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Having completed a full month in theaters worldwide, Steven Spielberg 's divisive sci-fi movie Disclosure Day still hasn't hit its projected break-even point. The movie wasn't astronomically expensive to produce, costing roughly half of what most major tentpoles cost these days. But it has struggled to build on solid opening-weekend momentum. Disclosure Day exceeded expectations in its debut frame, but had hefty drops in the subsequent weekends. The movie has, however, managed to pass the coveted $100 million mark domestically. That said, it can't be hailed as an objective win for Spielberg, who was coming off two back-to-back underperformers — the musical West Side Story and the semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans .

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I first visited a Buc-ee’s a few years ago in Kentucky on a road trip. It’s a melting pot of American culture and consumerism (with a really good cherry limeade pop). It’s also apparently an aggressive trademark litigator over its beaver mascot. Take a pit stop and share your news and tips here: bob.herman@statnews.com .

[Tim Robinson voice] You sure about that?

UnitedHealth Group was happy to promote a new audit that said nearly all of the diagnoses recorded for its Medicare Advantage members during home visits (97%) were justified by medical records. But the results are not nearly as clean, or useful, as the company suggests.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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BRUSSELS — The European Commission is considering stationing its officials in EU capitals, speeding up recruitment and getting the institution “AI-ready,” according to a sweeping set of proposals unveiled in an internal meeting Monday.

“There is an appetite for change,” said Piotr Serafin, the commissioner responsible for human resources. “There’s a readiness to reform the Commission … among the staff.”

The potential changes are part of the Commission’s first comprehensive workplace review in two decades. Launched last year, the review aims to make the Commission more efficient and a more attractive employer, with final recommendations due to be presented to President Ursula von der Leyen by the end of 2026.

The review comes as von der Leyen’s self-described “geopolitical Commission” confronts growing demands, from trade tensions with Washington and Beijing to supporting Ukraine against Russia. Its expanding role has also sharpened sensitivities in some capitals about the EU executive’s growing reach.

Monday’s proposals include shifting more officials from the Commission’s Brussels headquarters to EU capitals to strengthen ties with the bloc’s 27 member countries, accelerating the promotion of a new generation of leaders ahead of an expected wave of retirements, and preparing the institution to become “AI-ready,” according to a senior official involved in the review.

The official, granted anonymity to discuss the contents of the internal report, stressed that the proposals stopped short of abolishing any of the Commission’s 41 directorate-generals (DGs), the EU executive’s policy departments, or creating additional ones. It also won’t recommend cutting staff.

Instead, the focus was on making sure staff are not “siloed” in their departments and can collaborate more easily, the official said, along with reprioritizing work to make better use of existing resources.

‘More and more’

That effort may still require more people. According to a second official, the Commission plans to hire an additional 1,500 staff under the EU’s next seven-year budget, which starts in 2028, alongside another 1,000 roles across other EU institutions.

The first batch of recommendations — laid out in a 400-page report compiled by senior officials from 15 departments — was presented to all 30,000 Commission staff during a virtual meeting on Monday.

Serafin noted that the Commission employs around 1,500 fewer staff than it did in 2014 — even as demands have grown.

The Commission is expected to do “more and more,” he warned, arguing the institution needs adequate funding to match its expanding responsibilities.

Part of the solution, he said, is rethinking where EU officials work. More Brussels-based staff should spend time in national administrations of member countries to deepen cooperation.

“We have the people from the national administrations coming to Brussels, and I believe that we should also invest into the model of EU officials going to national administrations to have this cross-fertilizing of both systems,” he said.

Best talent

Recruitment remains another weak spot. Serafin singled out the European Personnel Selection Office, arguing that its lengthy hiring process is undermining the Commission’s ability to compete for talent.

“My biggest concern with the current model of EPSO is that it takes two to three years from the moment of application to the moment to the first salary,” he said. “This is not a recipe for attracting the best talent to the European institutions.”

Meanwhile, changes at the top are already looming, POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook reported . Several senior roles are expected to open in the coming months as officials retire or move on.

Among them is Gert Jan Koopman, the veteran Dutch official running the Commission’s DG ENEST enlargement department, according to two EU officials.

Michael Karnitschnig, currently acting director-general of DG MENA (foreign relations in the Middle East and North Africa), and Deputy Director-General Despina Spanou of DG CONNECT (comms networks and tech) are both tipped as candidates to replace him, which would leave their roles vacant.

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The FCC is chasing suspected DJI front companies

Multiple rebranded DJI-like devices are on sale in the US

New DJI products were banned in the US last year

Since last December, new DJI devices have been banned in the US, because the drone and camera maker is on the Covered List — a list of foreign manufacturers deemed to fall short of the security and safety standards put in place by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

However, the FCC thinks that DJI is sneaking products into the United States through front companies with different branding, and it's now taking action: as The Verge reports, eight of these companies have now been hit by $25,000 fines, with further investigations from the authorities pending.

The companies in question are Cogito Tech, Fikaxo Technology, Lyno Dynamics, Skyhigh, Spatial Hover, SZ Knowact Robot, WaveGo Tech, and Xtra Technology. You can check out the range of Cogito Tech drones on its website here , and decide for yourself how much they do or don't resemble DJI's offerings.

Xtra Technology also has a website showing off its vlogging cameras: as noted by The Verge, the company is promoting an Xtra Muse 2 Pro camera with the tagline "from Pocket to Pro", which bears more than a passing resemblance to the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P .

Cracking down

The DJI Osmo Pocket 4P (Image credit: Tim Coleman) These companies have so far failed to respond to questions from the FCC, and it seems the regulatory body is now ramping up its efforts to get some answers. Some of the test labs that these devices are passing through are being targeted as well.

The Verge also reports that gadgets previously approved for sale before the ban took effect have now disappeared from the FCC website — gadgets including the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 Pro. However, there's no indication that DJI products that have already been sold in the US are going to stop working or be recalled.

In order for any electronic device using radio frequencies to be sold in the US, from phones to drones, it has to be approved by the FCC — which is why we get so many detailed hardware leaks from FCC filings . Any company on the Covered List isn't going to get that approval, essentially meaning their products are banned.

While DJI has been vocal in calling its ban unfair, it hasn't commented on the claims around these alleged front companies so far — and it appears that the companies themselves aren't being at all communicative either. We've reached out to DJI for comment on the report, and will update this story if we hear back.

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A lawsuit says Ford buyers deserve tariff refunds after a court ruling.

One plaintiff claims his Mach-E price included tariffs later overturned.

Ford says it is reviewing the complaint, citing its “affordable” lineup.

Nobody likes paying a tariff -inflated price for a new car. But finding out after the ink has dried that the automaker could get that money back while you don’t is downright unfair. That’s the argument behind a new lawsuit that could have much wider implications than a single Ford sale.

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The proposed class action was filed against the Deaborn automaker in federal court in Michigan by California resident Jason Bullock, The Detroit News reports. Bullock says he paid an inflated price for his Mexico-built Ford Mustang Mach-E earlier this year because tariff costs had been baked into the sticker price and destination charges.

Related: The Fastest Car Up The Goodwood Hill Was An Electric Ford

But earlier this year the US Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Although some tariffs on components and materials remain in place that SCOTUS decision means companies that paid those duties are now in line for substantial refunds from the federal government.

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Ford has already told investors it expects a one-time benefit worth roughly $1.3 billion from recovering tariffs paid between March 2025 and February 2026. According to the lawsuit, that’s exactly why customers who absorbed those extra costs should receive something back too.

The Double Recovery Argument

The complaint argues Ford shouldn’t be allowed to pocket both the higher prices charged during the tariff period and the refunds received afterward. As the filing puts it, “If Ford retains the tariff refunds while also retaining the tariff-related price increases paid by consumers, Ford will receive a double recovery and unjust windfall.”

Ford hasn’t commented on the legal arguments themselves but confirmed it’s looking into the case.

“We are reviewing the complaint,” Ford spokesperson Richard Binhammer told The Detroit Press . “We have a lineup of affordable and accessible vehicles today and we’ll continue to act on that commitment in ways that make sense for customers and dealers.”

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Ford Might Not Be The Only Target

The case could also attract attention because Ford isn’t the only automaker expecting tariff-related reimbursements . General Motors and Stellantis have also indicated they anticipate receiving refunds, raising the possibility that similar legal challenges could follow across the industry.

If the court agrees the extra costs were passed on to buyers, automakers could find themselves paying out over tariffs long after the tariffs themselves have disappeared.

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Ford

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2026 has been a huge year for Nicolas Cage , who has been thrust back into the spotlight thanks to his commanding performance as Ben Reilly in Spider-Noir . The hit Prime Video series dropped as a binge back in May, and now, almost two full months after its release, it’s still one of the streamer's most popular shows worldwide . Famously a movie star only for the first 20+ years of his career, Cage is leaning more into TV now, as he’s also reportedly been tapped to lead the next season of True Detective , HBO’s hit crime thriller that has aired four seasons thus far. Cage even has a new movie coming to theaters later this year, when he’ll team up with Christian Bale for a John Madden biopic launching around the world on November 26.

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(Image credit: Future) AI is coming for our jobs, so it's time to find a new one. In No XP Needed , Chris Livingston is playing as many job simulators as he can until he finds his next career. This week: Forensics: Crime Scene Detective , a sim about solving crimes.

Everything I know about crime scene investigations I learned from the TV series CSI: Miami, a show where sexy people get murdered and different sexy people—plus David Caruso—solve the crime by doing lab work.

My memory of the show is that Caruso always kicks off the episode by saying the first part of a sentence, then puts on his sunglasses and finishes the sentence with a devastating zinger related to the sexy murder victim. But that's sort of not true. His zingers in this 8-minute montage of Horation Caine one-liners are pretty darn underwhelming. Sometimes he just states the obvious, like when a body that had been thrown off a building was determined to have been killed elsewhere:

"Priority number one…" *sunglasses* "...is for us to find the murder scene."

Yep. That's… that's the thing everyone already knows you need to do. Wasn't a cool thing to say, and didn't need to be said at all.

Hoping to fill his shoes this week, I'm trying out a new career in Forensics: Crime Scene Detective , and unfortunately it seems I'm about as good at solving crimes as David Caruso is at delivering memorable zingers.

My first case is to collect evidence from a drug dealer's apartment. Not drugs, unfortunately, but electronic devices that include communications to his clients, perhaps text messages that read "hey if you would you like to buy some illegal drugs hmu 💉💊🌿🤪"

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) At the apartment I get to label, photograph, and collect evidence, which is rad. I've seen them do it on TV a million times: placing little yellow plastic numbered markers next to things like bullet holes and blood stains and then taking photos. In the alleged drug dealer's apartment there are just a couple smartphones and a password written on a post-it note, so I label 'em, snap 'em, and take them back to the lab.

That's where the problems begin. I use the password to access one of the phones, but the other is damaged so I have to open it up and "desolder" it: heat up the memory card so the glue melts and it can be removed—but without heating it up so much it's destroyed. I gingerly heat the card and try to remove it. Nope. I try again. Nope.

Ultimately, it goes the way things go anytime I toast a bagel:

It's untoasted

It's untoasted

It's untoasted

It's burnt beyond all recognition.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) My first act of lab work and I nuke the evidence. And not only did I destroy this device, it turns out I also missed a third electronic device somewhere back at the apartment. I guess this drug dealer… *sunglasses* …is going to continue dealing drugs.

Embarrassingly, I flub my next two cases, too. Finding fingerprints is kinda fun: I shine a purple light around a room until I spot one—and it's always just one, because people only touch a surface in their home with a single finger then never touch it again. After labeling and snapping a pic, I sprinkle dust on the print and lift it with tape, which I bungle on the first two attempts by using almost no powder and then by using way too much. That makes it tricky, or some might say, impossible, to match prints back in the lab.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) My second case: Unresolved! I'm glad this game doesn't simulate getting yelled at by the chief of police.

My third time out I'm hopeful because there's blood, and I'm good at collecting that: you just stick a Q-tip into it. But again, I wind up torpedoing the lab work. I use some sort of machine to extract DNA and then compare results on a readout to see if it matches. I know it must match: this is a crime-solving game, so I figure most of the cases will result in a "solved" scenario instead of a "nope, this one stumped us" ending, but no amount of fiddling with the knobs helps me ID a perp.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) Why am I dealing with squiggly lines, anyway? Aren't we living in the grim future of no privacy and information harvesting? Surely I should just be able to feed both DNA samples into a computer and it gives me two pictures, and if the guy looks the same in both pictures, he's guilty. Why doesn't science work like that?

Finally, I get a case involving a gun. I'm an American and a former gun store owner , so this should be a slam dunk. No one was killed, this is just sort of a "please don't fire a gun in your apartment" type of case. The bullet is lodged in a wall, so I do that fun thing where you put a stick in the hole and it points where the gun was fired from, and then something more fun: shining a laser along the path of the bullet, and then spraying some kind of mist so the laser can be clearly seen and photographed. Awesome.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) And for the first time, I don't bungle the evidence back in the lab. I take the gun, fire it into a water tank, and collect the bullet for comparison, which is done basically the same way as in The Great Mouse Detective : line 'em up and twist 'em to see if the scratches match. Finally, I score 100% on a case—and it only took four tries. What's that famous saying? Let justice be done though three hardened criminals go free so you can imprison one guy who shot his own living room wall.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) It's about time I reveal the shocking twist in this story: those four cases were just the tutorial. That's how bad at this I am: I even fail at being given step-by-step instructions on how to do basic tasks. It's with real trepidation that I take my first real case, praying it involves someone else shooting a gun because I nailed that. C'mon, violent gun murder!

I open the folder and it's a coin burglary. Shit. Someone has been stealing antique coins. Filled with dread and disappointment, I go to the perp's apartment.

(Image credit: Aerosoft GmbH) It's not so bad: at first. I dust for several fingerprints and do a decent job at lifting them. I find a whole crapload of evidence to label and photograph, including an actual pile of coins—which the game oddly does not consider relevant to this case.

But while I know I'm pretty good at working the crime scene, I'm just utter shit in the lab. And here's another twist—in my first real case I was also terrible at the scene! I missed several additional fingerprints, a second electronic device, and at least one password. Labwise, I failed to even complete the fingerprint analysis. My score for this case was a mere 16/100 .

I hope someone can solve the case of my brief investigative career, because it's dead.

Performance Evaluation

Would I like to be a crime scene detective IRL?

I don't want to look at blood but I sure would like to put down numbered labels and take pictures of stuff.

Would I make a good crime scene detective IRL?

I'll put it this way: This crime scene detective… * sunglasses* …is a bad crime scene detective.

Is Forensics: Crime Scene Detective good?

I've had a decent time with it so far, and I do like that it lets you straight up fail at cases instead of patiently waiting for you to complete a checklist of tasks. Here it is on Steam .

2026 games : All the upcoming games

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