Medicaid is paying millions for salty, fat-laden 'medically tailored' cheeseburgers and sandwiches - STAT (No paywall)

These are among the offerings sold by an Idaho-based company, Homestyle Direct, which is paid millions of dollars each year by taxpayer-funded state Medicaid programs to deliver what the company calls medically tailored meals. The company, which advertises delivering 7.8 million meals annually, has menus catering to customers trying to manage their cancer and diabetes, as well as heart healthy and renal friendly dishes.However, multiple nutrition experts told STAT that many of Homestyle Directs offerings fall far short of what theyd consider medically tailored meals, a class of foods that have been proven to help those suffering from diet-related conditions improve their health and stay out of the hospital. Most also dont appear to meet new voluntary accreditation standards crafted by medically-tailored meal providers.

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Why The Next President Might Be The Worst-Paid In U.S. History - Forbes (No paywall)

Inflation may degrade the commander-in-chief's salary to an all-time low by 2028. But a look at history shows that big swings arent necessarily new.

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Founder Of Korean Gaming Company Becomes Billionaire As Shares Surge On Listing - Forbes (No paywall)

Shift Up shares jumped 18% in their public-trading debut and made its founder and CEO, Kim Hyung-tae, a billionaire.

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Too many Chinese factories are trying to supply the same strategic industries - Fortune Asia (No paywall)

Back in 2017, when he set upZhejiang Huanergy Co., Pan aimed to seize on what he forecast would be a vast needfor super-thin copper foil used in electric-vehicle batteries and electronic circuitry. He was right, and consumption ballooned. Huanergy,as the company is known,suppliesChinese powerhouses like BYD Co. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.The predicament isvisible across green-energymanufacturing, one of the key sectors in Xis effort get ahead of geopolitical rivals. Solar panel producers havebeen engulfed by anoversupply crisisthats pushing companies tohefty lossesand forcing a brutal shakeout. Inbatteries, Chinas capacity is already big enough to feed all of global demand and more.

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Deutsche Bank and HSBC are winning Europe's AI talent war - Fortune Europe (No paywall)

Last years U.S. tech grads had scarcely watched their mortarboards hit the ground before they were being swarmed with job offers from Wall Streets biggest banks. Its fair to say their peers across the Atlantic have taken a more relaxed approach to getting the talent they need to manage the AI boom.Speaking to Fortune at its AI Symposium in June, Evidents Mousavizadeh said U.S. banks made a conscious decision to be AI-first early into the techs big breakthrough. From this flowed the creation of labs, the publishing of research, al flowing from a dedicated AI hiring team.

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How Lonnie G. Bunch III Is Renovating the Nations Attic - The New Yorker (No paywall)

In September, 2016, when the Smithsonian's crown-like National Museum of African American History and Culture (N.M.A.A.H.C.) opened its doors to the public, its founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch III, might easily have rested on his laurelscontent, in his words, to know that he'd succeeded in "making the ancestors smile." Securing Black history a permanent place on the National Mall had once seemed like "A Fool's Errand"the title of his memoir about the experiencean endeavor so fraught with political and racial baggage that its achievement had eluded his predecessors for over a century. He'd spent more than a decade courting donors, lobbying lawmakers, arguing with architects, and crisscrossing the country for a grassroots acquisitions campaign modelled on "Antiques Roadshow." (The collection would come to include everything from James Brown's cape to a segregated train car from the Jim Crow South.) It all culminated in a star-studded celebration, choreographed by Quincy Jones, in which Barack Obama rang a bell from one of the country's oldest Black churches. The joyful mood was transient, but the museum wasn't. Months later, when Bunch gave a tour of N.M.A.A.H.C. to a blithe and bewildered Donald Trump, the "Blacksonian" became a symbol of all the progress that reactionary grievance politics couldn't reverse.With relevance and reinvention has come scrutiny, as the Smithsonian is buffeted by the culture war's gathering winds. The two new museums, which Congress approved in 2020, have been threatened with cancellation by conservative lawmakers, who have framed them as divisive concessions to progressive identity politics. In December, Bunch testified before the Committee on House Administration, and Republicans grilled him on drag events, the alleged racism of an exhibition that discussed whiteness, and even his panda-retention efforts: Was a lust for cute bears leaving the Smithsonian open to malign influence from the C.C.P.? Bunch has shrewdly tacked and jibed between placating the Smithsonian's right-wing critics and pushing the institution forward. But it remains to be seen how long he'll be able to renovate the nation's attic while its representatives are tearing up the house.

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The Euros Are Like Europe, Only Better - The New Yorker (No paywall)

There are two ways of confronting the tensions that have seized hold of Europe in recent days and weeks. Two ways, that is, of trying to understand the fears (genuine or misplaced), and the promises (vacant or smilingly hopeful), that fill the air. Method A is adopted by well-informed and gravely troubled citizens who read the Times and recall, with a pang, that lovely little place near the Pantheon where they first ate carciofi alla romana. These days, they fret about the rightward lurch that was evident in the elections to the European Parliament in early June; about the armfuls of votes that were gathered in by the National Rally, in France, and that have spooked Emmanuel Macron into calling a snap election; about Fidesz, in Hungary; the Brothers of Italy; and the question of whether there is an alternative, in Germany, to the Alternative for Germany; about mass immigration, climate change, farmers protests, and what it all means for the carciofi harvest. Was ever a landmass so plagued, and what on earth is to be done?If those names leave you blank, then you havent been tuned into the UEFA European Football Championshipsin common parlance, the Euroswhich are currently taking place in Germany. And you therefore didnt catch Turkey v. Georgia on June 18th. Poor you. It was hell for leather, and heaven for the nonpartisan observer: a two-way rampage, untarnished by caution, much of it contested in lashing rain, and capped by a curling, long-range strike from Arda Gler. To soccer junkies, he is a known quantity, already employed in the ranks of Real Madrid, but not until now had his skills flourished, with quite such a blast, on the international stage. Give the kid a break. Hes only nineteen. As he stood there in the downpour, a slender figure, drinking in the waves of adulation, his expression was hard to read: pure delight at his own prowess, or the thrill of being allowed to stay up past his bedtime?

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China's Self-Imposed Isolation - The Atlantic (No paywall)

Xi Jinpings policies are cutting off his country from the world, to no ones ultimate benefit.

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White-Collar Work Is Just Meetings Now - The Atlantic (No paywall)

The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.

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The Greatest Climate-Protecting Technology Ever Devised - WIRED (No paywall)

It's about 70 meters tall and 2.6 meters in diameter, Bible says, leaning back to take in the behemoth stretching above him. From way down here on the shady floor of the forest, he has no hope of seeing all the way to the tree's top. But thanks to a 279-foot-high tower that rises above the trees, Bible, who helps manage this site on behalf of the US Forest Service, has had the chance to know this old Doug from above as well as below.From hundreds of feet up, at canopy level, he says, you begin to get a new vision of the complexity of structure that defines an old forest. It looks like a mountain range, Bible says. You've got ridges and peaks and valleys. Singular trees like the big Doug reach high over their neighbors. At around 500 years of age, it isn't the oldest tree in the forest, but a lucky location near a wetland has made it one of the biggest.

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How the Math of Cracks Can Make Planes, Bridges and Dams Safer - Scientific American (No paywall)

Better predictions of how cracks grow can make machines and structures more reliable

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Gen X Faces Higher Cancer Rates Than Any Previous Generation - Scientific American (No paywall)

Researchers are investigating changes in cancer risks among young people as new data predict that rising rates of leading cancers, such as colon cancer, will overtake improvements

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The Life and Untimely Death of a Boeing Whistleblower - Intelligencer (No paywall)

Before he died in March, Mitch Barnett catalogued dangerous flaws in the companys aircraft.

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'The Economy Ruined My Relationship' - The Cut (No paywall)

Your boyfriend may feel as if his only option is to move somewhere cheaper, but hes also choosing to walk away.

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Free medical school tuition unlikely to have a major impact on the U.S. health care system - STAT (No paywall)

Most of Johns Hopkins Universitys medical school students will have free tuition starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, a longtime donor of the university, whose school of public health is named after Michael Bloomberg. The largesse is striking, but, even combined with other recent moves to relieve future doctors of crushing medical debt, the move may not reverberate to bring improvements to the broader health care system, experts say.According to the announcement, part of the gift will go toward increased tuition aid for health care students other than future doctors, such as public health and nursing. For future doctors attending the school, the impact will be more significant. All medical students from households earning under $300,000 a year will qualify for free tuition, and students from households earning less than $175,000 a year can have fees and living expenses paid for. Nearly two-thirds of currently enrolled students will enjoy one or both of these benefits.

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Is Canada Free-Riding on Defense? - Foreign Policy (No paywall)

As leaders from NATO countries gather in Washington this week to mark the security alliances 75th anniversary, a majority of member states are proudly proclaiming how they are spending more than 2 percent of their GDPs on defensea response not only to years of U.S. pressure but also to the reality of Russias ongoing war in Ukraine. One country is facing tough criticism for allocating a relatively small 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense spending: Canada.As leaders from NATO countries gather in Washington this week to mark the security alliances 75th anniversary, a majority of member states are proudly proclaiming how they are spending more than 2 percent of their GDPs on defensea response not only to years of U.S. pressure but also to the reality of Russias ongoing war in Ukraine. One country is facing tough criticism for allocating a relatively small 1.3 percent of its GDP to defense spending: Canada.

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What Should Britain's Role in the World Be Now? - Foreign Policy (No paywall)

When Labour left government 14 years ago, the global foreign-policy landscape reflected the strong steer of New Labours liberal interventionist ethical foreign policy. The last Labour government had embraced a global role for Britain, one that was supposedly driven by moral idealism. While the United States was the clear economic winner of the Cold War, in the pre-9/11 world order, Tony Blairs government had positioned the country as the globes moral compass. In a televised speech seeking support for Britain and NATOs intervention in Kosovo, Blair argued, We are doing what is right, for Britain, for Europe, for a world that must know that barbarity cannot be allowed to defeat justice. In negotiations in Northern Ireland, in interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, as well as in framing discussions among the G-7 leaders about aid and development policies, New Labour positioned itself as the conscience of globalization. Blair believed that the inevitability of globalization demands a parallel globalization of our best ethical values.When Labour left government 14 years ago, the global foreign-policy landscape reflected the strong steer of New Labours liberal interventionist ethical foreign policy. The last Labour government had embraced a global role for Britain, one that was supposedly driven by moral idealism. While the United States was the clear economic winner of the Cold War, in the pre-9/11 world order, Tony Blairs government had positioned the country as the globes moral compass. In a televised speech seeking support for Britain and NATOs intervention in Kosovo, Blair argued, We are doing what is right, for Britain, for Europe, for a world that must know that barbarity cannot be allowed to defeat justice. In negotiations in Northern Ireland, in interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, as well as in framing discussions among the G-7 leaders about aid and development policies, New Labour positioned itself as the conscience of globalization. Blair believed that the inevitability of globalization demands a parallel globalization of our best ethical values.

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Trump-Proofing Europe - Foreign Affairs (No paywall)

As Russias war in Ukraine enters its third year, Europe has performed far better than expected. For decades after World War II, it counted on the United States to be the ultimate guarantor of its security. The continent relied on Washington to guide NATO policy, provide nuclear deterrence, and forge consensus among European countries on controversial questions such as how to resolve the 200912 European debt crisis. Europe continued to take the U.S. security umbrella for granted after the Cold War ended, slashing defense spending, failing to stop the Bosnian genocide in the early 1990s, and refusing to play a political role in resolving the crisis in Syria, even as it remained the regions biggest provider of humanitarian aid. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many anticipated that Europeans might balk at helping Kyiv. The last time Russian President Vladimir Putin marched over Ukrainian bordersannexing Crimea in 2014Europe responded with weak sanctions and halfhearted attempts at diplomatic compromise while increasing its dependence on Russian gas.But over the last few years, the world has seen a glimpse of a stronger Europe. European countries have sustained a united front in resisting Russias aggression, hosting millions of refugees, coordinating painful decoupling from Russian gas supplies, imposing strong economic sanctions and export restrictions on Russia, training Ukrainian soldiers, and inviting Ukraine to join the European Union. The $53 billion EU aid package to Ukraine that was slated for approval in February set Europes combined economic and military assistance to Kyiv, including its multiyear commitments, at double the amount the United States is providing. For the first time since 2007, the EU has even gathered the confidence to substantially enlarge itself. In December 2023, it extended candidate status to Georgia and launched accession talks with Moldova and Ukraine.

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NATO Cannot Survive Without America - Foreign Affairs (No paywall)

Last month, NATO, the worlds most successful military alliance, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Some fear that it may have been its last anniversary with the United States playing a leading role. Former U.S. President Donald Trump still views the alliance as obsolete. If reelected, he says he would encourage Russian leaders to do whatever the hell they want to member states that do not pay what he considers to be enough for defense. A second Trump presidency could have dire implications for European security.Trumps defenders argue that he is bluffing to pressure Europe into spending more on defense. But former U.S. officials who worked closely with Trump on NATO during his tenure, including one of us (Hooker), are convinced he will withdraw from the alliance if he is reelected. Trump hugely resents the more moderate advisers who kept him in check during his first term. If he reaches the White House in 2025, the guardrails will be off.

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Epidurals may do more than relieve pain--they could save lives - National Geographic Premium (No paywall)

With childbirth being a leading cause of death in many areas of the world, expectant mothers have long tried to mitigate the fear and discomfort associated with having a baby. Historically, thats meant using all manner ofpain-relief interventions including hypnosis, opium, counterpressure, water immersion, and herbal remedies such as raspberry leaf and black cohosh.Though pain relief is the primary reason most women choose an epidural, new research from scientists at the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol shows that having an epidural also lowers the risk of serious complications in the weeks following childbirthby as much as 35 percent.

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Trouble sleeping on planes? These science-backed tips will help you snooze while flying - National Geographic (No paywall)

Rick Steves, the indomitable travel writer and guide, described his travel routine in an email: I dress warm and loose for flights and cuddle up with my sweater and scarf. Next, I slip on my noise-canceling headphones, which both mute the rumble of the engines and the mind-numbing chatter of people around me."The physical limitations of sleeping are joined by a host of other in-flight demons. The humidity in the passenger cabin is low and the resulting dry air can irritate the eyes and nose. Air pressure is also lower, which can trigger headaches and nausea, neither conducive for nodding off. Some people can experience the unsettling feeling of altitude sickness when the plane hits 4,500 feet, about 10 minutes into the flight.

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Why Do Some People Always Seem To Get Lost? - Discover Magazine (No paywall)

Like many of the researchers who study how people find their way from place to place, David Uttal is a poor navigator. When I was 13 years old, I got lost on a Boy Scout hike, and I was lost for two and a half days, recalls the Northwestern University cognitive scientist. And hes still bad at finding his way around.The world is full of people like Uttal and their opposites, the folks who always seem to know exactly where they are and how to get where they want to go. Scientists sometimes measure navigational ability by asking someone to point toward an out-of-sight location or, more challenging, to imagine they are someplace else and point in the direction of a third location and its immediately obvious that some people are better at it than others.

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Mapped: Population Density of Brazil - Visual Capitalist (No paywall)

Brazil is ranked seventh in the world with a total population of 217 million people. This map shows the population density of Brazil.

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Visualizing 170 Years of Cumulative GHG Emissions - Visual Capitalist (No paywall)

From this graphic, we can identify the three largest regional emitters as Europe & Central Asia, East Asia & Pacific, and North America. Together, they account for 79% of global cumulative GHG emissions since 1850. This is the equivalent of 2.06 million gigatons, or 2,060,000,000,000,000 metric tons of COe.

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How Sea Creatures Have Adapted To Life In Sunken World War II Vessels - Discover Magazine (No paywall)

In March of 1942, the U.S. was only a few months into the Second World War. Already, German submarines lurked near the Atlantic coast, hunting for supply freighters and battleships. Late in the month, a U-71 detected the Dixie Arrow, an oil tanker carrying more than 86,000 barrels of crude oil from Texas to New Jersey.More than three million known shipwrecks have found their way to the bottom of the worlds waterways. Although ships have been sinking for thousands of years, scientific inquiry into these wrecks is more recent. In the 1920s, British scientist Lilian Lyle investigated a wreck in Scapa Flow (a body of water between the Orkney Islands in Scotland) and launched the academic study of sunken ships.

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This Entrepreneur Had a Major Stroke at 39. While She Recovered, Her Business Didn't Miss a Beat. Here's How

For about five minutes last January, Jenny Bristow couldn't speak, and the 39-year-old lost control of her left hand while playing disc golf on a trip toArizona with her husband. At first, he thought she was joking around, but then the left side of her body went numb, and the left side of her face drooped.Bristow had suffered a major ischemic stroke that day. She'd later learn that over the past two decades, she'd had more than 12 mini-strokes. In the six months that followed, the CEO saw things unravel--she had another mini-stroke, and then underwent surgery to fix a hole in her heart that her doctors thought might have been the cause. She continued to suffer debilitating stroke-induced migraines and memory problems that prevented her from working for more than an hour a day.

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What Separates Good Leaders from Bad Managers Boils Down to 5 Simple Choices

In every workplace, managersplay a crucial role in shaping the environment and influencing the success of their teams. However, not all managers are leaders, and even if they think they are, not all leaders are created equal.There's a distinct difference between a good leader who inspires and motivates and a bad manager (the "boss") who demoralizes and creates a toxic atmosphere. Let's delve into the choices thatset them apart:

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Venture Capital Just Hit 'Quality Over Quantity' Mode. Here's What That Means for New Founders

Though VC firms are investing more dollars compared to a year ago, investors are taking a"quality over quantity" approach, backing only companies with demonstrably strong performance, according to a second-quarter report from the research firm PitchBook. The value of U.S. VC investmentsduring the second quarter of 2024 reached $55.6 billion, up from $35.4 billion during Q2 2023. Meanwhile, the number of dealsfellfrom 3,670 to 3,108, though the actual count may ultimately turn out to be well over 4,000, the firm estimates, once new datacomes to light."The peak of the COVID-19 pandemic saw unprecedented levels of investment in a variety of technologies such as early-stage blockchain, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, AI, and others," Bobby Franklin, chief executive of the National Venture Capital Association trade group, wrote in thereport. "The initial flood of investment into these technologies has largely abated, and now investors are focused on supporting their most promising companies to maturity amid a historically challenging exit environment."

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Goals Are Worth Absolutely Nothing If You're Not Communicating Them

What good is a goal if no one knows what it is? If you want a goal to be achieved as quickly and successfully as possible, you're going to have to tell other people what it is so they can help you get there. Sadly, many leaders fail to do just that.As an example, you should attempt not only to communicate your organization's goals but also its vision--that far-off horizon that every member of your organization is actually working toward. Communicate this as often as you possibly can, and everywhere you possibly can, in every direction (to your suppliers, your clients, your employees, and so on).

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An Ex-Facebook VP Warned Against Using This Common 3-Word Phrase at Work. I Don't Agree.

Imagine the following scenario: You're sitting in a meeting discussing a problem, and a member of your team expresses a strong opinion. Your opinion is equally strong, but onthe opposite end of the spectrum."If not, then'I don't agree'may make the other person instinctively feel the need to defend their idea," Zhuo, who went on to cofound data analytics company Sundial,goes on to explain. "And defense mode makes it harder to be open to new suggestions."

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Economists Aren't Great at Forecasting Inflation

While policymakers and prediction markets are banking on cooler inflation, history suggests we have more uncertainty to come, as far as forecasts. Economists have long had trouble making accurate inflation calls, and today's data dump looks as up in the air as ever.As for the latest batch of estimates, the 13 CPI predictions tracked by FactSet range from 2.7 percent to 3.50 percent, for a total spread of 80 basis points. That's higher than the five-year average spread of 49 basis points.

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Unionization on the Table for Uber, Lyft Drivers in Massachusetts Ballot Measure

April Verrett, president of the Service Employees International Union, said the tens of thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers working in Massachusetts deserve the collective bargaining benefits of unions.Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who secured the settlement--which included what she described as "an unprecedented package of minimum wage, benefits and protections"--is also backing the ballot question.

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California Fast Food Workers See Reduced Hours after Minimum Wage Hits $20

Lawrence Cheng, whose family owns seven Wendy's locations south of Los Angeles, took orders at the register and emptied steaming hot baskets of French fries and chicken nuggets, salting them with a flourish--typical shift activities.Cheng used to have nearly a dozen employees on the afternoon shift at his Fountain Valley location in Orange County. Now he only schedules seven for each shift as he scrambles to absorb a dramatic jump in labor costs after a new California law boosted the hourly wage for fast food workers on April 1 from $16 to $20 an hour.

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Dangerous DoorDash Drivers to Be Removed from Platform

In a letter sent in Juneto DoorDash and other food delivery companies, Boston officials said they were seeing an increase in the unlawful and dangerous operation of motorcycles, mopeds and motorized scooters by delivery workers.San Francisco-based DoorDash said it has created a dedicated point of contact for the Boston Police Department to make it faster and easier to process requests for drivers' records. The company said it would also consider removing drivers from the platform if police report they have broken traffic laws.

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Will AI Help or Hurt Sustainability? Yes | Andrew Winston

The proverbial ship of artificial intelligence is moving ahead at warp speed, icebergs and societal risks be damned. The pace of change in what it can do is staggering. Breathless predictions say AI will add trillions of dollars to the economy through massive cost savings and entirely new products and markets. While the capabilities of AI, along with both excitement and fear, are exploding, its a good time to ask what AI might mean for the worlds serious challenges (climate change, inequality, threats to democracy, and more). Will it help us or hinder us or both? What does AI mean for the quest for a more regenerative and net-positive world? This could obviously be a book-length discussion, but let me focus on four big categories of impact AIs upside for helping on climate change and sustainability, its rising energy demands, the dangers of AI-enhanced misinformation, and its impact on peoples livelihoods and provide a snapshot of where we are right now.

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A Yearlong NASA Mars Simulation Revealed the Biggest Obstacle to Colonizing the Red Planet

Four volunteers sacrificed a year of their lives to investigate how a commonly-overlooked item found in our homes will be critical to surviving on Mars. They learned that on Mars, the lettuce that gets forgotten in our refrigerators would be a treasure. On Saturday, the 378-day Mars analog mission Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) 1 came to an end. Its four crew members lived inside a 1,700 square foot habitat to mimic what life on Mars might be like. They communicated to the outside world with 22-minute delays, like those regularly occurring between NASA and its spacecraft at the Red Planet. They endured isolation from their loved ones. They also grew and harvested their own vegetables.

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'The Acolyte' Just Flubbed a Pivotal Twist That 'The Last Jedi' Nailed

Memory is a funny thing. Science tells us that each time you remember an event from your life, you actually change the story ever so slightly without even realizing it. Retell the same moment from your past too many times and you may forget how it really happened.Plenty of movies and TV shows explore the weird nature of memories too, showing us overlapping flashbacks of the same event that disagree or outright contradict each other. The most well-known example of this is Rashomon, the Japanese movie from 1950 in which four witnesses share four different accounts of the same murder. But over the years, weve also seen the Rashomon effect used in various Star Wars stories, with mixed results.

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Hands-On With Samsung's Galaxy Ring: Is It an Oura Killer?

When Samsung surprise-announced the Galaxy Ring at the end of its Unpacked event in January for the launch of the Galaxy S24 series phones, it left everyone with tons of unanswered questions. Now, we know all of the official details.At its Unpacked event in Paris, alongside new foldables (Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6), smartwatches (Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7), and wireless earbuds (Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro), Samsung finally formally took the wraps off the Galaxy Ring its first smart ring in full, and shared features, release date information, and pricing.

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The Galaxy Watch Ultra Is Samsung's Answer to the Apple Watch Ultra

Its pretty obvious where Samsung got its inspiration, but how does it actually compare to Apples rugged smartwatch?Four years ago, Samsung gave its flagship Galaxy S series smartphones the Ultra treatment with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Today, at Unpacked in Paris, Samsungs smartwatch is leveling up with the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Samsung also announced the Galaxy Watch 7, but thats more of an annual spec bump than a new class of smartwatch to covet.

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Hands-On With Samsung's More Durable Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 Foldable Phones

As widely expected, Samsung used its Unpacked event in Paris to announce a tsunami of new Galaxy products. Chief among them were two new foldable phones: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.The sixth-generation Samsung foldables, available in book-style Fold and clamshell-style Flip, are yet again iterations of what came before. While it may seem like Samsung has become complacent as competitors release foldables that are thinner, lighter, and have more desirable dimensions, the Korean tech giant has made several upgrades and additions that I think deserve a closer look.

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Hands-On With Samsung's Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro That Look Like AirPods

Among all of the new products Samsung announced at Unpacked in Paris, Samsungs new Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 ($179.99) and Buds 3 Pro ($249.99) might be the most divisive... because of how much they look like AirPods.Everybody and I do mean everybody I spoke to who got a first look at Samsungs redesigned wireless earbuds said the obvious: the Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro look like AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro 2, respectively.

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'The Acolyte' Just Rebooted a Very Obscure Dark Side Power

The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to powers some might consider unnatural, and also some powers no one has ever used in Star Wars before. In The Acolyte Episode 7, Choice, the Witches of Brendok manage to possess the bodies of two Jedi. But is this a new Force power, or something Star Wars has already shown us?In terms of onscreen canon, the Force possession we see in The Acolyte is fairly new. And even if there are a few precedents, the scope of this power is a game-changer not just for the Jedi in The Acolyte, but pretty much all of Star Wars, from the distant past to the unknown future. Spoilers ahead.

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'The Acolyte' Just Sneakily Set Up a Major Finale Twist

The Acolyte Episode 7 finally gave viewers the real version of what went down at Brendok, not just what Osha and Mae remember. Sol and his Jedi colleagues commit a series of mistakes that leave Mae to fend for herself, Osha adopted by the Jedi, and the entire Brendok coven dead.Among all the excitement, we learn that Osha and Mae arent just twins, but have identical Force symbionts. Essentially, theyre one consciousness split into two beings. This reveal is more than a testament to their sisterly connection; it suggests that their true origin is a sinister one.

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Xbox Game Pass Has Officially Jumped the Shark

The best deal in gaming has officially jumped the shark, as Xbox announced yet another wave of convoluted changes to its stagnant subscription service. Xbox Game Pass will get a significant price increase as well as changes to whats included in each of its tiers, Microsoft announced on July 9. For starters, Game Pass Ultimate, the premium tier that includes games on console and PC, access to EA Play, cloud streaming, and playable first-party Xbox games on release day, is going from $17 to $20 per month.

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After '12 Monkeys,' Aaron Stanford Is Ready To Take On Another Bruce Willis Role

The X2 and 12 Monkeys veteran reflects on why he plays such heavy characters in science fiction.When Marvel fans go to see Deadpool & Wolverine this summer, old-school X-Men fans will be delighted to see the return of Aaron Standford as the infamous mutant known as Pyro. But the X2 actors career is more varied and unique than his Marvel role suggests. In fact, Stanford has traveled the multiverse of various sci-fi franchises and has emerged as something of a journeyman throughout it all.

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7 Big WearOS 5 Features That Make the Galaxy Watch Ultra a Real Apple Watch Rival

Google already teased its Wear OS 5 features earlier this year, but now, with the unveiling of Samsungs Galaxy Watch Ultra, we have a more complete idea of what the upcoming OS will look like.Its been a whole year since Wear OS 4 also debuted with the Galaxy Watch 6, and Google has clearly been working on some big changes, including better battery life, more detailed running metrics, and even a watch face that shows the weather.

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How 'Maxxxine' Brings Ti West and Mia Goth's X Universe Full Circle

Ti West, Mia Goth, and Kevin Bacon speak about the making of the final film in the X trilogy.For the director, who hadnt made a horror movie in nearly 10 years when he set out to write X, a 1970s-set slasher about amateur adult filmmakers facing off against murderous octogenarians on a decrepit farm in rural Texas, the idea that he was setting in motion an entire franchise of A24-produced films was too ambitious to entertain.

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The Most Mysterious New Star Wars Movie Could Repeat a Tired Marvel Trope

The Marvel and Star Wars universes are two sides of the same coin. Both are massive sci-fi franchises owned by Disney, both rely on interconnected storytelling across films and Disney+ TV shows, both are major tentpoles of the blockbuster scene, and the Venn diagram of their respective fandoms has a large overlap.But while their output may be similar, the franchises themselves are quite different. Space operas and superhero stories can share the same DNA, but what works in The Outer Rim wont work in Stark Tower. Despite that, a new rumor claims that Star Wars will be borrowing a major talent from Marvel. If true, it may be the wrong move.

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7 New AI Features Samsung Galaxy Fans Need to Know About

Samsungs Unpacked event brought the grand reveal of the latest Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 foldables, and while it mostly played it safe on the hardware front, it did introduce some impressive AI features to make the experience feel fresh.Some of the Galaxy AI features build upon what was first introduced with the earlier Unpacked event this year that debuted the Galaxy S24 models, but some tap even further into generative AI to add more image creation, translation, and more. Here are seven of the must-know AI features that are coming to Samsungs latest foldables.

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Samsung's Galaxy Ring Is the Apple Watch Replacement I Didn't Know I Needed

Im not a smartwatch guy. Thats not a knock on the Apple Watch or its ilk, or anyone who wears one. But for me, there are (to put things in divorce terms) some irreconcilable differences.But Im a modern man, after all, and just because smartwatches and I dont vibe on the level needed to tie the knot doesnt mean they dont do lots of things that I like. If only I a definitive hater could cherry-pick the stuff that I do like and leave the rest behind. If only there was...

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