Morning Digest
35 stories from 9 sources, 182 more held back.
In recent years, Palmeiras have made a healthy profit from the big-money exits of Endrick (Real Madrid), Estêvão (Chelsea), Vitor Reis (Manchester City) and Luiz Guilherme (Sporting CP). And now they can add winger Allan Elias to the list, as he is set to join Manchester City for €40 million (€37.5 million up front and €2.5 million in add-ons). This deal, though, is a little different.
By any reasonable measure, Julián Álvarez has been a successful signing for Atlético Madrid. Having joined from Manchester City for an initial €75 million in 2024, as he begins his third season in LaLiga, the Argentina striker needs to score just once to take his tally for his club to 50 goals.
Does Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson hold the cards to Julián Álvarez's future at Atlético Madrid amid strong interest from Arsenal and Barcelona? Plus, Junior Kroupi could still leave Bournemouth despite his long-term injury. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.
Fantasy football is all about fun, competition and camaraderie, but it's also another way to appreciate the best of the best in the NFL. For more than three decades, ESPN Fantasy has been here with you, celebrating peak performers and magical moments.
Puka Nacua, Cam Skattebo, Bucky Irving, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jacory Croskey-Merritt: all were later-round rookie picks that hit for fantasy football purposes in recent years. Not all in this year's class will reach the heights those players did, but there are plenty of rookies worth taking a shot on in the later rounds or keeping an eye on as they potentially bloom into waiver wire targets.
PHOENIX – For the better part of the past four and a half years, Kevin Gausman pitched like a bona fide ace for the Blue Jays. A World Series-tested veteran, the 35-year-old brings both moxie and a nasty fastball/splitter mix to the top of the Cubs’ rotation – both of which he displayed in a dominant outing Monday.
Think back to March, preparing for Opening Day of the 2026 season, and imagine someone told you, “Neither Aaron Judge nor Shohei Ohtani will win MVP this season. That’d be hard to believe, no? Yordan Alvarez still has a stranglehold on AL honors in our latest MVP poll, but for the first time this season, we’ve seen a seismic shakeup in the NL.
The Top 100 Prospects list isn't formulated to pick the players who will perform best in the Minor Leagues. It's a ranking that looks at which players project to have the most success in the Majors. Of course, when tooled-up prospects also happen to put up big numbers, that's worthy of celebration.
Congratulations, at last, to the Brewers who, for the first time all season, are atop these Power Rankings. They’re actually the fourth team to hold the No. 1 spot this year, and the others are, like them, from the National League: The Dodgers (who had been No. 1 for the past two months before this week), the Braves and, for one week back in May, the Cubs.
This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Humanoid robots and AI are chasing a powerful promise: replacing repetitive manufacturing tasks for lower cost, easing caregiver shortages, taking people out of dangerous work, and helping more of us live better, fuller lives in environments built for humans. That’s important, and it’s coming. On rural farms or urban construction sites, the problem looks different.
Like other global automakers, XPeng Motors is branching into humanoid robots. The electric vehicle manufacturer today said that its Dogotix robotics unit has raised more than $900 million in its initial funding round, bringing its pre-money valuation to $5 billion and post-transaction valuation to more than $6.3 billion.
While a digital twin does not necessarily replace a systems integrator, it can help manufacturers evaluate robots and plan applications, says RoboDK.
The addition of physical AI to the workforce requires more key performance indicators than throughput, according to the president of HireArt.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut electricity and critical minerals to the United States if President Donald Trump continues to escalate his trade war with Canada, drawing an angry response from the US leader. The exchange came hours after Trump announced that tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel would rise to 50% on January 1, 2027.
Russia and China have expanded trade links through the Arctic, with the first Chinese container ship arriving at Russia’s northern port of Murmansk via the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Rosatom announced on Monday. Beijing has described the growing cooperation with Moscow as part of its “Ice Silk Road” initiative.
Appointing Darline Graham to simply finish her brother Lindsey’s Senate term was one thing, but having her run for the next term, with Donald Trump’s support, is simply bonkers. Or does Trump know something we don’t?
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad next month, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of politicizing the sport and making “Russophobic” decisions.
Donald Trump’s investment portfolio raked in millions in oil and gas stocks while Americans all got gouged at the pump. Trump’s fiercely devoted blonde 35 year-old aide Natalie Harp’s deleted social media posts have come to light, revealing years of over-the-top devotion to the president. In Texas, conservatives are pledging to break with the Republican Party over their support for AI data…
Today, Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson sat down with Ellie Leonard of The Panicked Writer Substack and Kait Justice of the Downwind of Truth Substack. Ellie and Kait are two leading independent researchers covering the Jeffrey Epstein saga who have been digging deep into evidence most legacy outlets still haven’t touched.
Former federal officials are revealing that the White House already has a secure nuclear bunker, which undermines Donald Trump’s main argument for his $600 million ballroom. A Pentagon spokesperson just admitted that it keeps a secret blacklist of journalists who ask questions it doesn’t like.
Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., January 17, 2026. John here, and this is the Sunday Wrapup. This week, Democrats saw their chances of retaking the Senate — which seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago — significantly improve, all thanks to a handful of Senate races in red states.
PHOENIX – A season ago, Michael Busch was the Cubs’ home-run leader. But after smacking 34 bombs in 2025, the first baseman came into Monday sixth on the roster with just 16 this year. It’s not that he hasn’t been effective – his .352 on-base percentage was the highest of his young major league career – but he hasn’t been the same lineup-carrying presence he was at times last season.
PHOENIX — You might have heard that the Cubs are in a playoff race. While there’s still more than a month of baseball before the postseason begins and the Cubs play their most important games of the year, the games are pretty important already, with the Brewers threatening to pull away in the NL Central and teams like the Phillies and Padres hot on the Cubs’ heels in the wild-card standings.
SEATTLE — Cubs left fielder Ian Happ had a chance to join a mighty exclusive baseball fraternity. Only 13 players in major-league history have hit two grand slams in the same game, and after Happ banged his first off the foul pole in the third inning Sunday, he strolled to the plate with the bases loaded again in the eighth. He drew a walk instead of becoming the newest member of the club.
SEATTLE — The Cubs can be happy they didn’t get swept out of the Pacific Northwest by a sub-.500 Mariners team after winning with a 19-2 rout Sunday.
This release of the Anthropic plugin for LLM mainly provides compatibility with the recently released anthropic v1.0.0 Python library, which switches from httpx to httpx2. OpenAI made the same change in their v3.0.0 release two weeks ago. Anthropic provide this migration guide for upgrading to 1.0, so I prompted Fable 5 in Claude Code with:.
Your executable is a SQLite database (via) Farid Zakaria describes a neat Linux pattern for creating a SQLite database file that can be directly used as an executable binary. The trick sets the SQLite file format's 4-byte application ID (68 bytes into the file) to SELF, standing for Structured Executable & Linkable Format.
Anthropic’s best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive (via) A few interesting numbers in this FT story gathered from "people with knowledge of the matter":. This article also introduced me to the Ramp AI index, which uses billing data from 70,000 Ramp credit card using companies to estimate model adoption.
Prior to Fable, it felt silly to waste too much time improving your coding harness or context strategies. A new model would arrive at the same price (or cheaper!) and paper over most of your problems. It was (and still is!) incredible.
The Middletown Works facility is considered to be Cleveland-Cliffs’ flagship plant for producing automotive steel, with the capacity to produce 3 million tons of raw steel per year. The project would maintain current production levels while “improving operational reliability, productivity, energy efficiency, and cost competitiveness,” the company said in a news release.
The United States and Canada failed to reach a deal Friday that would have averted 50% levies President Donald Trump promised last month, further souring the trade relationship between two of North America’s largest economies.
Manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing energy procurement — including efficiency, fuel diversity, or other investments — amid an ongoing rise in prices. Few industries have been untouched by this year’s convergence of geopolitical turmoil, an artificial intelligence infrastructure boom and federal policies that have contributed to energy cost increases.
Brad Howell had hit a ceiling he couldn't hire his way past. His company, R&D Specialties, is a UL-certified panel builder that's served the oil and gas industry in Odessa, Texas, since 1983. To grow, he needed more skilled labor.
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut electricity and critical minerals to the United States if President Donald Trump continues to escalate his trade war with Canada, drawing an angry response from the US leader. The exchange came hours after Trump announced that tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel would rise to 50% on January 1, 2027.
Russia and China have expanded trade links through the Arctic, with the first Chinese container ship arriving at Russia’s northern port of Murmansk via the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Rosatom announced on Monday. Beijing has described the growing cooperation with Moscow as part of its “Ice Silk Road” initiative.
Appointing Darline Graham to simply finish her brother Lindsey’s Senate term was one thing, but having her run for the next term, with Donald Trump’s support, is simply bonkers. Or does Trump know something we don’t?
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad next month, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of politicizing the sport and making “Russophobic” decisions.
In recent years, Palmeiras have made a healthy profit from the big-money exits of Endrick (Real Madrid), Estêvão (Chelsea), Vitor Reis (Manchester City) and Luiz Guilherme (Sporting CP). And now they can add winger Allan Elias to the list, as he is set to join Manchester City for €40 million (€37.5 million up front and €2.5 million in add-ons). This deal, though, is a little different.
By any reasonable measure, Julián Álvarez has been a successful signing for Atlético Madrid. Having joined from Manchester City for an initial €75 million in 2024, as he begins his third season in LaLiga, the Argentina striker needs to score just once to take his tally for his club to 50 goals.
Does Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson hold the cards to Julián Álvarez's future at Atlético Madrid amid strong interest from Arsenal and Barcelona? Plus, Junior Kroupi could still leave Bournemouth despite his long-term injury. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.
Fantasy football is all about fun, competition and camaraderie, but it's also another way to appreciate the best of the best in the NFL. For more than three decades, ESPN Fantasy has been here with you, celebrating peak performers and magical moments.
Puka Nacua, Cam Skattebo, Bucky Irving, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jacory Croskey-Merritt: all were later-round rookie picks that hit for fantasy football purposes in recent years. Not all in this year's class will reach the heights those players did, but there are plenty of rookies worth taking a shot on in the later rounds or keeping an eye on as they potentially bloom into waiver wire targets.
Donald Trump’s investment portfolio raked in millions in oil and gas stocks while Americans all got gouged at the pump. Trump’s fiercely devoted blonde 35 year-old aide Natalie Harp’s deleted social media posts have come to light, revealing years of over-the-top devotion to the president. In Texas, conservatives are pledging to break with the Republican Party over their support for AI data…
Today, Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson sat down with Ellie Leonard of The Panicked Writer Substack and Kait Justice of the Downwind of Truth Substack. Ellie and Kait are two leading independent researchers covering the Jeffrey Epstein saga who have been digging deep into evidence most legacy outlets still haven’t touched.
Former federal officials are revealing that the White House already has a secure nuclear bunker, which undermines Donald Trump’s main argument for his $600 million ballroom. A Pentagon spokesperson just admitted that it keeps a secret blacklist of journalists who ask questions it doesn’t like.
Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., January 17, 2026. John here, and this is the Sunday Wrapup. This week, Democrats saw their chances of retaking the Senate — which seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago — significantly improve, all thanks to a handful of Senate races in red states.
PHOENIX – For the better part of the past four and a half years, Kevin Gausman pitched like a bona fide ace for the Blue Jays. A World Series-tested veteran, the 35-year-old brings both moxie and a nasty fastball/splitter mix to the top of the Cubs’ rotation – both of which he displayed in a dominant outing Monday.
Think back to March, preparing for Opening Day of the 2026 season, and imagine someone told you, “Neither Aaron Judge nor Shohei Ohtani will win MVP this season. That’d be hard to believe, no? Yordan Alvarez still has a stranglehold on AL honors in our latest MVP poll, but for the first time this season, we’ve seen a seismic shakeup in the NL.
The Top 100 Prospects list isn't formulated to pick the players who will perform best in the Minor Leagues. It's a ranking that looks at which players project to have the most success in the Majors. Of course, when tooled-up prospects also happen to put up big numbers, that's worthy of celebration.
Congratulations, at last, to the Brewers who, for the first time all season, are atop these Power Rankings. They’re actually the fourth team to hold the No. 1 spot this year, and the others are, like them, from the National League: The Dodgers (who had been No. 1 for the past two months before this week), the Braves and, for one week back in May, the Cubs.
This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PHOENIX – A season ago, Michael Busch was the Cubs’ home-run leader. But after smacking 34 bombs in 2025, the first baseman came into Monday sixth on the roster with just 16 this year. It’s not that he hasn’t been effective – his .352 on-base percentage was the highest of his young major league career – but he hasn’t been the same lineup-carrying presence he was at times last season.
PHOENIX — You might have heard that the Cubs are in a playoff race. While there’s still more than a month of baseball before the postseason begins and the Cubs play their most important games of the year, the games are pretty important already, with the Brewers threatening to pull away in the NL Central and teams like the Phillies and Padres hot on the Cubs’ heels in the wild-card standings.
SEATTLE — Cubs left fielder Ian Happ had a chance to join a mighty exclusive baseball fraternity. Only 13 players in major-league history have hit two grand slams in the same game, and after Happ banged his first off the foul pole in the third inning Sunday, he strolled to the plate with the bases loaded again in the eighth. He drew a walk instead of becoming the newest member of the club.
SEATTLE — The Cubs can be happy they didn’t get swept out of the Pacific Northwest by a sub-.500 Mariners team after winning with a 19-2 rout Sunday.
Humanoid robots and AI are chasing a powerful promise: replacing repetitive manufacturing tasks for lower cost, easing caregiver shortages, taking people out of dangerous work, and helping more of us live better, fuller lives in environments built for humans. That’s important, and it’s coming. On rural farms or urban construction sites, the problem looks different.
Like other global automakers, XPeng Motors is branching into humanoid robots. The electric vehicle manufacturer today said that its Dogotix robotics unit has raised more than $900 million in its initial funding round, bringing its pre-money valuation to $5 billion and post-transaction valuation to more than $6.3 billion.
While a digital twin does not necessarily replace a systems integrator, it can help manufacturers evaluate robots and plan applications, says RoboDK.
The addition of physical AI to the workforce requires more key performance indicators than throughput, according to the president of HireArt.
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
This release of the Anthropic plugin for LLM mainly provides compatibility with the recently released anthropic v1.0.0 Python library, which switches from httpx to httpx2. OpenAI made the same change in their v3.0.0 release two weeks ago. Anthropic provide this migration guide for upgrading to 1.0, so I prompted Fable 5 in Claude Code with:.
Your executable is a SQLite database (via) Farid Zakaria describes a neat Linux pattern for creating a SQLite database file that can be directly used as an executable binary. The trick sets the SQLite file format's 4-byte application ID (68 bytes into the file) to SELF, standing for Structured Executable & Linkable Format.
Anthropic’s best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive (via) A few interesting numbers in this FT story gathered from "people with knowledge of the matter":. This article also introduced me to the Ramp AI index, which uses billing data from 70,000 Ramp credit card using companies to estimate model adoption.
Prior to Fable, it felt silly to waste too much time improving your coding harness or context strategies. A new model would arrive at the same price (or cheaper!) and paper over most of your problems. It was (and still is!) incredible.
The Middletown Works facility is considered to be Cleveland-Cliffs’ flagship plant for producing automotive steel, with the capacity to produce 3 million tons of raw steel per year. The project would maintain current production levels while “improving operational reliability, productivity, energy efficiency, and cost competitiveness,” the company said in a news release.
The United States and Canada failed to reach a deal Friday that would have averted 50% levies President Donald Trump promised last month, further souring the trade relationship between two of North America’s largest economies.
Manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing energy procurement — including efficiency, fuel diversity, or other investments — amid an ongoing rise in prices. Few industries have been untouched by this year’s convergence of geopolitical turmoil, an artificial intelligence infrastructure boom and federal policies that have contributed to energy cost increases.
Brad Howell had hit a ceiling he couldn't hire his way past. His company, R&D Specialties, is a UL-certified panel builder that's served the oil and gas industry in Odessa, Texas, since 1983. To grow, he needed more skilled labor.