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Money problems may age your brain faster

Persistent financial hardship in early and middle adulthood was linked to poorer thinking skills by the 50s and more signs of brain aging later in life. Researchers say years of chronic stress and financial worry may gradually take a toll on the brain.

Sep 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

August Monthly Review: ChatGPT In Epic

Death, taxes, another frontier lab healthcare launch inspiring truly insane LinkedIn takes. As much as I want to stay away, I repeatedly am the crewman unplugging his ears whenever we pass these sirens. So it’s not the first and probably not the last time we dial up the typewriter rather than tie ourselves to the mast. The full blow-by-blow timeline: Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe The End of the Standalone PHR (Jan 8): ChatGPT Health arrives for consumers, at the time powered by b.well. I was bullish on the approach in that the best way for the PHR to finally solve distribution was to meet consumers were they already are (i.e. When Horizontal Meets Healthcare (Jan 9): OpenAI for Healthcare puts out the shingle for enterprises, with SharePoint ingestion standing in for the EHR integration the product actually needed. Another One: Anthropic’s Healthcare Debut (Jan 16): Claude's version, on HealthEx rails instead of b.well, with Agent Skills for FHIR development as the one true vertical-specific investment. ChatGPT for Clinicians: The Trap Sprung (Apr 24): OpenAI filled in the missing GTM middle with a free product for verified clinicians, effectively peeling the enterprise wrapper off ChatGPT for Healthcare and taking the PLG fight directly to OpenEvidence. OpenAI’s Second Attempt at Health (Jul 31): a relaunch of their patient specific app, now branded Health in ChatGPT, where the privacy partition came out, the connectors thinned, and b.well disappeared in favor of first-party FHIR work against a smaller network Beyond a Shingle So what was announced now? Today, we’re introducing a new electronic health record integration that brings authorized patient context from Epic into ChatGPT for Healthcare, along with the Healthcare Public Data plugin for direct, structured access to official healthcare datasets like PubMed, DailyMed, and CMS Coverage. Together, these capabilities bring ChatGPT closer to the systems and sources healthcare teams trust, while supporting the controls and compliance healthcare work requires. The core portfolio is unchanged from prior announcements we delineated and discussed (aside from the relaunch of patient-facing). Since trade publications still seem to be confusing them by using the wrong names: Enterprise sales motion: ChatGPT for Healthcare Protecting their core product / PLG: ChatGPT for Clinicians Consumer/patient-facing product: Health in ChatGPT So really, this is a feature release (specifically for ChatGPT for Healthcare when it comes to EHR integration). What’s cool about it, though, is that we are moving beyond just putting out a shingle. Everything in the January enterprise launch was horizontalizable: Horizontal tech companies thus generally start verticalization with their “putting out a shingle phase”. Telling the world you’re open for business as a horizontal tech company reliably attracts early inbound interest from buyers who are already trying to force-fit horizontal tools into domain-specific workflows and are eager for any signal that the vendor intends to support their use case more directly. Nothing was really vertical specific, which is exactly what you'd expect from the ultimate hypergrowth horizontal company dipping their toes into specific industries. But eventually you have to stop changing the sign on the door and start changing the product. Can you guess where the horizontal product was going to run out of road? This is the core dilemma writ large: verticalization requires differentiation, while scale economics of consumer and horizontal push toward unification. I’ve buried the lede so deep here it will be painful to some readers, but what should be shocking to no one is that my perspective is that EHR integration is the only path that meaningfully resolves this tension for ChatGPT for Healthcare. Integration with Microsoft Sharepoint is fine, but it is categorically insufficient for any product that hopes to influence clinical decision-making. SMART Money Well here we are, eight months later! Real vertical investment has begun, which surprised a few people. One friend in the industry messaged me: “Absolutely no way Epic gave ChatGPT API access.” Looking forensically at the announcements, the integration is notably read-only across appointment notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation. So while I’m not a betting man, I'd wager the house this is a SMART on FHIR launch: That sounds a lot like USCDI! The recommended path for the workflow they outline would be SMART on FHIR Their Health AI lead’s post is evocative of both standalone and EHR launch SMART, which another termed “ChartGPT” and “EHR Plugin” The implementation burden for SMART on FHIR is the lowest of the available integrative paths This is the team who literally did patient-facing SMART on FHIR with Epic last month Most importantly, if you’re a horizontal company, you generally still haven’t taken the full plunge and thus (overly) value reusability. SMART on FHIR is the logical compromise: healthcare-specific enough to matter, but standardized enough to reuse. Nobody Asked Judy Another friend asked “I thought they had to go to each health system, or did they go direct to Epic and now health systems opt in?” Given the trust paradigms in healthcare, this functionally cannot be Epic hoovering up all the data for OpenAI and shoving ChatGPT in their customers’ faces (or they would revolt). However, I do believe the aforementioned terrible coverage by TechCrunch and other outlets is probably responsible for that question, given the 325 million reference. When using FHIR as a business associate to an Epic customer, there is no EHR gatekeeping to speak of, as that isn’t how fhir.epic.com works: You register an app You pick your APIs You test against the sandbox APIs You list as “Ready for Production” Hospitals pick your app You test and go live with them Bluntly, nobody had to say yes or no in Verona (nor were they given the chance). Vendor Services (their next developer tier up that I doubt OpenAI is using quite yet in this initial release) certainly has contractual paperwork that some resent, but even there, the twin pressures of mounting antitrust and information blocking make outright gatekeeping increasingly fraught. My friend’s sentiment is, to me, representative of a broader industry neurosis, perhaps a sort of scar tissue of prior eras: people assume the gate is still there and never actually try the door. There are certainly other ways Epic (and any EHR) can put its thumb on the scale, but they are not so dumb as to stand in front of a federally mandated API and play bouncer at this exact moment in time. So I think they can and probably should go deeper, as this release is at best parity and at worst behind vertical-specific competition. OpenEvidence did a basic SMART launch with Sutter Health in February, allowing for more convenient evidence search by providers. They then add patient-context (the equivalent SMART on FHIR flow to what we see here) when Cedars-Sinai went enterprise-wide in May. UpToDate has four distinct applications across deeper workflows like patient engagement listed in Epic Showroom and announced a partnership with Epic to power Art at UGM Abridge and other ambient scribes have invested deeply into the deepest bidirectional clinical copilot workflow with integrations well beyond SMART on FHIR. In that light, the “Who is OpenAI primarily targeting here?” is clear. This release brings them into striking distance of OpenEvidence, but not the others quite yet. They are the only one of the three you can reach without building something truly Epic-specific. When will they go further? Competition is a great motivator to overcome the horizontal demons and start building things that can’t be reused: not across industries, not across EHRs, maybe not past the customer you built them for. That’s the price of actually verticalizing. The question is if and when OpenAI will be willing to pay it. Month in Review Here is the monthly review. As a reminder, this is a regular round-up of the month’s posts and other content to surface things you may have missed across regulation, litigation, interoperability, and beyond. AI assistance is used in these bullet summaries so I can focus on articles. Articles Published: None this month Video Content: The Information Exchange: Standards-based Thruple Edition (Aug 14): Back to school for us too, with Brad reporting in from the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem’s one year anniversary in DC. We get into the January CMS-0057 deadline, the fall rulemaking reading list, and why enrollment still keeps most apps off FHIR. The Information Exchange: Epic Dúnadan Edition (Aug 25): A UGM roundup with Ryan Brickner joining for the first time to check our takes against what the building actually thinks. Rangers, Ergo sitting on top of EHI, and a down-market lineup that needs some cuts. Regulatory: Stacked Deck, Bad Hand (Aug 05): ONC’s website refresh took the entire HIT Policy Committee record with it, so I rebuilt the archive and went looking for the regulatory capture story everyone assumes is buried in there. Stacking the deck and winning the hand turn out to be very different things. The Sixth Generation of Patient Access (Aug 19): A quick catalog of the five generations of patient access we’ve layered on since HIPAA, and the two candidates now competing to be the sixth. One is planned. The other is the market routing around the plan entirely. Court cases: Three Cases Walk Into a Docket (Aug 06): Two surprise settlements cleared the board in a single week, and then Judge Maddox dropped ninety-four pages on Vyne v. Henry Schein. The sleeper is a DMCA holding that makes direct-to-database a considerably riskier business model. Epic v. Health Gorilla: Into the MDL (Aug 10): Nine class actions are headed to Miami, and the Panel signaled it wants to bring the case that spawned them along too. That would leave Epic arguing the requests were obviously fraudulent in one courtroom and unknowable in the other. Amazon v. Perplexity: Agents Are Legalized! (Aug 11): The Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction against Comet, holding that the user is the one accessing the servers rather than the company that built the agent. A real win for agentic access, and a much narrower one than the headline suggests. Veeva v. Epic: Come At Me, Bro (Aug 26): Epic’s response brief wants the dismissal affirmed and, unusually, wants the opinion published as precedent. Buried in it is Epic’s own description of what its non-competes actually prohibit, which current and former employees should read closely. EHRs: The Contract Epic Would Never Sign Today (Aug 04): A 1999 SEC exhibit catches Epic licensing nearly its entire product line, Tapestry included, to the company that became TriZetto. The marketing services menu attached to it is the part that will make you blink. Forecast from Verona (Aug 07): The Epic Almanac makes one argument six different ways: the AI is only as good as the networks behind it. Emmie headlines, Art’s context stack is the most ambitious part, and Penny finally gets an autonomous coding date on the calendar. Works With Epic MyChart (Aug 17): Epic’s first new Showroom category since the death of Workshop certifies hardware instead of software, badge on the box and all. Made for iPhone, but for blood pressure cuffs, and rough news for anyone selling the RPM stack sitting in between. UGM Hot Takes 2026 (Aug 20): Everyone else covered the AI announcements, so I went after Savvy deleting the payment gateway, Rangers as Boost with the timer removed, and a down-market lineup with too many entries. Plus the Health Grid tidbits I cannot help myself on. MyChart Central Grows Up (Aug 24): Device data and Emmie turn Epic’s identity hub into a full consumer platform, which is both a logical answer to ChatGPT and a bit of a mistake. It also happens to be the best scraping target Epic has ever shipped. Industry Analysis: The Wrong Yardstick (Aug 12): Vertical software keeps getting judged against Superhuman and Notion, which is the wrong bar entirely. Your user is comparing your product to a whiteboard and forty phone calls before lunch. Primitives vs. Abstractions (Aug 27): Developers want building blocks, systems of record prefer to hand out business logic, and both sides have a real case. There’s no test from the outside that separates the engineering reason from the competitive one, which is why this keeps ending up in court. Cross-industry Comparisons: The Two Kinds of Platform Power (Aug 18): Attention power and record power are different problems that keep getting handed the same regulatory toolkit. Congress’s latest swing at Big Tech shows both what’s possible and where it falls apart. The Dogs of (Platform) War (Aug 21): A CourtListener alert turned up a property management fight with healthcare’s exact shape and none of the Cures Act. Shell prospects, ghost accounts, a notetaker bot that came back to haunt someone, and a lawyer arguing both sides of the same theory in two states. Fractals All the Way Down (Aug 31): Yardi dominates property management right up until you zoom into one segment, where AppFolio owns it outright and Yardi doesn’t appear at all. Where you draw the line around a B2B software market is about to decide an awful lot of cases. Other News: If Judy Had the Courage (Aug 13): A short eulogy for the era when software was allowed to look insane: WinAMP, bold colors, and everything the grey chatbot era has taken from us. External Media: Portland Monthly Health Tech Meetup: Erin O’Brien channeled my own feelings - maybe it’s just because it’s August and beautiful, but the monthly edition of the PDX Health community meetup was a ripper. Make sure to reach out if interested to join for the next one. STAT’s Coverage of Epic This Month: Brittany Trang of STAT did a fantastic job of breaking the FTC investigation that’s been lurking, as well as UGM related coverage, so I had to give her her wish of a meme. Fall Conferences: I’m pumped to be kicking off my fall conference season in NYC at Nabla Accelerate next month, which Chrissy provided the link to apply for. Here’s the rest of my schedule in case you want to meet up: Commonwell (Redwood Shores, CA): Oct 13-14 Open@Epic (Madison, WI): Oct 21-22 eHealthExchange (Austin, TX): Oct 27 Sequoia Project (Austin, TX): Oct 28-29 HLTH (Vegas): Nov 15-18 RSNA (Chicago): Nov 29-Dec 3 Posts I Liked: HTI-6 Should Unbundle API Certification: Josh Mandel makes the case that HTI-6 should split (g)(10) into separate authorization and data certifications, so a PACS or a genomics platform can certify only the role it actually performs. Imaging is the urgent example, but the structure solves a much bigger problem. On implementing ePrior Auth with Epic: Scott Rossignol’s field notes from a live ePrior Auth build on Epic, including the two app registrations nobody warns you about and the CPT mapping problem waiting at the end. CMS-0057 implementations are going to be such a beast. Healthcare point solutions are starting to look a lot like streaming services: Spencer Dorn runs the cable-to-streaming arc against health IT and lands squarely on the bundling half of the cycle. Bundling can be good! It can also be bad! Life is nuanced. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

Sep 2 • 5:05 AM EDT • Health • healthapiguy.substack.com

Celtic chase full-back Lotomba

Celtic linked with a host of new arrivals as Rangers await bids for star midfielder...

Sep 2 • 3:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Vikings Just Added a Familiar Face for Brian Flores: Report

The Minnesota Vikings are getting a new linebacker. Kyle Van Noy signed with the Vikings on Wednesday evening. The Ringer’s Tom Pelissero reported thisThe linebacker was linked to the Vikings earlier in the day. KSTP’s Darren Wolfson reported that the linebacker came in for a visit. There were indications that he may sign with the […] The post Vikings Just Added a Familiar Face for Brian Flores: Report appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 2 • 2:09 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

All 16 new Russian Starlink-rival satellites short of target orbit

The 16 satellites form the second batch of the Rassvet-3 constellation, which now only has 12 out of 32 launched satellites set for long-term orbit.

Sep 2 • 2:08 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Mental health conditions after trauma linked to higher cardiovascular risk

Research Highlights: A large study in Denmark suggests that people who were diagnosed with a variety of psychiatric disorders after traumatic events were more likely to have increased future cardiovascular risks, such as non-fatal heart attack and...

Sep 1 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • newsroom.heart.org

Too much coffee may weaken bones, study finds

Following nearly 10,000 older women for 10 years, researchers found that tea drinking was associated with slightly higher hip bone density. Moderate coffee consumption did not appear harmful, but drinking more than five cups a day was linked to lower bone density. The findings suggest tea may offer a small bone-health boost, while excessive coffee could carry some drawbacks.

Sep 1 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Did the Evolution of Language Take a Huge Leap Around the Fireplace?

A new theory links storytelling, firelight and the rise of spoken language.

Sep 1 • 7:03 PM EDT • Science • zmescience.com

What Box Office Bomb Crushed Obsession on Streaming?

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get into this week’s issue, let me ask you for some suggestions. At the risk of coining too many names for too many things (hence my dictionary of terms...), I need a name for straight-to-streaming films that are too expensive to justify a straight-to-streaming release, but not big enough to justify a theatrical release. Like some of the films I highlighted in last week’s tally of the biggest film flops of 2026 so far: Hulu’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, Pizza Movie or Never Change! They don’t feel like “made for TV movies” (think Hallmark and Lifetime movies, cheap Netflix romcoms, or Disney Channel Original movies, for example) but they don’t feel big enough for the big screen. They’re not “cinematic” enough, so to speak. As I wrote... “I still need a name for this middle zone of film that’s too expensive to go straight-to-streaming but too small to justify a theatrical release (with all the PR, distribution, marketing and whatnot costs that go along with it), the Goldilocks zone of streaming film death.” Friend of the newsletter Brandon Katz has suggested the “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”. I love that first one. I’d offer up the much wordier “The Streaming Budget Dead Zone” or “the Goldilocks Zone of streaming film death” but that last one isn’t accurate since, unlike Goldilocks’ porridge, these films are the opposite of “just right”. That’s the problem! Anyway, if you have any suggestions, let me know! On to today’s Streaming Ratings Report. As you can tell by today’s headline, things are going to be spicy! I’m looking at a box office bomb that did really, really well on streaming, somewhat challenging a few different narratives. And another Netflix series declined in its second season. All that, plus Wicked: For Good switching streamers, The Hawk continuing its strong run, _The Bear’_s finale season finally dropping off the charts, the WNBA posting a big viewership number, “shallow libraries”, a sitcom spinoff failing to launch, more big budget IP flopping on Paramount+, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of July 20th to July 26th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - The Latest Theatrical Success Story on Streaming In the latest edition of “Flops, Bombs and Misses of the First Half of 2026”, I made a crucial change: I started including theatrical films with the streaming misses. The streamers have collectively—including Netflix, but not to as big of an extent—stopped making a lot of straight-to-streaming films, and the ones they do make aren’t as expensive as in the heyday of the streaming bubble. After the following two films bombed in theaters, you’d guess that they’ll be included in my next collection of flops, bombs and misses six months from now: Masters of the Universe on Prime Video (only $64 million domestic box office) Mortal Kombat II on HBO Max ($79 million domestic) But you’d be wrong! Masters of the Universe, a reboot of the He-Man franchise, a toy from the 1980s, came to streaming on 22-July and did great! This long-gestating project—it’s been at every studio for years, and came close to getting a greenlight at Netflix—then finally came to theaters in June, and showed up on streaming less than two months later. (I don’t love this short theatrical window.) It surprisingly grabbed nearly 20 million hours on its debut: That means, wait for it, Masters of the Universe is currently the eighth biggest film on streaming through two weeks. My rough bar for “hit” is shows or films in the top 15%. Ergo…Masters of the Universe is a legit, streaming hit! (One quick caveat: if it falls out of the top ten next week, it will move to 13th overall, just on the edge of the top 15.) Of course, that’s the data for just 2026. Here’s how it stacks up to Prime Video’s theatrical films: That drop into its second week is typical for Amazon films, but also a worrying sign. I have a feeling interest in this film is front-loaded and we’ll see it drop off after this. As for Mortal Kombat II, in this case, the viewership numbers roughly match the theatrical outing, with only 4.1 million hours in its first week. Here’s how it stacks up to other HBO Max films: The best defense of this number is that, as a relatively violent rated-R film, Mortal Kombat II never had a good chance at breaking out. So now it’s time for a little big of “Entertainment Nuance Guy”: First, yeah, my headline is obviously facetious, since Masters of the Universe besting Obsession says more about horror as a genre than it does that film. Second, I read and listened to quite a few “nobody wanted this IP” takes about Masters of the Universe, and that’s not really true. At least enough people wanted it to power a 20 million+ hour debut! Third, both this film and Mortal Kombat II were considered “average” by viewers, but not great films, with a 6.4 and 6.3 respectively on IMDb. That’s just shy of the level needed to be a word-of-mouth hit. Fourth, in the olden days, strong word of mouth could transform a box office miss into a cable/DVD hit, like Austin Powers or The Shawshank Redemption. We haven’t seen a lot of examples of that on streaming, though. And there are far fewer ways to monetize the post-theatrical life of a film these days. Fifth, Prime Video has shown an ability to push their own titles well, likely because they control the Amazon Fire TV ecosystem. Add it all up, and here’s my nuanced take on Masters of the Universe: it was a box office bomb, but, shockingly, a streaming hit. Unfortunately, while being a theatrical hit saves your film financially, being a streaming hit does not. Both Masters of the Universe and Mortal Kombat II had big budgets and needed to make more money in theaters to justify them. So…Straight-to-Streaming or Theaters? We’ve hit a really fun point in the streaming calendar, since the films that came out in theaters in April, May, and June are now arriving on streaming. So the “Do theatrical releases help streaming performances?” question is gonna get a fresh round of updates nearly every week. No single week will answer the question, but we may get some insights. For example, so far in 2026, it looks like theatrical films are lasting longer on the weekly Nielsen film charts. Here’s a list of films that have made the charts in their fourth or fifth week of release, separated by “for kids” and “general entertainment”: It certainly seems like theatrical films are lasting just a pinch longer on the charts, with Project Hail Mary being the current five-week champion. One Battle After Another did well for HBO Max too, and even The Sheep Detectives made it four weeks. The only exception to this trend? Obsession, which only lasted two weeks on the charts. You might tempted to overreact to this news. Don’t. Obsession is a huge horror hit, but horror just doesn’t do as well on streaming. By the way, here’s the Google Trends for various theatrical and stremaing films: Plus, when it comes to Netflix in four months, Obsession may have another big boost. Quick Notes on Film Note that when I write, “the streamers have pulled back on straight-to-streaming films” that doesn’t mean “abandoned” because Netflix is gonna Netflix. On 24-July, they released 72 Hours, a Kevin Hart comedy. Along with Eddie Murphy, Mark Wahlberg, John Cena and Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart is a streaming film star now. Did this latest one work? Not really. It only garnered two weeks of 13.2 and 12.2 million hours on its debut, well below the 20-million-hour hit threshold. It also was poorly received critically—a 44 on Metacritic—and by customers—a 5.4 on IMDb on 21K IMDb reviews. We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… The latest Netflix true crime doc to pop on the charts… How The Bear finished its run… Netflix’s latest Western to return to streaming… What Paramount+ animated film flopped… And what sitcom also missed… All the flops, bombs and misses… And a whole lot more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! I’m behind by a week, so we’ve got two issues coming your way this week, including one in a couple of days or so, then we’ll be all caught up**.** Next issue, inspired by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie coming to Peacock, I’m going to take a look at the workhouse of streaming TV: kids films. Plus The Devil Wears Prada 2 continues theatrical films’ big run on streaming. All that, plus another surprise hit on Hulu, Lioness on CBS, and a whole lot more. Long term, LeBron James is filming his own “Last Dance”-style docu-series, surprising no one. But as I’ve been writing about a lot this summer, this genre is really overrated, so whoever ends up buying it (reportedly ESPN) really shouldn’t pay too much for it.

Sep 1 • 6:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

The light is blinking red on Trump messing with the 2026 election

It should surprise nobody that the president who tried to overturn the 2020 election based on lies — and didn’t seem to mind his supporters rising up violently on January 6, 2021 — might try to monkey with the 2026 midterm elections.

Sep 1 • 1:13 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Ocean heatwaves linked with poorer health among children in coastal communities

Marine heatwaves — periods of abnormally warm ocean temperatures — may have negative health effects on children who live in coastal communities in low- or middle-income countries, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sep 1 • 12:42 PM EDT • Health • psu.edu

Yankees linked to offseason trade for Brewers' 'premier offensive threat'

This would be an upgrade in the infield for the Yankees.

Sep 1 • 11:12 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

gamescom 2026’s Steam wishlist winners

gamescom wrapped up last weekend, and it was bloody fantastic. It really felt like the industry had a spring in its step again. The show itself was BUZZING, with 368K attendees (+3% over last year), maxed-out exhibit space, and Opening Night Live pulling over 78M online views (+7.5%). Let’s have a look at the games at the event that brought in the most new Steam wishlists between August 23 and 30. One quick thing before we start, and stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but wishlists are NOT a barometer for launch sales (they’re bookmarks, not baskets is what we always say over here at Alinea). With that aside, wishlists are a nice gauge of hype, so let’s dive in. Witche(r)s and Warlocks take the top two spots The biggest game of the event (by new wishlists, anyways) wasn’t a game at all. It was an expansion. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, nabbed 451K Steam wishlists by the end of the weekend. It’s a big example of something we bang on about constantly: proven IP with built-in fandom is the most powerful force in this market. But said IP can also ripple into other external success stories (more on that later!). Anyway, Songs of the Past debuted at Opening Night Live, and it’s the first Witcher 3 expansion in over a decade, landing next year after a full Witcher 3 remaster (free for existing owners!) arrives next month. The Witcher 3 has sold around 66M copies, and I’ll be one of those owners jumping back in to refresh myself on the core game (like there isn’t enough to play!), then play the expansion next year. This is all part of CDPR’s plan. The studio is clearly whetting everyone’s appetite for The Witcher 4 in 2028 via a classic bridge strategy. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Releasing a free 4K remaster next month – followed by a proper expansion in 2027 – keeps IP top-of-mind across a huge gap between content (games-wise, anyway). It kind of echoes Capcom’s evergreen catalogue strategy. And outsourcing co-development to Fool’s Theory (a studio led by trusted Witcher 3 veterans) keeps CDPR’s internal headcount focused on The Witcher 4. #2 by wishlists between Aug 23 and 30 went to another giant IP: Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast and developed by Invoke Studios (a team of ex-Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell devs). It’s due to launch in 2027, and it looks brilliant so far. It’s a dark-fantasy open world with third-person spell-slinging. It’s a very Witcher-ish aesthetic. As you might expect, 48% of Warlock’s Steam wishlisters have played Baldur’s Gate 3, and 46% have played The Witcher 3. One to watch. For sure! Mash-ups: Anime GTA (!?) and a city-builder for kids (and adults) Ananta took #3 with 302K new wishlists. It’s an open-world game that looks like GTA and Persona had a baby. It was published by NetEase, developed by Naked Rain, and got a trailer at Opening Night Live. I got hands-on at the show, and it wears its influences openly; there’s literal web-slinging (very Spider-Man) and a LOAD of mini-games (Like a Dragon). It’s free-to-play and out in January. For Ananta, Naked Rain is taking the free-to-play, cosmetics-only route. That’s certainly a choice for a single-player open-world game. Without gacha mechanics driving high ARPU, Ananta is betting purely on top-of-funnel reach and long-term retention. This puts pressure on skin appeal when there’s no multiplayer lobby to flex in (although, co-op is reportedly coming later). Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Then there’s Lego Skylines (273K wishlists between Aug 23 and 30), which does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a cosy Lego twist on the city-builder genre, as shallow or as deep as you fancy (five min quick sesh or ten-hour no-lifer session; latter for me). There’s some family-friendly stuff in there like couch co-op, which is only really viable on console. Iceflake Studios, which Paradox acquired back in 2020 is developing this one. So Paradox is probably looking for a family-friendly onramp to its rad Cities: Skylines games. The overlap there is plain, with 33% of Lego Skylines wishlisters having played Cities: Skylines and 16% Skylines II. There’s no doubt plenty of parents here (and uncles, ahem) planning to indoctrinate the next gen of city-builders. I’ll definitely be playing with my youngest nephew. This one could be big and educational. I’m very curious to see more. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Mature IP, new and old, rounds out the list As for the rest of the list of gamescom games by new wishlists between Aug 23 and 30: Heroes of Might & Magic III Remake got 189K new wishlists. It remakes the iconic 1999 turn-based-strategy classic in full 3D and 4K. It follows this year’s Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (~1.8M copies sold, as per our estimates), and around a quarter of the III Remake wishlisters have played Olden Era, including 7% of them this month. Wardogs – a $40 PvP shooter – added another 146K to an already massive pile (nearly 1.6M total). It’s published by Team17 and made by Bulkhead. It plays somewhere between the tactical squad stuff of … Squad and the all-out-chaos battlefield of … Battlefield. It’s up to 100 players, and it’s out in about 10 days. It’s already pre-sold over 500K copies on Steam ($16.6M), boosted by a pre-order-only beta. It sold another 70K copies during gamescom, too. Afterworld managed 121K new wishlists. It’s a Paradox-made post-apocalyptic grand-strategy game, and it was announced at the show. It’s a departure from Paradox’s usual historical stuff, and the studio’s first new setting in over a decade. The Paradox purists are into it, with over half its wishlisters having played Hearts of Iron IV (19% this month) and 41% Crusader Kings III (17% this month). Metro 2039 got 110K during the show, tunnelling its total past 1.3M. Nearly 40% of wishlisters have played 2020’s Metro Exodus, the previous mainline title in the series. The Metro novels are Russian, dev 4A Games is Ukrainian, and it’s set in Moscow, so it’s unsurprising that – after the US (17.3% of wishlisters) – the next two countries are Russia (12.7%) and Ukraine (10.0%). The Blood of the Dawnwalker drew in (the blood of) 108K new wishlisters, now totalling an impressive 1.7M (at a $70 price point, though). It’s an open-world dark-fantasy action-RPG set in 14th-century Europe (with vampires!), made by some former Witcher devs at Rebel Wolves. Again, it shows. Over half of Blood of the Dawnwalker’s wishlisters have played The Witcher 3, and its #2 market is Poland, home of Rebel Wolves. That’s that hometown-hero effect we keep banging on about again! And Blood of the Dawnwalker plays very well, by the way. While it looks like a Witcher clone on the surface, it actually brings a lot to the table mechanics-wise. I love the whole time-as-a-currency spin on RPG gameplay. It gives the game a different, refreshing pace. Essentially, you start Blood of the Dawnwalker with a pool of 480 action points spread across 30 days and 30 nights. As for how the game performs, we’ll be posting some numbers next week, so hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready. Subscribe The Witcher’s legacy ripples Make no mistake: on a high level, this was The Witcher‘s gamescom. The #1 game by wishlisters was a Witcher 3 DLC. Warlock is clearly Witcher-inspired – as is Blood of the Dawnwalker, which was made by ex-Witcher devs. There was a lot of other cool stuff on the floor that we’ll no doubt be covering in subsequent newsletters, though! As always, wishlists went through the roof for sequels, remakes, DLC, and licensed IP. As always, though, these wishlists will likely convert to about 5% to 10% of launch-day buyers, with the probable exception of The Witcher DLC – the exception that proves the rule. Either way, we’ve got a nice, diverse list here – one that is very Witcher-y, Paradox-y, and – if you’re a fan of great games on Steam – a bloody good list. We even got a bunch of new IP to get excited for. Great gamescom! Even if we are still processing that unfathomable number of mini Kölsch beers! One more thing: GTA 6 broke the internet (again) Move aside, Spider-Man and The Odyssey (I love you both, really). But the decade’s defining entertainment zeitgeist is round the corner. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Rockstar dropped an extended look at GTA 6 last week. It was INSANE, the most impressed I’ve ever been by a showcase like this. You can see the budget seeping through every second of the extended look, and this level of game is unobtainable for any other publisher. Everyone’s going nuts, and rightly so. GTA 6 is out in holiday 2026, and it’ll be the biggest entertainment release ever, full stop. For those without a PS5 or Xbox Series console, a $500-$900 console is a big ask in this economy, but GTA will pull a lot of last-generation-console fence sitters over the current-gen fence either way: The autumn timing puts GTA 6 on (digital) shelves for the holidays, meaning a PS5 or Xbox (let’s be honest, mostly the former) will be on many a Christmas and Hanukkah list. Demand will outweigh the struggling supply, though, and PS5 Pros are already sold out and being sold at a markup via scalpers. Every console that isn’t on a shelf is a sale deferred or lost, and worse, it hands scalpers the margin. GTA has cultural clout that reaches everyone. It’s been a mainstream fixture since 2001’s GTA III and its clout has only grown exponentially since then. There’s a touchpoint for every generation alive. The FOMO-word-of-mouth double punch does the rest. Loading... It’ll reactivate the lockdown cohort, the millions who picked up gaming in 2020-21 and churned. GTA 6 will bring them back. Remember when College Football 25 brought a bunch of US gamers to current-gen consoles? GTA will do that globally. Once they’re back (or upgraded), and all GTA’d out, the fresh current-gen-console folks will check out the rest of the current-gen catalogue they missed. GTA Online, if not free to play, will also lead to a boost for PS+ and Xbox Game Pass, another boost for the ecosystem players. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Even some of the smug PCMR 60FPS crew won’t be able to resist their FOMO and will bite the bullet on a console to play this one early (then double dip). The consoles cost the same as a decent stick of RAM these days anyway lmao… Don’t get me wrong, though. GTA 6 is no silver bullet for the mature console market, but it does prime the current gen for a couple of strong swan-song years. And it’ll also give the consoles more users from which to maximise ARPU. ‘’We are in the latter half of the lifetime cycle of [the PS5],’’ said Sony President and CEO Hiroki Totoki in a Wall Street Journal interview. ‘’That means we do not need to aggressively sell the console today; rather than that, we are focusing on the current revenue from the current user base.’’ The biggest, best premium games always arrive late in a console cycle, so getting more players aboard now, ahead of that content storm (the new current-gen-only Call of Duty included), is a clear win for the platforms. On the Netflix thing, though: let’s all chill out a bit, like. Half my LinkedIn feed was going bonkers treating the reveal debuting on Netflix like it’s the future of entertainment. It wasn’t. It was a six-hour head start, and Netflix left that detail out of the “first-of-its-kind partnership” press release. The extended look hit Netflix at 3pm ET on 27 August, then went up on YouTube and Rockstar’s site for everyone six hours later. And it was all over social immediately, anyways. This reveal was going to reach an untold number of people whether it debuted on Netflix, YouTube, a Times Square screen, or a group chat. The last trailer did nearly half a billion views in a day with no gatekeeper at all. Netflix just stood next to that audience for six hours, borrowing it. It’s was a tidy deal for Netflix, sure. But every outlet on earth was breaking the thing down frame by frame by the evening anyway. Anyway. I’m hype. And we’ll be covering some GTA numbers on the newsletter soon. So hit subscribe below to get that in your inbox when it’s ready! Subscribe 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!]

Sep 1 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • alineaanalytics.substack.com

Joe Milton News: 2 Team Linked to Released QB

Joe Milton is no longer a member of the Dallas Cowboys, but the former sixth-round pick should find a new home as a high-end backup

Sep 1 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

New York Jets Flight Connections 09/01/26

Happy Tuesday, Jets fans! Here are your links for today. Randy Lange – Aaron Glenn Assesses ‘Worst Weekend in Football’ and What It Means for the Jets Brian Costello – Jets see plenty of reasons to believe in Cade Klubnik as backup QB — even after uneven preseason Rich Cimini – Rookie Cade Klubnik is […]

Sep 1 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

TP-Link’s first Wi-Fi 8 router is almost here

The Wi-Fi 7 certification is still very fresh.

Sep 1 • 6:18 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Jiri Prochazka Teases UFC Fight News

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka is teasing fight news ahead of a potential return to the Octagon later this year.Prochazka last fought at UFC 327 in April, when he was knocked out by Carlos Ulberg in a failed bid to recapture the UFC light heavyweight title.The Czechia native has been linked to several […] The post Jiri Prochazka Teases UFC Fight News appeared first on HEAVY.

Aug 31 • 11:29 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

‘Most’ of Star Wars Zero Company studio Bit Reactor was furloughed ahead of launch

Last week was meant to be a moment of triumph for Bit Reactor, the Maryland-based game studio founded in 2021 with ambitions to create a great new tactical combat game. On Thursday, August 27, Bit Reactor’s debut title, Star Wars Zero Company, released to stellar reviews. And, from the Gamescom show in Cologne, Germany, studio co-founder Greg Foertsch was giving interviews discussing what the studio’s next game may be. But for many developers on the game, launch has been bittersweet. Fans love it. Critics prefer it to most recent Star Wars games. Zero Company, which is out for PS5, Xbox Series consoles and PC, is the top-selling game on Steam. Much of the team that made it, however, is currently going without pay. They were furloughed, just weeks ahead of the game’s launch. A rep for Bit Reactor confirmed to Game File today that the studio had furloughed many of its workers prior to the game’s release. They said it was a difficult decision and one that had been made before it was clear how launch would go. The rep emphasized that the call to do this was Bit Reactor’s alone (meaning not from publisher EA nor Star Wars license holder Disney). While the rep declined to comment on the scale of the furloughs, a previously unreported lawsuit brought by studio co-founder Alison Kelly in 2024 noted in a filing from August 12 of this year that Bit Reactor “has furloughed most of its employees and terminated contractors…” One source told Game File the furloughs impacted 80% of the team; another referred to there only being a skeleton crew left on Bit Reactor’s active payroll, ready to address any of Zero Company’s post-launch bugs. The issue is that Bit Reactor, a studio formed in 2021, had run out of most of its money just ahead of the launch of its first game. Over the weekend, Zachariah Scott, a senior technical artist who worked at Bit Reactor from early 2023 until an acrimonious exit this past May, said on LinkedIn that the studio was “concealing the fact that the team was Furloughed weeks ago.” Reached by phone today, Scott told Game File that he spoke to nearly a dozen Bit Reactor workers over the weekend. “Everybody has essentially the same story, which is, ‘Yeah, I got furloughed three weeks ago.” The Bit Reactor rep told Game File that the studio hoped to bring furloughed workers back, suggesting that a successful launch of the game could be impactful. Scott told Game File that workers he spoke to were less confident that even if there were returns, that all who were furloughed would get their old jobs again. A heated dispute Bit Reactor’s mid-2026 was almost even more tumultuous. The lawsuit by co-founder Alison Kelly that first revealed the furloughs was initially slated to go to trial in June. The suit is a she-said/he-said about whether Kelly, until 2024 the chief operating officer of Bit Reactor, was a co-owner of the studio or whether it was solely owned by Greg Foertsch. In July 2024, Kelly sued, saying she was pushed out by Foertsch. She first sued in federal court and later refiled in Maryland’s Baltimore County, alleging breach of contract and that Foertsch had unjustly enriched himself. Kelly cited damages of over $20 million, on the basis of Bit Reactor allegedly being worth more than double that. Foertsch’s side has said Kelly was never a co-owner and has countered with claims about her job performance (which she has denied). The June trial was postponed until early 2027, as both sides have been deposing witnesses and filing more claims and denials along the way. Amid all of that, filings in the lawsuit reviewed by Game File paint a picture about Bit Reactor’s origins, early aspirations around tactics games, the team’s breakthrough in drawing the attention of Electronic Arts with the help of a pitch tied to one of EA’s non-Star Wars franchises, and early fractures among its co-founders. The real story about the company behind Zero Company

Aug 31 • 10:23 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

Zach Ertz Reunion Rumors Addressed By Eagles GM

The Philadelphia Eagles were recently linked to their former star tight end Zach Ertz. Late last week, it was reported that Ertz would “love to” come back and play for the team he started his career with. On Monday, August 31, another report surfaced from the team’s perspective. According to PHLY’s EJ Smith, an Ertz […] The post Zach Ertz Reunion Rumors Addressed By Eagles GM appeared first on HEAVY.

Aug 31 • 8:29 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Links exposed physician cell numbers and work schedules at health systems in Philly and nationwide

QGenda web links revealed the information for thousands of providers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Penn Medicine, ChristianaCare, and at least 50 other health systems across the country.

Aug 31 • 2:56 PM EDT • Health • inquirer.com

Sleeping in on weekends is good for the heart: What research has shown

Study finds that catching up on sleep at weekends is linked to a lower risk of hypertension.

Aug 31 • 10:01 AM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com

Business academy graduate opens restaurant in Cambridge

Guest feature: Susan Banks is the director of Dorchester County Economic Development. Follow along on Facebook and LinkedIn. A new restaurant in Dorchester County is serving more than great food—it also represents the success of local...

Aug 31 • 8:49 AM EDT • Business • business.maryland.gov

Warnings About Cancer-Alcohol Link Can Be Made Stronger, Researchers Say

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, Aug. 31, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Warnings about the link between alcohol and cancer are more powerful if the messages are shaped in certain ways, a new study says. Naming specific cancers linked to drinking and showing AI-generated images of the health ...

Aug 31 • 6:30 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Villa-Chelsea transfer links are about business, not friendship, says Emery

Aston Villa do not share a special relationship with Chelsea despite a number of transfers ​between the clubs in recent years, manager ‌Unai Emery said on Sunday, describing the deals as purely business transactions.

Aug 31 • 5:28 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com

People with diabetes may have another reason to protect their cardiovascular health

Better cardiovascular health, measured using Life’s Essential 8, was associated with a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment among people with diabetes after accounting for genetic susceptibility. Associations with dementia varied by genetic risk, while higher LE8 scores were also linked to greater gray matter volume and lower white matter hyperintensity volume.

Aug 30 • 10:16 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net

Scientists find why the liver may not heal even after you stop drinking

Alcohol-related liver disease may trap damaged liver cells in a regenerative limbo, preventing the organ from rebuilding itself even after drinking stops. Researchers linked the problem to inflammation-driven RNA errors and identified a pathway that could potentially be targeted to restore liver repair.

Aug 30 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Antarctica developed a continental-scale ice sheet 34 million years ago while Earth was about 5°C warmer than today — helped by slow-moving mantle waves that had spent more than 100 million years lifting its interior high enough for permanent ice to survive.

A 2026 modelling study links East Antarctica’s high plateau to mantle processes begun during Jurassic breakup, while retaining falling carbon dioxide as the main trigger for glaciation.

Aug 30 • 6:30 PM EDT • Science • spacedaily.com

Xero Adds AI, Google Targets Law Firms And Claude Beats ChatGPT: 5 Small Business Tech Stories

Xero adds AI tools, Google expands Gemini for law firms, LinkedIn fights AI slop, Goldman warns of AI risks, and Claude tops user satisfaction.

Aug 30 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com

I couldn't land a job, so I started AI training. I earn $100 an hour.

Mo Zohourian couldn't land a full-time job so he answered a LinkedIn and became an AI trainer. He worked up to $100 an hour and made it his career.

Aug 30 • 4:11 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Health department hosts free recovery event to reduce stigma and link residents to service

Aug 30 • 12:21 AM EDT • Health • wcti12.com

Herring Gut Coastal Science Center's Learn-Discover-Grow Series: OCEAN GREENS

Seaweed in the past has been a misunderstood part of our marine world. Until recently it has always been seen through the lens of a slimy gross weed that no one likes to touch while swimming. Now, seaweed is being seen as a way to help diversify careers, feed livestock, and help solve climate change. This Learn Discover Grow event will focus on highlighting the importance of seaweed and how mid coast businesses are utilizing these ocean greens. First we will watch the film “Ocean Greens” (link below) online at the WaterBear network. We will then take time to talk to our wonderful guest speakers about how they use seaweed in their business! Our speakers are, Allison Lakin from Lakin’s Gorges Cheese, Gabriela Acero from wolfpeach, and Lauren & Greg Soutiea from the Causeway Restaurant at the Craignair. Watch the video ahead of time: Title of video: Ocean Greens Link: https://www.waterbear.com/player/62389235111f77a1b677ded9 Create an account, it's free. Guest speakers: Allison Lakin, Lakin’s Gorges Cheese at East Forty Farm Gabriela Acero, Wolfpeach Lauren & Greg Soutiea, The Causeway Restaurant REGISTRANTS WILL RECEIVE A ZOOM LINK PRIOR TO THE EVENT

Aug 29 • 7:39 PM EDT • Science • mainepublic.org

Press Release: Rabies Exposure Alert Linked to Mobile Petting Zoo Events

Rabies Exposure Alert Linked to Mobile Petting Zoo EventsFor Immediate ReleaseSalisbury, NC - Rowan County Public Health is alerting residents of a potential rabies exposure linked to a mobile pe

Aug 29 • 11:59 AM EDT • Health • rowancountync.gov

Amazon Offers Early Savings on 2026 Mac Mini, Plus Record Low on AirTag 2

Apple introduced the M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini this week, and Amazon currently has the first pre-order discounts on these models ahead of their September launch. Below, we're also tracking a new record low price on the AirTag 2 during Amazon's Labor Day event. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Aug 29 • 8:31 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Dogs may hold surprising clues to human longevity

Dogs and humans may have more in common when it comes to aging than scientists realized. Researchers with the Dog Aging Project found that patterns of small molecules in dogs’ blood were linked to longer or shorter lifespans in remarkably similar ways to those seen in people. These metabolic “fingerprints” could offer clues about the biological processes that drive aging, including metabolism, inflammation, and cellular stress.

Aug 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Money and Politics in Delaware: August 29, 2026

Money and Politics in Delaware is your link to finance, business and policy in the First State.

Aug 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • delawarepublic.org

LinkedIn Is No Longer a Business Network—It’s a Platform for Influencers Now

The Microsoft-owned platform has changed dramatically over the past few years. LinkedIn in late 2026 just feels different.

Aug 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • inc.com

Global Warming Is Breaking The Link Between Two Major Oceans

It's happened before.

Aug 29 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com

11 deaths linked to Upper East Side Legionnaires' outbreak, city says

The city announced two more deaths linked to the Upper East Side Legionnaires' outbreak, bringing the toll to 11.

Aug 28 • 8:54 PM EDT • Health • abc7ny.com

NYC health department announces 2 more deaths linked to Legionnaires' outbreak

Officials said there is no evidence of ongoing transmission.

Aug 28 • 7:20 PM EDT • Health • ny1.com

Google further buries search results under AI mode

You might have to do way more scrolling to get to links.

Aug 28 • 6:48 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

As Maine reports more cyclosporiasis cases, health officials say outbreak may be slowing

The Maine CDC is reporting 49 cases of the illness, with 15 of those linked to the national outbreak.

Aug 28 • 5:01 PM EDT • Health • pressherald.com

Buffalo Sabres Linked to Potential Connor Hellebuyck Move

The Winnipeg Jets prospects for the 2026-2027 season have been made more complicated after their franchise goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made his trade request from the organization public yesterday. This raises the sense of urgency for the team to get a Hellebuyck deal done soon as the new season approaches on the horizon. One team that […] The post Buffalo Sabres Linked to Potential Connor Hellebuyck Move appeared first on HEAVY.

Aug 28 • 2:14 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

London Science Museum cuts links with BP after decades of partnership

Campaigners say ‘seismic shift’ follows years of pressure to sever ties with oil and gas firm

Aug 28 • 12:43 PM EDT • Science • theguardian.com

Apple's M6 Mac Mini Gets First Pre-Order Discounts at Amazon

Amazon today has introduced the first cash discounts on Apple's brand new Mac mini, with discounts including two of the M6 models as well as the M5 Pro model. All of these deals are pre-order discounts on the 2026 Mac mini, which officially launches on September 22. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Aug 28 • 8:50 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Massive lettuce-linked outbreak expands to 3 more states with over 11,000 illnesses

The FDA says the cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico has now spread to Georgia, Tennessee and Texas.

Aug 28 • 3:06 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com

Common vaccine linked to 24% lower dementia risk in older adults

A Brown University study found Shingrix reduced dementia risk by 24% over four years, building on prior research linking the shingles vaccine to brain health.

Aug 27 • 10:21 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com

Cath lab procedure kits recalled due to ongoing safety concern

The manifolds inside these kits have been linked to a significant risk of contamination. The FDA is urging users to place a warning label on each kit.

Aug 27 • 4:57 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com

Patriots News: Pats-Browns ‘Bubble Bowl’ final audition before cuts

Daily news and links for Thursday, 8/27/26

Aug 27 • 9:23 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Heat Waves Linked To Dozens Of Health Problems, Emergencies

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Aug. 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Health problems caused by heat waves extend far beyond simple dehydration or heatstroke, a new study says. As many as 33 diagnoses can be tied to extreme heat events, researchers reported recently in the journal Science ...

Aug 27 • 9:03 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Greenland research institutions halt new US collaborations citing mistrust

Although US President Donald Trump still harbours ambitions to take over Greenland, for US researchers his actions seem to have had the opposite effect. Over the summer, Greenland’s two largest research institutions, the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the University of Greenland, both announced policies of not starting new research projects with US researchers.Both institutions cite a mistrust of the US as a motivation for the decision. At the University of Greenland, the change of policy has already led to the rejection of specific proposals for new collaborations, rector Mari Kleist told Science|Business. “The reason is the changed political situation between the US and Kalaallit Nunaat [Greenland], and the uncertainty that the American interest in Kalaallit Nunaat has created,” she said.For the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a partially state-funded environmental research institution, the decision was also prompted by a lack of trust in US intentions. In a July interview with local broadcaster KNR, director Josephine Nymand cited concerns about data ownership, US “influence operatives” and social media monitoring of researchers entering the US.The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources has long collaborated with the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The policy change will not affect these existing partnerships but will apply to collaborations with new, “unknown” partners, Nymand said. At the University of Greenland, the policy is the same.The changes come amid proposals of severe cuts to the NSF, which would likely also see the US research presence in Greenland reduced. In spite of this, when asked about the Greenlandic policy change, the NSF remained optimistic of its continued presence in Greenland.“We are grateful to our partners in Greenland for their collaboration in advancing scientific knowledge and training the next generation of researchers. NSF remains committed to the long-term collaborations with Greenland that enable scientific research near communities and on Greenland’s ice sheet,” an NSF spokesperson told Science|Business.Fewer US researchers in GreenlandMost research published on Greenland is on natural science topics such as the cryosphere, ice dynamics, permafrost and climate change. In recent years, US researchers have been the most prolific publishers on Greenland.The US research presence in Greenland goes far beyond the capital of Nuuk, where the two research institutions are located. It includes the Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland, various projects in settlements and research stations along the coast, as well as research stations on the Greenland ice sheet itself.The largest of these sites, Summit Station, is located at the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet, about 3,200 metres above sea level, and since the 1980s it has been used for drilling cores out of the ice sheet. These ice cores provide valuable information on the global climate going back at least 100,000 years. About 30 kilometres from Summit Station, the Danish-led Greenland Ice-core Project (Grip), funded by the European Research Council, is also drilling ice cores. Although they initially competed, the relationship between the two research teams has “long been amiable,” Jørgen Peder Steffensen, a Danish researcher who has been part of Grip for more than 40 years, told Science|Business.However, since Trump took office in early 2025, Steffensen has noticed a reduction in US research in the country. “Several of our American partners did not make it into the field this year. Their field seasons were cancelled because they lacked the budget,” he said.He ascribed part of the reduction in US researchers to a renovation of Summit Station. “A very large share of NSF funding has gone into renewing the station. Money has been taken from research and allocated to rebuilding it,” he said.A report published in August by Arctic Hub confirms Steffensen's observations of fewer US researchers. It shows that US research publications on Greenland took a dip towards the end of the period spanning 2015 to 2024. In 2024, before Trump took office, the number of publications had fallen from an average of about 250 articles a year, to just 164, second behind Canada at 169.Data from the NSF logistics provider Battelle also shows a reduction in US research presence in Greenland in recent years. In 2023, Battelle counted 48 projects across 78 locations, but in 2025 that number had fallen to 40 projects across 38 locations. And while relations with US personnel in Greenland have remained strong, some tensions have arisen since Trump took office. “On a personal level, there is nothing. But it’s hanging in the air. It hangs unspoken,” Steffensen said.Cutting ties with US researchers entirely would come at a higher cost for the ice core researchers than the Nuuk-based institutions. To get cargo to and from their bases, both Grip and Summit Station rely on unique, ski-equipped Hercules LC-130 aircraft operated by the New York Air National Guard. Without these, maintaining a research base on the Greenland ice sheet would not be viable on current budgets, Steffensen said. “[If the Hercules planes were not available], we would have to think outside of the box. We would have to use smaller planes, and we would have to build a base closer to the coast. But staying in our current location would be too expensive and it would create a huge carbon footprint,” he said.Suspicious people in NuukIn her explanation of the severed US ties, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources director Josephine Nymand compared the decision to past situations when the institute had to cut ties with China and Russia, the latter due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And although the current situation is less severe, the comparison reflects the seriousness with which Nuuk sees the US threats. “From Greenland’s perspective, the US may not look so different from Russia right now: a much larger neighbouring power threatening to invade,” Lin Alexandra Mortensgaard, a researcher of international politics in the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Science|Business. “From a European perspective, it is not a comparable situation, because we are entangled with the US on all possible fronts and do not want to destroy more than is absolutely necessary. But from Greenland’s side, there may well be a need to send a clear signal to the US,” she went on. Suspicions have been fuelled by instances of Trump-affiliated people in Greenland trying to persuade Greenlandic citizens to support a US takeover. The most prolific among them is Tom Dans, a former venture capitalist and pecan farmer who was appointed by Trump as the chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission. Observers fear that he is now using research to achieve a US takeover.“Greenland is a small society with a small population, so when Americans with unclear affiliations wander around, trying to be good friends with people, and you don't know what they want, that creates mistrust. This probably played into the research institutions taking these drastic steps,” Mortensgaard said.Related articles:The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to knowEU polar research melts into the backgroundAnchor Greenlanders in Arctic climate research, experts tell EU ahead of policy updateAnd although Greenland’s population is small at just 57,000, for Mortensgaard, it serves as a microcosm for the geopolitical situation as a whole: global powers fighting for their interests to the detriment of the common interest. Arctic research already suffered when collaborations with Russia broke down in 2022, she said, so a split with the US would be a serious hit to climate science.“The Arctic climate system does not respect borders or geopolitical divides. When collaboration across those lines suddenly becomes impossible, it is a huge problem for knowledge production,” she said. European alternatives?The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources is funded partly by research grants from external sources like the NSF. To replace the US funding, the institute will have to look for alternative revenue sources, and Nymand said that she is looking to Europe for those. Aside from Denmark, of which Greenland is formally a part, she also noted increased interest in research collaborations from the UK, France and Switzerland. Kleist of the University of Greenland told Science|Business that it was too early to say if the severed US ties would lead to more collaborations with Europe. Meanwhile, Mortensgaard believed that the tensions in Arctic research could well leave room for closer European partnerships, or stronger links with Canada. “I spoke to Canadian researchers who had long-standing relationships with American colleagues and who collaborated with the US Navy, but who had gotten worried that their data on sea ice could be used if Trump suddenly decided to follow through on his threats of invading,” she said. “Like Canada, I think Greenland is considering creating closer ties to Europe and I think European capitals will be open to this,” she said.

Aug 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

Weekly Entertainment Report: Live music and lively arts, Aug. 27-30 » Nashua Ink Link

"Music is the shorthand of emotion."- Leo Tolstoy

Aug 26 • 11:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • nashua.inklink.news

Weekly Entertainment Report: Live music and lively arts, Aug. 27-30

"Where words fail, music speaks."

Aug 26 • 11:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • manchester.inklink.news

FDA announces recall of all Impella heart pump controllers after 3 deaths

Johnson & Johnson MedTech is recalling all of its Automated Impella Controllers due to an ongoing safety issue linked to 37 serious injuries. Care teams can still use these devices as they await a replacement.

Aug 26 • 5:26 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com

How public safety can influence public health

UC Irvine study links community-led program to more physical activity at South L.A. parks, especially among Black visitors

Aug 26 • 1:28 PM EDT • Health • news.uci.edu

Windows 11 Will Now Let Android Smartphone Users Shutdown Or Restart Their Systems Remotely Using The Native Phone Link App

Microsoft is adding remote power controls to Windows 11 so Android users can shut down or restart their PC directly from the native Phone Link app

Aug 26 • 10:50 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Wednesday Morning Links

Morning, all! Logan O’Hoppe was thankful to get optioned to AAA, saying it gave him a chance to reset and “find himself.” Jack Leiter has been experiencing fatigue in later innings during his rehab outings, opening the possibility that he will be used out of the bullpen when he returns to the big league club. […]

Aug 26 • 9:20 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

BMI may not tell the whole story about healthy weight in older adults

As you age, the link between weight and health is more than just a number on the scale. CNN contributor Dr. Leana Wen explains what a new study reveals about BMI and body fat.

Aug 26 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • cnn.com

Russian voice acting dropped from upcoming Witcher 3 expansion

Polish games developer CD Projekt RED said the decision was linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Aug 26 • 6:03 AM EDT • Technology • tvpworld.com

Closing the Real-World Data Gap for Public Health

Learn how the Public Health Data Consortium is providing state health agencies with critical data in this blog post.

Aug 25 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • astho.org

Secret Service says it is aware of Iranian state media video threatening Barron Trump

The footage, reportedly released by media linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed a $10 million bounty had been placed on the president’s youngest son.

Aug 25 • 10:18 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

REACH Study Aims to Make School Success a Measure of Children's Health

The REACH study is developing a method to link school performance and health data, expanding how researchers measure outcomes for children.

Aug 25 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • news.med.miami.edu

Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, an LTE health and safety band

Luffu Link combines all day health sensing, voice logging, location awareness, and the ability to get help from trusted contacts into a single device, all without needing a phone nearby.

Aug 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

Shingles vaccine linked to 24% lower dementia risk

Older adults who received the Shingrix shingles vaccine were 24% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over four years in a study of more than 500,000 people. Researchers estimate the difference could amount to roughly one dementia case prevented for every 17 people vaccinated.

Aug 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

‘You certainly hate to hear it,’ says Soulard business owner amid recent violence in area

St. Louis police investigate possible link between two Soulard deaths from Monday morning while business owners are frustrated over crime

Aug 24 • 11:28 PM EDT • Business • firstalert4.com

Colbert County HS students ‘experiencing distressing symptoms’ not linked to public health outbreak

The Alabama Department of Public Health said there is no public health outbreak or exposure following students “experiencing distressing symptoms,” the Colbert County Schools Superinten…

Aug 24 • 5:18 PM EDT • Health • whnt.com

Alfalfa sprouts linked to food poisoning in 15 states, officials say

U.S. health officials say a food poisoning outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts has sickened people in 15 states.

Aug 24 • 3:56 PM EDT • Health • latimes.com

Patient data was breached in AnMed attack

AnMed CEO William Kinley confirms a data breach following a ransomware attack, which has been linked to "The Gentlemen." A new report outlines the group's emergence.

Aug 24 • 10:55 AM EDT • Health • healthcareitnews.com

From social media to politics: Poland’s Ukraine debate

Polish society’s relationship with Ukraine currently faces numerous problems. An early enthusiasm for aiding Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression has often given way to anti-migrant sentiment. New thinking is needed in both Poland and Ukraine in order to maintain constructive bilateral links.

Aug 24 • 9:12 AM EDT • Politics • neweasterneurope.eu

Common medications may change your gut for years

Common medications may reshape the gut microbiome long after the last dose is taken. In a study of more than 2,500 people, researchers found lasting microbial changes linked not only to antibiotics, but also to antidepressants, beta-blockers, acid-reducing drugs, and benzodiazepines. Some effects were still detectable years later, suggesting past medication use may strongly influence the gut bacteria people carry today.

Aug 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Louisiana girl, 8, dies after contracting suspected brain-eating amoeba linked to lake swim

Aug 24 • 1:29 AM EDT • Health • nypost.com

Too much or too little sleep may make your body age faster

Both too little and too much sleep may be linked to faster aging throughout the body. Researchers analyzing 23 biological aging clocks found the lowest aging levels among people sleeping about 6.4 to 7.8 hours per day. Short or long sleep was also associated with numerous conditions affecting the brain, heart, lungs, metabolism, and digestive system.

Aug 23 • 11:51 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

A childhood shaped by sugar rationing was linked to mental health more than 50 years later

UK Biobank researchers examined whether sugar rationing during pregnancy and the first two years of life was associated with adult sweet-food preferences, sugar intake, brain structure, anxiety, and depression.

Aug 23 • 11:45 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net

Popular erectile dysfunction drug linked to eye disease that can cause irreversible vision loss

Tadalafil users were 22% more likely to develop glaucoma, a study found, raising new questions about long-term Cialis use and eye pressure risks.

Aug 23 • 4:46 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com

Your backyard could hold a rare earth fortune and this orange lichen is the clue

Chinese scientists discover link between lichen growth and potentially untapped rare-earth-bearing carbonates and mineral deposits.

Aug 23 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • scmp.com

Claude Has More Google Workspace Integrations...And Other Business Technology News This Week

Claude expands workplace integrations, ChatGPT can edit Drive files, AI job losses remain limited, and LinkedIn offers an AI marketing playbook.

Aug 23 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com

Minnesota grower’s alfalfa sprouts linked to illnesses in 15 states, health officials say

U.S. health officials say a food-poisoning outbreak tied to alfalfa sprouts from Everything Sprouts involves multiple germs.

Aug 22 • 8:29 PM EDT • Health • startribune.com

Cannabis use linked to 37% higher stroke risk in massive study

A massive analysis involving more than 100 million people has found strong links between recreational drug use and stroke, including among younger adults. Cocaine was associated with nearly double the risk of stroke, amphetamines with more than double the risk, and cannabis with a 37% increase.

Aug 22 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Open-Source ExpressLRS Receiver Reaches For Range

Drone control links are, from a radio signals perspective, nothing short of amazing: using a transmitter capable of transmitting, at most, one watt, a protocol such as ExpressLRS (ELRS) can control…

Aug 22 • 7:00 PM EDT • Technology • hackaday.com

This common mouth bacteria could be linked to Alzheimer’s—here’s what experts have found - Futura-Sciences

Physician Stephen Dominy and microbiologist Jan Potempa led the landmark effort, discovering Porphyromonas gingivalis in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients. Normally confined to the mouth, where it causes chronic gum disease, the pathogen’s presence in brain tissue proved it could breach the blood-brain barrier and take root in central...

Aug 22 • 2:30 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

Cases of ‘scromiting’ condition tied to cannabis use spike among teens, young adults: New study

The syndrome has long been linked to chronic use of marijuana.

Aug 22 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • thehill.com

Multilingual people may have brains up to 13 years younger

People who speak several languages may have brains that age more slowly, with four-language speakers showing brains that appeared about 13 years younger than those of monolinguals. Starting earlier and becoming highly fluent were also linked to a stronger effect.

Aug 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

City business commission supports extending biker rally

City business commission supports extending biker rally

Aug 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • benitolink.com

AMD RDNA 4m Firmware Published For Linux Ahead Of Launch

In addition to AMD's Friday afternoon big code drop of all the UALink enablement patches for the Linux kernel and the AMDGPU driver, there was another big drop from AMD to end out the week..

Aug 22 • 7:08 AM EDT • Technology • phoronix.com

Alfalfa sprout linked to food-poisoning outbreak in 15 states, health officials say

U.S. health officials say a food-poisoning outbreak tied to alfalfa sprouts and involving multiple germs has sickened people in 15 states.

Aug 21 • 3:42 PM EDT • Health • cnn.com

US health agencies report 55 cases of E. coli and salmonella infections tied to alfalfa sprouts

U.S. health officials on Friday said they were investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli and salmonella ​infections linked to alfalfa sprouts.

Aug 21 • 3:06 PM EDT • Health • reuters.com

US Health Agencies Report 55 Cases of E. Coli and Salmonella Infections Tied to Alfalfa Sprouts

Aug 21 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on ⁠Friday ⁠said they were investigating ⁠a multistate outbreak of E. coli and salmonella infections linked to alfalfa sprouts. Here are more details: • The Food ‌and Drug Administration and Centers ‌for Disease Control and Prevention have reported 55 cases ...

Aug 21 • 3:05 PM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Texans Linked to Trade for Patriots WR Kayshon Boutte

Could the Houston Texans trade for New England Patriots WR Kayshon Boutte?

Aug 21 • 2:06 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Eagles Linked to Reunion With Former Pass Rusher Haason Reddick

Bleacher Report floated a reunion between the Eagles and Haason Reddick, a low-cost way to add pass-rush depth while Jonathan Greenard recovers.

Aug 21 • 1:13 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Texans Linked to 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk Amid WR Room Turmoil

The Houston Texans have a strong infrastructure that could make them a fitting landing spot for San Francisco 49ers star Brandon Aiyuk. The post Texans Linked to 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk Amid WR Room Turmoil appeared first on HEAVY.

Aug 20 • 8:53 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Jalapeño-linked salmonella outbreak sickens 431 people across 32 states

Federal health officials say a Salmonella outbreak linked to fresh jalapeños has grown to 431 cases and 57 hospitalizations across 32 states

Aug 20 • 5:32 PM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com

Health officials trace E. coli and salmonella outbreak to Minnesota alfalfa grower

Twenty-three E. coli and salmonella illnesses in Minnesota were linked to produce grown by Everything Sprouts and sold under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands.

Aug 20 • 5:15 PM EDT • Health • startribune.com