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Dacia Striker debuts as a compact wagon with crossover cues.

It is available with hybrid powertrains in FWD and AWD flavors.

Dacia promises a starting price of under €25,000 ($28,300).

Dacia has rolled out more photos and details on the all-new Striker, following the official preview of the vehicle back in March. The second Dacia to land in the compact segment alongside the Bigster SUV, it’s a lifted wagon with electrified powertrain choices, built around affordability and practicality. Rather than pick a lane, Dacia claims the Striker is an SUV, a saloon, and an estate at once.

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The brand pitches the Striker as a vehicle that serves up “the best of all three worlds,” blending “the high driving position and outdoor capabilities of an SUV, the versatility and convenience of an estate, and the efficiency and performance of a saloon.”

More: Dacia’s Budget EV Is Leaving China For Europe, And It’s Getting Pricier

The model takes on a lifted wagon stance with rugged styling cues worked into its sculpted bodywork. Its design language evolves the theme already seen on the Duster and Bigster SUVs, adding new elements such as the T-shaped LEDs in the headlights and taillights.

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Long And Low

Dacia

The Striker is the longest model in the Dacia lineup, stretching to 4.62 meters (181.9 in) long, which is 50 mm (2 in) more than the Bigster . Its 1.53 m (60.2 in) roof height sits lower than most SUVs, helping it reach an impressive aero coefficient of 0.29 cd. Ground clearance remains generous at 190 mm (7.5 in) in the standard model and up to 200 mm (7.9 in) for the AWD variant.

More: Renault’s R4 Concept Just Became A Beach Buggy That Moonlights As A Pickup

Depending on the configuration, the wheels measure 17, 18, or 19 inches in diameter. The lineup runs from the entry-level Essential through the mid-tier Expression to the flagship Extreme and Journey trims, the pair shown in the official imagery.

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The Extreme is aimed at outdoor enthusiasts, using a scratch-resistant recycled material called Starkle for the cladding, along with Copper Brown accents, washable interior upholstery, and rubber floor mats. The Journey instead leans toward long-distance family comfort, with standard kit that includes a power-adjustable driver’s seat, heated front seats and steering wheel, wireless charging, navigation, and a power tailgate.

Dacia Striker Hybrid 155 Journey

The dashboard resembles the Duster and Bigster setup, but the Striker gets its own trim elements. The 7-inch digital instrument cluster and the 10.1-inch infotainment come standard across the lineup, as do the rearview camera, rear parking sensors, and an ADAS suite that can be switched off using the dedicated “My Safety” button. An optical reflection technology also projects key information from the digital cluster as a 3D floating image.

More: Dacia Built A Hotel Out Of SUVs Just For Stargazers

The interior has a two-row five-seater layout setting it apart from the smaller three-row-capable Jogger . The cargo area has a capacity of 600 lt (21.2 cubic feet) featuring an Easy Fold system for the rear bench and a reversible three-part modular boot floor that can divide it in partitions.

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If you need more space, Dacia offers a 480-liter (17 cubic feet) roof box as an option, alongside the YouClip accessory mounting system. Finally, the model is available with a panoramic glass roof.

Two Hybrids At Launch

Dacia Striker Hybrid 155 Journey

As with the rest of the Dacia lineup , the Striker rides on the CMF-B architecture. At launch, it is available with two self-charging hybrid powertrain options.

More: Renault’s New Duster Looks Like An Expensive Dacia, Until You See The Price

The Hybrid 155 (FWD) pairs a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine making 109 hp (81 kW / 111 PS) with a 49 hp (36 kW / 50 PS) electric motor, a starter-generator, a 1.4 kWh lithium-ion battery, and a clutchless automatic gearbox running four gears for the ICE and two for electric operation. Dacia says the hybrid leans on electric power for starting and for up to 80% of urban driving.

Dacia Striker Hybrid 150 4×4 Extreme

The other option is the Hybrid 150 4×4, which brings AWD capability. It uses a mild-hybrid turbocharged 1.2-liter engine producing 140 hp (103 kW / 142 PS) mated to a six-speed dual-clutch automatic, plus a disengageable rear electric motor producing 31 hp (23 kW) with its own two-speed automatic gearbox. The driver gets five modes, Auto, Eco, Snow, Mud/Sand, and Off-Road, along with a Hill Descent Control system.

More: Fiat’s New Grizzly SUV Is Hunting The Dacia Bigster, And It Didn’t Come Alone

It remains to be seen whether the Striker will become available with more powertrains in the future, following the example of the Duster and the Bigster that can be ordered with bi-fuel gasoline/LPG and mild-hybrid engines.

Priced To Poach

The Dacia Striker’s market launch in Europe and the UK is expected to begin shortly. The automaker promises a starting price under €25,000 ($28,500), aiming to shake up the compact segment. With no direct rivals in this price range, the Striker sets out to poach buyers from subcompact SUVs and compact hatchbacks.

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The patient: A woman in her early 50s in Canada

The symptoms: The woman started occasionally hearing her name being called when she was alone, usually in quiet surroundings. Later, the sounds evolved into indistinct murmurs. These voices seemed to come from outside her head rather than from her own thoughts. They never spoke directly to her, commented on her actions or gave commands.

What happened next: In the next two years after she began hearing voices, the woman made several trips to emergency departments and had brief psychiatric admissions. Because hearing voices is commonly associated with psychosis — symptoms that occur when people experience a disconnect from reality — doctors diagnosed her with "unspecified psychosis" and attempted various treatments.

They first tried the antipsychotic risperidone, gradually increasing the dose, but the voices did not go away. Doctors then switched the patient to aripiprazole, but the hallucinations remained unchanged. Next, they tried haloperidol, and although the woman said the medication made her feel calmer and less distressed, the voices persisted.

As they conducted further psychiatric evaluations, the doctors noticed that the woman frequently leaned forward during conversations, cupped an ear and asked people to repeat themselves. About four to six months after her first contact with a psychiatric team, she was referred for hearing tests. These tests revealed hearing loss in both ears, ranging from moderate to severe in one ear and mild to profound in the other.

About two months later, the woman was fitted with hearing aids in both ears, which improved her hearing. The voices did not go away, however.

Brain scans showed no abnormalities, and blood tests came back normal. Neurological evaluations turned up no evidence of other explanations. Meanwhile, the woman continued working full time, managing her household and maintaining an active social life. She showed no signs of paranoia, delusions, disorganized thinking or the decline in daily functioning that doctors would typically expect to be associated with a psychotic disorder.

The diagnosis: Based on the woman's stable functioning, hearing impairment and lack of other clinical abnormalities, the doctors concluded that her auditory hallucinations stemmed from sensory deprivation caused by hearing loss.

Reduced sound input from the ears can make auditory regions of the brain unusually active, causing them to "fill in" missing sounds, the doctors explained in a report of the case . A related phenomenon is known as musical hallucinosis , in which people with hearing impairments hear songs, melodies or other forms of music that are not actually playing.

The treatment: Because neither antipsychotic medications nor hearing aids eliminated the patient's hallucinations, doctors shifted their focus toward helping the woman cope with them.

They taught her about the connection between hearing loss and hallucinations and advised her to pursue psychotherapy aimed at reducing the distress associated with the voices and improving her coping strategies for dealing with their persistence. At the time the report was published, in May 2026, she was waiting to begin this therapy.

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What makes the case unique: In their report, the doctors noted that most published accounts of this phenomenon have described patients' hallucinations improving or resolving after their hearing impairment was treated. Persistent hallucinations after treatment are rare. In the woman's case, however, the voices persisted despite the use of hearing aids.

The doctors suggest that prolonged hearing loss may cause lasting changes in the brain that do not immediately reverse once hearing improves. (The case report does not note how long the woman's hearing had likely been impaired.)

The case also serves as a reminder that hearing voices does not always indicate psychosis, the doctors concluded. Because the woman's hearing loss was recognized only after years of symptoms and several unsuccessful medication trials, the report authors argued that doctors should consider running hearing assessments early in patients with isolated auditory hallucinations, especially when their insight and daily functioning remain intact.

For more intriguing medical cases, check out our Diagnostic Dilemma archives .

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

Can you guess the diagnosis in these strange medical cases? Find out with our diagnostic dilemma quiz!

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From the outside looking in, it would appear that Undead Labs is a victim of mismanagement. The team was acquired by Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just weeks after the release of State of Decay 2. A sequel is set to land in 2027 after navigating a turbulent trajectory – revealed before it was ready for public consumption, development stalling during pre-production , challenges in shifting to Unreal Engine 5. The survival shooter finally opened its doors to public alpha testing earlier this spring .

Undead Labs didn't contribute any new games to the ecosystem in eight years. That's an irrefutable fact, which may speak to why Xbox just sold the studio as part of an internal reset . Although that doesn't mean the team hasn't been busy.

State of Decay 2 was a quiet success – amassing 10+ million lifetime players by its fourth anniversary. Undead supported this community with an expansion, multiple updates, new features, and years of refinements. Given how starved PS5 is for new co-op titles, it's shocking SoD2 wasn't part of the first wave of Xbox games to abandon platform-exclusivity . Another error from the prior Xbox administration.

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios Xbox has historically done a poor job of drawing attention to collaborations across XGS. The Coalition is an Unreal Engine 5 center of excellence. Other teams have made use of Ninja Theory's high-end motion capture studio. Rare provided the networking know-how for Double Fine's Kiln. Blizzard lent its cinematics expertise to Playground for Fable. Obsidian's proprietary dialogue editor is used by various in-development RPGs at Xbox. There's countless other examples.

Just like State of Decay helping bring Grounded to life. Operating with a small budget, Obsidian sought a novel way to achieve its co-op ambitions. And so it turned to Undead Labs, who had developed a system to store world-data as a shareable save file in the cloud. It's what allows multiple players to independently drop into the same persistent world without requiring a community's host to be online.

"It's almost like a pseudo-dedicated server space," Marcus Morgan, Obsidian's VP of operations, told me last year. "It's effectively just a shared cloud save, but you don't need any of the dedicated server infrastructure – or the cost that goes with it."

"The intention behind that was, because we were a small team (there were only like 20 people working on it, and the cost of making it was relatively small) this was a good way to satisfy player's needs," he says, adding: "That stemmed from a collaboration between us and Undead Labs. I have to give a big shout out to that team. They built this tech initially, and then we built upon it."

This 'Shared Save' technology helped Obsidian scale quickly to build more vibrant and collaborative backyards. Eventually, Undead received an expanded 'Shared World' system in return – allowing State of Decay 3 to support far larger communities, no longer constrained by the co-op tethers that plagued its predecessor. It'll be interesting to see whether the tech evolves again in the future.

Still, it's an interesting example of the sort of value that Undead Labs brought to Xbox, and the way the XGS group has been able to leverage wider expertise to bring concepts to life. Eight years without releasing a new game clearly isn't enough for this next era of Xbox, but the legacy of Undead Labs and State of Decay will live on through Grounded 2's ever-expanding Brookhollow Park forever.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creator Bryan Konietzko has revealed that more top-secret projects from the animated franchise are on the way – if the appetite is there from fans.

"The [Avatar] Aang movie was just one of a whole slate," Konietzko told Entertainment Weekly . "I'm working on another thing, which we'll announce when the time's right."

Right now, Avatar is in a precarious position. Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender suffered an unprecedented leak earlier this year, with the entirety of the movie being available to watch on social media for almost 24 hours. That followed the feature being pushed from a theatrical release to a Paramount Plus drop.

From there, Avatar Aang – which follows the adult Gaang as they encounter a surviving airbender – was shifted to a July 25 release , in line with an Avatar Hall H panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

Konietzko added of his current feeling after a tumultuous period for the series, "I think if we had just been kicked to the curb and felt like no one cared about us anymore, it would be harder to deal with. But they are really excited not only for this but for [upcoming show] Seven Havens – and for the other projects that we’re working on."

Seven Havens, a sequel to The Legend of Korra, is an upcoming series that has – unfortunately – also been the target of leakers in recent months.

A live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is currently airing, though its second season has seen a significant dip in viewership on Netflix compared to its first season.

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender hits Paramount Plus on July 25.

For more, check out all the big movie release dates still to come this year.

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Google has sent out invites for an event on August 12

It says we'll see “the next generation of Pixel” there

We expect the brand to launch the Pixel 11 series and the Pixel Watch 5, along with some price rises

It’s official — the Google Pixel 11 series will be launching on August 12, as Google has started sending out invites for an event on that date, promising to unveil “the next generation of Pixel.”

The launch starts at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 11pm BST, which is 8am on August 13 for those in Australia’s AEST time zone. The event will be held in New York, but we fully expect it to be streamed online too.

But what will Google actually unveil? Well, while no specific models were mentioned in the invite, we have a very good idea of what to expect.

1. The Google Pixel 11

The Google Pixel 10 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future) The Google Pixel 11 itself will almost certainly be announced at this event, with this phone rumored to have a new ‘Pixel Glow’ feature , which could take the form of colored lights on the back that can alert you to notifications.

Beyond that, the design might be similar to the Google Pixel 10 ’s, but there are sure to be changes to specs, with leaks pointing to a new Tensor G6 chipset, a new 50MP camera, and a new M16 OLED panel, which could improve the quality of the screen.

That might be about it for notable upgrades — though some new colors are likely to be offered too — so the Pixel Glow feature could be the standout change.

2. The Google Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL

The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL and Pixel 10 Pro (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future) Alongside the vanilla Pixel 11, Google will almost certainly launch the Pixel 11 Pro and the Pixel 11 Pro XL.

These phones should have many of the same upgrades — including Pixel Glow, a Tensor G6 chipset, and an M16 screen. But additionally, we’re hearing that they could also get two new camera sensors, and possibly a boost in charging power for the Pixel 11 Pro, bringing it up to 45W, in line with the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL (and likely the Pixel 11 Pro XL).

Less promisingly, there might be both 12GB and 16GB models of these phones, where the Google Pixel 10 Pro series came with 16GB of RAM as standard. But this might be necessary to keep the starting prices palatable in the face of rising RAM prices.

3. The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future) We’re also expecting a new foldable phone, in the form of the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold. And this phone, as with the rest of the Pixel 11 line, will probably have a new Tensor G6 chipset and an M16 screen, though it’s unclear whether it will get the Pixel Glow feature rumored for the rest of the line.

What it might get, though, is a removable battery — but while this feature has been quite widely reported, the only evidence for it seems to be a patent, so we wouldn’t count on it, since patents often don’t turn into anything.

Beyond all that, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold could be similar to last year’s model, with the same screen sizes and a similar battery capacity, but we’ll know for sure soon.

4. The Google Pixel Watch 5

The Google Pixel Watch 4 (Image credit: Blue Pixl Media) It’s not just phones we’ll see on August 12, as we’re also expecting to see the Google Pixel Watch 5.

Key rumored upgrades here include a Tensor chipset in place of its predecessor’s Snapdragon one, a brighter screen, smaller bezels, and potentially better battery life — though the latter will probably come as a result of optimizations rather than a higher capacity battery.

Some new AI and fitness tracking features may also be offered, but it’s likely that the Pixel Watch 5 will largely retain its predecessor’s design, so expect a circular screen and both 41mm and 45mm sizes.

5. Higher prices

The Google Pixel 10 Pro (Image credit: Future) That’s probably all of the products we’ll see at Google's upcoming event, but one other notable element could be their prices, as unfortunately, they may well be higher than we’ve seen from current models.

According to Dealabs , all four Pixel 11 series models will start at €100 more than their predecessors in Europe. Now, in the case of the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro, Google is apparently doing away with the 128GB starting capacity of their predecessors and starting them at 256GB of storage instead, with this new price being the same as what you’d already pay for a 256GB model of those phones.

So, in other words, the price of a 256GB model might be the same as last year; you just apparently won’t have the option to get a cheaper 128GB one.

But for the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL and the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold, that €100 price increase isn’t offset by a storage bump, with these phones reportedly starting at 256GB, just like their predecessors.

So, what will that mean in other regions? Well, if this information is accurate, then it likely means an $899 / £899 / AU$1,499 starting price for the Pixel 11 and a $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 starting price for the Pixel 11 Pro, since that’s what their 256GB predecessors launched at.

For the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, we have to take more of a guess, but based on how Google tends to adjust its pricing for different configurations, it could mean a starting price of $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,149 for the former and $1,899 / £1,849 / AU$2,849 for the latter — which would be $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than their predecessors.