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Maryland lawmakers to consider steps toward partisan redistricting for 2028
Maryland lawmakers are set to kick off a special session to consider a first step in a partisan redistricting initiative that could help Democrats pick up an additional U.S. House seat by 2028.
DC youth take on mental health in new podcast
A group of D.C. students has been hard at work on a podcast about mental health and the many pressures that young people face. This new podcast is called “Behind the Smile: Teens and Mental Health in America.” The students who worked on it told News4 it’s really been a labor of love to help their peers who may be…
Blanche rescinds fund for Trump supporters after GOP senators threaten to block his AG bid
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has issued a formal order terminating President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to compensate his political allies.
These Memphis stars have made a mark on nation's entertainment scene
From Elvis to GloRilla, Memphis-connected artists have helped shape the entertainment scene in the U.S. for generations.
Daiwa Profit Beats Estimates as Equities Business Surges
Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s quarterly profit rose more than analysts expected to the highest in 13 years, as Japan’s second-largest brokerage benefited from the global stock trading boom.
Heat wave prompts health experts to urge checks on seniors and pets
Experts are urging people to check in on sensitive groups as high heat continues to impact millions of Californians.
BUSINESS A Chicago couple’s recording studio showcases underrepresented musicians
Queer couple and Friends of Friends Recording (FOF) Co-Founders DeAnna Doersch and Brok Mende met each other in Chicago when they were both youth group leaders for an Evangelical Christian organization. Each of them now agree that that meeting felt like a lifetime ago. Doersch and Mende were in college at the time and discovered a shared […]
Rise in U.S. preteen suicide rate alarms mental health experts
Mental health experts and advocates are calling for more mental health check-ins with preteens, earlier screenings and tailored interventions for different groups of preteens.
Cori Bush’s Comeback Bid Tests Limits of Progressive Momentum
Cori Bush is trying to overcome millions in spending from pro-Israel groups to reclaim her old House seat.
High Schoolers become summer scientists at USD
A group of local high school students have ditched the lazy summer days and instead are testing hypotheses and conducting their own scientific research inside the University of San Diego’s labs.
Big Ten, SEC back college sports bill after shift in language
Language was added to the Protect College Sports Act intended to strengthen a provision prohibiting schools from circumventing the athlete revenue-share cap.
Ohio GOP Rep. Miller says 'I'm not dropping out,' defends himself against claims of domestic abuse
Ohio Republican Rep. Max Miller is pledging to remain in his race for reelection.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ nets second best North American opening ever with $355 million
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has made box office history in its first weekend, becoming the second biggest North American opening ever with $355 million in ticket sales.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ nets second best North American opening ever with $355 million
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has made box office history in its first weekend, becoming the second biggest North American opening ever with $355 million in ticket sales.
Buffalo Bills WR Joshua Palmer could surprise in 2026
An improved Buffalo Bills wide receivers group could benefit Joshua Palmer in 2026
Los Pueblitos at Market Square closing after 30 years in business
Los Pueblitos, a colorful shop known for handcrafted pottery, jewelry, clothing and gifts from Mexico and other Latin American countries, is closing its doors at Market Square after more than 30 years in business.
Darline Graham promotes Trump's agenda in her political debut ahead of special Senate primary
Sen. Darline Graham has made her political debut in South Carolina, stepping into the spotlight after her brother Lindsey Graham's death to advocate for President Donald Trump's policy priorities.
Trump's housing regulator Bill Pulte says he'll hand over intel reins to Jay Clayton on Monday
The two-month tenure of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence will officially come to an end on Monday.
Dockstock festival back at Great Cranberry
What began in 2022 as a group of musicians playing on the town dock on Great Cranberry Island has grown.
Vanderbilt Health, Nashville State partnership certifies 12 Clarksville medical assistants
Vanderbilt Clarksville Hospital graduated its first group of medical assistants through Vanderbilt Health’s cohort model at no cost to the employees or hospital.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says he's 'very concerned' Trump will interfere in the midterm elections
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland says he's concerned that President Trump might use federal power to influence the fall elections.
Sophie Cunningham says she's not concerned about being a distraction for the Fever
Sophie Cunningham says she’s unconcerned that the rallies against transgender participation in women's sports that have accompanied the Indiana’s Fever’s recent games are a distraction for the team.
Springfield group discusses sickle cell and mental health
The Springfield Black Coalition hosted a community health and wellness conversation Friday night in Springfield to discuss sickle cell disease, mental health and senior health.
UNCW Business School Students Travel to Prague for Real-Life Consulting Experience by Robert Burrus
This article was contributed by Kestrel Smoot, International Programs Coordinator for UNCW’s Cameron School of Business. During the most recent spring semester, 33 upper-level finance and marketing students from the UNCW’s Cameron School of Business traveled to Prague, Czechia, to participate in an intensive international consulting project. Unlike traditional study-abroad programs, the Prague consultancy project focuses on real client engagement. Each year’s project is entirely new, designed through collaboration between faculty and industry partners to identify a current business challenge that students will address. This year, students worked with MAMS-Champi, a Czech non-alcoholic beverage company that is seeking to expand into other global markets. Throughout the first half of the semester, students attend class at UNCW and prepare for their time abroad by conducting preliminary research, developing analytical frameworks, and organizing themselves into specialized teams responsible for tasks such as marketing strategy, industry analysis, consumer segmentation, and competitive evaluation. The course emphasizes independence and teamwork, requiring students to take ownership of their work, manage deadlines, and collaborate across functional groups. Additionally, faculty serve as advisors, allowing students to navigate the complexities of the project much as they would in a professional consulting environment. Once in Prague, students met with company leadership, toured facilities, and refined their recommendations based on real-time feedback. The in-person component is widely regarded as the most transformative aspect of the program because students must synthesize weeks of work into a cohesive presentation and deliver it to the client, demonstrating professionalism, strategic thinking, and adaptability. Beyond the consulting work, students participated in cultural and educational activities that broadened their understanding of global business environments. They explored Prague’s historic districts, learned about Czech culture, and engaged with local professionals. These experiences helped students understand how economic, regulatory, and social factors shape market opportunities. The Prague consultancy project stands as a defining example of the Cameron School of Business’s commitment to experiential learning, consistently strengthening students’ confidence, enhancing their resumes, and serving as a focal point in job interviews. Employers recognize the value of the hands-on experience and transferable skills students gain, underscoring the program’s role in preparing industry-ready graduates for today’s fast-moving business landscape.
Judge strikes down Houston minority contracting rule, leaving business owners uncertain
For more than four decades, Houston’s Minority, Women and Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) Program has helped connect certified businesses with city contracting opportunities. Now, a federal judge’s ruling is changing part of that process.
Upstate discount grocery store urges Mamdani to emulate model in NYC
Bargain Grocery in Utica has been run by a nonprofit group and in business for over 20 years.
Colorado health officials’ tuberculosis investigation in limbo as Geo Group tries to strike down inspection law
The operator of Colorado’s only immigrant detention center is still refusing to allow state health inspectors to conduct a tuberculosis investigation. It was in court Friday to challenge a new law.
Community around Summit View Business Park concerned over potential data center
Members of Germantown Brick Church of the Brethren are asking Franklin County leaders to slow discussions surrounding a potential data center development near Summit View Business Park, saying they are concerned about the impact such a project could have on their church, cemetery and surrounding community.
DOJ issues declination of charges against eye care group, opting to indict CEO for role in $3.4M fraud scheme
The shift in prosecutorial focus is part of a new enforcement policy to address healthcare fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges the CEO of CampusEye paid kickbacks to doctors for referrals, going on to bill Medicare for unnecessary tests.
Brazil uses forensic science to trace gold's origin and tackle illegal mining in the Amazon
Brazil is using forensic science to tackle illegal gold mining in the Amazon, a top threat to the rainforest, Indigenous groups and other communities there that has accelerated deforestation and driven mercury contamination to dangerous levels. The work takes place at the National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasilia, the country's…
St. Louis nonprofit seeks consultant to model city re-entering county
A St. Louis nonprofit commissioned a study examining costs of city-county consolidation, with support from business leaders and labor groups.
MusicRow Weekly (Borchetta Entertainment Group, News, Charts, More...)
This week's edition of The MusicRow Weekly is packed with notable executive appointments [...]
The Streaming Bubble Keeps Popping
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) One of my rules is “never bet against PE [private equity]”. This isn’t to say that I agree with their methods or tactics or strategies or financial innovations (aka shenanigans). Just that in the long arc of financial history, they’ve tended to return very good returns to their shareholders. That said, their forays into entertainment have left me...skeptical. I’ve written before about PE’s production company/celebrity production company roll ups, and those haven’t really worked out. Some PE groups tried to “roll up” an industry that isn’t “roll-up-able” for lack of a better term—since the barrier to entry for starting a production company is very low—often paying top dollar for celebrity production companies at the height of streaming valuations. So yeah maybe we can bet against PE when they venture into filmed entertainment. I’ve also noted that studio lots seemed to be a bubble back in 2022. Sure enough… Yikes! That sure sounds like some private equity guys lost some money. The only caveat being that holding a lot of land in Los Angeles is always valuable. But that wasn’t the pitch and likely real estate investment companies overpaid for said land. I mean, Goldman Sachs had to repossess it after all. (Technically, I’m not sure these buyers were traditional private equity, but PE was buying LA studio lots earlier this decade.) All to say: I call out bubbles when I see them, and they often pop. Anywho, my most famous bubble call was the “streaming bubble”, specifically that the major streamers were making too many shows and films. And that it could all come crashing down. Notably, I made this call before the strikes of 2023, but those strikes potentially accelerated the popping. And now it has indeed popped. One of my most popular articles of last year made that exact case. A year later, it’s time to update that analysis. The bottom line is that the streaming contraction continues. Credit where credit is due, Luminate—an analytics company whose data I use weekly in my streaming ratings report—called this out in a recent report I saw highlighted in both Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter. But I’m adding my data to their look, including streaming films and kids TV shows. I’ll also provide some other data that all tells the same picture. Let’s dive in! Subscribe The Number of Streaming TV Shows, Films and Specials Is Declining AGAIN in 2026 Let’s get right to the data, starting with my dataset. Specifically, each week I track every “notable” title to come out on streaming. I try to grab every title on every major streamer, meaning if it’s a first run or original or exclusive, I track it. This helps me call out the “dogs not barking” and the misses/flops each week. So that will be our first series of charts, my weekly collection data. Let’s start with the raw TV show, film and special data, by week. Note: As the years have gone by, I have actually added more sources (going from just one source to five sources) to find new titles, meaning that this data collection is, likely, more accurate now than in the past. Which means my team and I are more likely to have undercounted titles in the past rather than today. I like to cut the data several different ways. Here’s that same look, by quarter, to more sharply show the trends: And here’s the data just looking at the first half of each year. That’s the same data, just cut three different ways with three different time periods. Note that films, TV shows, and specials are all down by 25%, 42% and 17%, respectively, from 2022. The good news is that the number of films and specials actually increased year-over-year from 2025 to 2026, but not enough to offset the 25% decline in TV shows. Now, I also look at kids shows, and here they are pulled out on their own: And here’s that by quarter: This really seems to be a notable area of pullback by the streamers. Kids shows are down 80% from 2022. This reflects some formerly Disney+ shows going to cable TV first, but also pullbacks from HBO Max, Prime Video and Netflix. I also categorize the TV shows by English language and non-English language, and that also reveals a lot of where the drop comes from: And here is by the half-year: In this look, the good news is the drop for English language shows seems to have stabilized in the last year. But the bad news is the long term decline from the 2022 peak. Other Data So I wasn’t the only person to notice this decline in the number of shows. I have a few other data sources for this, though most only go through the end of 2025. As I said, Luminate beat me to the punch, so let’s look at their data. We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… What TV loss streaming didn’t make up for... How Netflix has changed their programming slate over time… Ten more images charting the decline of production... What type of films aren’t being made anymore... The good news (for movie theaters)… And more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.
$4 Million Commitment Will Help UT Health Sciences Expand Health Hubs to Bring Preventive Care to More Communities Across Tennessee
Community and healthcare leaders, friends and partners of UT Health Sciences gathered to celebrate UnitedHealth Group’s announcement of a $4 million commitment to expand the neighborhood health hub model developed at the university from five to 13 across the state by the end of 2027.
SGMC Health Earns Full Transparency Badge from The Leapfrog Group
SGMC Health has earned the 2026 Leapfrog Full Transparency Badge, recognizing the health system’s commitment to publicly reporting information about patient safety and quality through the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
A milestone year for Morgridge Summer Science Camp
On July 31, the 20th annual Morgridge Summer Science Camp said good-bye to its final group of campers. Over the course of three one-week sessions, 75 students along with their teachers, from 13 districts across the state, envisioned their futures in the biomedical sciences at the Discovery Building and UW–Madison’s campus.
Jeff Dunham adds second Green Bay show after first one sells out
Comedian Jeff Dunham and his well-known cast of dummies were last in Green Bay in 2024 for three shows.
Overdose deaths continue to decrease in Washtenaw County, health officials report
Overdose deaths are down in Washtenaw County, but the crisis is far from over.
‘Measles is here’: Michigan health officials warn as vaccination rates fall dangerously low
Michigan health officials are warning of a significant measles resurgence as vaccination rates drop below herd immunity thresholds.
Digital Science appoints Stephen Leicht as CEO; Daniel Hook joins Holtzbrinck Group as Chief Scientific Officer
Digital Science has announced that Daniel Hook will take up the role of Chief Scientific Officer at parent company Holtzbrinck Group, with company President Stephen Leicht succeeding him as CEO.
DirecTV, EverPass strike distribution, expanded partnership deal around NFL Sunday Ticket
DirecTV and EverPass have a new multiyear deal that will keep DirecTV for Business distributing NFL Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, hotels, casinos and other commercial establishments in the U.S.
Lancaster County Partnership for Public Health to take a more active role in public health education
As Lancaster County faces its largest measles outbreak in recent history and other public health challenges, a nonpartisan, volunteer group of health experts and community leaders plans to take a
Power List interview: Amanda LeFever
Amanda LeFever joined High Point University President Nido Qubein in the Power List interview, a partnership for discussions with influential leaders. The interview was edited for clarity. Amanda LeFever is president and co-founder of Greensboro-based Mission Mobile Medical Group, which launched in 2020. From a single unit, it now has more than 250 partners […]
New CEO for Digital Science
Stephen Leicht appointed Chief Executive Officer; Daniel Hook joins parent company Holtzbrinck Group as Chief Scientific Officer
Democratic candidates grapple with past stances on defunding the police ahead of key midterm races
Democrats are trying to convince voters that lawlessness under President Donald Trump is a major threat.
Sony Raises Outlook After Entertainment Drives Earnings Beat
Sony Group Corp. raised its profit outlook after its lucrative content holdings generated continued growth, underscoring the entertainment group’s resilience in the face of rising component prices.
Cowboys rookie Caleb Downs impresses early at camp, welcomes tough test against offense
One of the standouts has been rookie safety Caleb Downs, the team’s first selection in this summer’s draft.
What Mamdani is doing with city-run stores is illegal and irresponsible, small business owner says
Multicultural Business Coalition Chairman Frank Garcia says the mayor did not want to meet with his group over concerns about the city-run grocery store project on ‘The Bottom Line.’
The IAC and California-based Predictive Science Inc Predict the Solar Corona for the August 12 Eclipse Using the La Palma Supercomputer
Ahead of the upcoming solar eclipse on August 12, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), in collaboration with the research group Predictive Science Inc. (PSI, San Diego, California), has successfully simulated in high detail the structure of the solar corona that will be visible during totality along the path of totality, including Palencia, where the IAC will gather more than 40 spanish, moroccan, and american astronomers.
Why Are Former UConn Football Players Suing the NCAA?
The group of Huskies are working to get another year of eligibility.
El Paso advocacy groups expand fund to deliver shelter, health care for migrants in Juárez
Humanitarian groups in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez region announced an expansion of aid for migrants and asylum seekers in Ciudad Juárez, citing growing needs as asylum access narrows and deportations accelerate
Amazon shares surge higher after cloud business grows 37%
Capital expenditure across the group climbed to $53bn in the quarter ending in June
Trump’s Nominee to Oversee VOA, Sarah B. Rogers, Suggests Return of Journalists on Leave
The statement by the nominee, Sarah B. Rogers, signaled a stark reversal of the president’s earlier efforts to shutter Voice of America and other federally funded news groups.
How a Houston contractor is using her business to open doors for single moms in the trades
Sandra Lopez built a successful contracting company while creating opportunities for single mothers and people new to the trades. Now, a LiftFund loan is helping her grow even more.
Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame to Host ‘Blotto Fest’ This November 8th
Long Island’s Blotto band member ‘Broadway Blotto’ (L) will host the upcoming Blotto Fest event. Photo credit Steve Leung. Classic Blotto Band photo (R) circa 1980's. Photo credit Martin Benjamin. Stony Brook, NY —Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF) will host Blotto Fest at its Stony Brook Village location (97 Main Street) Fest on Sunday, Nov. 8th at 3pm. The event is free for members and included with general admission ticket or $10 at-the-door concert ticket. LIMEHOF is giving local bands a chance to participate in this unique tribute to the iconic New York group.
New Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion brings several clinics under one roof
Orlando Health has opened a new children's pavilion in Orlando that consolidates 19 pediatric clinics under one roof, aiming to simplify follow-up care and reduce the logistical burden on families managing multiple specialists after a child's hospitalization.
Will business back smaller lot sizes?
Business groups are considering backing a ballot measure that would reduce minimum lot sizes in Massachusetts.
Tanor Bortolini and Charvarius Ward Sr. on team's health, near-retirement decision | 2026 Training camp media availability
Center Tanor Bortolini breaks down how Daniel Jones' return from injury helps the offensive line and the communication the group has with the quarterback. Then, cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr., joined by a special guest, discusses how he was 85% sure he wa
UK's IG Group agrees to buy sports gaming firm Underdog for up to $1.3 billion
Britain's IG Group said on Thursday it has agreed to acquire U.S. daily fantasy sports and prediction markets operator Underdog for up to $1.3 billion, in a deal that would strengthen its position in the fast-growing U.S. retail trading market.
Rare Pokémon game that deletes itself found 20 years later
PokéPark Fishing was only accessible for a while, to a select group of fans in Japan. The 2005 game has since resurfaced, but there's a catc
San Antonio high school students participate in hands-on research during summer Texas Biomed program
While many teenagers took a break from learning this summer, dozens of San Antonio high schoolers spent their time studying in a professional-grade laboratory.
CSA Ocean Sciences Brings Marine Science Expertise to APEM Group
CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. has completed its integration into APEM Group, bringing more than five decades of marine environmental expertise, 115+ specialists, and a US headquarters to a global environmental consulting force of over 1,500 professionals. The transaction, first announced in February 2026, closed in June 2026.
Shark meat offers lean protein, but experts warn mercury poses serious health risks
Food safety experts outline the benefits and risks of eating shark, advising vulnerable groups to avoid it altogether while encouraging healthier seafood alternatives for routine meals.
This Week in Jacksonville - Business Edition: Experts urge tighter HOA oversight after $11 million fraud
Kent Justice tackles a question a lot of HOA homeowners are asking after the “Hammocks” case in South Florida: could HOA fraud happen here — and would anyone catch it in time? Kent’s guest is Marc Rodriguez, EVP of Market Operations at RealManage, who breaks down how financial oversight can fail inside volunteer-run boards, what practical controls can stop fraud before it starts, and how technology can add real transparency for both board members and homeowners.
Stakeholder Theory Community Honors Professor Ed Freeman’s Impact on Business and Academia
A diverse group of collaborators and well-wishers descended on UVA to honor Professor Ed Freeman and the way his ideas have changed the world for the better.
Federal tariff refund portal offers relief for small businesses hit by import costs
Businesses across the U.S. may be in line for a significant financial boost after federal agencies launched an online system allowing importers to apply for tariff refunds.
Carlyle's new middle-market defense and government unit makes first buy
Carlyle Group acquires Utah encryption maker Secturion Systems and names Sean Berg as CEO.
The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know
The US has unveiled what officials claim is the most radical overhaul of the public R&D system in a generation, which if implemented could have significant implications for transatlantic research collaboration. Science: A New Golden Age derides universities as “legacy institutions” and instead wants to prioritise funding on technological challenges, new research labs and funding that follows individual scientists, rather than being linked to their institutions. “Too much of our research enterprise has come to serve itself rather than the scientists within it,” writes Michael Kratsios, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the only named author of the report. “Federal funding agencies should support a broader range of performers.” But some critics argue that the strategy is a smokescreen, using genuine problems in academia as an excuse to further weaken US universities, which US vice-president JD Vance has labelled “the enemy..”Even as it talks of a “golden age” for science, the White House has proposed halving the 2027 budget of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and has put forward double-digit cuts for other funding bodies, such as the National Institutes for Health. It asked for similarly steep savings in 2026, but Congress stopped them going through. Science: A New Golden Age says success will be measured by the extent to which scientists are “free” to pursue the most “vital questions,,” painting academia as currently hidebound by bureaucracy, sluggishness and consensual conservatism. And yet the Trump administration is simultaneously planning new rules that will hand political appointees unprecedented powers to screen and cancel grants. The report has pretentions to be the successor to Science: The Endless Frontier, the seminal 1945 document in which presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush set out the case for post-war government funding of basic research, helping to spur the creation of funders such as the NSF. Even the title page font is the same. But it remains unclear if the latest report will leave anything like as lasting a legacy.Here, Science|Business explains some of the biggest proposed changes in Science: A New Golden Age, and how Europeans think it might change the landscape of their biggest science partner.Universities under fireA key target of the report are US universities, which it repeatedly suggests are outmoded as research institutions. It criticises the NSF for channelling resources “overwhelmingly to a single type of performer, the university-based, principal investigator-led research group..” Universities “extract” money from researchers’ grants to support “growing administrative bloat,” alongside legitimate uses. The Trump administration has been trying to cut the overhead costs in federal research grants that flow to universities. Instead, new institutions are being built. In May, the NSF announced it would spend $1.5 billion on two new so-called X-Labs, focused on scientific instrumentation and quantum systems. The idea is that they fill a niche in the landscape, tackling problems that are too big for a university lab, but too early stage for private start-up funding. Parallel with Europe?This shift to new research organisations parallels moves in Europe to set up new innovation agencies, such as Germany’s Sprind, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, and the EU’s European Innovation Council. The Dutch and French governments are looking to set up their own entities too. There’s now an emerging consensus, evident in a number of new strategies, that public R&D needs to be shaken up, Charles McIvor, an economist at the OECD, has written in response to Kratsios’s plans. “What stands out for me across these strategies [in the US, Germany, South Korea and Japan] is that governments are realising that the old ways of delivering STI [science, technology and innovation] programming no longer works,” he said in a LinkedIn post. Metascience wins?The document is, at least on the face of it, also a big win for some policy thinkers in the US who want far more experimentation with new forms of research grant and institution.It name-checks a litany of new public R&D ideas, from focused research organisations and advance market commitments to “golden tickets,” which allow grant reviewers the power to hand applicants money without requiring the consensus of other review panellists.Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationFocused research organisations: what are they, and how do you set them up? NIH turmoil risks reciprocal EU-US access to health research funding In addition, every federal research funding agency should set up a metascience unit, the strategy says, “with authority to run controlled experiments on review and funding mechanisms.” The UK has already set one up, the strategy points out. This mirrors recommendations to the European Commission. In 2024, a report led by former Portuguese science minister Manuel Heitor also advised the EU to set up an “experimental unit” to test out new methods of funding research. So far, however, Brussels hasn’t put forward any plans to do so. Bypass universitiesBut there’s a worry that the Trump administration is using the metascience movement to justify an overhaul of public R&D that punishes universities, which it sees as centres of political resistance. Last year, it threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless it hired and admitted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity” across campus. It’s also attempted to strip academics of funding for working on politically forbidden areas, like LGBTIQ people’s health.The new strategy appears to be a “move to bypass the power of universities full stop and allow funders and political bureaucracies to handpick the projects and people who will execute them,” said Jean-Claude Burgelman, a former senior official in the Commission’s research directorate, on LinkedIn.The EU’s science counsellor in Washington, Florent Bernard, wrote that the plans risk diverting public research funding so that it “solely serves private interests.” “Who, if not independent universities, will do research that demonstrates the impact of tobacco on lung cancer or the role of human activities in our current climate crisis?” he wrote.Should we take it seriously?“I would view the overall document as a bad faith argument,” said Cole Donovan, director of science policy at the campaigning group Stand Up for Science, and a former OSTP official. “I don’t see the project itself as something that can be isolated from the broader attack on the system.” He thinks the argument that academia has become dysfunctional and in need of radical reform is being deployed as part of a “PR argument” to legitimate moves against US scientists. The strategy presents ideas like metascience units as new, whereas there were moves to set them up at the NSF during the previous administration of Joe Biden, Donovan said. The other caveat here is that the OSTP has limited power to carry out any of these recommendations. While Kratsios has issued a memo to research agencies telling them to implement the recommendations in the report, he doesn’t have direct budgetary control. “As a former OSTPer myself, this does not seem like a document that is realistic,” said Donovan.
After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature
Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.
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The Science Behind the AI Panic Is Shakier Than You Think
A column by Sascha Lobo Is AI making us dumb? So asked DER SPIEGEL on its cover a while ago. After a few weeks of recovery and a therapeutic intervention with the help of my AI, I feel able to respond. That’s a bit unfair, of course; the article itself is more nuanced than the loud cover, the image of a schoolkid with dull prompt questions, or the subtitle: “AI is conquering the schools, and educators fear a disaster.” The short answer to “Is AI making us dumb?” is: no. The long answer is more interesting, and even carries a preliminary glimmer of the spectacular. Unfortunately, it requires a detour into the sphere of artificial intelligence, into the mogul-field terrain of technology assessment, the attention economy, and the destructive virus of cultural pessimism. Along with narrowing the scope to AI’s effects on education and work rather than on intelligence. Because the honest version of the question would be: Does AI help us learn and work, or not? Generative AI, which set off the still-ongoing hype with ChatGPT, has only existed in relevant distribution since late 2022, early 2023. For a technology-driven transformation of people and society, that is extremely short. For that reason alone, research is still in its infancy. And technology assessment is not a fast discipline anyway. Prominent voices from Elizabeth Eisenstein to RAND to Tom Wheeler say we still cannot conclusively judge the consequences of the printing press. Its invention is a mere 580 years back, and some scholars would rather not circulate assessments that might have to be retracted in two or three hundred years. We’re Going Through Growing Pains A phenomenon that already caused upheaval in social media research makes serious assessment of AI’s consequences even harder: the “moving target” problem of LLM-ology, as the linguist Sean Trott called it in 2025. AI develops so quickly and so unpredictably that researchers often end up studying snapshots of the past. There are concepts, from morphological analysis to anticipatory governance, for keeping research, planning, and regulation halfway meaningful anyway. But even with those, universally valid statements are rare. DER SPIEGEL - The German View is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe We should therefore treat findings about the interplay between humans and AI as far more procedural and situational. Unfortunately, this challenge comes at the worst possible time. We are going through growing pains: AI’s everyday impact has grown very large very fast, and with it the longing for guidance. Annoyingly, the body of solid knowledge has not exploded along with it. Experts cannot be moved to broad consensus on even banal statements about AI. Sascha Lobo, born in 1975, is an author and strategy consultant focusing on the internet and digital technologies. Together with Jule Lobo, he explores the debates of the day in the podcast “Feel the News – Was Deutschland bewegt” (”What Moves Germany”). Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says software developers are dying out. Bill Gates considers coders one of only three professions that will survive the AI tsunami. Top tech economists find virtually irrefutable arguments both for and against an AI bubble. The same naturally applies to the structurally youth-hostile debate over whether AI is good or bad for young people. The gap between the demand for insight and the supply of solid knowledge creates an orientation vacuum. This vacuum of AI cluelessness is filled, as the attention economy described by Georg Franck in 1998 would have it, with half-knowledge (funnily enough, often AI-generated), marketing, and self-marketing. After all, infinite money is at stake, along with academia’s best current shot at global fame. But this iridescent froth of interpretation operates more by the algorithmic principles of the digital public sphere than by seriously earned insight. That is why dramatized, fear-feeding claims about AI are so promising. It tempts parts of academia into distorted drivel, and parts of the media then sensationalize the published drivel once more. Was the Research Aimed at a Desired Result? How badly this can influence academia and public perception is demonstrated by one of the most-discussed studies on AI’s effects: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.” The MIT study by Nataliya Kosmyna also gets plenty of space in the SPIEGEL cover story. What was measured and interpreted: lower brain activity in people who write with AI assistance, compared to people who only google or write without any tools. As is common with preprints, the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, and it contains substantial weaknesses that experts have sharply criticized. The first round had 54 participants in three groups, the second only 18, who reportedly also came from MIT’s own orbit. There was no preregistration (committing in advance to what you want to find out with which data). In their analysis, Stanković et al. even discovered an opposite effect that the study does not further explain. Some measurement data has not (yet) been published. And the EEG analysis method used is considered too imprecise to support such far-reaching conclusions. The biggest criticism, though, is the suspicion of an activism-driven study. In an interview with Time, lead author Kosmyna said she published the study immediately, rather than after full peer review, because she feared politicians might otherwise decide to put ChatGPT in kindergartens. She considers that absolutely harmful. It is legitimate to hold such a view. It just seems unscientific to approach a study with it, and then to design the setup so that the chance of a fitting desired result remains as high as possible. Ideologies Collide It is not easy to separate genuine AI insights from studies that trivialize and weaken well-founded AI criticism. The same goes for the opposing, AI-enthusiastic narratives, because the pro-AI side works against it with billions in resources. Ideologies collide, fed by egos, PR strategies, moral posturing, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Doomsday marketing makes the search even harder: AI companies can profit from warnings about the dangers of AI, whether through the notoriety of apocalypse narratives or because, in some target groups, danger translates into power. Some seemingly negative findings are therefore quite welcome in the AI industry. If you try to get at the findings presumably less influenced by interest groups, the picture in education seems relatively clear: AI can improve educational outcomes when the right AI is used the right way, namely pedagogically. Simply dumping an AI chatbot into a classroom, by contrast, accomplishes little. Huge surprise. But something else is also obvious: whether they are allowed to or not, kids use AI for school, which is why the controlled integration of AI tools into education is, in the medium term, entirely without alternative. In the world of work, the landscape of findings is more complex and requires more differentiation. A series of serious studies points to an AI effect that suits neither the alarmists, regulation fetishists, and AI opponents, nor the trillion-dollar corporations with their armada of paid scientists, PR professionals, and ecosystems: working with AI helps the inexperienced (at least for now) considerably more than it helps the pros, in certain fields of work, and provided they know how to use it correctly. Missing Domain Knowledge Among the experienced, the professionals, and the high flyers, by contrast, despite frequent time savings, partially negative effects and new problems are emerging. Take the jagged frontier problem: AI solves task A brilliantly and fails completely at task B, even though both look similar even to professionals. Or the verification-cost problem, in which AI’s greater productivity gets eaten up by the enormous effort of checking its output. Or the illusion of competence, because AI makes new domains seem easily penetrable, until you painfully discover that deep domain knowledge is missing. Taken as a whole, the effects of working with AI do lean positive. But the promise that AI works as a turbocharger for everyone and boosts practically everything simply refuses to materialize. The AI magic the world has been feeling since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022 has so far barely shown up in most companies’ numbers. The consulting firm McKinsey has coined a term for this, the “gen AI paradox,” and believes that work processes and corporate structures would have to be rebuilt quite fundamentally to realize AI’s benefits at scale. Reuters just reported that only 3.3 percent of Microsoft’s customers have subscribed to the AI package Copilot. That may be down to the product; in other areas we continue to see soaring successes and new AI triumphs. But after the first quarter of 2026, disillusionment is the word for all too many AI projects at traditional companies: because the promised revolution of AI agents has so far failed to arrive or been postponed, and because of the leveling effect that many of the studies cited here suggest. Against Inequality The societal effects, on the other hand, appear rather encouraging. Many previous technologies operated on the Matthew principle, named for the Gospel verse about giving to those who already have: they tended to reward the more competent and more privileged. AI, however, seems more often to have an equalizing effect once a threshold of access and education is crossed. Some anecdotal insights point in this direction, for example, how an unemployed man in Leipzig successfully defended himself in court in 2025 against fraud accusations from Germany’s federal employment agency — without a lawyer, armed only with ChatGPT. The AI made mistakes and cited invented court rulings, but in the end the man walked away unpunished. And a key capability of artificial intelligence is its capacity to learn: set up correctly and fed with data, it can keep getting better. It is a question of time, or more precisely of AI innovations and training data, until even free AI chatbots write better legal briefs than law graduates with perfect exam scores. Whether that will make anyone dumb is something the world’s press will surely inform us of in due time. Subscribe Leave a comment
Vietnam’s biggest company, Vingroup, expands overseas as its home market slows
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