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WORCESTER — The opening day of the 12th Annual Gompei Invitational saw WPI surge to the top of the team standings behind a win from junior Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD) and 15 top-five finishes across both sessions at the Sports and Recreation Center.
The Engineers lead the combined standings with 2,483 points, followed by Bentley (1,432), Sacred Heart (1,251), Saint Peter’s (1,093.5), Springfield (847.5), Brandeis (812), Central Connecticut (801), Merrimack (683) and Clark (387).
Opening the event with the Mixed 200 Yard Medley Relay, WPI earned two top-five finishes, with the A relay of senior Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA), freshman Kyle Sundberg (East Northport, NY), sophomore Sarah Kang (Richmond, VA) and freshman Mallory LaPointe (Saint Johns, FL) placing third in 1:42.23. The B relay of sophomore Angad Ahluwalia (Attleboro, MA), freshman Luke Vipond (Mahtomedi, MN), senior Rachel Tsang (Acton, MA) and junior Katrina Waite (Falmouth, ME) followed, taking fifth in 1:44.16.
The morning session also featured the Synchronized Diving event, where WPI nabbed a runner-up finish. Sophomore Tom Fitzgerald (East Longmeadow, MA) and freshman Aaron Lakin (Hamden, CT) combined for second place, giving the Engineers a solid team points boost.
In the evening session, the Women’s 200 Medley Relay saw WPI’s top finish come from the A relay of sophomore Maria Korneva (Boylston, MA), freshman Audrey Cook (Wakefield, MA), Kang and LaPointe, which placed fifth in 1:48.88.
The Men’s 200 Medley Relay recorded a second-place finish in 1:33.24, delivered by the A relay of Ahluwalia, Sundberg, junior Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD) and junior Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA). WPI also secured a top-five finish from its B squad, as the quartet of Smith, Vipond, junior Lucas Pralle (Wayland, MA) and sophomore Angelo Reade (Newburgh, NY) combined for a 1:35.18 performance to take fourth overall.
WPI placed one swimmer inside the top 10 of the Women’s 200 IM, with LaPointe finishing tenth in 2:14.03. In the Men’s 200 IM, Smith finished third in 1:55.94 to lead a strong trio of Engineers. Freshman Deion Chung (Honolulu, HI) followed in sixth (1:56.95) and sophomore Tyson Elliott (Portland, OR) was seventh (1:57.38).
In the Men’s 50 Free, Doubek won the event in 21.03, nearly four tenths ahead of the runner-up finisher. Ahluwalia finished fourth (21.44), while Schlessman and Reade tied for seventh (21.61).
Sophomore Kate Creusere (Las Cruces, NM) earned WPI’s top result in the Women’s 500 Free with a ninth-place finish in 5:18.70. In the Men’s 500 Free, freshman Lucas Brown (Viera, FL) placed fourth (4:43.74), Chung ninth (4:52.43) and senior Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT) tenth (4:56.67).
In the Women’s 200 Breast, freshman Jasmine Lam (Dracut, MA) placed ninth (2:28.28) and Cook tenth (2:28.65). In the Men’s 200 Breast, WPI placed five swimmers in the top 10: Vipond was third (2:06.88), Elliott fourth (2:07.23), sophomore Mohammad Eissa (Cairo, Egypt) fifth (2:07.62), Sundberg sixth (2:08.40) and junior Brian Hall (Westford, MA) ninth (2:09.51).
Kang finished third in the Women’s 100 Fly with a time of 57.25, while in the Men’s 100 Fly, Doubek finished second in 50.50, to continue his fantastic meet. Also on the men’s side, Smith was third (51.54) and Pralle, sixth (52.20).
WPI’s highest placement in the Women’s 800 Free Relay came from the A group of Kang, Creusere, sophomore Allie Marvell (Nashua, NH) and LaPointe, which finished eighth in 8:11.11.
WPI is back in action in its home pool as the Gompei Invitational resumes Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 9am, followed by diving and evening finals at 6pm.
Courtesy Sacred Heart Athletics
WORCESTER, MASS — The Sacred Heart women’s swimming and diving team opened the Gompei Invitational in impressive fashion, winning five of seven events on the first day of competition.
The Pioneers set the tone early in the 800 Free Relay, where Maeve English, Charlotte Kaduson, Brooke Labarge, and Laura DeGennaro powered SHU to a commanding victory. Maddie Goret delivered one of the standout performances of the day, winning the 200 Breast and finishing top-three in the 200 IM. Her times also rewrote the program record book — she now ranks second all-time in the 200 Breast (2:20.04) and third all-time in the 200 IM (2:07.17).
Maggie Holland added to the surge with a milestone day of her own, taking second all-time in the 200 IM (2:06.14) and third all-time in the 200 Breast (2:22.02), along with winning the 200 IM. Kaduson continued her strong meet by moving up to fourth all-time in the 500 Free (5:03.41) while also claiming second place in the event.
Sophia Velleco made history with a record-breaking swim in the 100 Fly, setting a new school mark at 55.80. She also picked up event wins in both the 100 and the 500 Fly. Emma Davis rounded out the top performers with a runner-up finish in the 50 Free.
Sacred Heart returns to the pool tomorrow, December 6, for Day Two of the Gompei Invitational at WPI.
China’s TCab Tech has successfully completed transition flight tests for its full-scale E20 eVTOL demonstrator, a major milestone that proves its aircraft can handle the most complex part of its flight envelope.
That’s a big win for the Shanghai-based air taxi outfit, which has been working its way up to these trials since the transition flight tests of its sub-scale prototype back in 2022. It pulled off its first crewed flight a couple of months ago with its CEO on board, but stayed in hover mode for those tests.
The company notes it’s carried out some 1,000 flight tests since 2021 for various versions of its its six-rotor eVTOL air taxi, which uses a unique blend of different VTOL concepts in its propulsion system.
Lift-and-cruise designs like the one used by Autoflight use separate, statically mounted propellers for the vertical lift and horizontal cruise modes of flight. Vectored thrust systems as seen on the Joby S4 mount their rotors on nascelles that tilt 90 degrees to direct thrust anywhere between horizontal and vertical.
TCab has a bet each way, using four tilting propellers as well as two coaxial stacks of fixed vertical lift props like you’d see on a lift-and-cruise. In fact, the outer tilting props have a chunk of wing on the end too, so there’s a dash of tilt-wing thrown into the pot too.
Transition flights, in which the aircraft shifts from hovering vertically like a helicopter to flying forward horizontally like a conventional airplane, are among the most critical phases of eVTOL flight, because the aircraft has to smoothly change how it generates lift, building forward airspeed until the wings start generating enough lift for efficient cruise flight.
The challenge is maintaining stable control during this shift. The aircraft needs to coordinate multiple systems to pull this off, including tilting rotors or the entire aircraft body, adjusting power to different motors, and managing some complex aerodynamic forces as they change.
The full-size E20 is an impressive flying machine with plenty of redundancy built in, in the form of four battery packs and six motors and rotors. Designed to comfortably seat four passengers and a pilot in luxury, it features gull-wing doors, a separate luggage compartment, 270-degree panoramic glass, a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h), and a range of 125 miles (200 km). TCab says its 800-Volt fast-charging system will juice the E20’s batteries up from 20% to 85% in just 20 minutes, allowing for quick turnarounds in between flights.
The E20 comfortably seats four passengers and a pilot, and has room for your luggage too
TCab Tech
Once certified, TCab will join a bustling throng of competitors looking to commercialize eVTOL air taxi services in China. It’ll go up against the likes of eHang, which already has a pilotless commuter aircraft certified and taking paid passengers. PBS noted that eHang is in the process of building landing sites in dozens of cities across the country, starting out mainly with aerial sightseeing programs.
The E20 is designed to reduce commute times between airports and business hubs in major cities
TCab Tech
For its part, TCab just raised US$42.4 million in its seventh funding round to further its certification and commercial deployment of the E20 in the next couple of years.
With less than six months to go until the FIFA World Cup 2026, the schedule for the 39-day tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States has been released.
Widely considered the most famous sporting event in the world, the 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup will be its biggest ever, with 48 nations participating instead of the usual 32 and with 104 matches to be played in the 16 venues across the three host nations.
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Argentina will look to defend the trophy they lifted under their iconic captain, Lionel Messi, at Qatar 2022, while Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan will make their debut at the finals.
The tournament will begin in Mexico and wrap up in the US.
Here’s everything you need to know about its teams, groups, format and schedule.
What are the groups for the FIFA World Cup 2026?
Group A:
Mexico
South Korea
South Africa
Denmark/Macedonia/Czechia/Ireland
Group B:
Canada
Switzerland
Qatar
Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales/Bosnia
Group C:
Brazil
Morocco
Scotland
Haiti
Group D:
USA
Australia
Paraguay
Turkiye/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo
Group E:
Germany
Ecuador
Ivory Coast
Curacao
Group F:
Netherlands
Japan
Tunisia
Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania
Group G:
Belgium
Iran
Egypt
New Zealand
Group H:
Spain
Uruguay
Saudi Arabia
Cape Verde
Group I:
France
Senegal
Norway
Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname
Group J:
Argentina
Austria
Algeria
Jordan
Group K:
Portugal
Colombia
Uzbekistan
DRC/Jamaica/New Caledonia
Group L:
England
Croatia
Panama
Ghana
When and where is the opening match of FIFA World Cup 2026?
The tournament will open on June 11 at 3pm (21:00 GMT) at the Mexico City Stadium in Mexico.
When and where is the final of FIFA World Cup 2026?
The MetLife Stadium, which will be called the New York New Jersey Stadium during the tournament, will host the final on July 19 at 3pm (20:00 GMT).
Why has FIFA changed the names of the stadiums hosting World Cup matches?
In a move to restrict ambush marketing for brands not associated with FIFA, the governing body has changed stadium names for all venues to match with the host city.
Therefore, the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey has been rebranded as the New York New Jersey Stadium and the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has been renamed the Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament.
What’s the format of the FIFA World Cup 2026?
The tournament will be made up of one group-stage round and four knockout rounds before the final.
Unlike previous editions, the knockouts will begin with the round of 32, followed by the round of 16, the four quarterfinals and two semifinals.
The stage-wise breakdown of the tournament’s schedule is:
Group stage: June 11 to June 27
Round of 32: June 28 to July 3
Round of 16: July 4-7
Quarterfinals: July 9-11
Semifinals: July 14-15
Bronze medal match: July 18
Final: July 19
What’s the full match schedule of the World Cup?
Group stage
Thursday, June 11
Mexico vs South Africa at 3pm (21:00 GMT) – Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
South Korea vs TDB at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Friday) – Estadio Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Friday, June 12
Canada vs TBD at 3pm (20:00 GMT) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
USA vs Paraguay at 9pm (05:00 GMT on Saturday) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Saturday, June 13
Qatar vs Switzerland at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Brazil vs Morocco at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Haiti vs Scotland at 9pm (02:00 GMT on Sunday) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Australia vs TBD at midnight (08:00 GMT on Sunday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Sunday, June 14
Germany vs Curacao at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
Netherlands vs Japan at 4pm (22:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Ivory Coast vs Ecuador at 7pm (00:00 GMT on Monday) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
TBD vs Tunisia at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Monday) – Estadio Monterrey, Guadalupe, Mexico
Monday, June 15
Spain vs Cape Verde at 12pm (17:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Belgium vs Egypt at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
Iran vs New Zealand at 9pm (05:00 GMT on Tuesday) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Tuesday, June 16
France vs Senegal at 3pm (20:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
TBD vs Norway at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Argentina vs Algeria at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Wednesday) – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US
Austria vs Jordan at midnight (08:00 GMT on Wednesday) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Wednesday, June 17
Portugal vs TBD at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
England vs Croatia at 4pm (22:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Ghana vs Panama at 7pm (00:00 GMT on Thursday) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
Uzbekistan vs Colombia at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Thursday) – Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
Thursday, June 18
TBD vs South Africa at 12pm (17:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Switzerland vs TBD at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Canada vs Qatar at 6pm (02:00 GMT on Friday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Mexico vs South Korea at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Friday) – Estadio Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Friday, June 19
Scotland vs Morocco at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
USA vs Australia at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Seattle Stadium, Seattle, US
Brazil vs Haiti at 9pm (02:00 GMT on Saturday) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
TBD vs Paraguay at midnight (08:00 GMT on Saturday) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Saturday, June 20
Netherlands vs TBD at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
Germany vs Ivory Coast at 4pm (21:00 GMT) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
Ecuador vs Curacao at 8pm (04:00 GMT on Sunday) – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US,
Tunisia vs Japan at midnight (06:00 GMT on Sunday) – Estadio Monterrey, Guadalupe, Mexico
Sunday, June 21
Spain vs Saudi Arabia at 12pm (17:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Belgium vs Iran at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Uruguay vs Cape Verde at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
New Zealand vs Egypt at 9pm (05:00 GMT on Monday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Monday, June 22
Argentina vs Austria at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
France vs TBD at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
Norway vs Senegal at 8pm (01:00 GMT on Tuesday) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Jordan vs Algeria at 11pm (07:00 GMT on Tuesday) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Tuesday, June 23
Portugal vs Uzbekistan at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
England vs Ghana at 4pm (21:00 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Panama vs Croatia at 7pm (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
Colombia vs TBD at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Wednesday) – Estadio Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Wednesday, June 24
Switzerland vs Canada at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
TBD vs Qatar at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Seattle Stadium, Seattle, US
Scotland vs Brazil at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
Morocco vs Haiti at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
TBD vs Mexico at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Thursday) – Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
South Africa vs South Korea at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Thursday) – Estadio Monterrey, Guadalupe, Mexico
Thursday, June 25
Ecuador vs Germany at 4pm (21:00 GMT)– New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Curacao vs Ivory Coast at 4pm (21:00 GMT) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
Japan vs TBD at 7pm (01:00 GMT on Friday) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Tunisia vs Netherlands at 7pm (01:00 GMT on Friday – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US,
TBD vs USA at 10pm (06:00 GMT on Friday) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Paraguay vs Australia at 10pm (06:00 GMT on Friday) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Friday, June 26
Norway vs France at 3pm (20:00 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Senegal vs TDB 3pm at (20:00 GMT) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia at 8pm (02:00 GMT on Saturday) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
Uruguay vs Spain at 8pm (02:00 GMT on Saturday) – Estadio Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Egypt vs Iran at 11pm (07:00 GMT on Saturday) – Seattle Stadium, Seattle, US
New Zealand vs Belgium at 11pm (07:00 GMT on Saturday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Saturday, June 27
Panama vs England at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Croatia vs Ghana at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
Colombia vs Portugal at 7:30pm (02:30 GMT on Sunday) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
TBD vs Uzbekistan at 7:30pm (02:30 GMT on Sunday) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Algeria vs Austria at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Sunday) – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US,
Jordan vs Argentina at 10pm (04:00 GMT on Sunday) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Knockout stage
Sunday, June 28
Round of 32 match at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Monday, June 29
Round of 32 match at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
Round of 32 match at 4:30pm (22:30 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Round of 32 match at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Tuesday) – Estadio Monterrey, Guadalupe, Mexico
Tuesday, June 30
Round of 32 match at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Round of 32 match at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Round of 32 match at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Wednesday) – Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
Wednesday, July 1
Round of 32 match at 12pm (17:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Round of 32 match at 4pm (00:00 GMT on Thursday) – Seattle Stadium, Seattle, US
Round of 32 match at 8pm (04:00 GMT on Thursday) – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, San Francisco, US
Thursday, July 2
Round of 32 match at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Round of 32 match at 7pm (00:00 GMT on Friday) – Toronto Stadium, Toronto, Canada
Round of 32 match at 11pm (07:00 GMT on Friday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Friday, July 3
Round of 32 match at 2pm (21:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Round of 32 match at 6pm (23:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
Round of 32 match at 9:30pm (03:30 GMT on Saturday) – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US,
Saturday, July 4
Round of 16 match at 1pm (19:00 GMT) – Houston Stadium, Houston, US
Round of 16 match at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, US
Sunday, July 5
Round of 16 match at 4pm (21:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
Round of 16 match at 8pm (02:00 GMT on Monday) – Mexico City Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico
Monday, July 6
Round of 16 match at 3pm (21:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Round of 16 match at 8pm (04:00 GMT on Tuesday) – Seattle Stadium, Seattle, US
Tuesday, July 7
Round of 16 match at 12pm (17:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Round of 16 match at 4pm (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) – BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Thursday, 9 July
First quarterfinal at 4pm (21:00 GMT) – Boston Stadium, Boston, US
Friday, 10 July
Second quarterfinal at 3pm (23:00 GMT) – Los Angeles Stadium, Los Angeles, US
Saturday, July 11
Third quarterfinal at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
Fourth quarterfinal at 9pm (03:00 GMT on Sunday) – Kansas City Stadium, Kansas City, US
Tuesday, July 14
First semifinal at 3pm (21:00 GMT) – Dallas Stadium, Dallas, US
Wednesday, July 15
Second semifinal at 3pm (20:00 GMT) – Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, US
Saturday, July 18
Bronze medal match at 5pm (22:00 GMT) – Miami Stadium, Miami, US
Sunday, July 19
Final at 3pm (20:00 GMT) – New York New Jersey Stadium, New Jersey, US
A drone attack on the town of Kalogi, in Sudan’s South Kordofan region, is said to have hit a kindergarten and killed at least 50 people, including 33 children.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group battling the army in Sudan’s civil war, was accused of Thursday’s attack by a medical organisation, the Sudan Doctors’ Network, and the army.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
The RSF in turn accused the army of hitting a market on Friday in a drone attack in the Darfur region, on a fuel depot at the Adre border crossing with Chad.
Sudan has been ravaged by war since April 2023 when a power struggle broke out between the RSF and the army, who were formerly allies .
The reports could not be verified independently.
According to the army-aligned foreign ministry, the kindergarten was struck twice with missiles from drones.
Civilians and medics who rushed to the school were also attacked, it added.
Responding to reports of the attack in Kalogi, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef said: “Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights.”
“Children should never pay the price of conflict,” Sheldon Yett added.
The agency, he said, urged “all parties to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need”.
The RSF accused the army of attacking the Adre crossing because it was used for the “delivery of aid and commercial supplies”.
According to the Sudan War Monitor, a group of researchers tracking the conflict, the attack caused civilian casualties and significant damage to a market.
The military did not immediately comment on the reports from Darfur.
Wedged between Sudan’s capital Khartoum and Darfur, the region made up of North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan has been a frontline in the civil war.
The battle for the Kordofans – which have a population of almost eight million – has intensified as the army pushes towards Darfur.
A Netflix-Warner Bros. merger would risk a monopsony where a single buyer wields enormous control over the marketplace, the former head of Amazon Studios warned.
Roy Price, who is now chief executive of the studio International Art Machine, wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Saturday that predictions of doom are nothing new in the film industry, pointing to the advent of TV, home video, streaming, and AI.
“But if Netflix acquires Warner Bros., this long-prophesied death may finally arrive, not in the sense that filmmaking will cease but in the sense that Hollywood will become a system that circles a single sun, materially changing its cultural output,” he added. “All orbits—every deal, every creative decision, every creative career—will increasingly revolve around the gravitational mass and imprimatur of one entity.”
To be sure, Netflix has said Warner Bros. operations will continue, and the studio’s films will still be released in theaters. Meanwhile, Warner’s TV channels will be spun off via a separate company, though HBO will be included in Netflix.
But Price said the danger “is not annihilation but centralization,” with the combined company accounting for an even bigger slice of overall content spending.
A reduction in bidders also means less content will be produced, while a separate development culture, set of tastes, and risk tolerances will be sidelined, he predicted.
“A Netflix merger with Warner Bros. would create a monopsony problem: too few buyers with too much bargaining power,” Price explained. “Writers, directors, actors, showrunners, puppeteers, visual effects artists—all are suppliers. The fewer buyers competing to hire them, the lower their compensation and the narrower their opportunities.”
Such reasoning sank Penguin Random House’s attempt to merge with Simon & Schuster that would’ve created a book publisher with too much leverage over authors, he pointed out.
Of course, the remaining players in Hollywood and content creation are giants in their own right as well. A KPMG survey of spending in 2024 put NBC Universal parent Comcast at the top with $37 billion, followed by Alphabet’s YouTube ($32 billion), Disney ($28 billion), Amazon ($20 billion), Netflix ($17 billion) and Paramount ($15 billion). Comcast and Paramount also made bids for Warner Bros.
Theater owners, producers and other creative workers have also voiced opposition to the deal, though famed director Bong Joon Ho doubted that the “cinematic experience will disappear so easily.”
In addition to the business impact of a Warner Bros. takeover, other opponents raised even weightier concerns.
Oscar winner Jane Fonda sounded the alarm on a “constitutional crisis” and demanded that the Justice Department not use its regulatory power to “extract political concessions that influence content decisions or chill free speech.”
For its part, the Trump administration views the deal with “heavy skepticism,” sources told CNBC. The merger is expected to face exceptional antitrust scrutiny, and Netflix’s $5.8 billion breakup fee is among the biggest ever.
On Wall Street, analysts see a tech angle in the merger, namely the importance of content to train and power the next generation of AI models that will shape the entertainment industry’s future.
The acquisition of Warner Bros. would help Netflix stand out in an AI future, Divyaunsh Divatia, research analyst at Janus Henderson Investors, said in a note on Friday.
“They’re also levering up on premium entertainment at a time when competition on engagement from short form video is expected to intensify especially if AI models democratize video creation at an increasing rate,” he wrote.
The city of Guadalajara in Mexico is scheduled to host four World Cup matches next year, and labourers are working around the clock to revamp infrastructure in time for the tournament.
On account of frenzied construction, the city’s roads are presently a bona fide mess, constituting a perpetual headache for those who must transit them.
But Guadalajara has a much bigger problem than traffic. The metropolis is the capital of the western state of Jalisco, which happens to possess the highest number of disappeared people in all of Mexico.
The official tally of Jalisco’s disappeared is close to 16,000, out of a total of more than 130,000 countrywide. However, the frequent reluctance of family members to report missing persons for fear of retribution means the true toll is undoubtedly higher.
Now, with the World Cup fast approaching, Mexican authorities are also working overtime to sanitise Guadalajara’s image. For months, local officials have been threatening to remove the portraits and signs from the towering “roundabout of the disappeared” in the centre of the city, effectively re-disappearing them.
I recently spent five days in Guadalajara and paid a visit to the roundabout, a few kilometres’ walk from my accommodation. The closer I got to the site, the more posters proliferated across electrical poles and sidewalk planters featuring the faces and identifying information of the disappeared. Some of these posters also appeared plastered in larger form onto the monument itself.
There was, for example, 32-year-old Elda Adriana Valdez Montoya, last seen in Guadalajara on August 10, 2020. And 19-year-old Jordy Alejandro Cardenas Flores, last seen on May 19, 2022, in the nearby city of Tlaquepaque. There was 16-year-old Cristofer Aaron Leobardo Ramirez Camarena, last seen in the Jalisco municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga on April 21, 2024. And 67-year-old Martha Leticia Diaz Lopez, last seen in Guadalajara on June 27, 2025.
In the case of Cardenas Flores, the poster specified that the young man had been “taken” on May 19 by agents from the state prosecutor’s office, from which appointment he never returned.
While there is a tendency to blame Mexico’s astronomical disappearance rates on violent drug cartels, including the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the government is thoroughly implicated in the phenomenon, as well – whether by direct action, collaboration with criminal outfits, or simply in terms of safeguarding the panorama of near-total impunity that permits such crimes to flourish.
It bears underscoring, too, that the vast majority of disappearances took place following the launch in 2006 of Mexico’s so-called “war on drugs”, which not only failed to resolve the drug issue but also set the stage for more than 460,000 homicides in the country. The war effort was backed by – who else? – the United States, which rarely misses out on an opportunity for blood-soaked hemispheric meddling.
But heaven forbid World Cup spectators be subjected to such a morbid reality – although it is becoming rather difficult to cover up the discovery of mass clandestine graves and hundreds of bags containing human remains in the vicinity of the Guadalajara football stadium.
While in Guadalajara, I spoke with Maribel Cedeno, a representative of the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco (Warrior Searchers of Jalisco), one of various collectives dedicated to the search for the missing in the face of willful government inaction. Her brother, Jose Gil Cedeno Rosales, was disappeared on September 21, 2021, in Tlajomulco de Zuniga.
As Cedeno commented to me, “absolutely nothing has changed” during the presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum, who assumed office last year after promising a more sympathetic approach to the issue of Mexico’s disappeared. Once in power, Sheinbaum apparently forgot her own pledge, effectively condemning countless Mexicans whose loved ones are missing to a state of continuous psychological torment.
Remarking on the expansive measures the government is pursuing to provide security for the World Cup, Cedeno demanded: “But where is our security? Where is the security for our family members, or for those of us whose lives are at risk because we are searching for the missing?”
They are good questions. And yet they are not ones that are keeping the authorities up at night.
In March, the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco discovered a clandestine crematorium on a ranch outside the town of Teuchitlan, an hour from Guadalajara, which was reportedly utilised by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a recruitment and training centre in addition to an extermination site.
Curiously, Mexican authorities had seized the ranch months earlier, but hadn’t managed to notice any of the human bone fragments or the hundreds of shoes littering the place.
On my final day in Guadalajara, I took an Uber out to the ranch, which appeared on the Uber app as “Campo de adiestramiento y exterminio” – training and extermination camp.
Thinking better of it, I put the Teuchitlan town centre as my destination, and while en route proposed to the driver that I pay him in cash to swing by the ranch, as well. He made the sign of the cross, but agreed.
A gregarious middle-aged man from eastern Jalisco, the driver had spent 11 years as an undocumented worker in California and Oregon; his son was studying engineering at a university in Michigan. He had personally known several people, including two sisters, who had been disappeared from his hometown, and lamented that the only time the Mexican authorities seemed inspired to seek justice for homicides was when the victims themselves had been members of the security forces.
And although a die-hard football fan, the driver said he could not justify the state’s decision to pour massive quantities of money into a World Cup spectacle that would not remotely benefit the average Mexican.
In Teuchitlan, we took a brief stroll around the town’s colourful central plaza and bought a few beers, then programmed our destination to “Campo de adiestramiento y exterminio”, which led us down a dusty and isolated road patrolled by an ominous black vehicle. When we found the camp blocked by the Mexican National Guard – an outfit with which I have had my fair share of unpleasant run-ins – we returned to battle the traffic of Guadalajara.
To be sure, it is in the distinct interest of the Mexican government to retroactively cover up whatever it can about Teuchitlan, which has already caused enough damage due to the uncharacteristically wide international media coverage the case received.
But at the end of the day, Mexico is itself one big mass grave. And while efforts to bury that grave for the World Cup may be a first-half goal for organised crime and complicit politicians alike, the score could still be settled in the second half – by the people who refuse to let their disappeared loved ones be definitively disappeared.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
Beatdapp, a tech company that specializes in fraud detection for digital platforms, is launching a trust and safety system aimed at addressing security challenges across multiple industries beyond streaming.
The new platform, called the Beatdapp Trust & Safety Operating System, combines identity verification, AI music detection, anomaly detection, account takeover detection, and a recommendation engine into a single platform.
Beatdapp, which raised $17 million in January 2024, is marketing the OS to gaming companies, streaming services and online marketplaces, expanding from its original focus on the music industry.
MorganHayduk and AndrewBatey, Co-CEOs of Beatdapp, said: “Behind every digital interaction is a human one, but that connection is constantly threatened by fraud, bots, and bad actors.”
“A fragmented approach is no longer enough. We built the Trust & Safety OS to be the common denominator for integrity: a system that protects platforms and their users, from onboarding and login to consumption and payment. This is about engineering the trust that allows digital communities to thrive.”
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“We built the Trust & Safety OS to be the common denominator for integrity: a system that protects platforms and their users, from onboarding and login to consumption and payment.”
For the identity verification feature, Beatdapp partnered with Arcarta, a UK-based company that provides due diligence services to “high-value” and “high-risk” sectors including art and luxury goods markets. Arcarta’s technology, which the company calls a “Living Record” system, creates what it describes as a reusable identity layer that can be shared across platforms.
Founded in 2019, Arcarta operates what it calls a “Due Diligence Network” that allows businesses to share verified information about users and transactions. The company describes its services as creating a “walled garden” where users can access historical verification data.
TomNoon and MatthewWhiteley, Co-Founders of Arcarta, said: “Trust is built on knowing who you’re dealing with, but that process shouldn’t create friction for legitimate users. Our Due Diligence Network was purpose-built for high-touch industries where relationships are paramount.”
“By integrating our ‘Living Record’ technology into the Beatdapp Trust & Safety OS, we are creating a powerful, reusable identity layer for the entire digital economy.”
TomNoon & MatthewWhiteley, Arcarta
“By integrating our ‘Living Record’ technology into the Beatdapp Trust & Safety OS, we are creating a powerful, reusable identity layer for the entire digital economy. This partnership allows platforms to stop bad actors at the front door while providing a seamless, respectful experience for the creators and customers they trust.”
Beatdapp said its technology has processed over 6 trillion streams and analyzed more than 65 trillion data points since its inception.
The launch comes as digital platforms face increasing pressure to address fraud and bot activity. Last year, Beatdapp said streaming fraud takes around $2 billion out of artists’ royalties per year, distributing that money to the owners of low-quality content designed to skim cash from streaming revenues.
Beatdapp has since partnered with several players in the music industry to address streaming fraud including Audiomack; B2B streaming tech provider Tuned Global; TheMechanical Licensing Collective, the entity that collects mechanical royalties in the US; EDM-oriented digital music service Beatport; social music platform Hangout FM; AI music startup Boomy; and even music giant Universal Music Group.
