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UEFA confirm referee team for Arsenal’s game at Sporting
Arsenal now know who will take charge of their Champions League quarter-final first leg in Lisbon, with UEFA confirming an all-German officiating team for the meeting with Sporting.Photo by Julian Fin...
2026 NFL mock draft: Projected trades get Cowboys a pass rusher, Ty Simpson into Round 1
There will be trades on the first night of the 2026 NFL Draft, so let's project a few here – including one that doubles the QB haul in Round 1.
The Blogs: Politics at the Seder table
A Passover debate about Palestinian suffering overlooks a harder task: understanding what drives Jewish ultranationalists in the first place
DitD & Open Post - 4/6/26: First Pitch Edition
New Jersey Devils & Related Hockey Links for 4/6/26
Will entertainment-led Rock League be future of curling?
Rock League, the first-ever professional curling league, starts in Toronto later on Monday, with six mixed-gender global franchises playing in an unusual format.
Will entertainment-led Rock League be future of curling?
Rock League, the first-ever professional curling league, starts in Toronto later on Monday, with six mixed-gender global franchises playing in an unusual format.
The Science Behind Fish Markets And DNA Tracking In The Arabian Gulf
Scientists in Bahrain are building the country’s first DNA reference library for sharks and rays using fish market samples, unlocking the full potential of environmental DNA to identify species in one of the hottest and most understudied seas on Earth.
How the Voyager missions rewrote planetary science, tested the limits of 1970s engineering, and became humanity's longest-running experiment in institutional patience
In November 2026, Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth. Nearly 49 years after launch, the twin Voyager missions remain the most productive space exploration program ever flown, and a case study in what happens when engineering resilience meets institutional patience.
Trump administration’s secrecy on health deals alarms experts, governments
A dearth of information has been disclosed about the agreements, fueling speculation that the “America First” approach to foreign aid is exploitative.
FCC eyes changes to live sports broadcast rules amid fan frustration
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is opening the door to a rewrite of its rules for local blackout restrictions on live sports, a move that could be the first step in a potential shakeup …
In Race to Replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Iran War Is a Dividing Line
Tuesday’s special House election runoff in a conservative stretch of Georgia is one of the first to showcase disagreements over the conflict, including within the G.O.P.
ECU Health’s plan to reopen hospital offers hope to Martin County
Martin County has been without a hospital since 2023. A $220M plan aims to make it home to North Carolina's first Rural Emergency Hospital.
Ohio’s First Forensic Toxicology Master’s Program Opens for Enrollment at UToledo
The online program, which now has state approval, is built on UToledo’s “deep toxicology and pharmacology foundation.”
Guttermouth Announce (Another) “Final” Australian Tour
"Grab a ticket if you’re game for one more round. Or don’t. Mark’s feet are up, cold one in hand, zero fucks left." The post Guttermouth Announce (Another) “Final” Australian Tour appeared first on Mu...
"What's going on?!!": World of Warcraft just created a truly insane, epic moment in gaming history — I had no idea Blizzard was still capable.
I have no idea how Blizzard pulled this off, but during World of Warcraft's Mythic raiding "Race to World First" esports event, U.S. team Liquid discovered live to thousands that the final boss had an insane, secret final phase.
Shore Sports Insider 2026 Week 2 Softball Top 10
St. Rose makes their first appearance in the 2026 Shore Sports Insider Softball Top 10 rankings.
Savannah Guthrie returns to 'Today' for the first time since her mother's disappearance
Savannah Guthrie is making her return to NBC’s “Today” show Monday for the first time since her mother's disappearance more than two months ago. Guthrie is coming back to a job she loves but is...
Savannah Guthrie returns to 'Today' for the first time since her mother's disappearance
a e n business entertainment u-s-news general-news | 100.1 FM and AM 1020 KDKA
Savannah Guthrie returns to 'Today' for the first time since her mother's disappearance
a e n business entertainment u-s-news general-news | Talk Radio 1210 WPHT
Savannah Guthrie returns to 'Today' for the first time since her mother's disappearance
a e n business entertainment u-s-news general-news | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Women's Final Four winners and losers include UCLA seniors and Geno Auriemma
UCLA is an obvious winner after capturing its first title. Geno Auriemma, on the other hand, is a sore loser.
Cooper Flagg follows up 51-point game with 45 to outduel LeBron James, send reeling Lakers to defeat
Flagg is the first rookie to post 40-point efforts in consecutive games since Allen Iverson did it five times during the 1996-97 season.
Texas Open 2026 leaderboard: J.J. Spaun rallies for first win since US Open ahead of Masters
Spaun is now heading to Augusta with some more momentum to try and capture his second major title
The GoDaddy App Streamlines Business on the Go
Entrepreneurs can now bring their business with them everywhere they go using the reimagined GoDaddy app, a mobile-first experience designed to help owners create, manage and grow their businesses.
Tony Vitello ejected for first time in MLB manager career
Tony Vitello was ejected for the first time in his MLB manager career.
Byron Donalds to kick off 'Defending The Florida Dream' tour in The Villages
The first in a series of policy-driven events will focus of the rising cost of health care.
Marlins' Pete Fairbanks makes 3rd career start before paternity leave
Fairbanks threw 27 pitches in his lone inning, allowing three hits, including a three-run home run by Yankees first baseman Ben Rice that gave New York a 3-1 lead.
Canadiens clinch playoff spot for second consecutive season
The Montreal Canadiens wrapped up their second straight playoff spot Sunday when Detroit fell 5-4 to Minnesota, making them the first Canadian team to secure a postseason berth. Last season, Montreal took the final spot in the Eastern Conference before falling to Washington in five games in the first round. Montreal went into its game Sunday night against New Jersey second in the Atlantic Division.
UCLA beats South Carolina for 1st NCAA women's basketball title
Gabriela Jaquez and UCLA handily defeated South Carolina for its first women's basketball national championship under the governance of NCAA.
UCLA locks down South Carolina for dominant win, program's first NCAA championship
UCLA got to the Final Four on the strength of the nation’s best offense. When it showed up, it was a defensive juggernaut.
ACPS student takes first place award at state science fair; seven others also recognized
Howard Bishop Middle School 8th-grader Aradhya Kasala won a first-place award at the State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida
The NASA Artemis 2.0 Smartwatch Runs Python And Lets Kids Code Their Own Wearable
NASA's Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, carrying four astronauts on humanity's first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen are currently aboard the Orion spacecraft, preparing for a lunar flyby that will take them farther from Earth than
Knicks, Hawks meet in potential playoff preview
In a potential Eastern Conference first-round playoff preview, the visiting New York Knicks look to slow down the streaking Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.
Newly discovered fossils give scientists first look at the evolution of early complex animals
Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us.
Yankees, Marlins start in rain delay on Sunday afternoon
First pitch of this series finale is not expected until 3pm ET at the earliest.
Rapid City hosts inaugural Community Health Fair
The first Community Health Fair came to Rapid City on Saturday
The first iPhone 17 Pro Max photos sent back from the Artemis II mission really are out of this world
A spectacular sight
2026 WNBA Mock Draft: Eight South Carolina and UCLA players projected to go in first round
The Gamecocks and Bruins are meeting for the national title on Sunday, and WNBA fans should get familiar with both teams
“I couldn’t enjoy it fully until now”: Crimson Desert’s once‑exclusive PS5 mode finally arrives on Xbox — and I’m ready to dive back in
Crimson Desert’s 4K update arrived on PlayStation 5 first, leaving Xbox Series X users waiting, with Pearl Abyss declining to explain the temporary lack of parity.
Casual Is Out: State Department Adds First-Ever Business Formal Dress Code
The State Department added business formal dress code guidance to its policy manual for the first time, setting attire standards for diplomats and staff in official settings.
Cowboys draft trade up rumors center on pass rush
Do you think the Cowboys are going to move around in the first round?
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 spotted at retail ahead of April 22 launch, early prices are hopefully just placeholders
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 shows up at retail ahead of April 22 launch The first retail listings for AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 have started to appear ahead of
Book Review: Streetwear's Conquest - Culture Captured, Politics Ignored
Concentrating on the strategies that enabled casualwear to grow worldwide, the book ignores the broader historical and political conditions that encouraged that success in the first place.
Nikola Jokic believes Victor Wembanyama will continue to change the league
Wembanyama has been a fantastic player for his first three seasons, and Jokic always finds ways to praise the Spurs star.
Saudi Arabia's non-oil business activity shrinks in March amid conflict, PMI shows
Saudi Arabia's non-oil private sector activity contracted in March for the first time since August 2020, as the war in the Middle East snarled up supply chains, a business survey showed on Sunday.
Metro Division Champions – Hurricanes 4, Islanders 3
Seth Jarvis scored two goals and had an assist as the Carolina Hurricanes dominated the New York Islanders, 4-3 on Saturday night at the Lenovo Center. While the score was close, the Canes controlled puck possession and shots. The home team outshot the visitors 13-4 in the first period and 18-2 in the second. Overall, […]
Nearly launched LG Rollable smartphone reveals its innovative internals in teardown video
Even Samsung’s 2026 foldables pale in comparison. If LG had not decided to exit the smartphone business, we could have seen a first rollable smartphone as early as 2021, one that was already more innovative five years ago than anything the foldable phone segment has produced recently, as a teardown shows.
Luca Langoni sparks Revolution to 3-0 victory over Montreal
Luca Langoni scored early before notching his league-high fifth assist on defender Mamadou Fofana's first career goal, and the New England Revolution beat CF Montreal 3-0 on Saturday. New England (2-3-0) has lost all three of its road matches under first-year coach Marko Mitrović, but the Revolution have won their two home matches by a combined 9-1 score. Montreal falls to 1-5-0 as ends a six-match road trip to begin the season.
Claire Calahan (8) runs to first base
Claire Calahan (8) runs to first base at Mizzou softball’s game against LSU on Saturday, April 4, 2026, at Mizzou Softball Stadium in Columbia. Mizzou scored 1-0, winning one out
Chucklefish on why Witchbrook has taken a decade to release
Donna Orlowski, the COO of Chucklefish, has explained why Witchbrook has taken so long to release. Back in 2016, the project was first teased. A year later, it was announced as Spellbrook, and then became Witchbrook in 2018. We’ve essentially seen the last decade fly by, but the game has still yet to debut. Orlowski gave some insight into the...
Mary Rand, Pioneering Track and Field Olympian, Dies at 86
At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, she became the first British woman to win a gold medal in track and field, and the first to win three medals in one Games.
Chelsea 7-0 Port Vale: What Rosenior and Tosin said
Chelsea are the first team to score seven or more goals in an FA Cup quarter-final game since Liverpool beat Birmingham City 7-0 in 2005-06. Chelsea have reached the FA Cup semi-finals for the 28th time, with only Man Utd (32) and Arsenal (30 before their game against Southampton this evening) reaching the final four of the competition on more occasions. Aged 18y 345d, Chelsea's Estevao is the youngest player to both score and assist in an FA Cup game for a Premier League side since Bukayo Saka for Arsenal against Bournemouth in January 2020 (18y 144d).
Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Draft Preview
Despite having undeniable star power, the 2025 season was the worst for the Cincinnati Bengals since Joe Burrow‘s rookie season in 2020. From August to December, Cincinnati fans had to put up with one of the worst defenses in the league, a still-struggling offensive line and questionable play calling. Bengals Draft Picks: Thankfully, the Bengals […] The post Cincinnati Bengals 2026 NFL Draft Preview appeared first on The Lead.
The Band Really is Back Together
It’s been a loooong hiatus, but the prolonged pause is over: the original lineup of Triumph, has reunited for its first tour in 30 years.
Apple iOS 26.5 public beta is now available
Apple has released the first public beta for iOS 26.5, just a few days after the beta for developers came out.
How Haley and Hanna Cavinder 'struck while iron was hot' to create expansive business empire after NIL fame
Haley and Hanna, both 25, took The Post inside their busy world of being brand founders and business owners during a recent interview before they take the court for their first-ever live one-on-one...
Quincy sports bars gear up for big rush during Illinois basketball’s historic postseason run
For the first time since 2005, the University of Illinois men’s basketball team is still playing in April.
Mavs rookie Cooper Flagg scores 51 points to become first teen to reach 50 in an NBA game
Flagg’s previous career high came against former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel, the fourth overall pick and fellow contender for rookie of the year.
LaunchPad Golf brings tech-driven golf entertainment to Prior Lake with its first U.S. location
“Threatened retaliation on first contact”: As I dig into a former Halo art director’s claims, I’m left questioning what else Microsoft didn’t want anyone to see.
New allegations from a former Halo Studios developer outline claims of misconduct and organisational issues, prompting questions around accountability and internal investigations at Microsoft.
Astros New Approach Is Sustainable
For the first couple of games, the Astros offense looked like it was trying to force everything. The swings came early, the contact was weak, and too many innings ended before the opposing starter ever felt uncomfortable. It had that familiar early-season look of a lineup still searching for rhythm. But the last few games […]
Album Review: 6WA by BigXthaPlug & 600 Entertainment
BigXthaPlug spent eight months in Nashville making a country-rap album that debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, put “All the Way” with Bailey Zimmerman at No. 4 on the Hot 100, got him a Rolling Stone cover, and filled arenas with Jelly Roll. And then he came back to Dallas, rounded up four of his signees, and made a gangsta-rap record with N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton on the cover. 6WA is the second group release from 600 Entertainment, named after the 600 block of Meadowridge Street in Ferris, Texas, where BigX and his people grew up. The whole thing is loaded with West Coast samples. From N.W.A.’s “8Ball,” Eazy-E’s “Real Muthaphuckkin G’s” and “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” Ice-T’s “6 in the Mornin’,” Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang” and more. BigX is staking his name on the lineup he built—Rosama, MurdaGang PB, Yung Hood, KevanGotBandz, KaineMusic—and claiming a lineage from 1,400 miles away while insisting Dallas is its own thing. A million dollars in cash, split and handed straight to his mother. That’s the first place BigX goes on “From the Bottom.” He’d probably still be in the streets if he didn’t have his son and daughter. He only started rapping to make life better for Carter. Couldn’t start his car back then, now people get starstruck at Starbucks, and he throws the whole field away in one sentence: “How you think we competin’? You on the same bag, I just made me some millions off country.” Goyard bags off a Nashville payday, and he wants you to know exactly how far he’s come from everybody else. “Safe to Say” does something similar but looser. It’s a straight Ice Cube “It Was a Good Day” flip, and BigX nails it. Wakes up, checks both phones, nobody’s locked up, kid accounts look good. Gets pulled over, only catches a warning. Pulls up on the squad to liquor, ladies, and haze. Rosama takes the second verse and matches him. Wakes up to his girl cleaning his cuticles, twins playing peekaboo, pays off his car, calls a cousin, sees the opps and they don’t trip. Lawyer calls, he beat his case. Rosama is the strongest voice in the 600 camp after BigX, and “Life of a Gangster” is why. Third person, riding low, blacked-out windows, snub-nose revolver. A character who chose sticking people up over selling dope. “Quick eraser like a number-two pencil.” He never breaks character, and his delivery drops lower and slower than anything he does on the group cuts, like he’s telling you something at a cookout that he probably shouldn’t. Then on “Long Live Fre$h” he’s a completely different rapper. “Short-bus diamonds, these bitches retarded,” wide-body Durango he can’t even park. That kind of range matters on a group record. MurdaGang PB’s best verse is on the title track. Feds at his door at 6 AM, cameras busted, flushing dope, ram truck putting everybody on the floor. Yung Hood on “The Hottest” just lays out four reasons to keep hustling. Who wants to be broke, women cost money, you need bail, and home has to be straight. It’s funnier and more honest than most rappers get when they’re trying to explain why they sell drugs. KevanGotBandz on “Ain’t Never Slowin’ Down” talks about his father getting caught on the dope while he’s sitting on $300K somewhere in the hills, which is a specific kind of guilt that doesn’t usually make it onto crew tapes. KaineMusic, the newest signee, takes the back half of “Who Dunnit” and introduces herself in third person—“Took flight just to show these hoes how to perform”—but it’s too short to know if she can hold a full song. The flex tracks fill the middle of the LP and mostly run together. “I Go” is Rosama and PB trading brands, guns, and food punchlines. Rosama’s “anemic, my iron tucked low in this shirt” is a slick gun bar, PB fires back with “.223 with a clip ‘bout as big as a toddler” and “I go Burger King, stay with that whopper.” Quick, funny sometimes, but it’s all shopping lists. “Dopeman” is a chant. “6ixer Party” brings Snoop Dogg, who does exactly what you’d expect Snoop Dogg to do. BigX contributes the night’s wildest overshare: “She say she brought a friend too, well, I’m tryna put sausage on her dental.” These songs move fast and don’t overstay, but three or four of them could trade verses and nobody would catch it. Midway through, The D.O.C. shows up for a spoken-word interlude. Tracy Curry. West Dallas native, former N.W.A affiliate, co-writer on a lot of the records getting sampled on this very album. He thanks BigX for the tribute and then gets direct: “This your time, this DFW time. You need to do it like we do it down here.” Leave bread crumbs so everybody behind you can eat. Keep God in your life. It’s fatherly and generous, and it does raise the question of whether 6WA follows that advice. The album borrows heavy. The cover art, the Eazy-E samples, “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted” opening with a direct “Boyz-N-The-Hood” lift, Yung Hood rapping “Flag on my left side, Crip until I die.” But the stuff that actually stays with you is Dallas. BigX talking about Pleasant Grove, Rosama calling himself a country boy, PB recounting a raid that could’ve been last Tuesday. The record smells most like itself when it smells like Ferris, Texas, and least like Compton. BigX on “The Hottest” says his father was the first person he knew who had chickens. Not the way rappers usually wave at the drug trade. He means his actual father, his actual family. On “600 Degrees,” Rosama compares his chopper’s stutter to a speech disorder, PB claims he still has the block on his back even after leaving the city. BigX closes that one saying he used to spin and smack, and now the plaques are platinum. Thirty-two minutes was right for this. Nobody overstays, Tony Coles and Rance and Charley Cooks keep the production punchy, and BigX gives his signees real room instead of crowding every song. 6WA doesn’t reinvent anything. Five rappers, good beats, short clock. Most of what they say you’ve heard before. Some of it—the million to his mother, the cuticles and peekaboo, the four reasons to hustle—you won’t forget. Solid (★★★½☆) Favorite Track(s): “Safe to Say,” “From the Bottom,” “The Hottest” Subscribe
Most U.S. states are warming but not in the way you think
Warming across the U.S. is far more uneven than it looks at first glance. While only about half of states show rising average temperatures, most are heating up in specific ways—like hotter highs or warmer lows. These hidden shifts vary by region, with the West seeing more extreme heat and the North losing cold extremes. The findings suggest climate change is playing out differently depending on where you live.
UC execs’ ties to vendors draw scrutiny as Calif. lawmaker pushes ban
A new bill would block UC executives from being paid by university vendors, a first-in-the-nation proposal targeting potential conflicts of interest.
This $8 Harbor Freight Gadget Should Be The First Thing You Pack For Hotel Stays
There are certain things you shouldn't leave home without when going on a trip. For under $10, bringing this Harbor Freight gadget is a no-brainer.
'Just don’t let her score': Betts delivers game-saving block for UCLA
UCLA center Lauren Betts' crucial block secured a 51-44 Final Four win over Texas, sending the Bruins to their first NCAA national championship game.
Atlético Madrid vs Barcelona, La Liga: Preview
Barça begin a trio of giant games against Atleti, looking for a big win in the first one to stay in control of the title race
BREAKING: AJ Ferrari will not return to Nebraska next season
Nebraska heavyweight AJ Ferrari will not return to the Huskers next season and is expected to enter the transfer portal, first reported by HuskerOnline.
Pope Leo's political voice and how much influence he holds
Pope Leo XIV is the first American to lead the Catholic Church, and after nearly a year of advocating for the poor and cautiously opposing controversial U.S. policies, Leo is offering a more public contrast with Trump. Compass Points moderator Nick Schifrin discusses the pope's first year and what his recent criticism says with Joseph Capizzi, Father Thomas Reese, Annie Selak and Stephen White.
Downtown Lancaster celebrates 1st First Friday of spring [photos]
Those in downtown Lancaster were able to celebrate spring's first First Friday event for 2026 this Friday. There were plenty of new exhibitions to check out, as well as concerts
Tariffs impact Brazos Valley businesses one year after implementation
“I think it’s worse now. I think people were trying to absorb it. I didn’t see my prices go up the first, hardly at all."
Former Bluefield economic developer completes first year with Small Business Administration
A longtime southern West Virginia economic developer has completed his first year working for the federal government.
First Jam Kuradoberi match footage released for Guilty Gear Strive Version 2.00
Guilty Gear Strive is less than a week away from it's huge Version 2.00 update, and now we can get a taste of what that's going to look like with the newest character.Arc System Works and ...
Charlie Day shares awkward moment disrobing for Jennifer Aniston: 'Never felt less attractive'
The actor recalled his first day on set of the 2011 comedy 'Horrible Bosses,' also starring Aniston, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis.
Charlie Day recalls in horror taking all his clothes off in front of Jennifer Aniston: 'Never felt less attractive'
Charlie Day recalled an extremely awkward first day on the set of 'Horrible Bosses' in which the actor had to take off his clothes for Jennifer Aniston.
DI Sports picks | No. 3 Illinois’ Final Four matchup with No. 2 UConn
The waiting game is coming to an end for No. 3 Illinois as it prepares for its first Final Four appearance in 21 years on Saturday in a revenge game against No. 2 UConn. After two physical, hard-fought wins last week over the No. 2 Houston Cougars and the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes, the expectations...
Basketball members honored with CUSA post-season accolades
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Missouri State University had multiple players honored in Conference USA’s postseason accolades, with one player named to the first team, two players
Shohei Ohtani Ends Home Run Drought
Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season on Friday, a three-run blast off of Washington Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas.
H.H.S. Takes a First Step Toward Restoring Vaccine Advisory Committee
A federal judge last month questioned the legitimacy of the panel and overturned its recent work. A notice suggests that it may be revived on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s terms.
West's best winning streaks collide as Spurs visit Nuggets
San Antonio's first dynasty ended when Tim Duncan retired with five NBA titles over 19 seasons. Ten years later, the Spurs are hoping to build another one behind Victor Wembanyama.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans an April rally to mark his first 100 days in office
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will host a rally next month to mark 100 days since his inauguration.
Scientists Witnessed the Formation of a Mysterious Particle for the First Time
Theories long predicted how polarons form, but now there’s proof.
Scientists Witnessed the Formation of a Mysterious Particle for the First Time
Theories long predicted how polarons form, but now there’s proof.
Meet NASA’s New Artemis II Science Officers
NASA’s first Artemis II science officers—Kelsey Young, Trevor Graff, and Angela Garcia—are pioneering a new era of mission operations by integrating advanced lunar science directly into Mission Control. Their work will shape how future Artemis crews observe, analyze, and deepen our understanding of the Moon.
We the People: Truman Library scores with new sports exhibit
The highlights include Lamar Hunt’s ticket to the first game at Arrowhead Stadium, a football signed by Len Dawson and a baseball bat gifted to President Ronald Reagan after the Royals won the 1985 World Series.
As fuel prices soar, United is raising bag fees
The carrier says it will charge $10 more for the first and second bags checked by passengers on flights in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the rest of Latin America.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
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