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In its recent history, Xbox has accomplished few esteemed deeds worth commemorating . Even as it attempts to pivot into a new era under new CEO Asha Sharma, it's still suffering from the fallout of a persistent strategic malaise, having achieved little more in the current decade than acquiring a sizable chunk of the games industry just to lay it off, spinning up a games subscription service that served as a division-wide money pit, and briefly insisting that everything is an Xbox before realizing that gave everyone a reason not to own an Xbox.

Now, as its new leadership seems poised for another round of sweeping layoffs and studio closures, Microsoft's gaming division has released a set of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 ads—spotted by Resetera user CloseTalker —that distill its years of dysfunction into one embarrassing disclaimer: "NOT ON XBOX GAME PASS THIS YEAR."

(Image credit: Activision) According to the Meta ad library , the ads in question started running across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads on June 27. In a vacuum, the business decision clarified in their series-standard tactical coolguy font is a defensible one: In April, Xbox announced that Call of Duty games would no longer appear on Game Pass at launch after reporting emerged in October that the service had generated an estimated $300 million loss in sales of Black Ops 6.

Presumably, that's because giving people an option to pay for a month of Game Pass instead of your best-selling series means you sell a lot fewer copies of your best-selling series. Especially once customers lose patience with the service's prior habit of maddening pricing tiers , increasing subscription costs, and arcane restrictions.

It's no surprise, then, that dropping CoD from Game Pass and lowering its pricing demands has led to improved revenue growth for the service. But while delaying new CoD entries' addition to Game Pass libraries until a year after launch should help sales figures, the fact that ads must now disclaim YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS ONE NORMAL-STYLE instead of 137 NEW WEAPON ATTACHMENTS or whatever feels like a surrender, brought about by pathologically confused brand messaging that hasn't improved under the new regime. We used to have FAQs for these kinds of things.

But hey, at least we're clear on how many of the letters in "Xbox" should be capitalized in official communications .

2026 games : All the upcoming games

Best PC games : Our all-time favorites

Free PC games : Freebie fest

Best FPS games : Finest gunplay

Best RPGs : Grand adventures

Best co-op games : Better together

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Nearly 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius buried a vast collection of scrolls in ash and scorched them into solid black lumps. Now, without unrolling them, researchers have virtually read two of them —‬ and uncovered what may be a work by a well-known Stoic philosopher.

The breakthrough comes from the Vesuvius Challenge , an international research effort to digitally read the scrolls that were preserved when Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by ash and pumice in A.D. 79. Papyrologists, who study and preserve the ancient manuscripts, announced June 25 that they had digitally unwrapped the surviving portion of one scroll, known as PHerc. 1667, revealing roughly 5 feet (1.5 meters) of continuous Greek text across 20 columns. Researchers also recovered more than 70 columns of text from a second scroll, PHerc. 172.

"For nearly two millennia, many of these texts have been physically preserved but intellectually inaccessible," Brent Seales , Vesuvius Challenge co-founder and a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, said in a statement . "Today ‪—‬ after years of interdisciplinary work combining advanced imaging, artificial intelligence , academic research and an innovation contest ‪—‬ we are finally able to read them."

Over the past few years, Seales and his team have used a synchrotron to essentially X-ray inside the scrolls and detect the ink ancient Romans used to write. The letters are then studied by papyrologists, who translate the text.

Part of PHerc. 1667 was physically opened in the 1980s, but overlapping layers obscured the writing so badly that the scroll was given a readability score of zero, Federica Nicolardi , a papyrologist at the University of Naples Federico II, said in the statement.

The handwriting and text of PHerc. 1667 suggest the scroll dates to the second or third century B.C., making it one of the oldest scrolls in the Herculaneum collection. This early date means it could not have been authored by Philodemus of Gadara , the first-century-B.C. Epicurean philosopher whose writings dominated the Herculaneum library.

Experts think the text reads more like a Stoic treatise on ethics and human behavior, and it specifically mentions Aristocreon, the nephew and pupil of the influential Stoic philosopher Chrysippus . Very little of Chrysippus' own writing has survived, so if the attribution holds up, it would be a significant addition to the historical record of early Stoic thought.

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In a separate discovery, researchers identified a new book title within scroll PHerc. 139. The end of the scroll references Philodemus' eighth book of "On Gods." While this treatise had previously been known to exist, the new discovery reveals the work extended across at least eight volumes. Experts plan to reexamine other texts in the Herculaneum collection for additional volumes that may belong to the same series.

More than 600 Herculaneum scrolls remain unopened. It's thought that the villa was once owned by the father-in-law of Julius Caesar .

How much do you know about the Roman town destroyed by Mount Vesuvius? Find out by taking our Pompeii quiz!

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The venerable C-2A Greyhound carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft made its final flight to an aircraft carrier, a U.S. Navy official confirmed to TWZ . This final trap, which took place last week aboard the USS Nimitz , marks the end of nearly 60 years of providing logistics services to America’s flattops. That role has now been completely turned over to the Navy’s fleet of CMV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft , the official told us, marking the end of an era in naval aviation.

On June 25, Greyhounds belonging to the “Rawhides” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 made the last arrested landing and catapult launch from a carrier, the official added. Though the Greyhounds won’t land on carriers anymore, they will still be flying until later this year when they are anticipated to be fully retired, barring any major contingencies.

You can read more about what it was like to fly a Greyhound in our deep-dive interview with a former pilot here .

A C-2A Greyhound, attached to the “Rawhides” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40, takes off from the flight deck of the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), making the last ever catapult launch of a Greyhound on June 25, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Peter K. McHaddad)

Janes was the first to report the last carrier mission of the Greyhound.

“Vice Admiral Doug Perry, commander of both the Joint Force Command Norfolk and the US 2nd Fleet, joined Nimitz as the ship travelled north from Mayport, Florida, toward New York City,” the publication stated. “Adm. Perry and several reporters, including Janes , boarded the Greyhounds as the C-2s were catapulted off Nimitz at about 1800 local time, marking the aircraft’s final expected COD takeoff.”

Greyhounds were aboard the Nimitz along with the T-1 demonstrator for the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker program and a number of Super Hornets, all of which are taking part in a large multinational exercise associated with America’s 250th birthday. The C-2s on the other hand didn’t linger around.

The Greyhound, a derivative of the Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, first entered service in the late 1960s and replaced the piston-engined C-1 Trader in the COD role.

An E-2D Hawkeye, assigned to Airborne Command & Control Squadron (VAW) 117, flies over the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Daniel Kimmelman) Seaman Daniel Kimmelman

“The original C-2A aircraft were overhauled to extend their operational life in 1973,” the U.S. Naval Academy noted . “In 1984, a contract was awarded for 39 new C-2A aircraft to replace the earlier airframes. Dubbed the Reprocured C-2A due to the similarity to the original aircraft, the new C-2A includes substantial airframe and avionic systems improvements. All the older C-2As were phased out in 1987, and the last of the new models was delivered in 1990.”

Greyhound’s replacement, the CMV-22B, was declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2021 . While the Program of Record has 48 CMV-22Bs projected, the Navy currently plans to procure only 44 aircraft.

A CMV-22B Osprey hovering. (Petty Officer 3rd Class Derek Kelley) Petty Officer 3rd Class Derek Kelley

As we noted in previous coverage , the advent of the Ospreys was seen as a “game-changer” by senior Navy officials.

“With distributed maritime ops, longer ranges, distances between multi-carrier operations, distances from land-based areas, and the ability for the CMV-22B to plop down on unimproved spaces, it proved to be a game-changer for us on deployment,” Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, then-commander of Naval Air Forces (NAVAIR) and Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said during a 2022 Maritime Security Dialogue event .

From our past story :

“ Powered by two Rolls-Royce Liberty AE1107C engines, each delivering 6,200 shaft horsepower, the Osprey has a range of about 1,150 nautical miles with a 6,000-pound internal payload, Whitesell noted at the time. It’s also capable of aerial refueling, while the C-2 is not .

By comparison, the Greyhound , powered by two Allison T56-A-425 turboprop engines each delivering 4,600 shaft horsepower, has a range of about 1,000 nautical miles .

Then there was the issue of being able to land on an aircraft carrier at night.

Whitesell said the CMV-22B can do that, while the Navy has been ‘reticent in the past’ to allow Greyhounds to do night carrier landings ‘based on the avionics in that platform .’”

There are various other advantages and disadvantages of each platform. For instance, the C-2 is pressurized and can fly at higher altitudes, over weather, while the CMV-22 is not and flies at lower altitudes.

Navy CMV-22B Ospreys landing on an aircraft carrier. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Emma Burgess)

While the Navy was moving to retire the Greyhounds, the Ospreys encountered a number of problems. Key among them was a three-month-long grounding of virtually all Osprey tiltrotors worldwide following the fatal crash of a U.S. Air Force CV-22B off the coast of Japan in 2023 .

The 2023 CV-22 crash “was definitely a wake-up call for many of us who are anticipating transitioning from the C-2 to the CMV-22,” Rear Adm. Douglas ‘V8’ Verissimo, then commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic (AIRLANT), said bluntly last year . “The C-2 crews, with some venerable old aircraft, stepped up and took care of business. An unexpected surge in the requirement to maintain carrier onboard delivery [COD] to our aircraft carriers going forward.”

A C-2A Greyhound assigned to the Providers of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz . (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Peter Merrill)

In the wake of that incident, there were flight restrictions placed on the Ospreys that limited the range they could fly, which impacted their COD role. However, after mechanical fixes were made, the Navy began lifting those restrictions in January, a Navy official told us.

“For security reasons, the specific thresholds, numbers of aircraft affected, and details of added controls are not releasable,” the official added.

There have also been relatively damning reports about the CMV-22’s ability to do the COD mission from the Pentagon’s own testing force, nonetheless less the C-2’s final retirement has drawn closer.

Future and the past: C-2s sit next to the T-1 MQ-25 demonstrator, representing the future on unmanned naval air warfare. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Johnathan McCune) Seaman Johnathan McCune

Regardless of how the CMV-22Bs are still restricted, the Navy apparently feels confident enough in the Osprey to move the C-2A Greyhound one step closer to retirement. At the same time, there can be no doubt that while the Navy gains new capabilities with the Osprey, it loses others with the C-2. Beyond that, the workhorse nature of the C-2 is a known and proven quantity, while the CMV-22 is still having its teething issues.

No matter the aircraft, COD is a ‘no-fail’ mission that enables the entire carrier strike group. With that in mind, the CMV-22 will have some big flight boots to finally fill alone once the C-2 leaves the service later this year.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The post The C-2 Greyhound Has Made Its Last Trap Aboard A Carrier appeared first on TWZ .

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Netflix has already dropped a handful of huge projects including 2026, including a new addition to its top 10 most-watched movies of all time list in War Machine . The bonkers sci-fi adventure stars Reacher veteran Alan Ritchson , and after earning well over 130 million views since premiering on the platform, the streamer has confirmed that it is working on a sequel to the film. Netflix also found a new Stranger Things replacement series of sorts in The Boroughs , a new sci-fi TV series that was even produced by the Duffer brothers , the creators of Stranger Things . The show was a smash hit, spending weeks in the Netflix top 10, but it didn’t do well enough to earn a second season, and Netflix canceled the show while it was still in the global top 10. The streaming landscape can be brutal for expensive sci-fi and fantasy shows.