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What can leaders do about a transnational organization that is a militia, a political party, a social services network, and a smuggling operation at the same time — and one that has resisted various dialogues and survived repeated attacks?American, Lebanese, and other leaders should recognize Hizballah’s hybrid, transnational nature and grapple with the unique challenges the organization creates. Otherwise, they will fail to resolve the Hizballah predicament while creating conditions for ineffective agreements, new wars, and squandered opportunities in the Levant.Meeting openly for the first time in decades, Lebanese and Israeli representatives have negotiated on security and political tracks while

The post The Hizballah Predicament: Why An Integrated Approach Is Necessary appeared first on War on the Rocks .

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Playground Games confirms Fable uses Forza Horizon 's tech engine

The studio "built a ton of additional technology" on top of the base engine

Creator of the Fable series, Peter Molyneux, wasn't involved with the game's development "at all"

Fable will utilize the same engine as the Forza Horizon series, which Playground Games says has been a "gift" for the upcoming role-playing game (RPG).

During a press Q&A at an Xbox event adjacent to this year's Summer Game Fest (SGF) attended by TechRadar Gaming, associate game director Craig Littler discussed how the team applied the Forza tech engine to create Fable 's sprawling fantasy world, as well as how it evolved certain elements.

"In terms of synergies with Forza , so we're on the same technology base, the same engine, the Forza tech engine," he said, "and that's been a real gift for us, because it's the engine that we've been working on for over a decade at Playground, and it's the great engine that's produced the Forza Horizon series, and that's the engine that we're using for Fable as well."

It's not just the same reused tech, however. The developer explained that the team has "built a ton of additional technology on top of" the base engine and had to change from racing to a character-based game.

"We've had to invest heavily in locomotion and animation and also things like cinematics and quests," Litler added, "but really the Forza tech engine is incredibly good at extremely high fidelity graphics, as well as world-class streaming. And so for us, using that base for Fable is just a match made in heaven, combined with our experience, and honestly, a team that are just huge fans of this franchise."

He went on to confirm that Peter Molyneux, the creator of the Fable series, wasn't involved with the development of the new title "at all," saying, "He's a legend, and we played a bunch of his games, but this is very much Playground vision for Fable ."

Fable will officially launch on February 23, 2027, for PlayStation 5 , Xbox Series X , Series S , and PC.

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Gemini Spark is coming to the Gemini macOS app, letting your Mac automate multi-step tasks like organizing files and creating spreadsheets.

You’ll soon be able to assign tasks from your phone and have Spark complete them remotely on your Mac.

Spark is also gaining Google Keep and Google Tasks integration, along with real-time alerts for topics, sports, and stock updates.

The Gemini macOS app is getting a major upgrade with the arrival of Gemini Spark , Google’s AI agent that can complete tasks on your behalf.

If you’ve ever spent hours renaming dozens of photos, sorting files into folders, or pulling numbers from multiple documents to build a spreadsheet, this is exactly the kind of work Spark is meant to eliminate. Rather than giving you instructions on how to do something, it aims to do the work for you.