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What a GOP loss in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago district says about the midterms
Including off-year elections last year, Democrats have flipped 30 Republican seats since the start of 2025.
Winter sports teams earn scholastic honors - Fayetteville-Manlius CSD
All 10 of the Fayetteville-Manlius School District Winter 2025-26 varsity sports earned Scholar-Athlete status from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Section III. This accomplishment is earned by 75% or more of the varsity roster having an average grade point average (GPA) of 90% or above; 171 student-athletes earned that accomplishment.
2025 Publisher Ranking Shows Sony Near Last, Square Enix, Capcom At Top
Sega and EA make the top 10 while Sony's best-reviewed game was a PC port of a PS4 remaster
Warner's 'Sinners' Returns Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Following Oscars Win
Warner’s Sinners returned atop the Official Film Chart, the weekly U.K. home entertainment sales chart, after winning multiple Oscars at the March 15 Academy Awards. Last week’s chart topper, Universal’s Wicked: For Good dropped to No. 2, after four non-consecutive weeks at No. 1. Warner’s other Oscar-winner, One Battle After Another, surged 14 spots to No. … Continue reading "Warner’s ‘Sinners’ Returns Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Following Oscars Win"
Today on OTM: Is it Opening Day?
Good morning and happy Opening Day! Except… is it actually Opening Day? There is a regular season baseball game today. But there’s only one of them. And it’s at night. And it’s on Netflix. And it’s an interleague game featuring a team that didn’t even make the postseason last year. And it seems to be […]
AI Science Startup Periodic Labs Is in Deal Talks at About $7 Billion Valuation
Periodic Labs, an artificial intelligence research startup founded last year by former OpenAI and DeepMind staffers, is having discussions with investors about raising at least hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation of about $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
CEO Letter to Shareholders 2025
Dear Shareholders, 2025 was a remarkable year for Amer Sports and our teammates, partners, and shareholders. It gives me great pleasure to share with you some winning moments from the last 12 months…
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Older adults who regularly engaged in exercise sessions lasting at least 10 minutes at a leisurely pace had healthier brains than their sedentary peers, accordi
Growing Southern Nevada’s health care economy
Last week The Lincy Institute, the Vegas Chamber, the Vegas Chamber Leadership Foundation, and the Nevada Health and Bioscience Corporation hosted a symposium on the future of Southern Nevada’s health care economy. Today, health care is the fastest-growing sector in the regional economy having added more than 42,000 jobs since 2016. Yet, despite this growth […]
Square Enix was Metacritic’s No. 1 ranked publisher last year, thanks to 9 ‘good’ games
It’s the first time Square Enix has topped Metacritic’s annual publisher rankings…
Upset winner Gray Davis on California's last wide-open governor's race
Gray Davis was a huge underdog who prevailed in a wide-open 1998 contest. The Democrat urges trailing hopefuls to ignore pressure to quit and 'follow your heart.'
The S&P 500 is flashing a warning sign. How to protect your portfolio.
The S&P 500 crossed below its 200-day moving average last week, a signal that the benchmark index could be headed into a downward trend.
Le Bris 'at his brilliant best' to mastermind derby win
Leading up to Sunday's derby at Newcastle, all the talk centred around which of our injured players might be available and it ended up becoming a bit of a distraction from what was actually important - the players who were definitely fit to play their part. While I'm sure Regis le Bris would have loved a fully fit squad, he is not daft enough to get too distracted by the possibilities of having several of his walking wounded involved at the last minute. It meant that while Newcastle were distracted by European football, we were on the training ground figuring out how we were going to walk away from St James' Park with three points.
Fix the process before reauthorizing state PUC
What needs to be fixed before reauthorizing the Public Utilities Commission? The answer is simple: the process. The last time the commission was reauthorized in 2021, lawmakers expanded its role in meaningful ways — particularly as Colorado accelerated its clean energy transition. The PUC was asked to do more, to carry more and to implement […]
Hold On: Devils Outlast Stars 6-4
A little bit of this would have gone a long way a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, where was this kind of effort against Calgary and Detroit? Or, for that matter, Washington last Friday? Not that it was perfect by any means, but the Devils team that turned what looked like a surefire, “get-right” game […]
The politics of public health from Obamacare to COVID
The last three presidents — Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump — have all had to deal with health care in America. And along the way, they've clashed with how politics works in Washington D.C. This created today’s environment where the understanding of science is scorned, medical disinformation thrives and creating a nation unprepared for the next health crisis.
Apple releases iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26.4 with a long list of medium-size tweaks
The 26.4 updates are more significant than the last few updates have been.
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
Trump casts Florida ballot by mail as he pushes Congress to severely limit that voting option
Trump has in the last week called mail-in voting "cheating" and "corrupt as hell" as he urges Congress to pass the SAVE Act, a sweeping bill that would bar universal mail ballots.
Whole Hog Politics: The political establishment thrives in our broken primary system
Nothing lasts forever, but a Senate seat from Illinois is pretty darned close. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin is retiring after 30 years, and he is only the third person to hold that seat in 60 years. Sometimes...
Exclusive: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Official CAD Renders & Rumors
This is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. After a pretty huge upgrade last year, for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung doesn't appear to be making any massive
Scientists Sequenced the DNA of the ‘Last Neanderthal’—and It Alters Human History
Discover new clues about how our ancient relatives disappeared from time.
Tesla Book Covers Business Principles
McNeill’s book outlines Musk-inspired principles: question rules, simplify processes, optimize systems, automate last, and accelerate growth.
Houston, Illinois carry strong opening-weekend efficiency in March Madness
The second-seeded Cougars — who played in last year's national-title game — rolled to 31-point wins against both Idaho and Texas A&M.
Lawmakers weighed Wyoming Health Department budget cuts. They never came.
by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile After the Wyoming Freedom Caucus told voters last year it aimed to “DOGE” the state’s next two-year budget by
I Tried Some Games With Nvidia's DLSS 5. It's Controversial, Yes, But Also an Eyeful
Is Nvidia's forthcoming DLSS 5, shown last week at GTC 2026, a game-ethics question mark? Is it spectacular? Yes and yes.
Crowded Democratic Race for California Governor Could Open Door for Republicans
By Joseph Ax and Costas Pitas March 24 (Reuters) - By many measures, California is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe. The most populous U.S. state, it is home to both the party's last presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and possibly its future one, Governor Gavin Newsom. But ...
Eurozone, Asian Business Activity Slows as Iran War Ramps Up Uncertainty
The war has driven up energy prices and uncertainty, while a cooling of new orders points to longer-lasting harm if the conflict continues or escalates.
We disagreed on politics. We agreed on wine. That was enough.
At the Virginia Governor’s Cup Gala in Richmond earlier this month, a very dapper gentleman approached me and introduced himself. In his light-colored suit and bowtie, he looked very Southern in a classical sense, the sort of Virginia Gentleman you used to see south of the Rappahannock as recently as my college days. “I’m a longtime reader and fan of your writing, if not your politics,” he said. His comment was the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, simultaneously conveying praise and disapproval while establishing boundaries. Man, I wish we still discoursed like this instead of shouting bromides and insults to try and “own” our opponents with a funny meme and a furrowed brow. Subscribe “Well, we’ll always have wine to share together,” I said, and thanked him for his kind words. We clinked glasses, exchanged pleasantries about the delicious gold medal-winning wines being poured that evening, and went our separate ways. Our exchange reminded me that more unites us than divides us. Wine brings people together to share a meal and a few hours of joy despite our differences.1 That’s why I refer to the wine community — including readers and consumers — rather than the wine industry. Together, we are so much more than production, distribution and sales statistics. A few minutes later the evening’s awards ceremony began. Applause grew as the 12 winemakers who made the top-scoring wines for the Governor’s Case took the stage, including a loud cheer for Jonathan Wheeler of Trump Winery and his 2018 Blanc de Noir sparkling wine. All the winemakers on stage had reason to be proud, Wheeler perhaps more so. Trump Winery was the only winery to win six gold medals in the competition this year. (Wineries are limited to six entries.) Two of Wheeler’s ciders also won gold medals in a separate competition. When you cover the labels and take the sour taste of politics off your palate, the wines are pretty darn good.2 Then Gov. Abigail Spanberger, newly elected Democrat and Virginia’s first female governor, was introduced to great applause to announce which of the 12 wines had won the Governor’s Cup. She spoke for a few minutes about the importance of wine to Virginia’s economy and tourism and the international acclaim Virginia wine has received. Just two weeks earlier, she gave the Democrats’ response to Trump’s State of the Union speech, but this night wasn’t about politics. That didn’t stop several people in the crowd from speculating on the irony should she have to present the trophy to Trump Winery. In the end, Valley Road Vineyards was displayed on the screen behind Spanberger as the winning winery. Blue Bee Cidery in Richmond took top honors for that category. The crowd cheered a female governor presenting the state’s highest trophy to a female winemaker and then resumed the evening’s festivities, united by their mutual love of wine. A whiff of politics couldn’t dim the cheer of celebration and a community united by its love of wine. In Memoriam: Michel Rolland The global wine community lost a giant March 20, with the passing of Michel Rolland. He was 78. Rolland was the original “flying winemaker,” a globe-trotting consultant who helped Bordeaux regain its mojo in the 1970s and then shaped the rise of Napa Valley cult Cabernet as consultant to Simi, Harlan, Newton, Screaming Eagle, Araujo, Dalle Valle and other wineries. He was instrumental in Argentina’s rise to prominence and even had his own winery, Clos de los Siete, in a partnership with other wine families. Rolland’s career arc paralleled that of Robert Parker, the world’s most influential critic. Parker championed many of the wines Rolland consulted on, helping build his reputation and demand for his services. It also made him a target for Parker’s critics. As W. Blake Gray wrote on Wine-Searcher in his excellent tribute to Rolland: Rolland created the type of wines Parker loved: rich body, plenty of fruit, soft tannins. He sometimes faced the accusation of creating a generic international style of red wine, where the great wines he made in Argentina were indistinguishable from the great wines he made in France. Rolland chafed at that critique, as did many of his fans. He was credited with championing green harvesting and leaf pulling, as well as careful selection of grapes in the winery, practices we nearly universally think of today for high-quality winemaking. “Michel was an incredible innovator who changed how wine was made and how grapes were grown,” Napa Valley winemaker Aaron Pott wrote on Facebook. “His work has transformed the wine trade. He created new ways of looking at wine, tasting wine, evaluating ripeness and quality. … This was not just a man with a ‘style’ that he imposed on vineyards but a man that understood how to make great wine from great sites.” Rolland started his consulting company in 1973 in Libourne, in Bordeaux, with his wife, Dany. Both had graduated the year before from Bordeaux’s Institute d’Oenologie. The couple sold their majority share in the business in 2020, according to Wine Spectator. Over his career, Rolland reportedly worked with more than 100 wineries in 20 countries. He even made it to Virginia, where he consulted for Kluge Estate in the mid-2000s. (Kluge Estate is now Trump Winery.) Reader feedback, please! Last week, I did my first WineLine Live! with Dr. Laura Catena of Catena Zapata winery in Argentina. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion about her efforts to preserve the genetic heritage of old vineyards in Mendoza. I conceived of WineLine Live! for paid subscribers, as a thank you for your financial support. And while only a few people joined live, the video now has more views than I have paid subscribers, so I guess that’s pretty good. Even so, I’m considering opening future installments to anyone on Substack to reach a broader audience. So my questions to you: Should these be public? And what format do you prefer? Live gives a chat feature with the potential for viewers to interact with me and the guest, while a video post would just be that. Another alternative is a podcast, which would just be audio, without video of my chins. Please let me know in the comments. Leave a comment In the Glass A few wines I’ve enjoyed recently: Bonny Doon Vineyard Take Me to Your Liter, Le Cigare Volant, Red Wine of the Earth. 2023, Central Coast, CA. Blend of Grenache, Syrah Cinsaut and Petite Sirah. Delightful wine with expressive red fruit flavors, casual drinking. Doon lovers of a certain age will remember Randall Grahm’s Big House Red; this is more in that style than his original Le Cigare Volant, modeled after Chateauneuf du Pape. The liter bottle makes it an even better value. I see this online at about $15. Great value. Albert Bichot Bourgogne Pinot Noir Origines 2023. 13% - Textbook pinot noir and an excellent, affordable entry (regional) Burgundy. Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2025. $24 at Total Wine & More. Loma Larga Pinot Noir 2021 “Coastal Cool Climate Wine”, Valle de Casablanca, Chile. An older sample, showing beautifully. Spicy and fruit forward. I’m seeing widely varied pricing online, from $18-$32. At the lower end, it’s a terrific value. 13.5% Dr. Loosen Riesling Dry 2016, Mosel, Germany. Found this “in the stack.” And it stacked up well, shedding some of its youthful acidity for opulent Riesling character, including a hint of the mineral oil older Riesling often features. A great value, as I’m seeing it as low as $14 online. 12% abv. Red Tail Ridge Blau Franc Blend 2024, Sans Oak, Finger Lakes. 13.4% abv. The name is a neat portmanteau of Blaufrankisch and Cabernet Franc, thus Blau Franc. The blend is 50-50, no oak involved. The Blau dominates on the palate, with the spicy caraway seed (think New York deli rye bread). The Franc adds body. The result is juicy, energetic and joyful. Sokol Blosser Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir 2025, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon. This first rosé of 2025 was a welcome respite to our cold, snowy winter here in the Mid-Atlantic. Oh man, I needed this! Bright and energetic, exuberant even, it perks up the mood and goes down fast. 13%. Certified B Corp. Ingredient and nutrition labeling, and in a modest way that doesn’t occupy a lot of label space. (Since it’s not required, presumably there are no minimum font size requirements.) More wineries should follow this example. Dave McIntyre's WineLine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Thanks for reading Dave McIntyre's WineLine! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share 1 Some restraint may be required. 2 Especially the bubblies.
Freeway series game II chat
The Dodgers play their first game at Dodger Stadium since Game 5 of last year’s World Series on Monday, hosting the Angels for the second of a three-game exhibition series. Roki Sasaki goes for the Dodgers against left-hander Reid Detmers. MONDAY GAME INFO
$5 flat-fee deliveries: A Haverhill business is built on community connection
From restaurant supplies to last-minute hardware runs, Store to your Door is meeting everyday needs
Group abandons Michigan minimum wage ballot campaign
A group seeking to reverse changes the state Legislature made last year to Michigan's tipped and minimum wage laws is abandoning its efforts for now.
Randy Bennett agrees to take ASU basketball job
Randy Bennett is returning to the Valley as the Arizona State men's basketball coach after leading Saint Mary's for the last 25 years.
Uplifting and Not Ceding Ground on Health Equity Practice Is Critical to Strengthening Public Health and the Health of the Nation
Public health science gains in the last quarter century in the United States have been formidable due to a focus on structural and social determinants of health, thereby enhancing understanding of the role of inequitable policies in shaping health inequities and inequitable access to ameliorative resources.
The debate over Trump’s mental health: ‘Malignant narcissist ’ or ‘superhuman president’?
While some warn of the danger of having someone suffering from ‘cognitive decline’ in the White House, his inner circle attributes his outbursts to his iconoclastic personality
Samsung's Galaxy S26 will get Apple AirDrop support starting today
The feature was first launched on Pixel 10 phones last year.
Vanderbilt’s historic gym takes center stage for Women's NCAA Tournament
Opening in 1952, Memorial Gymnasium is the oldest arena in the SEC. It had been 14 years since the Commodores last hosted the NCAA Tournament.
Today's hefty Crimson Desert patch includes "beginning of improvements" to keyboard and mouse controls, plus much more
Pearl Abyss has detailed a rather chunky patch for Crimson Desert, after its launch last week was marred by multiple issues and AI controversies.
Fertilizer prices bring more pain for American farmers amid war in Iran
The war in Iran is pushing up prices for already-strained farmers, with higher costs for fertilizer and energy on top of last year’s tariffs. And the increasing pressure on American agriculture could lead to even bigger price tags at the grocery store.
David Gallo opens up about why AI data centers, private equity are good for his company
After Katrina, David Gallo led his family's company, Gallo Mechanical, through a geographic expansion that helped grow the company to nearly $500 million in revenues and more than 700 employees. Last year, he led the 80-year-old business through a sale to a private equity firm. In this week's Talking Business, he explains why it was a good thing
One dead after shooting at Last Call Sports Bar in Jackson
One person is dead after a shooting at Last Call Sports Bar early Sunday morning.
24-year-old killed after shooting outside Last Call Sports Bar
24-year-old killed after shooting outside Last Call Sports Bar
Kansas coach Bill Self unsure about future after buzzer-beater loss to St. John's: 'I haven't decided'
After a heartbreaking last-second loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Self wasn't ready to discuss his coaching future.
'Project Hail Mary' blasts off to record-breaking $80 million, becomes 2026's best premiere
'Project Hail Mary' burned through the outer layer of box office projections this weekend, reaching an astounding $80 million in its domestic premiere and $141 million worldwide.
Why Have Patriots Not Done More To Address Pass Rush?
The New England Patriots had just 35 sacks last season, ranking near the bottom of the league in the regular season.
‘Project Hail Mary’ blasts off with $80.5 million, a best for Amazon MGM, and the year
Studio estimates on Sunday say Amazon MGM's “Project Hail Mary” has topped the North American box office charts with $80.5 million in ticket sales — the second biggest ever for a non-franchise film.
Your Thymus and Your Healthspan
Our thymus gland plays a central role in the development or our immune system, specifically for supporting T cell development (how these cells got their name, maturation and differentiation in the thymus) and discriminating between self and foreign, non-self antigen proteins with production of dendritic cells. As we age, our thymus gland shrinks—the process known as involution—with progressive change from spongy to fatty tissue, with loss of functionality. But this process, with respect to timeline and extent, markedly varies from one person to the next. And to make things even more complicated, our thymus gland anatomy and precise location in the chest also is highly variable. So the famous Frank Netter diagrams from the 1960s (such as at left below) don’t capture the remarkable heterogeneity that a random set of 12 chest CT scans (below at right). What I consider as 2 landmark papers in Nature this week (here and here) used AI to quantify health of the thymus in 2 large cohorts, and then correlate the metric to a broad array of health outcomes. In this edition of Ground Truths, I’m going to cover three questions: (1) How was thymus health determined by AI?; (2) How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? and (3) Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? Subscribe 1. How was thymus health determined by AI? This was accomplished by extensive work developing and validating an AI pipeline for 2 stages, the first for localization and segmentation of the thymus bed, and the second to quantify a digital marker, termed the thymic health score. There’s a lot to this algorithmic development, so I won’t go into all the details, but just provide a rudimentary outline of what was done. The 1st stage used supervised learning with 2 radiologists reviewing 2,461 chest CT scans. That work trained a 3D U-Net model to automatically identify the thymic bed’s 3D cropped region using center of mass coordinates, which reached 99.8% accuracy. The 2nd stage used a foundation model that was pre-trained with SwAV (which stands for Swapping Assignment between multiple Views), a self-supervised model, that generated a high-dimensional thymus representation of 4,096 features. That compares to the radiology reductionist and subjective scoring of 0 to 3 where 0 means the thymus is fully degenerated and fatty, and 3 is considered dense, intact glandular soft tissue. Notably, the self-supervised learning (SSL) performance was superior to supervised (AUC ~0.75 vs 0.55, respectively) reflecting the shallowness of the 0-3 classifier vs SSL’s holistic, self-taught AI. The thymic health score ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest number indexed to fully preserved thymic health. The algorithmic work extended to explainability with both Shapely value distribution, meaning the model was holistic not relying on any “magic” pixel, and occlusion sensitivity, demonstrating the model’s performance was not affected by ribs, sternum, lung tissue, but rather focused on the thymic bed directly. Below are a few saliency maps from the occlusion sensitivity that indicate the thymic bed focus, not affected by neighboring structures, using the jet color scale. Now the AI was ready for processing ~25,000 CT scans, each over 30 MB files, from the 2 large participant cohorts to provide a thymic health score, it did so in less than 14 hours, which is less than 2 seconds per scan! Share 2. How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? The two cohorts were the National Lung Screening Trial, NLST (N=25,031) and the Framingham Heart Study, FHS (N=2,581) each with baseline demographics and long term follow up of >12 years for health outcomes. From the NSLT, you can see below that increased age and body-mass index were correlated to reduced thymic health. And, overall, men had reduced thymic health scores compared with women. There are a lot of graphs in the paper for outcomes, for both the NLST and FHS cohorts. To simplify the major outcomes, below is a composite Figure with striking reduction of all-cause mortality and for the different causes of death. The results were consistent between the 2 cohorts. For example, the cardiovascular mortality hazard ratio average was 0.57 in NLST and 0.38 in FHS (weighted to be 0.53 for the aggregate). The reduction of mortality also extended to digestive diseases and pulmonary disease (data not shown below). Lung cancer incidence was reduced by 36% for high vs low thymic health (Figure below, with a panel -incidence and b panel-mortality, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status). Notably, there was a smoker’s paradox: lower incidence and improved survival for lung cancer in smokers who had a high thymus health score. Smoking was associated with lower thymic scores whereas alcohol was not. Higher thymic health was linked to higher HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, lower fasting blood glucose, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Inflammation biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were elevated in the people with lower thymic health scores. In their second paper, the same team looked at the relationship between thymic score and outcomes for 3,476 patients receiving cancer immunotherapy. The non-small cell lung cancer progression-free survival was reduced in patients with low thymic health score. A parallel relationship for survival was seen for other types of cancer including melanoma, breast, and kidney with a 44% lower risk among high thymic scores (Figure). A similar pattern was seen with different immune checkpoint inhibitors. The thymus health score outperformed programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)and tumor mutation burden (TMB) assay of the tumor and was an independent prognostic marker of progression-free survival. In this dataset, a direct connect with thymus score and adaptive immune function was noted with a correlation before cancer treatment for both T-cell diversity and thymus T-cell production (a metric known as T cell receptor excision circles). Thymus Removal Study There is a highly relevant citation about thymus function before moving onto ways to rejuvenate it. In 2023, a very important study of thymus removal during cardiothoracic surgery was published, with 1146 patients undergoing thymus removal vs 1146 matched controls (mean age 55 years). The adverse outcomes for thymus removal were striking, with a 2.9 higher risk of all-cause mortality and doubling of cancer incidence, 1.5 fold increase in cancer mortality, and 1.5-fold increase in autoimmune diseases. The immune function showed marked compromise after thymus removal, as reflected by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Figure below) Share Ground Truths 3. Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? In recent months we’ve learned a lot about the process of thymus involution and the pathways by which this may be modulated. Thymus involution is primarily due to loss to thymus epithelial cells (TECs) and there are 2 subtypes with different functions: the cortical, responsible for positive selection of T cells, and the medullary, for negative selection. When adipose tissue infiltrates the thymus, thymic adipocytes are pro-inflammatory, knocking out T-cell output. Likewise, systemic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” from smoking, obesity, and chronic stress promote thymic adipocytes. Now, from preclinical studies, we know about key pathways that account for these processes. Historically, back in 2014, FOXN1 was recognized as a single master transcription factor essential for TEC function, with studies in mice with forced FOXN1 upregulation leading to thymus regeneration. That laid the foundation for potential regrowth of quiescent thymus cells. It took awhile to find pathways to accomplish this goal and to even refute its role as the master regulator. The Liver-Thymus Axis Feng Zhang and his team recently showed that injection of an mRNA vaccine to the liver encoding DLL1, IL-7 and FLT3-L in combination, factors known to support thymopoiesis (Figure), successfully enhanced immune function in aged mice. However, the effect was transient. The FGF21 Story Two reports in 2025 addressed the thymus gland’s production of FGF21, a growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 21) and its control of thymus involution. This growth factor is also produced by the liver, but it doesn’t have impact on the thymus in aged rodent models. In contrast, The liver’s hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has been shown to reverse senescent TEC structural changes. Growth hormone stimulates production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the liver and the thymus. Two small studies in human participants (TRIIM, for Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) of 6 and 50 people, respectively, treated with combined human growth hormone, metformin and DHEA, suggested the potential of slowing epigenetic aging and improving thymus mass and function. But the combination of drugs, small sample, and lack of controls make conclusions murky. Increased thymus FGF21 led to increased CD8 T cells in old mice and extended healthspan and improved physical performance. Building on the previous FOXN1 data, ablation of β-klotho, the obligatory co-receptor for FOXN1, accelerated thymic aging. The benefit to FGF21 was confirmed in a companion paper using an FGF21 knock-in mouse model showing thymus enlargement and increased TECs throughout the lifespan. (schematic Figure below). The accompanying editorial for these 2 papers speculated: “The proposed link between age-associated thymus involution and organismal aging is intriguing, and suggests we might seek to achieve systemic rejuvenation by counteracting thymic involution.” Other Factors Lessons from the Axolotl (Mexican Salamander) In an elegant set of experiments of the axolotl (Figure), known for its complete thymus regeneration after total surgical removal, mediators were identified. Surprisingly FOXN1 was dispensable. But midkine, a growth factor, appeared to be the driver, the initiator of thymus cell growth, survival, and repair. Other components that contributed were Postn+ (periostin-expressing mesenchymal niches) and Ccl19, a chemokine protein from the bloodstream. RANK and RANKL RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor κB its ligand (RANKL) have been considered key regulators of medullary TECs. In a study of both aged mice and human thymus cell cultures, their key role was confirmed, with multiple benefits of resorting TEC function, recruitment of progenitor cells, and T cell development. Subscribe Summing Up This body of work strongly supports the health of the thymus gland as a critical regulator of human healthspan, not just a correlate or link. The new landmark studies are reinforced by the regenerative biology experimental models that have shown, via an array of mediators, that healthspan of aged mice is at least in part dependent on thymus gland function and its critical role for maintaining adaptive immunity. It sure seems that we’d be better off having an immune reservoir of naive T cells instead of a profile in older adults of exhausted, low quality, memory T cells, with a senescent phenotype. It is striking that we ignored the importance of the thymus gland for many decades. A wake-up call was the results of the thymectomy matched control study reviewed here, with the opposite of high thymic health score improved health outcomes. The convergence of AI and healthspan here is notable. The exceptional and laborious work for developing and validating (no less explaining) the AI to quantify thymus health set the foundation for probing the connect the major health outcomes in two cohorts with extensive follow-up. We’ve never had a way to meaningfully quantify the thymus gland before, so this represents important leverage of supervised, self-supervised, and transformer models. The study wouldn’t have been possible without AI. And it begs the question as to whether there are ways we can maintain our thymus at a high health score. But it’s not so simple to rejuvenate our thymus. There are multiple risks including the induction of autoimmunity, increasing the risk of cancer, and inducing a pro-inflammatory state. For example, factors that increase TEC proliferation could compromise the medulllary negative selection process and leak out auto-reactive (self-attacking) T cells. Thymic cells could be induced to proliferate, but we know, for example, that growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with an increase risk of cancer. If thymus rejuvenation doesn’t clear out the accumulated senescent cells in older adults, then inflammation within the gland could block the production of TECs. Keeping these risks in mind, we now have identified many ways to keep our thymus healthy as we age that undoubtedly will be tested in clinical trials going forward. Ultimately, the benefit-to-risk tradeoffs will be defined. In the meantime, we have desperately needed an immunome. As I’ve stressed in multiple prior Ground Truths, we have no test in the clinic to assess a patient’s immune status! It was very encouraging for me to get an email from Hugo Aerts, the senior author of the landmark papers in the days after they were published: “I also wanted to say that your Substack on “Why We Need an Immunome” was inspiring for this work. We found it a very compelling perspective and greatly enjoyed reading it.” Just having an assessment of a person’s immune status via a chest CT scan, with millions of these performed per year, might help in guiding the right immunotherapy for cancer (e.g. more intensive, combinations for those with low thymic health scores) and help define people who are increased risk for age-related diseases of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative. The main theme of Super Agers is that we now have many layers of data (genetics, proteins, biomarkers, organ clocks that can be integrated via multimodal AI) for us to define a person’s specific risk decades before one of these age-related diseases leads to symptoms, enabling prevention. From the new studies this week, we can add thymus health score as yet another way to understand a person’s risk, a window into their adaptive immune system and healthspan. And perhaps someday we will be able to safely rejuvenate the thymus, or maintain its health through one’s life, and use the thymus health score to monitor. NB: I wrote this post (No A.I.) A Quick Poll Loading... ********************************************************************* Thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (now > 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered. Leave a comment Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026.
Box Office: ‘Project Hail Mary’ blasts off with $80.5 million, a best for Amazon MGM
Studio estimates on Sunday say Amazon MGM's “Project Hail Mary” has topped the North American box office charts with $80.5 million in ticket sales. It's the biggest opening for the studio and the...
Box Office: ‘Project Hail Mary’ blasts off with $80.5 million, a best for Amazon MGM
Studio estimates on Sunday say Amazon MGM's “Project Hail Mary” has topped the North American box office charts with $80.5 million in ticket sales.
New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Remain 'Ready' to Launch
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other Apple Intelligence upgrades are released later this year.
A tribute to Scott Ostler, columnist, colleague, friend and sports wit
In Bruce Jenkins’ experience, there was never a teammate quite like fellow San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler, who retired last week.
Four truths about covid that have become clouded over time
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Chivas hold off Monterrey’s comeback to get another win
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Paxton Aaronson scores twice to propel Rapids to 4-1 victory over Sporting KC
Paxton Aaronson scored a goal in each half, Wayne Frederick's first career goal was the go-ahead score and the Colorado Rapids rolled to a 4-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. Aaronson gave Colorado (3-2-0) the lead in the 12th minute, but Shapi Suleymanov scored for the first time this season — in the 44th — to pull Sporting KC (1-3-1) even. The tie lasted until the second minute of stoppage time when Frederick scored unassisted for a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement listed for Nintendo Switch, plus an unannounced 505 Games Switch 2 title
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Arizona Cardinals GM perhaps gave hint about Michael Wilson's future
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Webb Telescope spots “impossible” atmosphere on ancient super Earth
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Microsoft could drop the forced Microsoft account sign-in during Windows 11 setup
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Thune, GOP blast Dems in DHS standoff as Lankford says they fear ICE over Iran
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DNA building blocks on asteroid Ryugu, bacteria that eat plastic waste, and more science news
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At age 41, a Westmoreland mom of 3 is diagnosed with a cancer that's rising in younger populations
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Martin Parr's Last Hurrah
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Kaiser Health Care unions ratify new contracts
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Thompson makes 30 stops in Capitals win over Devils
Jesper Bratt scored for the Devils, extending his point streak with three goals and four assists over his last seven games. Jake Allen stopped 26 shots. It was the third meeting between the teams and the first that didn't require extra time.
Pentagon policy limiting independent press access is unlawful, judge rules
A federal judge on Friday voided various parts of a restrictive press policy rolled out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, ruling that they trampled on the constitutional rights of reporters who seek to cover the US military from within its sprawling headquarters.
Charleston Waterkeeper opens Community Science Lab for researching water quality, monitoring microplastics
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Cristiano Ronaldo misses out on Portugal friendly vs. USMNT and Mexico due to injury
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US House Democrat blasts Commerce's 'highly concerning' $1.6 billion USA Rare Earth deal
A senior House Democrat accused U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Thursday of structuring Washington's $1.58 billion investment into USA Rare Earth in a way that gives the government "highly concerning" leverage over the company while boosting Lutnick's family-run investment firm.
Nine Winters Bakery is closing in Cambridge: 'I'm choosing my family'
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Tilman Fertitta Bid Puts Caesars Entertainment Value And Future In Focus
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Apple Announces New Mac Sales Record Following MacBook Neo Launch
Apple's CEO Tim Cook today said the Mac just had its "best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers," which suggests that the new MacBook Neo has been a hit with customers buying their first laptops or switching from Windows. Apple released the MacBook Neo last Wednesday, March 11. In the U.S., pricing starts at just $599 for the general public and an even lower $499 for college students.
After weeks of hype, Crimson Desert debuts to high player counts but "Mixed" Steam reviews, citing "disjointed graphics", lovable cats, "awful" UI and more
Pearl Abyss' single player RPG spin-off Crimson Desert released last night, and has had a rocky debut.
Google Unveils New Process For Installing Unverified Android Apps
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New Spider Mimics ‘The Last of Us’ Zombie Fungus Cordyceps
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Political tug of war over Iranian women's soccer team prompts criticism in Australia
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US Health Department official signals progress on selecting new CDC head
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Librarians seek continued funding from Congress to support local libraries
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Markiplier to Microdramas: The Ankler x NAB Show’s Future of Entertainment
Share Subscribe Vegas, baby! The Ankler is heading back to NAB Show for a second year in a row — and doubling down on conversations with the smartest people in the industry. From April 18–22, we’re partnering again with the industry’s biggest media and tech gathering to break down the Business of Media and Entertainment as it’s actually evolving: faster, riskier and increasingly driven by new formats, new audiences and new power players. This curated series will bring together top creators, executives and innovators to tackle the forces reshaping the industry — from the AI disruption of Hollywood’s creative ecosystem to the rise of the creator economy, shifting audience behavior and the changing economics of production. We’ll be rolling out more programming in the coming weeks — including top speakers from leading AI studios, prediction markets and beyond — so keep an eye on the Business of Media and Entertainment hub. But first up, we’re announcing two panels about what’s actually working in Hollywood: The Scary-Smart Business of Horror A good scare has become one of the entertainment economy’s most reliable engines. With disciplined budgets, built-in fandoms and global box office upside, horror consistently outperforms. From theatrical releases to streaming-first originals and creator-driven IP, the genre is artistically flexible and financially durable — and one of the last truly communal experiences for Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences. Join YouTube creator Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier, whose independent feature Iron Lung earned more than $50 million at the global box office, Atomic Monster president Michael Clear and screenwriter Akela Cooper (M3GAN, Malignant) for a conversation moderated by Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey about why horror travels so effectively across platforms and borders, how studios and independents are building sustainable genre pipelines and why the next wave of breakout franchises may emerge from unexpected sources. Inside the Microdrama Boom Short-form serialized storytelling is having a major moment. Microdramas, social-native series and creator-led narratives are capturing massive audiences with low-cost, rapid production cycles and direct-to-fan distribution. What was once dismissed as niche or experimental is now attracting major platform investment. Moderated by Jarvey, this panel of microdrama creators and executives — including one of the format’s top stars and producers, Kasey Esser, and Dhar Mann Studios’ head of vertical content, Erin McFarlane — examines how format innovation, fandom dynamics and algorithmic discovery are reshaping the economics of scripted storytelling and what traditional studios can learn from these agile models. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Lynne@theankler.com Share
GOP senator warns gutting Senate filibuster to pass SAVE America Act is a ‘foolish and lazy idea’
Sen. Thom Tillis on Thursday blasted talk of ending the Senate filibuster to pass the “SAVE America Act” as a “foolish and lazy idea” and warned his party that pushing the president’s priority through the so-called talking filibuster would hand control to Democrats.
New dispute emerges around Subnautica 2’s early access release
Lawyers for the ousted—and now partially reinstated—leadership team of Unknown Worlds, the studio behind Subnautica 2, are crying foul over news that the game will be released into early access in May. The release announcement earlier this week was made improperly, potentially “damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community,” the lawyers said in a letter sent on Tuesday to Vice Chancellor Lori Will of Delaware’s Court of Chancery. In their letter, the lawyers also floated the idea of asking Will to find Krafton in contempt of the court’s ruling. The letter was sent just one day after Will’s bombshell ruling that publisher Krafton had breached its contract with Unknown Worlds’ executive team, when it fired them last June. The new issue isn’t necessarily the May early access timeframe, but how the news was announced. The letter and Krafton’s response have not been previously reported. A quick recap of prior events: Subnautica 2 is an unreleased, underwater survival adventure and the most-wishlisted game on Steam. Last year, longtime Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, along with studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, were fired by Krafton. They swiftly sued, saying the publisher had terminated them to avoid paying out up to $250 million in potential performance-based bonuses. The studio leaders had hoped to earn that with an early access release of the game, which Krafton had blocked. The publisher argued in court that Subnautica 2 wasn’t ready, which the ousted execs disputed. On Monday, Will ruled that Krafton had violated its contract, firing the execs to avoid the performance payouts, and that it had to reinstate Gill and give him full authority over any early access release for Subnautica 2. On Tuesday, IGN reported on a new memo issued that day to Unknown Worlds staff by Steve Papoutsis, the executive Krafton had put in charge of Unknown Worlds after the 2025 firings. In the note, Papoutsis said that Subnautica 2 had passed a key development milestone “last week” and that he and Krafton had determined the game “is ready for Early Access release in May.” This news appeared to catch the lawyers for Gill, Cleveland and McGuire by surprise. On Tuesday night, they sent a letter to Will expressing “serious concerns” about whether it would be possible to forge an agreement with Krafton consistent with the judge’s order. Papoutsis’ memo was a problem, they wrote. He didn’t have the authority to declare anything about Subnautica 2’s release. As of 9am ET on Monday, March 16, the effective date of Will’s order, Papoutsis wasn’t CEO of Unknown Worlds. Gill was. And, per Will’s order, only Gill could make Subnautica 2 release decisions. They continued: Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community—let alone this Court’s Opinion. Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game. That entire process was supposed to be driven by Mr. Gill. However, in defiance of the Court’s Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community. The lawyers speculated that Krafton had “intentionally leaked” Papoutsis’ memo and then issued an official statement to confirm the leak. Game File is a reader-supported publication. My reporting is only possible through support from readers like you. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe On Wednesday, lawyers for Krafton defended their client in their own letter to vice chancellor Will, saying nothing they did violated her order nor showed contempt: Papoutsis’s message was simply celebrating the UW employees’ efforts toward a past event: Krafton’s pre-Opinion determination that Subnautica 2 was ready for Early Access release. There was nothing improper about conveying the results of the milestone review or thanking the development team for their dedication and talent. They added that Gill could still make his own call about Subnautica 2’s release: In his role as CEO, Gill will be able to assess independently his views on the state of Subnautica 2 and the appropriate release schedule; nothing in Papoutsis’s message alters Gill’s authority or discretion. Vice chancellor Will has not responded to the letters and doesn’t necessarily have to. Both parties were previously ordered by Will to confer this week and submit a proposed judgment consistent with her ruling. The letter from Gill’s attorney’s this week doesn’t indicate whether he would or would not support a May release for Subnautica 2. But it could limit his options. And, if Gill’s lawyers are right, the lack of marketing fanfare around the leak of the May date could dull the launch of the game. Any harm to Subnautica 2’s launch is an extra sensitive issue given the context of the legal dispute: millions of dollars of payouts are on the line, tethered to the scale of the game’s initial performance. In her ruling on Monday, Will noted that there was obvious “bad blood” between Gill’s side and Krafton but that the two would need to work together: “They can—and must—act in good faith to navigate their remaining contractual relationship.” Item 2: A new kind of couch co-op game A highlight of GDC each year is the Alt.Ctrl showcase that features games played with extremely experimental controllers. Perusing this year’s offerings last Friday, I found a game controlled with giant scissors, another with big toothbrushes and one that amounted to dumpster diving. My favorite was Pivot, a co-op game about collectively maneuvering a couch. It was developed by students at the University of Utah’s masters of arts and engineering games program. Players lift and tilt the physical couch in order to control the position of a virtual one. That virtual one is moving through an obstacle course on-screen, while being pursued by a giant skull. Developer Nishant Verma told me at GDC that the couch is made of styrofoam (this became more evident as I watched!) and that the name was a riff on an episode of the sitcom Friends. Item 3: In brief… 🚫 Ubisoft is laying off more than 100 workers at its Red Storm studio, as the North Carolina location known for decades for its Tom Clancy games, ceases in-house game development, VGC reports. 👀 On Monday, Nvidia’s revealed its DLSS 5 AI-driven graphics technology that purports to improve game graphics… and it has been roasted about it by the media and the online gaming public for the remainder of the week. The tech changed the faces of characters in footage from Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC, drawing accusations of giving carefully art-directed games the generic look of AI “slop.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had said on Monday that “DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics—blending handcrafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.” By mid-week, Huang was telling Tom’s Hardware that the new tech’s critics were “completely wrong” because game-makers could still “fine-tune the generative AI” to suit their game’s aesthetics.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur finalizes his staff moves for 2026
Green Bay's new quarterbacks coach is Luke Getsy, a former Las Vegas Raiders and Chicago Bears offensive coordinator who spent last season as a Packers senior assistant. Getsy previously was Green Bay's quarterbacks coach from 2019-21. The Packers also hired Scott Fuchs as a defensive analyst, T.C. McCartney as offensive quality control coach and Will Smart as a defensive quality control coach.
Recreation, entertainment top Foy Ranch wish list
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What Americans are giving up to afford ACA health insurance, according to a new poll
A new KFF survey shows many Americans who had Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance last year are struggling with high health costs. The findings come three months after the expiration of enhanced tax credits that had offset most enrollees' monthly premiums.
How the NFL is betting big on gambling
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Mortgage rates jump to highest level in nearly 4 months
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Poll shows Americans are cutting back on basics to afford health care
A new KFF survey shows many Americans who had Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance last year are struggling with high health costs.
Spring Position Battles: Cornerback
If there’s one constant across the Mizzou defense entering the 2026 season, it’s transition — and nowhere is that more apparent than at cornerback. Like nearly every other defensive position group, the Tigers lost a massive amount of production at corner this offseason. Both starters from last fall, Dreydon Norwood and Toriano Pride, Jr., have […]
State forensic science commission blasts UIC over rogue crime lab
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Mathews Local School board freezes coach salaries, no sports cuts
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Pearl Abyss shares tumble after Crimson Desert fails to meet expectations
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Alex Eala returns to the Miami Open, where a dream run launched a tennis phenomenon
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30 Rochester restaurants cited for critical health violations. See the list
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How Barcelona exploited Magpies' defensive weakness
Champions League Match of the Day pundits Stephen Warnock and Nedum Onuoha look at how Barcelona were able to repeatedly expose Newcastle United's centre-backs Dan Burn and Malick Thiaw during their 7-2 victory in the second leg of their last-16 tie.
Flyers' Trevor Zegras welcomed back in Anaheim return
Former Duck of five highlight-reel seasons, drafted No. 9 overall by Anaheim in 2019, makes his first return to Honda Center after last summer's trade to Philadelphia.
Tim Cook on iPhone's Future: 'There's So Much Left That We Can Do'
In an interview with Nikias Molina at New York's Grand Central Terminal last week, Apple's CEO Tim Cook briefly commented on the future of the iPhone. "There's so much left that we can do with the iPhone," said Cook. "I think it's going to continue to be the center of people's digital lives".
Messi scores 900th career goal in Inter Miami cup clash
Argentine superstar Lionel Messi bagged the 900th goal of his glittering career on Wednesday, scoring for Inter Miami in their CONCACAF Champions Cup clash with Nashville.- Clinical finish - The Argentine World Cup winner's 900th goal came early in Miami's last-16 second leg tie with MLS rivals Nashville.
‘Project Hail Mary’ Review: Ryan Gosling’s Science-Teaching Savior
The actor stars in a soaring, witty space epic, based on the novel by Andy Weir, about a man on a last-ditch mission to protect the sun from a microscopic but urgent threat.
Anchorage doctor and husband sentenced in $12.5 million health care fraud scheme
Dr. Claribel Tan and Daniel Tan each pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Alaska last November.