TL;DR
China fines Trip.com $765 million for forcing hotel partners into exclusive deals and controlling their pricing
Tech
UK’s child-nude-block threat won’t protect children
Signal insists that plans to compel tech companies to scan devices for nude images of children announced by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday at London Tech Week “will not keep children safe.”
“It endangers us all,” the encrypted messaging platform said, adding that the mechanism required to implement it would be “dangerous.” And it wouldn’t be a pro-privacy statement without calling it “dystopian.”
Signal argues that the proposed technology could at some point be repurposed to enable state-sponsored surveillance of all citizens’ comms, or used as a mass censorship tool.
“Forcing all UK residents to prove their age and/or have all their content scanned, simply to exercise their fundamental right to communicate, is a perilous proposition,” Signal stated.
“We know that mass surveillance and censorship capabilities, however sincere-sounding the promises of those who initiate them are, never remain narrowly scoped. Once created, they will be expanded, forming a dangerous tool that will be wielded both in the UK and abroad to censor and surveil whatever they might consider ‘threats’ or ‘harmful content.’”
Similar accusations have been leveled against the UK government in response to its various attempts to improve online safety via legislation.
For example, the government has long presented the Investigatory Powers Act as a way to enshrine in law necessary powers available to law enforcement and UK intelligence to intercept communications for the sake of preventing terrorist attacks.
More recently, the Online Safety Act was introduced to impose new obligations on digital platforms to prevent children from accessing online harms.
However, privacy proponents have shunned both.
Rather than simply providing powers to prevent terror attacks, critics say the IPA enables public bodies to spy on people’s calls or texts. It’s colloquially known as “The Snooper’s Charter.”
Digital rights organizations have also claimed the OSA is more about online censorship than it is about restricting the types of content children are allowed to view on the web.
The PM’s proposals are not law yet. Instead, Starmer’s speech amounted to a three-month ultimatum to tech companies: make the changes the UK wants to see or the government will legislate.
Essentially, whichever way the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others want to play it, some form of device-level scanning appears likely to be pushed onto UK devices soon.
“When it comes to the safety of our children, standing by is not an option. Nobody gets a free pass. That is why I’m making sure Britain is the first country in the world to make it impossible for children to take, share or view nude images,” Starmer said.
“And I expect tech firms to make that happen. This is not an impossible challenge – these are some of the most innovative companies in the world. But if they choose not to, then we will act and change the law.”
The government’s announcement was backed by a slew of campaigners and charities that argued child protection has not been as big a part of tech innovation as it should have been in recent years.
Roxy Longworth, author and founder of Behind Our Screens, said: “I told myself, back in 2021, that if I went public with what happened to me and it stopped one life from being ruined, then it was worth it, but the more I campaigned the angrier I became.
“Every child needs to be protected from platforms who for far too long have been allowed to turn a blind eye to the damage being done to them. This announcement makes me hopeful that there won’t be kids sat in their room feeling the same pressure and shame that consumed my teenage years.”
Likewise, Chris Sherwood, chief exec at the NSPCC, said: “Every day these protections are not in place, more children will continue to face devastating harm in the online world. That’s why we strongly support the government’s decision to make it mandatory for these companies to block inappropriate material at device level. This marks a major step forward in our fight against online child sexual abuse.”
The UK government singled out Apple and Google, saying that it demands both block nudity by default across their devices. That includes cameras, third-party apps, and messaging services, which would prevent children from taking, viewing, or sending nude images.
It proposed that the nude-block-by-default approach would keep children safe, while still allowing adults to remove the block by verifying their ages.
Client-side scanning remains a highly controversial technology, but supporters present it as striking a balance between privacy and safety.
Advocates argue it should appeal to the pro-privacy crowd by keeping all data on the device, rather than blurring nude images in transit, for example, which would involve sending that data to an intermediary.
However, in the case of Signal, an encrypted messenger, it breaks the private comms trust model, even if the message content is not sent to a third party.
Client-side scanning can involve checking content against a database of known objectionable material. In the context of child exploitation, image hashes would be checked against a database of other hashes associated with abuse material. If the hashes match, then the image would be blocked.
Some implementations scan using AI, rather than against a database.
So while the image in this scenario is not sent to a third party, it does mean that Signal could no longer say that message content stays between sender and receiver only.
Further, because the databases of objectionable material would need to be updated, this introduces additional problems.
Updated databases or models would need to be pushed to devices, creating another trust and security dependency. The attack surface also widens, as it is conceivable that attackers could try to manipulate them.
As Signal points out, it would be technically possible for the same scanning mechanisms to be updated to block other things, like messages criticizing the government, to take one hypothetical example.
Authorities could also feasibly implement ways of seeing which device contains images or other content that has registered matches with its objectionable material database, potentially opening the door to surveillance.
The company’s statement [PDF] called for public funds to be funneled into other areas to improve child safety, including education, social services, and guardrails on AI technologies and platforms, instead of drafting legislation to block children’s nudes by default on devices.
“What the UK government wants instead is invisible surveillance infrastructure, switched on by default and potentially rushed into law under cynical pretexts,” it said. “All of this with scant care for the actual needs of the children they claim to be protecting or the horrifying and far-ranging consequences that will ensue in practice.”
Signal has not threatened to pull out of the UK, however, despite the government’s promises to enact the plans, via legislation or the threat of it.
The company has previously mulled exiting Sweden over proposed encryption-busting laws, and more recently Canada, as it debates a bill that would compel platforms like Signal to gather its users’ metadata, which could include their locations and who they are talking to. ®
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When an appliance like a refrigerator breaks, the first thing to decide is whether it’s more cost effective to repair or replace it. Decide to get a new one and you’ll need to navigate the crowded domestic appliance market, which currently hosts a bevy of different manufacturers both familiar and new. One brand you might come across is Fisher & Paykel, which is one of the more historic names in the market.
The company was founded back in 1934 in New Zealand, when Maurice Paykel and Woolf Fisher first decided to import appliances like refrigerators to their homeland. They later began manufacturing their own appliances after the country’s government banned imports, first building them under license before eventually creating their own designs.
After decades as an independent company, Fisher & Paykel was acquired by Haier Group in 2012. Haier was founded in Qingdao, China, in 1984, and remains headquartered there today. It also owns the GE Appliance brand in the U.S., alongside a portfolio of other brands including Candy, Casarte, and Leader. As well as being owned by a Chinese company, some of Fisher & Paykel’s appliances are also made in China. It has additional manufacturing facilities in Italy, Mexico, and Thailand.
What kind of refrigerators does Fisher & Paykel offer?
In the U.S., Fisher & Paykel offers a range of different refrigerators catered towards the upper end of the market. As well as the typical selection of column refrigerators, French door refrigerators, and bottom freezer fridges, the company also sells wine refrigerators and other specialist undercounter appliances.
Within its lineup are a selection of smart refrigerators, although the features offered generally aren’t anything that makes its products stand out from those sold by other major smart fridge brands. Instead, where Fisher & Paykel shines is in the durability of its high-end refrigerators — in fact, some studies have crowned it the most reliable refrigerator brand on the market.
None of its products are cheap, with its basic refrigerators starting from just over $2,000 and larger, smarter models quickly increasing in price from there. For its Red Dot award-winning 36-inch Series 11 fridge-freezer, buyers can expect to pay at least $11,499. For their money, they’ll receive features like a variable temperature drawer which can be adjusted to better suit a wide variety of fresh foods, a steel-lined interior compartment, and a slimline water dispenser.
When looking at motorcycle engines, one of the first things to note is the engine’s displacement, as this usually has a strong correlation with the bike’s overall weight and power output. But that isn’t the only factor worth considering. It’s also worth taking a look at the number and orientation of the engine’s pistons.
Most of the motorcycles being made these days use either a parallel-twin or an inline triple-cylinder engine. These are affordable to manufacture and offer a unique blend of power and efficiency. Then there are the inline-four motorcycle engines, which are also sometimes called ‘screamers.’ These became very popular starting in the late ’60s, with that popularity seeming to peak in the mid-2010s. It’s only recently that these have started to slow down in production, and we have begun seeing fewer and fewer of them coming out each year. Many riders still consider these bikes highly desirable for their high-RPM power, smooth balance, and racetrack competence, but there’s no denying they’re slowly slipping out of vogue.
There are a few reasons why you’re seeing fewer inline-four engines coming out than before, and it isn’t just because they’re more expensive to make. There are several other disadvantages that might make them less appealing to the rider. You can still find a fair few affordable inline-4 motorcycles being made even now, but you might want to stop and consider the drawbacks before seeking one out.
1. Inline-fours typically have less low-to-mid-range torque
Most of the arguments in favor of the inline-four engine model primarily cite performance. The bikes that use them are known for delivering a large amount of power smoothly during acceleration, pushing the bike harder at higher speeds. That said, performance isn’t exactly a zero-sum game. While it’s true that inline-four engines are well known for their ability to output incredible amounts of horsepower at high RPMs (which is one of the reasons they are still so popular at the racetrack), this comes at a slight cost.
Inline-fours produce slightly less low-to-mid-range torque than some other engine types. This means riders often discover that they have a little less get-up-and-go when accelerating from a stop than if they were riding a bike with something like a parallel twin in its chassis. This makes them less than ideal for a daily driver, especially for those living in cities with plenty of traffic lights.
So, what qualifies as performance can vary depending on the type of bike and how it’s being ridden. An ultra-lightweight sport bike might have no trouble getting up to speed using an inline-four, while a heavy cruiser might struggle. Likewise, those who primarily ride in urban areas might prefer a bit more low-end torque, while those who prefer to push the red line at the track might prefer something with more power at higher speeds. This makes the inline-four a less practical choice for those seeking a commuter who aren’t looking to get any speeding tickets on the highway.
2. Inline-fours can be wider and heavier
Motorcycles that use inline-four engines are exceptionally well balanced. This is because the pistons move in pairs along a single plane, so there’s always one in the up position and one in the down position on each side, creating a smooth counterbalance. That said, they aren’t exactly petite.
It’s true that the pistons themselves are generally smaller in an inline-four than they are in a two- or three-cylinder motorcycle, but there are more of them, which means that they still end up having more parts and taking up more space overall. That means the casing has to be bigger, which means more metal, which means more weight. That alone can cause a ripple of other issues, such as lowering fuel efficiency and making the bikes feel a little more intimidating to smaller or less confident riders who want something light.
What’s more, the vast majority of modern inline-four engines are mounted transversely. As a result, the straight row of four cylinders is mounted perpendicular to the bike’s frame, not parallel. This effectively makes the engine wider, with each side protruding farther from the centerline than you might get in a two- or three-cylinder engine. That, in turn, means the bike needs a wider frame to accommodate it. This is another factor that might be detrimental to smaller riders, as it can be difficult for them to comfortably place their feet flat on the ground when stopped if they need to straddle a significantly wider seat.
3. Inline-fours drive up price tags
Inline-four engines are complex machines that are meticulously engineered for smooth acceleration and raw horsepower. Four smaller pistons being attached to the crankshaft in a row create a constant state of balance within each revolution as the bike is consistently receiving power. This is how these engines can accelerate with minimal thumping, and it’s also why they produce that signature screaming exhaust sound. Getting this to work properly requires that all four cylinders be perfectly balanced to prevent them from ever falling out of sync, but that complexity comes at a cost.
We’ve already mentioned that inline-four engines are being used less because they are more expensive to manufacture than parallel twins and some other design styles, but it isn’t actually the manufacturers who swallow that cost. The 2026 Kawasaki Ninja 650, for instance, has a 649cc parallel-twin engine and retails for $7,599. Compare that to the 2026 Honda CBR650R, which runs on a 649cc inline-four. Both are Japanese sport bikes with the same displacement as well as comparable designs and features, but the Honda starts at $9,199. Then take a look at the supersports. The 2026 Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R has a 636cc inline-four engine and retails for $11,599. But despite having a lower displacement, it costs more than the $9,399 2026 Yamaha YZF-R7, which runs on a 689cc parallel-twin. Perhaps one of the most extreme examples might be within Kawasaki’s own line. The 2026 Ninja 500 has a 451cc parallel-twin and starts at $5,799 for the ABS model. The 2026 Ninja ZX-4RR has a 399cc inline-four cylinder engine and costs $9,999.
4. Inline-fours have higher maintenance costs
While we’ve discussed the fact that manufacturing costs drive up the prices of the bikes that run on inline-fours, you also might find that you’re spending a lot more at the mechanic than you were on your last motorcycle. The very intricacy of the inline-four’s design that makes it such a powerhouse can also drive up maintenance costs.
Part of this is simple math. More cylinders mean more parts that require maintenance (twice as many valves), so your mechanic will need to spend twice as long checking the cylinders simply because there are twice as many. This also means more expendable parts like spark plugs and gaskets, but this is only a small part of it. The bigger issue is the effort required to get inside the engine. The inline-four sitting horizontally across the motorcycle’s frame means that it isn’t easy to access from the outside. Mechanics will often need to remove the fairings and tank from the bike just to get to it, which can drive up labor costs quite a bit.
Then there’s the additional complexities of the design. A routine valve adjustment, for instance, might cost between $300 and $600 for an inline-four engine, which usually requires a shim-under-bucket style valve adjustment. That would only run you between $150 and $400 on a V-twin that uses a screw and locknut valve adjustment system. Some of them even use a hydraulic lift valve adjustment system that is self-adjusting and doesn’t need to be serviced at all unless it breaks.
5. Inline-fours are less fuel-efficient
Fuel efficiency wasn’t as big of a consideration for a lot of riders back in the inline-four’s heyday, but it’s definitely become a major factor in how people choose their motorcycles now. Unfortunately, inline-fours sacrifice a fair amount of fuel efficiency in favor of high-RPM power. This might not be that big a deal for the kinds of riders who only use their motorcycles at the track, but it’s definitely something to think about if you’re planning on riding one of these bikes for your daily commute.
Take a look at some of the most fuel-efficient motorcycles on the market, and you’ll quickly find that all of them, except of course for the electric and hybrid models, are powered by one- or two-cylinder engines. Of course, fuel efficiency can be affected by other factors, such as overall weight, gearbox type, chain drive, throttle control, tire pressure, modifications, cargo, and the rider’s weight. There are a few examples of inline-four bikes that are more fuel efficient than you might think, like the Kawasaki Z900, which can get up to 49 MPG. As a rule, however, inline-four bikes are consistently less fuel-efficient than most other engine types and often get city miles closer to those of an SUV than an economy vehicle. Even Honda, which is exceptionally well known for efficiency, can only offer about 40 MPG on its inline-four CBR600RR, while its parallel-twin CBR500R boasts over 65 MPG. Even the larger parallel-twin Kawasaki Ninja 650 is able to hit over 51 MPG.
How we listed these disadvantages
Inline-four engines are immensely popular, and they certainly have a lot of great things going for them. However, there are certain weaknesses that riders who are thinking about getting one should be aware of. There is a wide variety of inline-four engines that have been released over the years, and they are attached to an even wider variety of motorcycles. As such, it is difficult to make any universal claims about design or performance that won’t be disproven by at least one exception. That said, there are certain general rules of thumb that one can apply to the vast majority of them when looking at these weaknesses.
By taking a look at several different professional reviews, motorcycle forums, mechanic forums, and the raw stats of many of the inline-four motorcycles that are on the market today, we have rooted out five key weaknesses that appear to apply to most of them. Once we had our list of weaknesses, we sought to corroborate these claims by verifying them against specs, price comparisons, and reports from trusted sources. We then explained these weaknesses, breaking down why they are tied to the design and how they can serve as a detriment to the rider. In this way, we hope to arm prospective buyers with as much information as possible when weighing the pros and cons of a purchase.
Marvel capped off Saturday evening’s Hall H presentations at San Diego Comic-Con, giving audiences a small taste of what’s next on the menu. And we mean small. Kevin Feige and cast members teased out some movies (no TV shows, today), and we’re breaking it down for you here.
Footage from Avengers: Doomsday was shown, with Doom commanding sentinels and a history lesson on the dynamic between the Fantastic Four and the doctor. But there were only two other major announcements, and nothing for X-Men, and no chart outlining Phase 6 or Phase 7.
Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider
Johnny Blaze is making his MCU debut with Ryan Gosling in the role, which has been rumored for some time among Marvel’s fandom. Shawn Levy will be directing the new movie for the MCU after his successful run with Deadpool & Wolverine. Could this eventually segue into Midnight Sons? Fingers crossed, my friends.
Agent Carter in Avengers: Doomsday
Hayley Atwell is now officially confirmed to be in Avengers: Doomsday as Agent Peggy Carter, who was first introduced in the MCU in Captain America: The First Avenger. She was in Hall H during Marvel’s presentation for the film.
Black Panther 3 coming in 2028
Feige pretended to exit the stage for the night but then walked back out with one more update: Black Panther 3 will arrive in Dec. 2028. Actor David Jonsson will play T’Challa Jr. in the film, which is directed by Ryan Coogler. Jonsson is best known for roles as Andy in Alien: Romulus, Peter in The Long Walk and as Gus Sackey in Industry.
Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit this week accusing Amazon of interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, and unfair competition.
As reported by Deadline, the lawsuit alleges Amazon has been “hurriedly seeking to pirate away a number of contracted employees,” including Pia Barlow, an HBO Max marketing executive who recently joined Amazon MGM Studios. Warner Bros. (whose pending acquisition by Paramount has been paused for at least a few months) said Barlow’s employment contract was “not set to expire until October 31, 2027.”
“In blatant disregard of established California law, Amazon has gone rogue by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees with term employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed up with the ready assurance that Amazon will defend and indemnify them should they be held to account for their blatantly unlawful acts,” Warner Bros. said.
The company also accused Amazon of seeking to “tortiously induce another WBD employee to breach their term employment agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2027,” although that executive (believed to be HBO programming executive Francesca Orsi) ultimately stayed at Warner Bros.
Deadline noted that this lawsuit is likely to renew debates about whether term employment agreements are actually enforceable under California law.
Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment.
Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops are on sale at B&H this week, with new markdowns slashing up to $200 off a variety of configurations and color options.
Each of the triple-digit MacBook Air discounts highlighted below also includes free 2-day shipping within the contiguous U.S. so you can begin using your new laptop right away.
Save up to $200 on M5 MacBook Airs
The models range from the 13-inch spec with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage to an upgraded 15-inch config with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. You can also compare prices in our 13-inch M5 MacBook Air Price Guide and 15-inch MacBook Air Price Guide.
13-inch MacBook Air deals at B&H
- 13″ M5 (8C GPU, 16GB, 512GB, 70W Power Adapter; Silver, Midnight, or Sky Blue): $1,199 ($120 off)
- 13″ M5 (10C GPU, 16GB, 512GB, 40W Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,249 ($150 off)
- 13″ M5 (10C GPU, 16GB, 1TB, 70W Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,549 ($70 off)
- 13″ M5 (10C GPU, 24GB, 512GB, 40W Power Adapter, Silver): $1,349 ($150 off)
15-inch MacBook Air discounts
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 16GB, 512GB, 70W Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,349 ($170 off)
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 16GB, 1TB, 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,649 ($170 off)
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 24GB, 512GB, 40W Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,499 ($200 off)
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 24GB, 512GB, 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,599 ($120 off)
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 24GB, 1TB, 70W Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,849 ($170 off)
- 15″ M5 (10C GPU, 24GB, 1TB, 35W Dual USB-C Power Adapter, Midnight): $1,869 ($150 off)
Our roundup of the best MacBook Air deals is also home to discounts across new and closeout models.
A new, adult T’Challa is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige hit the stage for Marvel’s Hall H Comic-Con showing on Saturday and, toward the end, gave the audience an update on Black Panther 3. Director Ryan Coogler and actors Winston Duke and Letitia Wright were on hand to welcome David Jonsson to the MCU, who will play T’Challa’s son, T’Challa Jr.
Jonsson has appeared in films such as Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk. While no official title has been shared, Feige revealed that Black Panther 3 is due to hit theaters Dec. 15, 2028.
Coogler, who’s writing and directing the next installment of the series, has reportedly begun production. He helmed the first two Black Panther movies, which brought the late Chadwick Boseman to the screen as the royal hero. T’Challa Jr. appeared as a child at the end of Black Panther 2, and the character will clearly be aged up for the new movie.
It’s rumored that X-Men character Storm will be in the mix, who has a history with Wakanda (and Black Panther) in the comic books. With a standalone X-Men movie in the works and renewed enthusiasm for the mutants since the release of the animated X-Men ‘97 series, an interconnected storyline would make sense for the MCU. Also rumored to appear in the superhero film is Brother Voodoo, a sorcerer-superhero (like Doctor Strange) who also works with the dead.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (aka Black Panther 2) introduced Tenoch Huerta’s Namor and his underwater kingdom into the MCU, and he’s slated to surface in this year’s Avengers: Doomsday, along with the new Black Panther, Shuri (played by Wright).
China’s market regulator fined Trip.com Group $765 million on Saturday after concluding that the country’s largest online travel platform abused its dominant market position. The State Administration for Market Regulation said Trip.com used its traffic allocation algorithms, platform rules and technology to restrict hotel operators from listing on competing services and to control the prices they could charge. The penalty, totaling roughly five billion yuan, includes confiscated gains, a separate fine and an order to refund hotel security deposits.
SAMR launched the investigation in January after receiving complaints that Trip.com was forcing hotel partners into exclusive arrangements and demanding they offer their lowest online rates only on its platform. The regulator found the company had engaged in these practices since 2020, leveraging its control of about 56 percent of China’s online travel market to pressure operators who depended on it for visibility and bookings. Trip.com said in a statement on its official WeChat account that it accepts the decision and will implement rectification measures.
The fine is the largest antitrust penalty SAMR has imposed on a single Chinese tech company since it fined Alibaba 18 billion yuan in 2021 for similar abuse of market dominance. That case, which forced Alibaba to abandon exclusive dealing arrangements with merchants, set the template for Beijing’s broader crackdown on platform monopolies. The Trip.com penalty signals that the regulator’s appetite for enforcement has not waned, even as Beijing has shifted its messaging toward calibrated oversight rather than blanket crackdowns.
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The case also reflects regulators’ concern that fierce competition among online travel platforms has been squeezing hotel operators’ margins and contributing to deflationary pressure in parts of the Chinese economy. Beijing has been rewriting its e-commerce law to bring platform companies under tighter domestic oversight, with draft amendments published earlier this month proposing expanded regulatory tools for overseeing algorithms, traffic rules and pricing practices. Trip.com’s penalty lands squarely within that framework.
Founded in 1999, Trip.com operates through brands including Ctrip and Skyscanner and has grown into the world’s largest online booking platform by transaction volume. Its dominance in China gave it leverage to dictate terms to hotel partners, but that same market power made it a regulatory target as Beijing moved to curb what it views as monopolistic behaviour across its technology sector. The company has been ordered to undertake a comprehensive rectification plan, though the specifics of those changes have not yet been disclosed.
The US semiconductor and computing giant declared a revenue of $16.1bn for the period.
Intel has published markedly strong financial results for the second quarter of 2026 that exceeded financial analysts’ expectations.
The US semiconductor and computing giant declared a revenue of $16.1bn for the period, up by 25pc from $12.9bn in Q2 2025 and more than the anticipated ceiling of $14.8bn declared at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
“AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute, and as we continue to execute, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustainable growth across our CPU franchise, ASICs, advanced packaging and vast wafer foundry network,” said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s CEO.
“Our Q2 results represent our strongest revenue growth in more than 15 years, enabled by greater speed, accountability and customer focus.”
Gross margin grew to around 40pc from around 28pc year-on-year, while Intel generated $7bn in cash from operations during the recent quarter, it said.
Intel’s Foundry revenue for Q2 was up 31pc year-on-year to $5.8bn; its Client Computing and Physical AI Group grew by 13pc to $8.9bn; and the division for data centres and AI was up 59pc to $6.3bn.
“AI-driven compute continues to strengthen, and to support expected growth this year and next across products and foundry, we are meaningfully increasing our investments in equipment, clean room space and substrates,” said Dave Zinsner, Intel’s CFO.
The company anticipates revenue in the third quarter of 2026 to hit between $15.8bn and $16.8bn, and projects a gross margin of 41pc.
The company’s share price increased by up to 4pc during trading hours yesterday following publication of its financial results.
Intel is estimated to have reduced its headcount by more than 35,000 employees since 2024, with major cuts announced in both 2024 and 2025.
Earlier this month, the company announced a major investment in its Kildare, Ireland facility, where Intel intends to spend €5bn on the Leixlip campus.
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Mojave Air and Space Port sits in the high desert where the air stays dry and the runways stretch long enough for machines that refuse ordinary limits. On a recent morning there, a prototype Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric rolled into position under the shadow of Stratolaunch’s Roc. Six jet engines sat silent for the moment. The SUV waited between the twin fuselages of an aircraft whose wings span 385 feet.
Roc is designed to carry enormous payloads into the sky for hypersonic experiments and spacecraft launches. Even when empty, with its six Pratt & Whitney engines cranking out a staggering 340,500 pounds of thrust, the plane can take off at a maximum weight of 1.3 million pounds, which is enormous when compared to modern airliners. Porsche’s new Cayenne has just arrived with a pair of electric motors that provide 1,139 horsepower and 1,500 Nm of torque, an outstanding spec sheet. It takes 2.4 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph, which is incredible. When things get hairy, the Cayenne has active aerodynamics and, as an option, very heavy-duty carbon-ceramic brakes ready to bail it out.
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Stratolaunch’s engineers had been monitoring the airflow near Roc. During takeoff and landing, a strange small pocket of still air emerges directly behind the main landing gear and just ahead of the tail, and this bubble follows the plane. In principle, a car that was both fast and stable enough could simply sit in the center of this bubble and remain there. That concept evolved into a hunch, which led to a strategy. Straotlaunch had a volunteer driver lined up, none other than former Porsche factory driver Patrick Long. He was joined by crew chiefs Shauntel Williams and John McKinney, who were keeping radio contact with the flight deck crew, as well as Orlando Bloom and a lucky automotive journalist Mat Watson.
The first run began with Long carefully positioning the Cayenne in just the perfect area, applying almost little throttle at all. Roc’s engines burst into life. At roughly 100 mph, he put the Cayenne into boost mode and flew after the plane, matching its stride for stride. The SUV remained right beneath the plane’s gear as it pulled away, and it was apparent as day that the vehicle had the stability to endure the turbulence when the engines lowered. Long later described how, when the engines began to descend after takeoff, he felt a great jolt and the car continued to go as if nothing had happened. He glanced down at the speedometer, and holy moly, the needle was over 170 before he yanked his foot off the throttle and slapped on the carbon-ceramic brakes to reduce the speed before the runway ended.
Landing, on the other hand, is a completely other story since time is everything. Roc is massive, making visual cues scarce, so Long had to merge onto the runway at precisely the exact moment, skillfully maneuvering between the plane’s fuselage such that the automobile appeared under the gear just as the plane touched down. The Stratolaunch crew commanders were right there in the cabin, keeping Long on track with continuous radio calls. The pattern repeated itself over two takeoffs and landings, with all four landings going off as planned. The Cayenne utilized only 13 percent of its battery charge the entire time.
Patrick Long described it as one of the most focused moments he’d ever had in a car. He trusted the data, the automobile, and the pilots. And it appears that the trust paid off, since Jonathan Bearce, the plane’s principal test pilot, was also impressed. From the cockpit, all he could see was a Cayenne-sized black hole, but the footage subsequently revealed it was spot on. Bearce even got to drive the thing himself later on, and he stated it accelerated so quickly that it surprised him. Overall, it was an eye-opening exercise in demonstrating the importance of precision over raw speed.
The idea that cancer could behave like a contagious disease may seem absurd; in humans, cancer cannot be transmitted from one person to another. Yet nature is still full of surprises. In exceptional cases, cancer cells themselves can pass from one individual to another and continue to multiply in a new host. This rare phenomenon has been detected in animals such as dogs, Tasmanian devils, and some species of mollusks, and it seems we can add one more to that exclusive club: catfish.
An international team of researchers has identified a transmissible melanoma in the brown catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus)—the first documented case in fish and also the first recorded in a freshwater ecosystem. Their findings were reported this month in the journal Nature.
An Impossible Pattern
The story began in 2012, when fishermen and biologists detected an unusually high number of catfish with black lesions in Lake Memphremagog, a body of water straddling Vermont and Quebec. Previous studies revealed that these spots were malignant melanomas, and that between 23 percent and 37 percent of the specimens examined had these tumors—an unusually high incidence for this species.
“That was surprising,” said Julie Dragon, a researcher at the University of Vermont and co-lead author of the study. “We wanted to know how a bottom-dwelling fish was getting a cancer we associate with exposure to too much sunlight.”
Initially, it was thought that the cause might be some toxic substance or a pathogen linked to pollution. One suspicion was that the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 had degraded water quality by washing environmental pollutants into the lake. There were also concerns about the health of the lake, which supplies drinking water to more than 175,000 people. However, initial genetic analyses began to point in an unexpected direction.
It was then that the researchers wondered whether the tumors were descended from a single original cancer that had learned to spread among individual fish, rather than arising independently in each fish.
To test this unusual hypothesis, the team sequenced the complete genomes of tumors and healthy tissues from affected fish, and compared the data with that from healthy specimens from different populations.
The results indicated that the tumor cells from different fish were much more closely related to one another than to the animals in which they developed. In other words, the tumors shared their own genetic identity, distinct from that of their hosts. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of genetic variants appeared repeatedly in the tumors but were absent from the healthy tissues of the same fish.
Such a pattern would be virtually impossible if each melanoma had arisen independently. By way of comparison, the researchers analyzed hundreds of human melanomas and found that nearly all of their mutations were unique to each patient. In contrast, most of the mutations present in the tumors of these fish were shared by numerous individuals—a hallmark of a transmissible clonal cancer.
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