the White House has implicitly acknowledged, millions of Social Security recipients will continue to pay taxes on their benefits even before the temporary new deduction expires after 2028.The Social Security Administration said in 2025 that “the bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.Claim about violent crime rate under BidenWhile criticizing the Biden administration, Vice President JD Vance claimed Thursday that the US “became a country where violent crime exploded, unless, of course, you could afford private security.”But violent crime did not explode under Biden. In fact, as FactCheck.org reported last month, data collected and published by the FBI shows that the national violent crime rate was at a lower level in 2023 and 2024, the last two full calendar years of Biden’s term, than it was in 2020, the last full calendar year of Trump’s first term. The year 2020 was highly unusual in many ways – violent crime jumped amid the Covid-19 pandemic – but Biden nonetheless left office with violent crime lower than it was when he took over. In fact, the 2024 violent crime rate was even lower than the 2019 rate under Trump before the pandemic.There was an increase in violent crime during the earlier part of Biden’s term. But given the subsequent decline, it’s misleading at best to claim violent crime “exploded” with no further context.Asked earlier this month about Trump’s similar previous claims to have reversed a Biden-era upswing in violence, crime data expert Jeff Asher said in an email: “No, crime began dropping significantly in 2023 during the Biden administration. Murder fell at record rates in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and, while 2026 may not feature a record decline nationally, it is still on track to see a sizable double-digit decline this year. Violent crime similarly fell nationally in 2023 and 2024, though the drops were more muted than the decline that was recorded by the FBI in 2025.”Other GOP speakersMike Johnson’s false claim about the inflation Republicans inherited from BidenSome other speakers at the convention took aim at inflation under Biden. House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that “Republicans inherited from the Biden administration record-high inflation.”That’s not true. The inflation rate was 2.9% in Biden’s last full month in office, December 2024, and 3.0% in January 2025, when Trump took over. That’s lower than the most recent rate, 3.4% in July 2026, and nowhere close to the all-time record of 23.7%, which was reached in 1920, or the highest point of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, 14.8%, which was reached in 1980.Johnson correctly said moments later that inflation reached “a 40-year high of 9.1% inflation” under Biden. But a 40-year high is not an all-time record. More importantly, Johnson didn’t explain that 9.1% was much higher than the rate Trump inherited or that the 9.1% rate occurred in June 2022, with roughly two-and-a-half years left in Biden’s term.The cumulative increase in prices from the beginning of the Biden administration to the end was also not the highest in US history. Federal figures show that beginning-to-end inflation under Biden was less than half of that during Carter’s term.What Johnson left out of his claim about a congressional resolutionWhile attacking Democrats as extreme, Johnson said: “Just last week, nearly every Democrat in the House of Representatives voted against condemning socialism and Marxism. They voted against it.”But the resolution didn’t use the word “Marxism.” And Johnson didn’t mention that the resolution wasn’t only about condemning socialism. Rather, it contained other language that Democratic leadership said was the focus of the party’s opposition to the resolution.The resolution’s first provision said it “condemns and denounces socialism in all its forms, including the Democratic Socialists of America, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.” But its fifth provision said it “calls for enactment of the SAVE America Act,” Trump’s favored elections bill, which contains various provisions opposed by many Democrats.So while it’s very possible many Democrats would have opposed the resolution even without its expression of support for the SAVE America Act, the call to pass this elections bill served as a poison pill that ensured most Democrats wouldn’t support it.“House Resolution 1490 explicitly calls for enactment of the so-called SAVE America Act, which is the top legislative priority of far-right extremists,” Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement last week.A New Mexico candidate left out key context in an attack on his opponentGreg Cunningham, a Republican House candidate in New Mexico, used some of his Thursday speech to criticize his Democratic opponent, Rep. Gabe Vasquez. Cunningham said of Vasquez: “He even voted against a resolution honoring the sacrifices and service of the brave men and women in law enforcement who protect, every day, our communities.”But Cunningham left out important context about the resolution. While its focus was expressing support for law enforcement, its preamble contained statements praising the Trump administration and criticizing “leftist activists,” “progressive politicians” and “sanctuary city policies” for allegedly making law enforcement less safe.In other words, a House member might vote against such a resolution, as the vast majority of Democrats did, because they disagreed with conservative components of it, not the general expressions of support for law enforcement. (CNN has reached out to Vasquez’s campaign and House office for comment on his vote.) It’s common for parties to write resolutions in a way that would make it difficult for opponents to support but would open those opponents to campaign attacks if they voted “no.”An Ohio candidate’s misleading attack about Democrats and votingMerrin, the Republican candidate running against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur for a House seat in Ohio, claimed in his speech, “While Democrats talk about letting illegal immigrants vote in our election, Republicans fight for proof of citizenship, photo ID and fair elections.”It’s a big country, so it’s possible some Democrat somewhere is talking about letting undocumented people vote in some election. But Merrin’s claim is misleading at best. There is no proposal from Democrats in Congress to let undocumented people vote in the 2026 midterms – the election Merrin appeared to be referring to when he said “our election” – or vote in future federal elections.CNN has reached out to Merrin’s campaign for an explanation of his claim.House Majority Leader Steve Scalise invoked a similar theme in his speech Wednesday, claiming that Democrats had voted last week “to allow illegals to vote in our federal elections.” But there was no congressional vote on letting undocumented immigrants vote in any elections.Rather, there was a vote on the non-binding Republican resolution that included multiple provisions, including one that “reiterates the notion that American elections are for American citizens only,” one supporting Trump’s favored elections bill and one denouncing socialism.Opposing that multi-clause resolution doesn’t necessarily mean someone supports voting by any non-citizens, let alone non-citizens in the country illegally.This article has been updated with additional items.CNN’s Deja Oliver contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Sep 10 • 9:46 PM EDT • Politics • applevalleynewsnow.com

Analysis identifies sharply different health risks among medicinal, recreational and dual cannabis users

With recreational cannabis now legal in 24 states, including Delaware, the number of users is rising. But not all cannabis users look alike or face the same health concerns. Most published research compares ...

Sep 10 • 7:40 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com

The surprising reason one of science’s most famous creations was named after Dolly Parton

scientific history

Sep 10 • 7:15 PM EDT • Science • hola.com

The surprising reason one of science’s most famous creations was named after Dolly Parton

The unusual connection created an enduring link between two very different Dollys

Sep 10 • 7:15 PM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Tencent Music Entertainment Group Announces Closing of US$1,000 Million Notes Offering

Tencent Music Entertainment Group ("TME," or the "Company") (NYSE: TME and HKEX: 1698), the leading all-in-one music and audio entertainment platform in China, today announced the closing of its public offering of US$1,000 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes consisting of US$500 million of 5.050% notes due 2031 and US$500 million of 5.650% notes due 2036. The notes have been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and are expected to be listed on Th

Sep 10 • 7:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

The Not-So-Secret Winner in Netflix and YouTube’s Streaming Wars Battle

(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.) Here’s a good piece of advice: when someone tells you a company has “won” the streaming wars, just assume they haven’t. Remember the narratives about the streaming media over the last few years: 2024 - Netflix has won the streaming wars! 2025 - YouTube has won the streaming wars! Yet…in 2026, I’d categorize it as… 2026 - Netflix and YouTube are battling for talent! Netflix and YouTube are aggressively fighting for top creators, marking a fierce new battle in the streaming wars. For two companies that “won”, that certainly doesn’t seem like winning behavior. If you win, you don’t have to fight for talent, because talent has to come to you. This is a good reminder that, if the streaming wars are a war—and I think they are—we should know what type of war they are. So it’s worth revisiting one of my big theories of the streaming wars, that the war these battles most represent is… The Thirty Years’ War1 I prefer this war to other, simpler wars, because, while it featured two “sides”—based on religion—and the current war has two main sides—tech versus entertainment—it also featured a lot of smaller players battling it out, sometimes switching sides. And that’s still the case for entertainment and media, despite the above headlines. I’d recommend this truism: if someone has to tell you they won the streaming wars, they probably haven’t. To wit, if someone told you they were fighting in the Thirty Years’ War—and no, they didn’t call it that at the time—and in year five, they told you they won, well, obviously they had 25 more years to go. That’s a lot of preamble to say, the story of the week is the latest battles between YouTube and Netflix. Their battle for talent says a lot about how hard this war will be to win. All that, plus The Curse of the Mogul in action, Netflix providing more (theatrical) data, whether Apple TV is in trouble, AMC getting in on distribution, and a whole lot more. Subscribe Today’s article is sponsored by… Substack is hosting a live Emmys watch party, starting at 5PM on the East Coast (2PM on the West Coast) on Monday, 14-Sep. Check it out! Tune In Most Important Story of the Week - Who’s the Big Winner in the Netflix vs YouTube Showdown? Netflix spent a lot in 2025, and then even more in 2026 adding a host of “creators”—both podcasters and YouTube stars—to their TV lineup. Frankly, for years, I’ve thought that more major studios/streamers/channels should look to YouTube as the launching pad for future stars and IP. Either by poaching proven talent—albeit at good prices—or by treating YouTube as an arena for your “A&R” reps to scout new talent and emerging voices. Netflix started executing the former strategy—which I thought was smart—while Focus Features did the latter with Obsession. So what changed? YouTube finally responded! Yikes. That’s a strong response, and stronger than I’d argue most narratives about YouTube suggest. People often describe YouTube as a self-reinforcing flywheel of success. Get on YouTube or perish. So why did YouTube have to respond? Because other folks poaching their top talent could really damage their business, implying their flywheel is a pinch more rickety than most analysis suggests. Clearly, creators can envision a life off YouTube and potentially a much more lucrative one. The Curse of the Media Mogul is Playing Out In Real Time 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… Who is the big winner in the Netflix versus YouTube battle… The biggest question about YouTube… Plus why YouTube’s saber rattling should worry talent… Why I’m skeptical that a U.S. federal tax credit for film will happen… What key change could pull Apple from the streaming business. AMC getting in on distribution… Some great reads on the Warner Bros.-Paramount merger... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.

Sep 10 • 5:34 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Inside the Republican Midterm Convention, Where It Was ‘Trump-a-Palooza’

Amid the glitz, glamour and party atmosphere of an unusual midterm convention in Dallas, the president boasted of his accomplishments, predicted Republican victories and all but ignored the daunting political landscape his party faces this fall.

Sep 10 • 5:26 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

200,000 Salvadoran immigrants hope for protection amid Trump administration silence

A deadline for the Trump administration to decide whether about 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador can remain protected from deportation has passed without any public announcement, raising hopes among many for another six-month extension while also sowing confusion.

Sep 10 • 5:19 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Man Utd outclass Sabah on Champions League return

Manchester United cruised to a 4-0 win on their return to the Champions League for the first time in three seasons as Azerbaijani champions Sabah were taught a lesson on their debut among Europe's elite on Thursday.For coach Valdas Dambrauskas it was a return to Old Trafford after his fairytale rise to the Champions League began with a role at Manchester United Soccer Schools, while working several part-time jobs just to make ends meet.

Sep 10 • 5:01 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

These Manitowoc-area food and drink business made changes in 2026

Will Manitowoc get Chick-fil-A soon? Did Diablos Taqueria close? These are among Manitowoc area business changes during 2026.

Sep 10 • 5:01 PM EDT • Business • htrnews.com

Three Kern Students Named Among Nation’s Top 300 Young Scientists

Three Kern County students are among the nation’s top young scientists after being selected as Top 300 Junior Innovators in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators

Sep 10 • 4:46 PM EDT • Science • news.kern.org

Humans experimented with drugs 23,000 years earlier than we thought

Betel nut use among hunter-gatherers may turn back the clock.

Sep 10 • 2:21 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com

URI study reveals how waist size and body mass index are associated with mortality in older adults

KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 10, 2026 – A longitudinal study led by University of Rhode Island researchers found that waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) provide distinct and complementary information about mortality risk among older adults. Previous studies examining BMI among older adults have produced seemingly conflicting findings regarding mortality risk. This study used […]

Sep 10 • 2:21 PM EDT • Health • uri.edu

Platinum chemotherapy may cause decades' worth of DNA changes in children's healthy cells

The amount of DNA damage caused by certain chemotherapies used to effectively treat childhood cancer has been revealed, along with a hidden impact on the liver, paving the way for future research into ...

Sep 10 • 2:00 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com

Scientists are tracking a massive algae bloom moving through the Chesapeake Bay

The bloom has “caused quite a stir” among officials who research the issue.

Sep 10 • 11:59 AM EDT • Science • whro.org

The Four-Color Theorem Gets a Rare New Proof

By revisiting the famous problem — which was controversially solved in the 1970s with the help of computers — mathematicians have gained important new insights into the nature of graphs.

Sep 10 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • quantamagazine.org

Diamondbacks top prosect Demetrio Cristantes to play in fall league

Demetrio Crisantes will play for the Salt River Rafters this fall after reaching the Diamondbacks' Triple-A squad this season at 22 years old.

Sep 10 • 10:23 AM EDT • Sports • arizonasports.com

New leaders emerge in Rhode Island as old guard falls in primary upsets

Taken together, the results amounted to a seismic shift in Rhode Island politics – a rejection of some of the state’s most established political figures and a striking signal that the electorate is ready for something new.

Sep 10 • 9:24 AM EDT • Politics • bostonglobe.com

Jaclyn Smith and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ costars declined to pose nude in ‘Hustler’ for an eye-popping amount of money

‘Charlie’s Angels’ star Jaclyn Smith writes in her book that she and costars Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson were once offered big bucks to pose nude.

Sep 10 • 9:20 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Recognizing suicide warning signs in children and teens

Suicide among teens has been on the rise for more than two decades. Learn what parents can do to support a young person's mental health.

Sep 10 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • news.sanfordhealth.org

Tracey Wallace Honored Among Dallas’ 2026 Women in Business

Spencer Fane is pleased to announce Tracey Wallace as part of Dallas Business Journal’s 2026 Women in Business class. Selected from over 200 nominations,

Sep 10 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • spencerfane.com

The 6 Best Science Fantasy Movies Released Since 2020, Ranked

Poor Things, Everything Everywhere all at Once and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein are among the best science fantasy movies released since 2020.

Sep 10 • 8:17 AM EDT • Science • collider.com

Scientists uncover 149 species new to science on ancient Indian Ocean seamounts near Australia

Researchers examining ancient underwater volcanoes identified 149 species never before described by science in the Indian Ocean near Australia.

Sep 10 • 8:15 AM EDT • Science • thecooldown.com

Scientists uncover 149 species new to science on ancient Indian Ocean seamounts near Australia

"People had been around the islands in shallow water before, but no one had looked at life in the deep."

Sep 10 • 8:15 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

EDM and Business Dynamo Deadmau5 Signs With Independent Artist Group (EXCLUSIVE)

Canadian electronic musician Deadmau5 has signed with Independent Artist Group for representation in all areas across music, film, television, digital content, gaming and technology and intellectual p...

Sep 10 • 8:15 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com

Como 1907: The Italian Club That Barely Feels Italian Anymore

When Como 1907 walk out for their first-ever Champions League match against RB Leipzig on Thursday, they’ll do so as a club that has rewritten its identity almost completely. Founded in 1907 on the shores of one of Italy’s most famous lakes, the team now fields a squad so international that many Italians complain it […] The post Como 1907: The Italian Club That Barely Feels Italian Anymore appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 10 • 7:01 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

'This is the Liverpool we want to see'

Atletico Madrid were impressive and we managed to overcome them with a mixture of skill and intensity, and as for entertainment, both teams provided an endless amount over the 90 minutes. Kate: This is the Liverpool we want to see. Mac Allister's goal was sublime.

Sep 10 • 6:41 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Aflac President: why AI shouldn’t drive your healthcare

Among Gen Z adults, 76% turn to AI before seeing a doctor. Among millennials, it's 63%.

Sep 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • fortune.com

Special interests spend millions boosting Becerra in governor's race

Companies and special interest groups with some of the diciest issues expected to land on California's next governor's desk are among the top financial backers of Democrat Xavier Becerra, the gubernatorial front runner.

Sep 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • latimes.com

Singapore PM defends political pay hike as 'responsible course to take'

Singapore's prime minister said on Thursday he deliberated "long and hard" over an increase in ministerial and lawmakers' salaries, already among the highest in the world, but felt it was necessary to attract talent into government ranks.

Sep 10 • 5:59 AM EDT • Politics • reuters.com

Upstate health providers land $76M via federal rural help program

The funding is part of program aimed at improving access to services and coordination among health systems and other providers in remote parts of the state.

Sep 10 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • crainsnewyork.com

Diamond Research Scholars explore big questions across science, medicine and the arts

As the fall semester begins, Diamond Research Scholars are continuing research projects that explore everything from science and medicine to art and animation.

Sep 10 • 5:13 AM EDT • Science • now.temple.edu

My Science Job: Christian Thompson's resume includes designs for space gear

Christian Thompson, Quinsigamond Community College alum, struggled academically until a professor turned him toward manufacturing technology. He went on to design spacesuits at David Clark.

Sep 10 • 5:01 AM EDT • Science • telegram.com

Amount wagered in Missouri sports betting fell in July, despite World Cup in Kansas City

One sports market analyst said he was surprised that the FIFA World Cup, for which Kansas City was a host city in June and July, didn't drive more wagers.

Sep 10 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • kcur.org

6 in 10 young people have confidence in politics, interest has increased

Political engagement has increased significantly over the past few years, particularly among younger people.

Sep 10 • 12:30 AM EDT • Politics • cbs.nl

CEO politics may shape how companies compete

Decisions such as whether to cut prices, launch a product, open a new facility or make an acquisition are among those companies that consider in pursuit of a competitive edge. New research from Texas ...

Sep 9 • 9:00 PM EDT • Politics • phys.org

Viewpoint: Unlocking Europe’s wildfire data

Europe is already investing in the science, technology and infrastructure needed to understand, prevent and fight wildfires. Copernicus provides satellite-based Earth observation and environmental information, while the European Forest Fire Information System provides information on fire danger and forest fires across Europe. Weather and climate systems add forecasts of heat, drought, wind and humidity; historical fire databases show where fires have occurred; and researchers generate increasingly detailed knowledge about fuels, fire behaviour, forecasting, modelling and risk management. Meanwhile, new European research projects are adding digital twins and other tools to this growing ecosystem.However, these data do not necessarily sit together, nor are they necessarily described, structured or governed in ways that allow them to be used together. Much of the information is public, but some is commercially held. Some is sensitive. Some is subject to legal, security or operational restrictions. Even when data can be legally accessed, different systems may use different formats, terminology and rules.Europe therefore faces an unusual paradox: we have vast amounts of relevant information to respond to the wildfire challenge, but not the means to bring it together. For example, a wildfire researcher or emergency service might need to ask whether a particular combination of vegetation, drought, wind and topography has historically been associated with rapid fire spread. The relevant information may exist in several institutions, using different systems and subject to different conditions of access.The challenge is to conduct an authorised analysis that interacts with these sources, combines the results and respects the rules imposed by each data custodian.An important part of the answer can be found in the Fair principles, the idea that data should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Developed more than a decade ago, these principles have become a central reference point for modern data stewardship, making it easier for people and machines to find data, understand what it means and determine whether it can be reused.Readability by machines is essential, since AI systems will be key to meeting the data challenge. Bring analysis to the dataThe proposition is not to give an AI system unrestricted access to sensitive databases. Quite the opposite. The goal is to make it possible for approved algorithms to go to the data, rather than requiring sensitive data or large datasets to be copied to wherever the analysis happens.Imagine an analysis asking a series of questions of different data stations. At one station it might examine weather and climate data; at another, historical fire records; at another, experimental measurements of fire behaviour. The algorithm does not need to download everything. It can operate within the environment permitted by each data custodian and return only the results that the rules allow to leave.This is sometimes described as data visiting, and related approaches already exist in areas such as federated analysis and federated learning.Sensitive data should therefore not be treated as a free-for-all for machines. This requires appropriate governance at multiple levels. Access needs to be authenticated and authorised. The purpose of an analysis should be defined. The code or model being run should be controlled. Data custodians should be able to specify what can be queried and what results can leave their environment. Activities should be auditable and human oversight should remain where the consequences require it.In other words, the objective is not to trust AI with the data. It is to design systems in which AI never has more access than it needs.As open as possible, as closed as necessaryFair data should also not be confused with open data. Some wildfire data should be openly available. Other information may legitimately need to remain restricted because it concerns critical infrastructure, security, commercial interests, privacy or operational capabilities. The principle should be: as open as possible, as closed as necessary.The important point is that restricted data should not automatically become unusable data. If machines can discover what information exists, understand its meaning, establish where it came from and determine the conditions under which it can be used, authorised analyses can potentially be carried out without the underlying data ever leaving the environment in which it is protected.Restricted data can still be Fair and machine-actionable.This is also an important question of data sovereignty. European institutions should not have to surrender control of their data to a handful of technology platforms in order to benefit from AI. Nor does Europe need to start again by building one giant repository for every piece of wildfire information. The better approach is to connect what already exists.This is the principle behind emerging approaches such as Tryangle, developed through the Leiden Initiative for Fair and Equitable Science. Rather than creating another centralised data warehouse, the approach seeks to provide an interoperable layer through which approved algorithms can visit distributed data sources while respecting the rules of their custodians.In this way, a data station can remain where it is. Its custodians can retain control. Existing databases and applications do not have to be abandoned. What changes is their ability to communicate with other systems through common, machine-readable descriptions, access rules and interoperability mechanisms.But approaches like this need data that meets the Fair principles. Only then can an interoperable ecosystem safely begin to turn fragmented information into collective intelligence.Data infrastructure is wildfire infrastructureThe implications of this approach are entirely practical. Firefighters could gain better intelligence about local and evolving risks. Land managers could test prevention strategies using more comprehensive information about fuels, weather and past fires. Researchers could compare evidence across ecosystems without repeatedly moving huge datasets between institutions. Smaller regions and resource-constrained teams could access analytical capabilities without having to build large data infrastructures themselves.Europe is already investing heavily in satellites, databases, research programmes, forecasting systems and scientific expertise. The question is whether we will connect those investments well enough to turn them into actionable intelligence.That requires policymakers and funders to treat data infrastructure as seriously as physical infrastructure. Data generated or supported through European public funding should be Fair, verifiable and machine actionable by design, wherever legally and ethically possible.Related articlesData Corner: Europe’s burning need for wildfire mitigation researchClimate monitoring must remain a global enterprise, experts sayIn practice, that means funding not only the production of data, but also the infrastructure that makes data usable across systems: metadata, provenance, interoperability, access mechanisms and governance. Where data must remain restricted, we should ensure that it can still be securely discovered, verified and used for authorised analysis.Initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud offer an existing framework through which these principles can be put into practice. What is needed now is to accelerate implementation and make them a standard part of how Europe funds and builds research and innovation systems.We do not need another generation of disconnected databases. The data is already there. The opportunity is to make it work together, securely, responsibly and quickly enough to help prevent the next fire, rather than simply document the last one.Jean-Claude Burgelman is professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and editor-in-chief at Frontiers Policy Lab. For more than 20 years he held leading roles in research and innovation policy at the European Commission.

Sep 9 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

Rhode Island could see a political wipeout next week

If Governor Dan McKee, Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, and Mayor Brett Smiley all were to fall, it would amount to an unprecedented upending of Rhode Island’s political establishment, and a massive rebuke that could signal a significant shift in the state’s political landscape.

Sep 9 • 7:53 PM EDT • Politics • bostonglobe.com

Week 1 inactives for Patriots

Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson among players ruled out for opener

Sep 9 • 7:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Mikel Arteta Names Kevin De Bruyne Among Best Midfielders Ever

Mikel Arteta worked with Kevin De Bruyne for more than three years at Manchester City before taking charge of Arsenal, and remains a huge admirer of the Napoli midfielder.

Sep 9 • 7:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Trump’s Census Overhaul Would Exclude Some Immigrants and Remove Questions on Race

The proposals for 2030 are among significant changes that would upend a process for helping allot congressional seats and shape policies that address disparities.

Sep 9 • 6:42 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

Royals vs. Diamondbacks September 9th game discussion

Royals trying to salvage one in the series while the Diamond cling to the final NL Wildcard

Sep 9 • 6:40 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Wednesday injury report for Saints

Saints DE Cameron Jordan among three to miss practice

Sep 9 • 6:08 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Florida cracks CBS Sports' power rankings after Week 1 win

The Florida Gators' 66-21 rout of the FAU Owls earned them a spot among the top 25 teams in CBS Sports' college football power rankings after Week 1.

Sep 9 • 4:45 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Rafa Leao thanks Ruben Amorim for helping with Milan exit

Serie A side Milan finally managed to move on from Rafael Leao late in the summer transfer window, as Galatasaray signed him. The attacker has already made his debut for the Turkish side and has now o...

Sep 9 • 4:05 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Two Duke basketball teams named among the greatest sports teams of all-time

Two Duke basketball teams were recently recognized among the greatest North American sports teams in history.

Sep 9 • 3:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Mental Health Board faces forks in the road - Illinois Times, the capital city's weekly source of news, politics, arts, entertainment, culture

Some community members, including the former Massey Commission’s managing director, say the inaugural Sangamon County Mental Health Board has to better address the communities it is attempting to support if the board wants to be successful. Since the Mental Health Board began meeting monthly at the end of May, some of the specific asks have […]

Sep 9 • 3:05 PM EDT • Health • illinoistimes.com

Amon-Ra St. Brown Has High Praise for Jahmyr Gibbs

Amon-Ra St. Brown told Good Morning Football the Lions are spoiled to have Jahmyr Gibbs. #Lions

Sep 9 • 2:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

How serious is Corbin Carroll’s back injury after concerning update?

KANSAS CITY – Surviving the final weeks of the season without Corbin Carroll could be a recipe for disaster for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Only time will tell how serious Carroll’s back injury is, but the recent update isn’t a good one.

Sep 9 • 1:25 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

25 years later, 9/11 health crisis continues on Long Island

The 9/11 health crisis on Long Island persists with rising cancer cases and ongoing mental health impacts among responders and families; an online oral history project preserves their stories

Sep 9 • 12:09 PM EDT • Health • libn.com

Where do Chargers stand among the AFC? NFL executives answer

See where the Chargers stand in The Athletic's AFC rankings ahead of the 2026 season.

Sep 9 • 11:49 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

'Toy Story 5' Secures Third Consecutive No.1 on Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Sept. 9

Disney/Lucasfilm’s Toy Story 5 continues its winning streak on the Official Film Chart, securing a third consecutive week at No 1 on the weekly U.K. home entertainment sales chart through Sept. 9. There were no chart changes among the top six from the previous week. Universal’s Obsession remained at No. 2 in its 10th week … Continue reading "‘Toy Story 5’ Secures Third Consecutive No.1 on Weekly U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through Sept. 9"

Sep 9 • 11:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • mediaplaynews.com

Diamondbacks release former Twins, Phillies .736 OPS outfielder

This comes as no surprise for the Diamondbacks.

Sep 9 • 10:29 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Health Plans Have the SDoH Data. New Research Shows only 7% are Highly Effective at Using It.

Health plans are collecting significant amounts of social drivers of health (SDoH) data, but only few believe they are highly effective at turning that information into action, according to new research from national health care consultancy Sage Growth Partners. Sage's survey of 50 health plan leaders found that 60% collect SDoH screening data, yet just 7% describe their organizations as "very effective" at acting on that information.

Sep 9 • 10:15 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com

Paramount Business Jets Named Best Luxury Private Aviation Company in the USA for 2026

Luxury Lifestyle Awards recognizes Paramount Business Jets for excellence in private aviation and its longstanding commitment to safety, transparency and personalized service Richard Zaher, Founder and CEO of Paramount Business Jets. Paramount Business Jets was named Best Luxury Private Aviation Company in the USA for 2026 by Luxury Lifestyle Awards. Photo courtesy of Paramount Business Jets. ASHBURN, Va., Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paramount Business Jets, an award-winning global privat

Sep 9 • 10:10 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

Suicide-Related ER Visits In Children Rise, But Many Hospitals Lack Specialized Mental Health Care

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterWEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) — ER visits by children suffering suicide-related crises jumped before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study says. Emergency department visits among children involving self-harm or suicide rose by 74% between 2016 ...

Sep 9 • 9:30 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com

The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity

Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026

Sep 9 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • ourpublicservice.org

The Cost of Cutting American Science: How Federal Cuts Diminish Public Health Capacity

Among the federal government’s many responsibilities is the work it does to protect public health. Federal agencies monitor our food supply to ensure safety, conduct research to better understand emerging health threats, provide funding for public health programs in communities and work to detect and respond to disease outbreaks. Americans rely on these efforts every day—in a 2024 online survey, 74% of respondents said that “if the federal government issued safety guidance about food you eat regularly,” they would follow it. Changes to Federal Public Health Capacity The Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have resulted in significant impacts on our nation’s public health capacity over the past 20 months, affecting the response to health concerns such as measles, Ebola and cyclosporiasis. Agencies with core public health, food safety and disease prevention responsibilities experienced large workforce decreases during the first year of the administration. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, the workforce in February 2026 was 26.7% smaller than in September 2024 before the start of the Trump administration. The Food and Drug Administration saw a similarly steep decline of 21.6%. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Food Safety and Inspection Service also experienced large workforce decreases. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); Changes can also be seen in crucial public health occupations. The number of federal food inspectors, for example, decreased by more than half between September 2024 and February 2026, going from 1,035 to 473. This is the lowest number of food inspectors employed by the federal government since at least 2005. By February 2026, there were also 33.3% fewer federal public health program specialists, whose work includes advising federal funding recipients on public health activities and analyzing the effectiveness of public health programs. Government’s capacity is diminished as employees with specialized knowledge and experience in protecting the public and responding to health risks depart, leaving agencies less prepared to carry out their public health missions. There also have been vacancies in critical high-level leadership positions at public health agencies, most notably at the CDC, which had a permanent Senate-confirmed director for less than a month between January 2025 and early August 2026. Although the CDC has previously been led by acting directors at the start of an administration, the nearly yearlong gap since the departure of the administration’s first permanent director in August 2025 is without precedent. As of August 2026, the FDA is also currently without a Senate-confirmed commissioner following the previous commissioner’s resignation in May 2026. Additionally, public health agencies are experiencing increased politicization of their leadership ranks. In agencies such as the CDC and Food Safety and Inspection Service, the number of individuals in the Senior Executive Service—the most senior career leaders in government—has declined significantly, while at the same time the number of political appointees has reached record levels. (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); (function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})(); At the CDC, for example, the number of career SES decreased 42.9% between December 2024 and February 2026, while the number of non-Senate confirmed political appointees at the agency was six times larger than the agency’s historical average from 2009 and 2024. Knowledgeable career leaders are integral to the ability of public health agencies to carry out their work with scientific integrity and professional judgment, and rapid leadership turnover and increased politicization threaten agencies’ ability to make evidence-based decisions to protect our health. The upheaval and politicization in public health agencies have also negatively affected employee engagement. Strong employee engagement is crucial to the ability of agencies to carry out their mission and successfully provide essential services to the public. In the 2025 Public Service Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service, the Department of Health and Human Services—which encompasses major public health agencies such as the CDC and FDA—had an employee engagement and satisfaction score of 20.4 out of 100, one of the lowest among large agencies. Only 2.8% of HHS employees indicated trust in their political leaders and only 8.7% reported confidence that they could report a suspected violation of law or regulation without retaliation. Employees at HHS also reported that the agency’s ability to provide services to the public had suffered. Nearly half of employees at HHS, 47.5%, said their work unit was worse at delivering quality services compared to its performance in 2024. In addition, 57.8% said their work unit was performing worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs. In addition to the work done within federal agencies, the federal government also distributes significant funding for public health and disease prevention work to state and local governments, nonprofits and small businesses—funding which has been significantly disrupted. At the CDC, for example, there was a 71.9% decrease in the amount of project grant funding issued in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The FDA also issued far less funding in fiscal year 2025—a 21.3% decrease from its fiscal year 2024 funding. Changes in federal funding include the ending of grants to community organizations that worked on HIV prevention and the cancellation of funding for research into improvements to patient safety and healthcare quality. These changes go beyond federal agencies to impact the broader public health ecosystem, including the state and local health departments responsible for much of the on-the-ground public health work in their communities. About 80% of the CDC’s domestic funding is directed towards state and local partners—meaning that cuts to CDC funding can ultimately result in cuts to state and local public health capacity. Federal agencies also provide expertise and assistance to state and local health agencies as they deal with particular health challenges, but workforce cuts have resulted in fewer federal employees available to help. The Impact of Changes to Public Health Capacity These changes to federal public health capacity are not abstract concerns. Disrupted programs, reduced funding and lost expertise at public health agencies across all levels of government threaten the public’s physical well-being and safety. In some cases, this has already led to harm. The most immediate impacts of federal cuts were seen in interruptions to ongoing public health programs and crisis responses. In one instance, when CDC grants were canceled during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak—the most severe measles outbreak in 25 years—public health officials in Lubbock, Texas were forced to pause parts of their measles response work supported by the frozen funding. Lubbock’s director of public health further said that a lack of available CDC experts to reach out to for advice “definitely” impacted the department’s response to the measles crisis. Cuts to federal funding also forced Dallas County Health and Human Services to cut staff and cancel 50 community vaccination clinics during the outbreak. Public health work outside of major outbreak responses was also disrupted. For example, in April 2025, the Milwaukee Public Health Department was unexpectedly unable to reach experts on lead poisoning due to firings at the CDC when responding to concerns about lead contamination in Milwaukee public schools. Due to federal workforce cuts, several programs at the CDC, including Alzheimer’s and epilepsy programs, have also become trapped in limbo—existing on paper, but without the staff necessary to operate. More recent crises reveal how federal cuts have weakened the public health infrastructure needed to prevent and respond to dangerous new outbreaks. Internationally, cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development eliminated funding for disease testing and contact tracing abroad, which delayed detection of and responses to the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While international outbreaks may seem far removed, the unchecked spread of disease in any country can quickly pose a danger to economic well-being, security and health around the world. Within the United States, public health cuts inhibited responses to the summer 2026 outbreak of the food-borne parasite cyclospora. At the federal level, cuts to funding for lab equipment and for CDC staff with expertise in parasitic infections—including 9 out of 11 staff members at the lab responsible for identifying parasitic outbreaks in 2025— contributed to the largest reporting delay in outbreak cases at the CDC in 15 years. Conflicting communications from the FDA about the source of the outbreak, which followed cuts to the agency’s communications department, additionally led to confusion among the public about how to best avoid infection. At the same time, cuts to HHS funding and support for local and state public health slowed some health departments’ responses to the crisis. The exact costs of these delays, constraints and confusion in public health responses are difficult to estimate. However, their message is clear: federal cuts have already made containing threats to public health even more of a challenge. Conclusion Protecting public health—from food safety to disease prevention—is one of the federal government’s most important missions. Dramatic and haphazard cuts to federal agencies and funding have already disrupted the public health system, impacting the response to challenges such as measles, lead poisoning and cyclosporiasis. The U.S. public health system needed improvement before these disruptions. Since 2022, federal leadership and coordination in response to public health outbreaks has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List of areas in need of attention to improve government effectiveness and efficiency. Recent cuts only compound these concerns. The chaotic dismantling of government and resulting disruptions to crucial functions like public health and disease prevention highlight the need for meaningful reform and concrete policy proposals to reimagine how government can better serve the public and be more effective, responsive and accountable. To learn more about the impact of federal cuts to public health and science more broadly, visit The Cost of Cutting American Science. Learn more For more information on the Partnership for Public Service’s government reform initiative, visit Government for a New Era. View here In line with The Cost of Cutting American Science, federal workforce data in this brief is as of February 2026

Sep 9 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • ourpublicservice.org

10 stars who were discovered in unexpected ways

Not every star is discovered in an audition room. EW rounds up 10 famous actors, like Janet Leigh and Charlize Theron, who got their big break when they least expected it.

Sep 9 • 8:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

HOMETOWN HEALTH: The warning signs of suicide risk in men that often go unnoticed

CDC data shows the suicide rate among men is significantly higher than it is for women.

Sep 9 • 8:13 AM EDT • Health • wdbj7.com

Ochsner Children’s Earns Newsweek National Recognition

Ochsner Children’s Hospital earned national recognition on Newsweek’s America’s Best Children’s Hospitals 2026 list, ranking among the nation’s top 50 hospitals in four pediatric specialties.

Sep 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • news.ochsner.org

Overmars resigns as Royal Antwerp sports director due to health issues

Soccer great Marc Overmars is stepping down as Royal Antwerp's sports director due to health issues. Overmars, who joined the Belgian club in 2022, explained his decision in a letter to supporters published on Wednesday as he mentioned “all the fatigue that has built up over the years and the enormous amount of stress.” “You all know that my health has not been optimal,” he wrote.

Sep 9 • 7:39 AM EDT • Health • sports.yahoo.com

Overmars resigns as Royal Antwerp sports director due to health issues

Soccer great Marc Overmars is stepping down as Royal Antwerp's sports director due to health issues. Overmars, who joined the Belgian club in 2022, explained his decision in a letter to supporters published on Wednesday as he mentioned “all the fatigue that has built up over the years and the enormous amount of stress.” “You all know that my health has not been optimal,” he wrote.

Sep 9 • 7:39 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Trump’s Super PAC Is Tied to Mystery Group Spending $25 Million on Midterms

The recently created Republican group is pumping cash into half a dozen key midterm races, with the largest amounts going toward Senate contests in New Hampshire and Alaska.

Sep 9 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

14 of Science’s Biggest Mysteries We’re Still Trying to Figure Out

There’s a lot we know today that humanity didn’t know hundreds of years ago, and there will likely be a lot people will learn in the coming years that we can’t possibly know right now. Among these que...

Sep 9 • 6:30 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

‘I’m listening hard’: Teens increasingly turn to AI chatbots for mental health support

In the past year, researchers have observed a 50% increase in reliance on AI chatbots for mental health support among teens.

Sep 9 • 3:10 AM EDT • Health • edsource.org

‘South Park’ is now ‘South America’ in move to mock Trump

Beyond parodying President Trump's Great Lakes order, the move jabs at Paramount and Skydance Media for settling a $16-million lawsuit to clear their merger.

Sep 8 • 9:40 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

Packers’ 3 biggest concerns entering 2026 season

The offensive line is chief among the potential issues for the Packers as they enter 2026, with the health status of Zach Bako-Bewele still uncertain.

Sep 8 • 8:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ray LaMontagne topples over onstage in Nashville, where the high hits 101

On Sept. 5, the 53-year-old folk singer fell while performing his popular track 'Jolene' in front of a sold-out Nashville show, according to fan footage.

Sep 8 • 8:37 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

Dodgers on Deck: Wednesday, September 9 vs. Reds

The Dodgers close out their nine-game homestand on Wednesday night, with one more game against the Cincinnati Reds. Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts Wednesday, and like Tuesday starter Tarik Skubal is set up to face the Reds twice in a row, as these two teams meet up again next week for four games at Great American Ball […]

Sep 8 • 8:31 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Mike Tomlin Reveals ‘Best’ Steelers Team he Coached

Mike Tomlin is making the media rounds as he begins his new career in broadcast. This comes after 19 seasons as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tomlin won a Super Bowl early in his tenure and was known for never having a losing season in Pittsburgh. However, fans began to clamor for change in […] The post Mike Tomlin Reveals ‘Best’ Steelers Team he Coached appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 8 • 7:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

What to watch as Republicans gather in Dallas for Trump's unusual midterm convention

Midterms are often difficult for the party in power in Washington, and Trump believes the event can juice enthusiasm for the party and boost turnout among his voters.

Sep 8 • 7:49 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

D-backs @ Royals discussion

Today’s Lineups DIAMONDBACKS ROYALS Lars Nootbaar – DH Carter Jensen – C Ketel Marte – 2B Bobby Witt – SS Gabriel Moreno – C Vinnie Pasquantino – 1B Geraldo Perdomo – SS Salvador Perez – DH Corbin Carroll – RF Michael Massey – 2B Nolan Arenado – 3B Nick Loftin – 3B Tommy Troy – […]

Sep 8 • 7:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Why was Corbin Carroll suddenly scratched from the Diamondbacks’ lineup?

KANSAS CITY – In a sudden move before Tuesday night’s matchup for the Arizona Diamondbacks in Kansas City against the Royals, Corbin Carroll has been scratched from the lineup. Jun 10, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Arizona right fielder Carroll (7) rounds past second base against the Miami Marlins during the first inning at loanDepot Park.

Sep 8 • 6:54 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Bills Announce Exciting Josh Allen News Before Season Opener

The Buffalo Bills announced that quarterback Josh Allen is among the six players picked as captains for the 2026 season. The post Bills Announce Exciting Josh Allen News Before Season Opener appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 8 • 6:38 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

The 98 Biggest TV Show Flops, Bombs and Misses in the First Half of 2026

(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.) In July, I updated my look at how the “streaming bubble” popped since 2023, showing the decline in streaming TV shows over time. But after compiling and analyzing and writing about over one hundred TV show flops in the first half of 2026—I counted 99 “nominees” and there are even more honorable mentions—I couldn’t have told you that the number of shows is going down. When it comes to scripted, English-language TV shows, it feels like we have as many bombs as ever. I don’t keep a specific count, but some streamers probably had as many flops as they’ve ever had.1 That’s right, it’s time for part two of my analysis of the biggest flops, bombs and misses on streaming in the first half of 2026. Two weeks ago, I took a look at films. Today, TV shows. If you want to read the full methodology for how I assemble this list, you can find it at the bottom of this article. In short, this list is… ...scripted and unscripted TV shows,...from the nine major streamers,...in the US (using US-only ratings),...excluding true crime, kids and foreign-language shows,...that got no/poor ratings,...from Jan-2026 to the end of June-2026. Reminder: this article does not represent my personal opinion—many of these shows are great!—but I follow the data, and a miss is a miss and a bomb is a bomb. Also, price matters. If a TV show costs north of $100 million, it needs to get lots and lots of streaming viewership to justify that budget. As with past editions, I ordered this list by streamer, going from best (fewest flops) to worst (the most misses)—taking the size of the flops into consideration—and like the last edition, three or four streamers vied to take the win/loss of having the most flops. (But the actual winner is no surprise.) I try to avoid tooting my own horn too much, but seriously, in just under 5,000 words (including the methodology section) I provide a mostly comprehensive overview of the eight major streamers (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and Apple TV) for the first half of the year, mentioning most of their hits and all their misses. It summarizes the entire first half of 2026! If you want to support this work, please subscribe. Subscribe Tubi Big Mood Boarders The Freak Brothers Twenty Twenty Six Honorable Mentions: Busted on Bodycam, Deestroying the Pitch, Destination World Cup 2026 I don’t think that Tubi spends all that much making or (mostly) licensing these original TV shows—Big Mood, Boarders and Twenty Twenty Six all come from the UK—but they’re not free and they didn’t chart anywhere. Winner: The Freak Brothers Have you even heard of this show? It’s an animated comedy...that’s on its third season! And Pete Davidson, Woody Harrelson, John Goodman and Tiffany Haddish all provide voice talent for it. Yes, animated shows don’t cost as much as live action shows, but cheap isn’t free! So a show with this level of talent needs to perform better. Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord Honorable Mentions: Behind the Attraction, Donna Hay Coastal Celebrations, We Call It Imagineering Disney+ doesn’t make all that many original shows anymore. They had two flops, and one was animated. Their one not-a-miss show, Wonder Man, got just good enough viewership to not be considered a “miss”...but it’s since been cancelled. At this point, Disney has pivoted entirely away from making big budget TV shows for Disney+ to making...almost nothing for Disney+? Sure, Disney’s spending circa 2019-2022 was unsustainable, but now they’re pivoting too far in the other direction. At some point, Disney needs to stop shifting strategies so wildly. Really, Disney should have made fewer shows for Disney+ at launch and the shows they did make at that time needed to be made at more reasonable budgets. And they should adopt that strategy now. Winner: Daredevil: Born Again Daredevil, the Marvel Comics character, is on my personal Mount Rushmore of favorite superheroes, so it pains me to give him the win/loss today, but this show deserves it. I’ll repeat my hot take from last spring: “Based on his popularity, Daredevil should be in movies, and probably ones that cost a lot less than the MCU’s usual price tag. Disney/Bob Iger/Ike Perlmutter (who, based on reporting, made the decision) made a huge mistake selling TV shows to Netflix in the 2010s, thus limiting this character to the small screen. Daredevil could have anchored Marvel’s post-Infinity War plans, and if he did, the MCU would probably be in a better place than it is now.” HBO Max 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… What four streamers had the most misses... HBO’s strong start to 2026… The caveat to Peacock’s turnaround this year... Paramount+’s key man problem… What country isn’t delivering hits for Netflix or Hulu... The cavalcade of stars on a streamer where no one is watching their shows... Across nearly 5,000 words of analysis… And a lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you’d like to read more about why you should subscribe, please read this article about the Streaming Ratings Report, why it matters, why you need it, and why we cover streaming ratings best.

Sep 8 • 6:29 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Three-time MVP Aaron Judge returns to Yankees

BRONX, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Sticking with the diamond, let’s move up to the major leagues where the Yankees are set to welcome back the captain tonight. Aaron Judge is making his return in the pinstripes tonight. No. 99 ironically had a 99-day absence after he suffered a broken rib. The three-time AL MVP missed 84 […]

Sep 8 • 5:47 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

UND again named among region’s best places to work

Prairie Business recognition reflects workplace culture created by UND faculty and staff.

Sep 8 • 3:39 PM EDT • Business • blogs.und.edu

Tyler Shough, Cam Jordan among Saints 9 captains for 2026

Sep 8 • 3:18 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Exclusive: Two of gaming’s biggest names are making a big investment in gaming’s future

The first thing to know about the Nova Games Foundation is that it isn’t about The Game Awards. And it’s not about PlayStation. The ambitious new grant program is the brainchild of Geoff Keighley and Mark Cerny. Keighley is the host of The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest and Opening Night Live. Cerny is a game designer of some 45 years and the lead architect for the PlayStation 4 and 5. But this new thing, which they’re revealing through Game File, isn’t about their day jobs. It’s an unaffiliated, standalone philanthropic project. It’s a bet on the artistic future of video games and a way, they tell me, to give back. “I’m nearing the end of my career,” Cerny recently told me over email. “I’m not done yet, but paying it forward—in the best way possible—is very much on my mind these days,” The Nova Games Foundation is a university-affiliated fellowship program, intended to offer six-figure grants to 20 young game designers each year, potentially for decades to come. It will offer no-strings-attached funding along with mentorship from games industry leaders, a combination intended to aid the development of groundbreaking new games, Cerny and Keighley told me. Nova will begin accepting applications in December, from class of 2026 and 2027 students from 13 affiliated gaming programs at universities in eight countries. The schools working with Nova include the New York University and the University of Southern California in the U.S., along with Abertay University in Scotland, Cnam-Enjmin in France, TH Köln in Germany, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, Cerny and Keighley said. The plan: $100,000 per recipient, with about a quarter of Nova fellows eligible for up to $500,000 more for projects that are shaping up particularly well. Payments will be delivered based on development milestones, and recipients will own their games. Nova will help promote the work, and developers will be free to pursue the publishers and platforms of their choice. Nova can help introduce fellows to publishers, but won’t take a cut. “I’ve always wanted to give back, but given my role in the industry, I’ve never felt it appropriate to commercially invest in games,” Keighley told Game File. “I’ve never owned stock in a game company or taken a financial stake in a game. Nova is philanthropy: we aren’t taking equity or looking to recoup the grants. The return we’re hoping for is creative—helping new voices make games and find their footing. “Mark and I have each made multi-million-dollar donations to establish the foundation, and we intend to keep contributing. We hope others will join us.” Cerny and Keighley have already hired an executive director, John Maconga, and a head of grants, recent Game Developers Conference director Ashley Corrigan, to help launch the effort. They’re working to recruit game industry leaders to join the effort. Keighley says “dozens of leading game directors have already expressed interest in contributing their time.” To name one, they’ve already gotten Josef Fares, lead designer from It Takes Two and Spit Fiction studio Hazelight on board with a donation and pledge to help out. “I’m proud to support Nova because it gives the next generation of creators the freedom to explore their creativity and hopefully bring their unique visions to life,” Fares told Game File. A plan forged from a friendship Keighley and Cerny have known each other a long time. It’s been so long, Cerny isn’t even sure exactly when they met. “We travel in much the same circles and I’m sure first intersected in the 90s or early 2000s,“ Cerny said. Keighley thinks it might have been during his stint writing a column about the mid-’90s console 3DO for a gaming magazine while Cerny was working on games with Crystal Dynamics or on Way of the Warrior with Naughty Dog. They became genuine friends about a 10 years ago, Keighley said, as they bonded over a shared love of games and a hope to improve the industry. “About a decade ago, we started having dinner a few times a year in LA,” Keighley said. “Just to catch up on life and the industry. Those conversations continued over Zoom during COVID. Nova grew out of that friendship and a question we kept coming back to: ‘What could we do to help the next generation of game directors get started?’” Keighley credits Cerny with the idea to figure out a way to put their money and time back into the industry. At one of those dinners, Keighley proposed the idea of a fellowship program. He’d recalled applying for a Rhodes Scholarship when he was younger. “Spoiler: I didn’t get it,” he said. He’d admired the MacArthur Foundation’s so-called “genius grants.” He liked these kinds of programs that recognized people’s talents and gave them the financial boost and the freedom to realize their potential. With Cerny, he had pondered what a game industry version of that could be. Keighley liked the idea of centering the fellowship on students, drawing inspiration from the accomplishments of Jenova Chen, the USC game design graduate who went on to lead the creation of gently moving, ambitious games such as Flower and Journey. Keighley also thought it could be useful to help promising graduates bridge the transition from student to professional. “Joining an established studio isn’t always possible—especially in today’s market—and even then, it isn’t the right path for everyone,” Keighley said. A fellowship, he realized, could give “graduates the time, resources and guidance to pursue a game of their own and not worry about the commercial viability.” As the idea took shape, Cerny also saw an opportunity to enable more games of a certain type: “The target with the grants is games as an artistic medium,” Cerny told me. “We like to say games with ‘artistic, literary and societal value.’” He added: “I’m a pretty big gamer myself, though I tend to gravitate towards the smaller and more unique or artistic titles, games like Neva, Abzu, Gorogoa, Stray or Outer Wilds. I was just playing and Roger on a flight to Japan, and was getting misty eyed to a degree that I was concerned that a flight attendant would ask me if I was OK. “So one fun benefit here is the games that will come out of the Nova Games Foundation – I can’t wait to play them myself.” Cerny believes it will also be useful for Nova fellows to hone their craft and team leadership skills. “We are looking for the next generation of visionaries,” he said. “The trick is that they will also need to have the executive function necessary to drive a small project to completion.” Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my reporting, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Going big with this Keighley and Cerny may have started Nova and may be the ones primarily backing it right now, but they’re dreaming of something that goes beyond them. “Mark and I may have helped get it started, but one of our measures of success is that Nova grows into something the entire games industry feels a sense of ownership in,” Keighley said. “Our ambition is to build a lasting endowment supported by people and companies across the industry, and an equally broad community of creators willing to give their time and experience to the next generation.” The industry has a lot of knowledge that it can pass to the next generation, Keighley said: “Nova can hopefully become a way to connect that generosity with talented young creators at the moment when it can make the biggest difference.” Cerny, who told me he believes Nova can mature “over the next 10 or 20 years,” sees an opportunity to give generations of game makers momentum. “The industry has changed immeasurably since I started in games in 1982,” he said. “These graduates have talent, training and tools that outclass what we had back in the day by an astonishing amount. But they face a tough road ahead getting traction in the industry, and many could benefit from our support. We want to be there to give it to them.” “There’s a personal side to this, too,” Keighley said. “I don’t have children, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I can do for future generations. Games have been my entire career. I’ve been incredibly fortunate, and helping someone else build a life in this industry feels like a meaningful way to give back.” Cerny’s oeuvre dates back to Marble Madness and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. He has stood on stage multiple times to reveal the future of PlayStation hardware. He’s been an executive producer for a string of modern PlayStation classics such as The Last Guardian and Marvel’s Spider-Man. Nevertheless, of Nova, he said, “It’s certainly not like anything I’ve done before.” Nova Foundation applications will be due in December and the first wave of fellows will be announced in March 2027. A full list of participating universities and steps students and recent graduates can take to apply to become a Nova Fellow is forthcoming.

Sep 8 • 3:12 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

A-State sets fall enrollment record

Arkansas State University has set another fall enrollment record, reaching 18,775 students as continued growth among Arkansas freshmen, improved student retention, and rising graduate enrollment helped push the university past...

Sep 8 • 3:12 PM EDT • Business • talkbusiness.net

A-State sets fall enrollment record

Arkansas State University has set another fall enrollment record, reaching 18,775 students as continued growth among Arkansas freshmen, improved student retention, and rising graduate enrollment helped push the university past...

Sep 8 • 3:12 PM EDT • Politics • talkbusiness.net

Superior Health Foundation awards $271K to 11 UP health initiatives

Among the recipients are the U.P. Health Impact Grant to Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center’s Sawyer Dental Project, four additional U.P. Health Impact Grants and six Equipment Grants addressing behavioral health/SUD, healthy food and wellness, maternal/infant health, accessibility, EMS/first aid and hospice.

Sep 8 • 2:58 PM EDT • Health • uppermichiganssource.com

Israel to mandate Iodine in table salt amid widespread deficiency

Studies have found widespread iodine deficiency in Israel, particularly among pregnant women and children. The condition can cause thyroid problems and, in severe cases, developmental and neurological damage

Sep 8 • 2:21 PM EDT • Science • haaretz.com

As measles cases rise, Lancaster County officials point to information gap

Communication and information-sharing among agencies could be better with regard to Lancaster County’s measles outbreak, officials said during a recent Lancaster County Health Advisory Council meeting.

Sep 8 • 2:12 PM EDT • Health • lancasteronline.com

There is room for improvement in information-sharing about measles outbreak, officials say

Communication and information-sharing among agencies could be better with regard to Lancaster County’s measles outbreak, officials said during a recent Lancaster County Health Advisory Council meeting.

Sep 8 • 2:12 PM EDT • Health • lancasteronline.com

Why Don’t Diamondbacks Streak?

Inspiration. I very much enjoyed Jim McLennan’s The Arizona Diamondbacks Have Not Gone Streaking. I learned that the Diamondbacks have not won 7 consecutive games since 7 September 2017 (a very long time). And I tip my hat to JWinMesa for his comment to that article. A summary is that as measured by Total Streak […]

Sep 8 • 2:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com