SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY

Search headlines

Find the stories shaping the conversation.

Search mode
Refine results
Active filters Keyword All time

Results for " Point " 6,443 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Argentina’s Milei escalates Falklands dispute, seizing on Trump comments

Over four decades later, the conflict with the United Kingdom that killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service members and three islanders, remains a sore point in Argentina.

nbcnews.com logo
Sep 4 • 4:32 AM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Ipswich Town v Liverpool: Key stats and talking points

BBC Sport examines some of the key themes before Friday's Premier League match (20:00 BST), with Liverpool heading to Suffolk in search of a first win under Andoni Iraola. Ipswich announced their 14th and final signing of the transfer window on deadline day, with striker Zian Flemming joining from Burnley.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 4 • 4:10 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Health benefit costs to jump 8.2% in 2027, highest since 2003

Marsh survey finds GLP-1 drugs, AI billing, and No Surprises Act disputes are each adding a full percentage point to trend

insurancebusinessmag.com logo
Sep 4 • 2:13 AM EDT • Health • insurancebusinessmag.com
Liverpool XI vs Ipswich Town – Predicted lineup and team news

Liverpool arrive at Portman Road looking to end a winless run stretching back to April, having taken just two points from their opening two matches this season.Andoni Iraola’s side sit 13th after dr...

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 4 • 1:55 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Colorado Stuns Georgia Tech in Final Minutes, 14-13

Colorado pulled off one of the biggest comebacks of the opening week Thursday night, stunning Georgia Tech 14-13 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. The Buffaloes trailed by six points late in the fourth quarter before finding the end zone in the final minutes to steal the victory. Colorado’s win avenged last season’s 27-20 loss…

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 4 • 12:18 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Hills-Beaver Creek wins big to open 2026 season

ADRIAN, M.N. (KELO) — The top-ranked 9-Man team in Minnesota and defending state champion, the Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots continued their winning ways in 2026 with a season opening 38-6 victory over Adrian-Ellsworth. The Patriots got on the board first in this game and made it 8-0 after a successful two-point conversion. That’s when the home […]

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 4 • 12:14 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
UMass Stuns Rutgers in Massive Week 1 Upset

College football wasted no time delivering a shocking result in Week 1. The UMass Minutemen pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the opening week Thursday night, stunning the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 37-21 at SHI Stadium. UMass entered the game as a massive 29.5-point underdog and was coming off a winless 0-12 season, making…

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 10:11 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Las Vegas mayor points to mental health needs as city expands efforts for homelessness
news3lv.com logo
Sep 3 • 9:14 PM EDT • Health • news3lv.com
Madison Keys Saves Five Match Points to Survive Anna Bondar

Madison Keys produced the escape act of the US Open so far, clawing back from 5-2 down in the third set and fending off five match points before outlasting Anna Bondar 5-7 6-4 7-6(5) in a second-round thriller that had Court 17 on its feet. The 22nd seed and former Australian Open champion looked in …

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 6:59 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Trump appointees advance plans for Lafayette Square fencing and White House gates

Pieces of President Donald Trump's wide-ranging Washington makeover made their next step toward approval Thursday, but not without substantial critiques of plans for permanent fencing and gates around Lafayette Square in front of the White House.

pbs.org logo
Sep 3 • 6:53 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
Noah Fifita, Arizona open season against Northern Arizona

The Wildcats target a fifth consecutive season-opening win as they host an in-state Lumberjacks squad that rallied from a 21-point deficit last week and pulled off a stunning upset in Tucson back in 2021.

cbssports.com logo
Sep 3 • 5:51 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com
Blaze Alexander Comments On Baltimore Orioles' Recent Offensive Woes

The Orioles posted some very disappointing numbers in their three-game set at Coors Field.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 4:39 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Titans of Business honored by TBP in inaugural event

From finances to athletics to spirituality to charity and all points in between, they have made a significant impact in our community. In fact, you could even c

fortworthbusiness.com logo
Sep 3 • 8:36 AM EDT • Business • fortworthbusiness.com
Scientists just overturned a century-old physics assumption

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered an unexpected form of the Hall effect, overturning the long-held assumption that this electrical response only appears when a magnetic field points perpendicular to a material. Beyond expanding a century-old principle of physics, the finding could eventually lead to simpler magnetic sensors for electronics, transportation, and medical technologies.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
In 2010, US scientists released dye into Montana’s Missouri River and tracked it across 41.2 miles; one reservoir held the plume for 8.2 hours, helping predict chemical-spill timing

A river can carry a contaminant far beyond the point where it enters the water, but predicting exactly how quickly that material will travel is not always straightforward. In 2010, scientists with the U.S.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com logo
Sep 3 • 4:50 AM EDT • Science • timesofindia.indiatimes.com
World Cup coach reappointed two months after stepping down

Carlos Queiroz has retaken the reins in the Ghana setup after stepping down following their World Cup elimination

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 4:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Beyond Finger Pointing: The Fight to Lower Health Care Costs

In a live conversation recorded at Aspen Ideas: Health, executives from a hospital, insurer and pharmacy join a top Trump administration official and leading health economist to discuss how to collectively bring down health care costs.

tradeoffs.org logo
Sep 3 • 3:01 AM EDT • Health • tradeoffs.org
Cardinals rumors: Arizona making progress on Michael Wilson contract extension

The Arizona Cardinals are in for a rough 2026 campaign . After a tumultuous 2025 campaign, Arizona is still quite far from light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. While they have some intriguing pieces on their roster, it’s unfortunately not going to be enough to contend in the best division in the NFL this year. That being said, the best thing […] The post Cardinals rumors: Arizona making progress on Michael Wilson contract extension appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 1:25 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
“Is This The New ‘I Was Hacked’ Excuse?” “You’re Making Things Worse”— NFL Fans React as Tua Tagovailoa’s Wife Takes Blame For Burner Episode

Tua Tagovailoa already has plenty to prove as he begins his next chapter with the Atlanta Falcons, but an unexpected Instagram mishap has become the latest talking point around the quarterback. A message posted from his own Instagram account looked unusual to fans, prompting immediate speculation about who was behind it.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 1:08 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Yankees Have ‘Most Underrated Reliever in the American League’

The New York Yankees are a franchise filled with big names.The legends of yesteryear need no introductions, and neither do many of this season’s superstars. Think guys like Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and even Ben Rice. At this point, everyone knows them.That’s not the case for one of the most important pitchers the […] The post Yankees Have ‘Most Underrated Reliever in the American League’ appeared first on HEAVY.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 3 • 12:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
AI pinpoints radiology residents’ educational gaps, helping expand personalized training

New research details how artificial intelligence can be harnessed to improve radiology resident education by identifying shortfalls in clinical exposure and reinforcing missed concepts.

radiologybusiness.com logo
Sep 2 • 11:50 PM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
Sony and Microsoft say they’re not obligated to pass U.S. tariff refunds to consumers, echoing Nintendo

Back in July, Sony executives told investors that the company expected to receive $508 million in refunds from the U.S. government, after tariffs that the PlayStation-maker paid were ruled mostly in 2025 were found to be illegal. “Most” of the refund would by recouped by Sony’s gaming division, its chief financial officer said. This week, Sony’s lawyers are arguing that the company is not legally obligated to pass those proceeds on to consumers who paid for recently price-hiked PlayStation consoles. That’s in the face of a lawsuit from gamers calling on them to do exactly that. “Paying fair market price for voluntarily purchased consumer goods is not a legally cognizable injury in fact,” the lawyers wrote in a legal motion filed on Monday, as they asked a judge in California’s Northern District to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit over the tariff refunds. Microsoft made a similar argument two weeks ahead of Sony’s lawyers, in a similar lawsuit brought by a gamer in federal court in Washington State. As Microsoft’s legal team put it on August 21, in their request for a dismissal of that lawsuit: “There is nothing unjust about Plaintiff purchasing an Xbox at an advertised price and getting exactly what he paid for—regardless of whatever theory he devised months later about Microsoft’s cost structure.” Both legal fights are set to go on for some time. How things got to this point U.S. tariffs impacting a wide range of imported goods, including game consoles, had kicked off in early 2025. In May 2025, Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox consoles, citing “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” They raised them again that September. In August of that year, Sony raised the price of PlayStation 5 consoles, citing “a challenging economic environment.” Sony later told investors that its tariff fees for the fall quarter were nearly $200 million. in February of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the 2025 tariffs illegal, prompting impacted companies to begin to request refunds. In turn, consumers began suing the likes of Sony and Microsoft to get what they said was their share. The gamers in the Microsoft and Sony lawsuits argue that the 2025 price hikes of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which added $50 or more to their sticker price, were due to illegal tariffs and should now be returned to consumers. The Sony suit started in May, when a group of gamers sued in federal court in California, saying Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) would be unjustly enriching itself if it did not pass tariff refunds to its PS5 buyers. “Sony is poised to be paid twice for the same unlawful tariff burden: once by its customers (through elevated prices) and once by the U.S. government (through tariff refunds),” the gamers’ lawyers wrote at the time. They called for Sony to partially reimburse anyone who bought a PlayStation in the U.S. since August 1, 2025. The Microsoft suit, filed by gamer Trevor Hastings against the Xbox giant in July, made similar claims. The console makers push back In late July, Nintendo’s lawyers, facing a similar suit accusing them of double-dipping on tariffs and refunds, replied with arguments that previewed Microsoft’s and Sony’s: “Nintendo or one of its retailers set a price for each product, and consumers decided whether that price was worth paying,” they wrote. Sony has buttressed that Nintendo-style argument this week by saying that the gamers have failed to prove that tariffs were the reason for its August 2025 PS5 price hike. They call thatclaim “speculative and illogical.” Other factors, including “inflation, currency fluctuations, component costs, logistics, competitive dynamics, or demand,” could have played a role. (No, the Sony lawyers do not break down the costs and factors that officially triggered the price increases). Microsoft has also argued that there’s no proof in these lawsuits that tariffs drove all or some of the price increase, as it seeks to dismiss the tariff refund suit it’s facing: “Plaintiff provides no specific allegations that would establish any pricing differential attributable to tariffs or suggest any possibility that Microsoft applied then or could recreate now any dollar-for-dollar calculation of tariff-related pricing—any more than it could any other market factor that affects pricing.” To further skewer the gamer side’s argument in its case, Sony’s lawyers have pointed to what might be a surprising defense: yet another PlayStation 5 price hike from this past spring, after the tariffs were ruled illegal. “If the original price increase were attributable to tariffs, SIE [Sony Interactive Entertainment, aka PlayStation] would have had no reason to raise prices again after the Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA tariffs.” … “If tariffs were the cause of the price increases, one would expect SIE to lower prices once the tariffs were eliminated—not raise them again. Instead, the timeline confirms that the pricing of PlayStation consoles includes a diverse and dynamic set of input costs.” Judges have not yet ruled on the arguments made by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. Last week, Panic, the company behind the small, yellow Playdate handheld said it would be passing its tariff refunds on to consumers. It is the only gaming hardware maker to have made such a pledge. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my reporting, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: A reporter’s second Second Life Wagner James Au, who from 2003-2006 was paid by San Francisco-based tech company Linden Lab to be a full-time journalist embedded in their virtual world Second Life, is returning to the company. This time, he’ll be an editorial advisor and business development specialist, he tells Game File. The new role will involve trying to share the stories of people inhabiting Second Life’s ongoing online world with reporters and by extension the public. Au plans to continue to also chronicle some of that through his long-running blog New World Notes. I’ve known Au since the mid-2000s and featured him in a 2007 article for the Columbia Journalism Review about reporters like him opening up virtual news outlets within Second Life. As I wrote at the time: On April 22, 2003, writing as Hamlet Linden for the New World Notes blog on Second Life’s Web site, Au introduced himself. “For the next few months, Linden Lab has invited me to set aside my journalist cap, and instead, don the digital beanie of their in-house virtual correspondent.” He wasn’t paid to keep it positive. He wrote about builders and eccentrics, but then in August of that year, he reported on a tax revolt against Linden Lab (a complaint about the fees it charges users who build stuff) led by a resident whose avatar was a big cat. Second Life has always been less of a video game and more of a virtual world where people can live, hang out, make art, sell virtual items and flirt. Back in 2007, Au described touring it as “sort of like underwater lucid dreaming.” For the past two decades, Au has maintained New World Notes as an independent publication. But he said he’s been drawn back to Second Life and Linden Lab as a place to directly work. The virtual world has around 650,000 monthly active users, he said, “which is actually about what it was during the hype wave.” Au says he’s still finding rich stories in Second Life, the kind that keep him interested 20 years into the beat: “Over the last few months for instance, I wrote about an SL creator in Venezuela whose apartment was destroyed by the earthquakes, so the global SL community rallied to get him back on his feet,” he told me. “Then there’s the woman from a Middle Eastern country who explored her lesbian sexuality in SL, then earned enough from her virtual jewelry to escape her abusive family situation and country.” Au wants to beckon more reporters to give Second Life another look. He argues that it is often ahead of internet trends, noting, for example, an early backlash in the community against AI-made art. Now the platform is drawing curiosity from more of the user-generated content community who’ve grown up with the likes of Roblox, according to Au. “Second Life was too early during its hype wave in 2005-2010, but it now feels right for a new wave of interest,” he told me.

gamefile.news logo
Sep 2 • 8:21 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news
Cape Girardeau coffee shop closure highlights small business struggles

Downtown business owners said The Ground-a-Bout closure reflects a troubling trend and pointed to a lack of foot traffic in the area.

kfvs12.com logo
Sep 2 • 8:07 PM EDT • Business • kfvs12.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
sad
100%
Cape Girardeau coffee shop closure highlights small business struggles

The owner of The Groundabout announced on social media Monday that all four of its shops are closing, including its cafe on Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau. Other downtown business owners said the closure reflects a troubling trend and pointed to a lack of foot traffic in the area.

kfvs12.com logo
Sep 2 • 7:00 PM EDT • Business • kfvs12.com
Shane Strum appointed permanent CEO of Memorial Healthcare System in Broward

Under Strum, Broward Health and Memorial are aggressively expanding into areas where residents don’t have nearby access to care.

miamiherald.com logo
Sep 2 • 6:31 PM EDT • Health • miamiherald.com
Sheffield taps longtime Detroiter to serve as new business, workforce chief

Olga Stella is the latest in a string of newly-appointed department heads aimed at fulfilling the mayor’s agenda on economic growth and revitalization.

bridgedetroit.com logo
Sep 2 • 6:26 PM EDT • Business • bridgedetroit.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (16%)
wow
67%
love
33%
Wigan Athletic 3-1 MK Dons

Wigan beat MK Dons at the Brick Community Stadium to pick up their first points of the League One season.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 2 • 5:11 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Repression of political opposition surges in post-election Zambia

Following Zambia’s contested presidential and parliamentary elections almost three weeks ago, the crackdown on political opposition has intensified, raising concerns about the future of democracy in the country, according to a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert.

news.un.org logo
Sep 2 • 4:31 PM EDT • Politics • news.un.org
BSU sports has a growing budget deficit. Leaders look to 'gold mine' in the parking lot

Last month, Boise State Director of Athletics Jeramiah Dickey appeared on KTIK radio and answered questions about the issues of the day. At one point, host Mike Prater asked Dickey if he’d be at the first-ever game the school would play as a full member of the Pac-12 the following day. “Well, we have the […]

boisedev.com logo
Sep 2 • 2:01 PM EDT • Sports • boisedev.com
Rockstar Is Finally Ditching 'Tap X To Sprint' In GTA 6, But Not Everyone Is Happy: 'I’m Honestly A Little Disappointed'

For some players, this is good news; for others, it's the end of an era

kotaku.com logo
Sep 2 • 2:00 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Heads or tails? $1 coin with Trump's face and gold finish go on sale

The coin's design — Trump's visage as “heads” and the Great Seal of the United States as “tails” — was given the stamp of approval this year by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members Trump appointed.

pbs.org logo
Sep 2 • 1:10 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Veterans Affairs Reveals 250K New Veterans Have Enrolled in VA Health Care in 2026

The veterans who joined this year have had more than 1.4 million medical appointments, according to the agency.

military.com logo
Sep 2 • 10:44 AM EDT • Health • military.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (7%)
love
56%
ahah
22%
wow
22%
Middleton leads Johnson in race for Texas attorney general, but the contest is unusually close

State Sen. Mayes Middleton spent lavishly to capture the Republican nomination and build statewide name recognition. But the most recent polling shows him just five percentage points ahead of Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson -- with more than a fifth of voters still undecided.

houstonpublicmedia.org logo
Sep 2 • 8:42 AM EDT • Politics • houstonpublicmedia.org
Topicals Appoints New CEO From Fenty Beauty

Founder Olamide Olowe has stepped down from her chief executive role and will become chairwoman as Sukiana Chancy joins the company.

businessoffashion.com logo
Sep 2 • 8:30 AM EDT • Business • businessoffashion.com
New literacy law brings science-of-reading training to hundreds of…

Oklahoma is beginning to implement a major overhaul of its approach to reading instruction after years of dismal literacy outcomes, with hundreds of…

ocpathink.org logo
Sep 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • ocpathink.org
Leaked iPhone 18 Pro Parts Point to Three Color Options Excluding Black

Longtime leaker Sonny Dickson has shared an image of differently colored SIM card trays that he claims are for Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models, suggesting Apple's flagship lineup will again be available in a trio of colors: Silver, Dark Cherry, and Sky Blue. Apple currently offers the iPhone 17 Pro in Cosmic Orange, Silver, and Deep Blue.

macrumors.com logo
Sep 2 • 6:17 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Hospitals' 2030 tipping point

An aging population and financial pressures could create a perfect storm.

axios.com logo
Sep 2 • 5:30 AM EDT • Health • axios.com
High-Signal Publisher
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

healthapiguy.substack.com logo
Sep 2 • 5:05 AM EDT • Health • healthapiguy.substack.com
Immigration activity is taking a toll on children’s health, doctors say

Many healthcare providers report that since January 2025, they’ve seen a surge in missed pediatric appointments, delayed preventive care, and sick or injured kids going without treatment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have continued to climb — with a record 51,000 arrests in July — and experts predict continued unhealthy outcomes among children, causing collateral damage that could extend for years.

stateline.org logo
Sep 2 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • stateline.org
Free cholesterol tests on the NHS are great – but here’s the five-point health MOT I’d really like to see

You could be walking around symptom-free and not know you’re pre-diabetic, living with hypertension or at a high risk of a heart attack, says public health academic Prof Devi Sridhar

theguardian.com logo
Sep 2 • 3:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com
😐 Neutral (12%)
wow
65%
ahah
35%
The science of emotional regulation — and how to do it better

Do you ever feel like your emotions control you instead of you controlling them? Maybe you lash out at someone after a long day at work or indulge to avoid a stressful situation. It’s called emotional dysregulation and don’t worry – we all experience it at some point. Luckily, there’s a better way of dealing with our feelings: building emotional intelligence. That may seem daunting, but Short Wave is here to guide you through everything from understanding the importance of emotions to how we can repair our relationship to them.Interested in learning more about your brain and your feelings? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org. We might cover it in a future episode!Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. It includes perks like bonus episodes, early access, archive access, curated playlists and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

npr.org logo
Sep 2 • 3:00 AM EDT • Science • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Poll shows nearly 90% of Americans believe government corruption is widespread

The belief increased by 10 percentage points compared with last year, a Gallup poll found.

washingtonpost.com logo
Sep 2 • 2:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Indiana Fever Coach Stephanie White Shares Moment With Angel Reese

Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White helped Angel Reese work on her 3-point shooting during the first day of Team USA's practice for the FIBA World Cup.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 1 • 11:46 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Unfinished business: Texas women’s basketball challenges itself early through nonconference schedule

Texas women’s basketball will test its revamped roster from the start after a disappointing exit in the Final Four last season against UCLA. Head coach Vic Schaefer will get a good look at his roster prior to the Longhorns’ daunting nonconference schedule. Texas has set up exhibition games against two of college’s best programs, UConn...

thedailytexan.com logo
Sep 1 • 8:40 PM EDT • Business • thedailytexan.com
Chris McKenna details ‘disappointing’ exit from ‘General Hospital’ after shocking death scene

Chris McKenna admits his departure from ‘General Hospital’ is ‘disappointing’ after his powerful and mysterious character Jack Brennan met a grisly end on Tuesday’s new episode of the daytime drama.

ew.com logo
Sep 1 • 7:11 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.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.

WATCH: Massie names 14 Epstein associates to 'shame' DOJ

Speaking from the House floor Monday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., pointed to how much time had passed since President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

pbs.org logo
Sep 1 • 5:33 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
House passes stop-gap bill that pauses changes to federal science grant-making process

The proposed change, which would have given control of science funding to appointed bureaucrats, was criticized widely by the scientific community

scientificamerican.com logo
Sep 1 • 4:45 PM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com
😐 Neutral (21%)
love
53%
ahah
47%
Nonprofit wants to launch 80,000-year mission to Alpha Centauri in 2029 (video)

"None of us will be here when this journey ends, and that is the point."

space.com logo
Sep 1 • 4:00 PM EDT • Technology • space.com
The 21 seats Mike Johnson says will decide the House majority

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, is eyeing 21 seats that will determine the House majority in the November midterm elections, including Colorado’s Congressional District 8. Johnson pointed to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s 21 toss-up seats, before rattling off a list of the races he is watching particularly closely. “Those 21 or so seats that are […]

coloradopolitics.com logo
Sep 1 • 3:39 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Hendrix to lead NC Military Business Center

Martin J. “Jimmy” Hendrix III, a retired Army colonel, will become executive director of the North Carolina Military Business Center Oct. 1, succeeding Scott Dorney, the NCMBC’s founder and leader for more than two decades. Dorney is retiring at the end of the year. A Fayetteville native, Hendrix was appointed by Fayetteville Tech President Mark […]

businessnc.com logo
Sep 1 • 2:04 PM EDT • Business • businessnc.com
Chiefs ownership launches development arm to shape entertainment hubs around team’s facilities

The family of Chiefs Chair and CEO Clark Hunt formed Two-Point Development to plan and build entertainment districts around the team’s forthcoming Kansas City, Kansas stadium and its new headquarters and training facility in Olathe.

sportsbusinessjournal.com logo
Sep 1 • 11:42 AM EDT • Entertainment • sportsbusinessjournal.com
Political Attacks Are Pushing Public Libraries To ‘Breaking Point,’ New Report Shows

Attacks on librarians, forced storytime cancellations and book bans are threatening the stability of public libraries

forbes.com logo
Sep 1 • 10:48 AM EDT • Politics • forbes.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!]

alineaanalytics.substack.com logo
Sep 1 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • alineaanalytics.substack.com
Not accepting health insurance a selling point for some KC doctors

As health insurance costs climb, more patients turn to direct primary care for basic care. Patients get quick access for a monthly fee.

thebeaconnews.org logo
Sep 1 • 10:13 AM EDT • Health • thebeaconnews.org
Marathon’s Low Playercount Is Creating Matchmaking And Onboarding Issues

Marathon's low playercount is frequently a topic of conversation, but now it has gotten to a point where it's actively harming the game and its future prospects.

forbes.com logo
Sep 1 • 10:12 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
Augusta Health CFO Joe Meador Appointed by Governor Spanberger to Virginia Board of Medical Assistance Services

Gubernatorial appointment places Augusta Health executive on the state board overseeing Medicaid coverage for more than 1.7 million Virginians FISHERSVILLE, VIRGINIA — Augusta Health today announced that Joe Meador, CPA, FACHE, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed by Governor Abigail Spanberger to the Virginia Board of Medical Assistance Services (BMAS), the […]

augustahealth.com logo
Sep 1 • 9:27 AM EDT • Health • augustahealth.com
😐 Neutral (13%)
love
60%
ahah
40%
Madhav Rajan reappointed as dean of UChicago’s Booth School of Business

Madhav Rajan has been reappointed for a third term as the Steven S. Wymer Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, President Paul Alivisatos and Provost Katherine Baicker announced.

news.uchicago.edu logo
Sep 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • news.uchicago.edu
Radiology appointment booking platform Scan.com raises $220M

Founded in 2017, the service seeks to connect patients, providers and imaging centers—matching parties based on scanner availability, quality and price.

radiologybusiness.com logo
Sep 1 • 2:38 AM EDT • Business • radiologybusiness.com
49ers news: Brock Purdy finally addressed Drew Brees comparisons

The San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Brock Purdy, will be one of the key players in the offense when the team starts NFL regular-season action. He’s coming off an efficient but shortened last season and will be looking to bounce back. Entering his fifth career season, Purdy has been compared to Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, who played for […] The post 49ers news: Brock Purdy finally addressed Drew Brees comparisons appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 1 • 2:35 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
New OnePlus 16 leak once again points to major camera upgrade

Digital Chat Station, a reliable Weibo leaker, has once again reported on the camera setup of the OnePlus 16. In the latest leak, the tipster once again hints that the upcoming flagship phone will see a major upgrade over its predecessor.

notebookcheck.net logo
Sep 1 • 2:20 AM EDT • Technology • notebookcheck.net
3 burning Oilers questions entering 2026-27 NHL season

The Edmonton Oilers have one goal in mind this coming season. Connor McDavid and his teammates are looking to bring the Stanley Cup back north of the border to Edmonton. They have come oh-so-close in the past, but have fallen short each time. Last season’s defeat was the worst of them all, in some respects. The Oilers were eliminated in the first […] The post 3 burning Oilers questions entering 2026-27 NHL season appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 1 • 1:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
'You see a lot more guys being vulnerable': Teaching firefighters the importance of sleep and mental health

Omaha fire Capt. Justin Cooley points out that sleep and mental health often go hand-in-hand for firefighters. "You don't realize how it affects your family life, relationship with your spouse, with your children," he said.

ketv.com logo
Aug 31 • 11:44 PM EDT • Health • ketv.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (14%)
wow
42%
love
37%
ahah
21%
Caleb Wilson Shares Ambitious Plan to Improve 3-Point Shot Before Bulls Opener

The Bulls' rookie top five pick has been hoisting an impressive amount of three-pointers this offseason.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 31 • 10:19 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Disappointing Mets Outfielder Claimed On Waivers By Orioles
sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 31 • 9:37 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Galaxy Z Fold 8 is so popular that Samsung is stealing parts from next year’s phones just to make more

Samsung has a hit on its hands with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, to the point where the company is...

9to5google.com logo
Aug 31 • 8:30 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
No decision in pied-à-terre case after city and homeowners make arguments

The judge granted both sides more time to prove their points.

ny1.com logo
Aug 31 • 7:30 PM EDT • Politics • ny1.com
Dundalk's Eastpoint Mall set to close after 70 years in business

It's an end of an era after 70 years serving Baltimore County, as the Eastpoint Mall prepares to close.

wbaltv.com logo
Aug 31 • 6:07 PM EDT • Business • wbaltv.com
😐 Neutral (8%)
ahah
43%
wow
29%
love
28%
LGBTQ+ adults more likely to miss or forgo healthcare, survey finds

LGBTQ+ adults are more likely than other adults to miss healthcare appointments due to cost or other reasons — with a third reporting their health worsened as a result, according to a new survey by health policy research group, KFF. Among the 2,640 LGBTQ+ adults surveyed, those who are transgender, younger than 30, those with lower incomes or without insurance were most likely to miss or forgo care due to cost.

stateline.org logo
Aug 31 • 1:59 PM EDT • Health • stateline.org
Mamdani Taps RXR’s Rechler for Business Advisory Council

Mayor Mamdani appointed 15 business leaders, including RXR's Scott Rechler, to a quarterly council advising on private-sector policy.

yahoo.com logo
Aug 31 • 11:56 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Mothman Festival announces vendor, safety, entertainment updates ahead of September return

POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — Preparations are continuing for the 2026 Mothman Festival, with organizers announcing new guest speakers and live music acts while sharing updates on vendors, security and tips

wvnews.com logo
Aug 31 • 10:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • wvnews.com
Tulane Ventures brings behavioral health company to New Orleans

Tulane Ventures has invested $250,000 in Cabana, a behavioral health platform co-founded by a Tulane alumnus, as part of a $1 million seed round that also includes 1834 Ventures.Cabana combines clinical care, community groups and tech-enabled support to embed behavioral health support — outside of medical appointments — in the lives of patients battling physical ailments.

news.tulane.edu logo
Aug 31 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • news.tulane.edu
Signs pointing to possible Nintendo Direct next week

We don’t have any sort of confirmation at this point, but a Nintendo Direct could very well be happening next Thursday, September 10. Much has been made of a social media post going around regarding Just Dance: Decade of Hits. Essentially, some content surrounding the game leaked. Ubisoft made a post on social media to respond to the situation and...

nintendoeverything.com logo
Aug 31 • 9:14 AM EDT • Technology • nintendoeverything.com
Carson College of Business appoints Christopher Cooney to lead the Center for Entrepreneurship

Cooney brings extensive experience mentoring student entrepreneurs and connecting them with industry as he works to expand the center’s partnerships, visibility, and reach.

news.wsu.edu logo
Aug 31 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • news.wsu.edu
Green Bay Packers Kaleb Johnson trade gets strong review From ESPN

The Green Bay Packers have bolstered their backfield by bringing in Kaleb Johnson from the Steelers, sending Pittsburgh a future 2028 draft pick in return. ESPN viewed the transaction favorably, pointing to Green Bay’s decision as a savvy way to strengthen the position before the 2026 season gets underway. “The most likely outcome is still [...]

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 31 • 8:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
New chair for Essex mental health trust board appointed

Jackie Craissati says she wants to continue the trust's efforts with "developing and improving" services.

bbc.com logo
Aug 31 • 7:39 AM EDT • Health • bbc.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (14%)
love
60%
wow
40%
Soil Scientists Buried 2,000 Pairs of Underwear to Prove a Point

Talk about airing our dirty laundry.

sciencealert.com logo
Aug 31 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
Microsoft says Windows 11 KB5120998 update resets mouse settings

Microsoft has confirmed that mouse settings are being reverted on Windows 11 systems after installing the KB5120998 August 2026 non-security preview update.

bleepingcomputer.com logo
Aug 31 • 6:23 AM EDT • Technology • bleepingcomputer.com
Sacoa powers cashless payments at new Saudi entertainment venue

Sacoa Cashless System has supplied the technology infrastructure for BOLTS, a new social entertainment venue in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, according to a press release. The installation includes 38 Spark RFID readers, three point-of-sale stations with readers, RFID cards, customer relationship management and online sales modules, and the Sacoa Mobile App. The integrated platform enables guests to access attractions and make cashless transactions while providing the venue with tools to manage payments and track customer activity.

vendingtimes.com logo
Aug 31 • 6:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • vendingtimes.com
RFK Jr. packs health agencies with political appointees

Eighteen months into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure leading the Health Department, he’s stacked his agencies with more political appointees than any other recent administration, while reducing staffing to a 20-year low.

politico.com logo
Aug 31 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • politico.com
RFK Jr. packs health agencies with political appointees

Eighteen months into Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure leading the Health Department, he’s stacked his agencies with more political appointees than any other recent administration, while reducing staffing to a 20-year low.

politico.com logo
Aug 31 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Kazakhstan’s Tokayev appoints longtime adviser as vice president
aljazeera.com logo
Aug 31 • 5:07 AM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com
Red Sox news: Ceddanne Rafaela grabs attention with post after controversial no-catch

Boston Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela made his frustration clear after a disputed defensive play became a major turning point in a 16-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday . Boston and New York was tied 0-0 in the fifth inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. sent a 299-foot fly ball toward right-center field. Rafaela adjusted his route, charged […] The post Red Sox news: Ceddanne Rafaela grabs attention with post after controversial no-catch appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 31 • 2:04 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
The business of beauty: GW students turn cosmetic hobbies into profits

In a city overflowing with expensive beauty service options, try booking your next refresh appointment with GW’s own student-run businesses.

gwhatchet.com logo
Aug 31 • 12:30 AM EDT • Business • gwhatchet.com
☹️ Negative (-3%)
love
100%
Hotlines can’t aid maternity-care capacity

For women here, “accessing care” can mean driving an hour or more for routine prenatal appointments

washingtonpost.com logo
Aug 30 • 10:25 PM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Is electricity dimming oil’s political power?

Surging power demand is turning electricity prices into a political flashpoint across the U.S. and Europe.

politico.com logo
Aug 30 • 10:00 PM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Arizona opens as huge favorite vs. NAU

Oddsmakers don’t expect Arizona to fool around with NAU in the Wildcats’ season opener on Saturday. In one of the largest spreads of Week 1 of the college football season, Arizona has opened as a 33.5-point favorite vs. the Lumberjacks, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under is 57.5. Arizona is 17-2 all-time against NAU, with […]

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 30 • 12:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
🙂 Positive (45%)
wow
100%
Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices

Hey all, Jason here. When this hits your inbox, I should be en route to the airport — not to go anywhere myself, just to pick up my better half. I must admit, it’s been strange to be home alone (well, with two dogs) for two weeks! Really lets me “optimize” to spending more time on reading/writing/working, whether that’s healthy or not! Looking forward to getting back into a (somewhat) more balance routine. Subscribe or Support by Upgrading Compare Notes With the People Who Built Modern Fintech Partner content: Remitly CEO Sebastian Gunningham. Increase founder Darragh Buckley. Linda Du, Co-founder & President at Valon. They’ll unpack the decisions behind building and scaling major financial products: what they got right, what broke, what they would do differently, and how AI and new infrastructure are changing the operator playbook. Most events tell you where fintech is going. NerdCon puts the people who built the present in the room and asks them what comes next. Expect an operator-led conversation grounded in real products, real trade-offs and lessons earned the hard way. Fintech Business Weekly readers save 20% on Regular tickets with code FBW20 before standard pricing ends September 11. Meet the Builders Things To Know & Other Good Reads Advent and Stripe Abandon $50 Billion Pursuit of PayPal (Bloomberg) Trump Family’s New Crypto Bank Is Backed by Abu Dhabi Sheikh (Wall Street Journal) The multiplying risks of financing data centres (FT) Let the Bond Market Speak (Wall Street Journal) Did we waste a crisis? Modest proposals to reform deposit insurance. (Fintech Takes Banking) Untangling Guggenheim: How Private Credit Built Its Own Universe (Net Interest) The Hater’s Guide To Circular Financing — Part One (Ed Zitron) Fiat Ventures Rebrands to FGV Capital, Announces $35M Oversubscribed Fund II (BusinessWire) Socure Announces Strategic Growth Investment at $5.2B Valuation and Acquires Agentic Operations Platform Fravity (Socure) Listen: When Consumer Protection Disclosures Work Too Well (Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast) Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices When Andreessen Horowitz led EarnIn’s $39 million Series B in 2017, Alex Rampell, a partner at the storied venture capital firm, described EarnIn’s small-dollar advance product as “free,” relying on “entirely on voluntary contributions instead of fees.” Rampell favorably compared EarnIn’s approach to typical payday loans, writing, “Payday loans historically have had the potential to be a slippery slope for consumers into financial distress: opaque systems and steep fees that are hard to repay and set individuals back further than where they started. For many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, that kind of slide into debt can be extremely difficult to recover from.” But EarnIn’s product — which, the company says, isn’t a “loan,” legally speaking — ends up being anything but free for most users. While it is technically possible to take a no-fee advance from the company, most users incur “Lightning Speed” (instant funding) fees and/or ostensibly optional tips that combined can equate to annualized percent rates that can reach over 1,000%. With an average term of 9.77 days, even fees and tips that are small on an absolute dollar basis are equivalent to high APRs on an annualized basis. A lawsuit filed last week by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser against EarnIn describes the company and its product and business practices quite differently than Andreessen’s Rampell; “EarnIn’s business practices are unfair because they are immoral, unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous,” the complaint, filed in District Court in Denver, Colorado, says. EarnIn’s marquee product, Cash Out, isn’t a loan, the company says, as Cash Out is not “[f]orward [l]ooking” because “[t]he money is transferred based on earnings to date,” does not carry a mandatory fee to access funds, and is “non-recourse,” meaning EarnIn cannot pursue recovery from users who don’t repay advanced funds. EarnIn is sometimes referred to as an “Earned Wage Advance” service. Though, unlike some others in the broader category, EarnIn does not integrate with employers’ payroll or time and attendance systems. Rather, EarnIn attempts to verify a user’s income and employment, by examining direct deposit transaction data in their linked external bank account, by using GPS location and Bluetooth data to estimate a user’s time spent at work, if they work in a fixed location, and/or by having a user provided a work email address. While repayment is theoretically optional, as EarnIn would have no recourse, such as reporting non-payment to the credit bureaus or a collections agency, this is anything but clear to users of the EarnIn app, Colorado’s complaint argues. During the process of taking a Cash Out, users must agree to a preauthorized debit of the amount advanced, plus any expedited funding fee and/or tips. Though users technically can revoke this ACH authorization, the fact that they have this right isn’t presented to users during the Cash Out process, but rather is included in linked terms and conditions few users are likely to actually read. And users who do wish to revoke their ACH authorization must do so three or more days before the scheduled transaction date by emailing EarnIn’s customer support. Similarly, EarnIn’s marketing claims that it carries “no interest” and “no mandatory fees” is technically true, but is not the reality for many of the app’s users, the Colorado complaint argues. Further, EarnIn has extensively marketed to users the ability to “access your pay today,” to get “instant” funds, and to get funds “the same day you work” — when, in reality, this speed of access was only possible by paying the additional, undisclosed Lightning Speed fee. The Colorado complaint highlights this contradiction specifically, noting: EarnIn tells consumers that they can ‘Make any day payday with EarnIn’ and that there no ‘hidden’ or ‘mandatory fees.’ For a consumer to access their pay on the same day requested, they would have to pay the Lightning Speed fee. In the fine print of the advertisement EarnIn discloses that ‘[f]ees apply to use Lightning Speed,’ a direct contradiction to the larger text of the advertisement, and a fact that would not be immediately understood by a consumer as ‘Lightning Speed’ is not defined nor explained. Like other small-dollar lending services, rather than explicitly charge interest, EarnIn collects a markup on the optional Lighting Speed fee, which, given the nature of the transactions, many users opt for, as well as offering users the option to leave “tips.” EarnIn leverages either Real-Time Payments (RTP) rails or push-to-card via debit rails if a user opts for the optional Lightning Speed. But while these capabilities cost EarnIn, on average, $0.075 or $0.20 per transaction, respectively, EarnIn charges users significantly more. Initially, EarnIn charged as little as $1.99 for Cash Outs up to $24. But EarnIn has hiked these fees multiple times, and now charges $4.99 for Cash Outs up to $75 and $6.99 for those over $75. According to the Colorado complaint, EarnIn leverages “dark patterns” to manipulate users and to make it more difficult to avoid tipping. Examples of these “road blocks” highlighted in the complaint include: As of 2023, in the EarnIn app, a consumer attempting to get a loan under the default settings had to make at least eighteen separate taps to complete the transaction and reduce the tip to $0. There is an alternative method to leave a $0 tip, via the “Custom tip” feature, but EarnIn made this option difficult to access by visually deemphasizing it and positioning it near devices’ “home” button. Using language and imagery such as “Tip to pay it forward,” “Your generosity supports the service + helps,” “Your tips make a difference,” and “[t]he APR for this cash out is 0%. Your tips help support us.” While Lightning Speed and tipping are, in theory, both optional, in practice, users nearly always ended up paying something. According to the Colorado suit, users were charged either a tip or an expedite fee for more than 92% of transactions, with an average APR of nearly 388%. And, although the advances are “non-recourse,” EarnIn successfully collects on nearly all transactions — 99.18%, according to the complaint, which, Colorado argues, “demonstrat[es] that EarnIn’s advances function as high cost loans, not voluntary payments.” The share of EarnIn users incurring fees — despite the product being marketed as 0% APR — is hard to reconcile with Andreessen investor Rampell’s favorable description of EarnIn vs. “opaque systems and steep fees” associated with payday loans, which, Rampell says, can be “extremely difficult” for borrowers to extricate themselves from. According to Colorado’s suit, EarnIn’s Cash Out product “trapped many consumers in extreme cycles of high-cost reborrowing.” The suit gives an example of one consumer in the state, who took out a whopping 1,151 loans, paying a total of $4,038.50 in Lightning Speed expedited funding fees on loans that averaged the equivalent of 1,421% APR. Another Colorado user, the suit says, took out 1,033 loans, paying $8,561.22 in tips and fees at an average APR of 1,539% . These types of usage patterns demonstrate “the severe and repeated financial harm caused by EarnIn’s illegal lending model,” the Colorado complaint argues. In aggregate, from January 2023 through July 2025, EarnIn extended 3.1 million loans to 56,778 users in Colorado — an average of nearly 55 transactions per person during the time period. EarnIn lent more than $300 million and collected more than $16 million from Colorado users in Lightning Speed fees and in tips. Ultimately, the Colorado complaint argues that “EarnIn’s Cash Outs are loans under Colorado law, and EarnIn’s contention that its product is not a loan based on its disclaimer of any legal repayment obligation lacks any real-world significance given how the Cash Out transactions actually operate in practice.” Colorado further argues that “EarnIn was not working with companies here in providing consumers with funds but acted as a third-party lender and charged illegally high rates, used deceptive design strategies to extract some charges, and trapped consumers in repeat borrowing. Colorado will continue to stand up for consumers and hold companies accountable when they violate our credit laws or attempt to evade them through misleading practices.” Colorado’s suit alleges EarnIn assesses finance charge in excess of that permitted by Colorado law, that EarnIn failed to make legally required disclosures to Colorado borrowers, that EarnIn made supervised loans to consumers without obtaining the requisite license, that EarnIn violated the state’s Deferred Deposit Loan Act, that EarnIn engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices, and that EarnIn made false or misleading statements concerning price. The suit seeks a court order enjoining EarnIn from violating relevant Colorado laws, for EarnIn to refund amounts charged in excess of state law, fees, costs, and penalties, and other relief the court deems to be just. Fintech Business Weekly is made possible by the generous support of paying subscribers — bringing you independent analysis of banking, fintech, and crypto without fear or favor. You can support my work by becoming a paying subscriber if you aren’t already. Paying subscribers enjoy: access to the entire archive of nearly six years of newsletters extended versions of the weekly newsletter, with additional content and analysis and (for founding member tier) quarterly personal 1:1 fintech Q&A / strategy calls with me, tapping into my unparalleled knowledge of the intersection of banking and fintech and experience working in the sector, including helping to launch Goldman Sachs’ retail bank Marcus Support Fintech Business Weekly You can also support Fintech Business Weekly by sponsoring a newsletter or podcast, putting you in front of 93,000+ of the most influential decision makers in banking, fintech, and crypto. Learn more about sponsor opportunities or request a media kit by dropping me an email. Q2 Quarterly Banking Profile: Five Quick Takeaways The FDIC released its quarterly banking profile, which is always worth a read, for the second quarter. The profile provides an aggregate snapshot about the overall health of the 4,238 institutions whose deposits are insured by the FDIC, who, collectively, hold more than $26 trillion in assets and saw a total net income of more than $90 billion in the second quarter. Net income was up 12% vs. Q1 2026, with lower provisions and realized gains on securities helping to drive the improvement, somewhat offset by increases in non-interest expense and applicable income taxes. Overall net interest margin was basically flat quarter over quarter (up 1 basis point vs. Q1 2026), though community banks saw NIM grow by 10 basis points, to 3.81%. Unsurprisingly, given that interest rates haven’t changed, unrealized losses on securities changed little, edging up slightly to $326.7 billion vs. $325.1 billion in Q1 2026. Aggregate credit quality has remained benign, with asset quality actually improving slightly in Q2. Overall, institutions reported a 9 basis point decline in their past-due and non-accrual rate, to 1.44%. Net charge off rate also declined by 2 basis points, to 0.57%. And finally, the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund stands at $161.1 billion, making the DIF reserve ratio 1.48% — above the statutory minimum of 1.35%, but still below the designated target reserve ratio of 2%. [Paid Subscriber Exclusive] Nissan Withdraws ILC App, State Associations Plan BankChain Alliance, FDIC Defines “Unsafe or Unsound Practice” For First Time Automaker Nissan withdrew its application to charter a Utah industrial loan company and its corresponding application to the FDIC for deposit insurance last week, on August 19th. Nissan’s application had been outstanding for more than a year, as it originally applied in June 2025. Recent applications to the OCC to form national banks have been decisioned, one way or the other, substantially more quickly than has historically been the case.

Deep dive
😐 Neutral (6%)
wow
43%
love
35%
ahah
22%
Business Insider's lists of Rising Stars of Wall Street

For the past nine years, Business Insider has pinpointed the young professionals on the runway to success. Help us find our next class.

businessinsider.com logo
Aug 30 • 6:31 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
NDSU Boasts Head-Turning Stat Amid FBS Debut

North Dakota State opened the program's FBS era with a splash, and the CBS Sports Network broadcast pointed out a wild fact along the way. The post NDSU Boasts Head-Turning Stat Amid FBS Debut appeared first on HEAVY.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 30 • 12:07 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
Broderick Jones trade grades for Cowboys, Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers looked at Broderick Jones as a powerful offensive lineman who could solidify their offensive line when they moved up in the 2023 NFL Draft to select the Georgia product. However, a neck injury sustained against the Chicago Bears last year have led the Steelers to move on from the former first-round pick. The Steelers traded […] The post Broderick Jones trade grades for Cowboys, Steelers appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 9:35 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
Giants news: NY releases 8 players, including Isaiah Hodgins

The New York Giants made several cuts on Saturday, as the coaching staff must bring the roster size down to 53 players before the start of the new season. However, one notable release was wideout Isaiah Hodgins , as the club is going in a different direction with the wide receiver room. Hodgins was cut alongside seven other players , according to […] The post Giants news: NY releases 8 players, including Isaiah Hodgins appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 7:26 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Eagles' most agonizing roster decision looming on 2026 cutdown day

With their preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals officially in the books, the Philadelphia Eagles have already begun the process of trimming down their 90-man roster to a 53 . Carson Steele, the owner of Crocky J and basically every offensive highlight of the preseason? Gone . Quez Watkins? Gabe Hall? Zion Wilson? Ambry Thomas? Gone, […] The post Eagles' most agonizing roster decision looming on 2026 cutdown day appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 6:12 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jets news: New York releases ex-Patriots, Browns quarterback

The New York Jets released quarterback Bailey Zappe on Saturday, per Rich Cimini of ESPN. Zappe was hoping to earn a backup QB role , but now he will need to look for a new opportunity. With Geno Smith leading the way and Cade Klubnik also on the roster, the Jets will move forward without Zappe. Zappe, 27, made his NFL debut during the 2022 season […] The post Jets news: New York releases ex-Patriots, Browns quarterback appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 6:04 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Vicariously hike the Appalachian in the gorgeous A Trail Tale

A Trail Tale is an interactive trail journal inspired by Sierra point-and-click adventures and Oregon Trail.

theverge.com logo
Aug 29 • 4:59 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Yankees news: Cody Bellinger's 'tennis' admission will catch fans' attention

New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger is a World Series champion, National League Championship Series MVP, regular season MVP, three-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner. One does not collect all that hardware without becoming a master of preparation. Yes, his career took a nosedive for a couple of years due to prolonged injury problems and […] The post Yankees news: Cody Bellinger's 'tennis' admission will catch fans' attention appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 3:16 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Umar Nurmagomedov releases statement following devastating UFC Shanghai knockout loss

Umar Nurmagomedov takes to social media after disappointing UFC Shanghai outing

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 12:12 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
☹️ Negative (-42%)
angry
50%
sad
50%
Expansive Pecan Grove home offers plenty of entertainment space for growing family

TUPELO – Laurie Webb of TM Realtors believes Pecan Grove, an expansive house and property in Tupelo, offers at least two major selling points: It’s a home large for a

djournal.com logo
Aug 29 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • djournal.com
\'Hadestown,\' \'Six\' show that theater has a place on the big screen [Unscripted]

By this point, my friends are probably tired of hearing the word "accessibility."

lancasteronline.com logo
Aug 29 • 5:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • lancasteronline.com
Seahawks news: Mike Macdonald 'really impressed' by Trevon Diggs contributions

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald came away extremely pleased with how quickly former Pro Bowl cornerback Trevon Diggs has acclimated to the defense, following Friday night’s 9-9 preseason tie against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Diggs, who signed with Seattle on Aug. 19 after past stints with the Dallas Cowboys and Green […] The post Seahawks news: Mike Macdonald 'really impressed' by Trevon Diggs contributions appeared first on ClutchPoints.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Aug 29 • 3:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
🙂 Positive (100%)